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DICTIONARY 


OF 


NATIONAL    BIOGRAPHY 


Annesley Batrd 


DICTIONARY 


OF 


NATIONAL    BIOGRAPHY 


RDITJ'.I)    l!V 


LESLIE     STEPHEN 


VOL.  If. 
Annesuiy Baird 


MACMILLAN      AND      CO. 

LONDON  .  ^MITH,  ELDER,  &  CO. 


188; 


s^'^-. 

'  ,\'^' 


-^ 


LIST    OF   WEITEES 


IN  thp:  second  VOLU.ME. 


E.  A 

Profkssob  Adamson,  LL.D. 

0.  A 

Osmund  Aiuy. 

G.  A 

Grant  Allen. 

E.  E.  A.  .  . 

R.  E.  Andkuson. 

A.  J.  A.    . 

Sir  Alexandkk  John  Auuuthnot, 

K.C.S.I. 

T.  A.  A.   .  . 

T.  A.  Archku. 

P.  B.  A.   .  . 

P.  Bruce  Austin. 

W.  E.  A.  A. 

W.  E.  A.  Axon. 

J.  E.  B.    . 

J.  E.  Bailey,  F.S.A. 

G.  F.  R.  B. 

G.    F.    R.    1?ARKER. 

It.  B.  .  .  . 

The  Rev.  Ronald  Bayne. 

A.  H.  B-Y. 

A.  H.  Beesly. 

G.  V.  J5.   . 

G.  Verb  Benson. 

G.  T.  B.    . 

G.  T.  Bettany. 

W.  G.  B. . 

The  Rev.  Professor  Blaikie,  D.D. 

A.  S.  B.    . 

Lieutenant-Colonel  Bolton. 

J.  B.    ... 

James  BrittE'N. 

R.  C.  B.   . 

R.  C.  Browne. 

A.  R.  B.  . 

The  Rev.  A.  R.  Bucklaxd. 

A.  H.  B.  . 

A.  H.  Bullen. 

H.  M.  C.  . 

H.  Manners  Chichester. 

A.  M.  C.  . 

.  Miss  A.  M.  Clerke. 

D.  C.  .  .  . 

The  late  Dutton  Cook. 

T.  C.   .  .  . 

.  Thompson  Cooper,  F.8.A. 

C.  H.  C.  . 

.    C.    H.    COOTE. 

J.  S.  C. .  . 

.  J.  S.  Cotton. 

W.  P.  C.  . 

.  W.  P.  Courtney. 

M.  C.  .  .  . 

,  The  Rev.  Professor  Creighton. 

A.  I).  .  .  . 

.  Austin  Dobson. 

1'].  D.   .  .  . 

.  Professor  Dowden,  LL.D. 

T.  P.  T.  D. 

The  Rev.  T.  F.  Thiselton  Dyer. 

F.  E.   .  .  . 

.  Francis  Espinasse. 

T.  F.   .  .  . 

.  The  Rev.  Professor  Fowler. 

J.  G.  .  .  . 

.  James  Galrdner. 

S.  R.  G.    .  .  Professor  .S.  R.  Gardiner,  LL.D. 

R.  G Richard  Garnett,  LL.D. 

J.  W.-G.    .  .  J.  Westby-Gibson,  LL.D. 

A.  G-N.  .  .  .  Alfred  Goodwin. 

G.  G Gordon  Goodwin. 

A.  G The  Rev.  Alexander  Gordon. 

A.  H.  G.  .  .  A.  H.  Grant. 

R.  E.  G.  .  .  R.  E.  Graves. 

A.  B.  G.  .  .  The  Rev.  A.  B.  Grosart,  LL.D. 

J.  A.  H.   .  .  J.  A.  Hamilton. 

R.  H Robert  Harrison. 

T.  F.  H.   .  .  T.  F.  Henderson. 

J.  M.  H.  .  .  J.  M.  Horsburuh. 

J.  H Miss  Jennett  Humphreys. 

W.  H The  Rev.  William  Hunt. 

R.  H.  H.  .  .  R.  H.  HurroN. 

C.  F.  K.  .  .  C.  F.  Keary. 

C.  K Charles  Kent. 

J.  K Joseph  Knight. 

J.  K.  L.    .  .  J.  K.  Laughton. 
I  H.  V.  L.    .  .  Henri  van  Laun. 

8.  L.  L.    .  .  IS.  L.  Lee. 

S.  J.  L. .  .  .  S.  J.  Low. 
!  W.  B.  L.  .  .  The  Rev.  W.  B.  Lowther. 
j  G.  P.  31.  .  .  G.  P.  Macdonell. 
!  J.  M-L.  .  .  .  John  Macdonell. 
\  M.  M.    .  ,  ,  JilNEAs  Mackay,  LL.D. 

J.  A.  F.  M.   J.  A.  Fuller  Maitland. 
i  C.  T.  M.  .  .  C.  T.  Martin. 

T.  M Sir  Theodore  Martin,  K.C.B. 

J.  M James  Mew. 

I 

1  N.  M Norman  Moore,  M.D. 

J.  V>.  yi.   .  .  J.  Bass  Mullinger. 

J.  H.  0.    .  .  The  Rev.  Canon  Overton. 

I  J.  F.  P.    .  .  J.  F.  Payne,  M.D. 


VI 


List  of  Writers. 


R.  L.  P.  . 

.  R.  L.  Poole. 

S.  L.-P. .  . 

.  Stanley  Lane-Poole. 

E.  R.   .  .  . 

.  Ernest  Radford. 

J.  M.  R.  . 

.    J.   M.   RlGG. 

G.  F.  R.  , 

.    Gr.    P.    RODWELL. 

J.  H.  R.  . 

.  J.  H.  Round. 

E.  S.  .  .  . 

.  Edward  Smith. 

G.  B.  S.   . 

.  G.  Barnett  Smith. 

W.  B.  S.  . 

.  W.  Barclay  .Squire. 

L.  S.   .  .  . 

.  Leslie  Stephen. 

H.  31.  S.  . 

.  H.  31.  Stephens. 

W.  R.  W.  S.  The  Rev.  Canon  Stephens. 
H.  R.  T.  .  .  H.  R.  Tedder. 
E.  M.  T.  .  .  E.  Mattnde  Thompson. 
R.  E.  T.  .  .  R.  E.  Thompson,  M.D. 
T.  F.  T.    .  .  Professor  T.  F.  Tout. 
W.  H.  T.  .  .  W.  H.  Tregellas. 

C.  W Cornelius  Walfokd,  F.S.A. 

T.  W Theodore  Walrond,  C.B. 

H.  T.  W.  .  .  H.  Trueman  Wood. 
W.  W.  .  .  .  Warwick  Witorn. 


DICTIONARY 


OF 


NATIONAL    BIOGRAPHY 


Annesley 


Annesley 


ANNESLEY,  ALEXANDER  {d.  1813), 

legal  and  political  wi-iter,  was  a  London 
solicitor  and  member  of  the  Liner  Temple. 
After  many  years'  practice,  by  which  he 
acquired  a  large  fortnne,  he  retired  to  Hyde 
Hall,  Hertfordshire,  and  died  there  on  6  Dec. 
181.3.  Annesley  was  a  man  of  many  accom- 
plishments, paid  repeated  visits  to  the  con- 
tinent, and  was  an  enthusiastic  sportsman. 
In  politics  he  followed  Pitt.  His  works, 
which  evince  Avide  historical  reading,  are  : 
1 . '  Strictures  on  the  true  Cause  of  the  present 
alarming  Scarcity  of  Grain  and  Provisions, 
and  a  Plan  for  permanent  Relief,'  1800.  The 
pamphlet  was  dedicated  to  Pitt,  and  at- 
tempted to  trace  the  cause  of  the  high  pi'ices 
of  the  time  to  'the  rage  for  accumulating 
wealth'  which  led  the  merchants  to  raise 
prices  by  arbitrarily  restricting  production. 
To  meet  the  evil,  Annesley  proposed  '  boun- 
ties on  production  rather  than  on  importation, 
an  excise  on  all  grain,  the  establishment  of 
public  granaries  and  additional  corn-mills.' 
He  justly  protested  in  behalf  of  the  poor 
against  the  methods  employed  in  enclosing 
common  lands,  and  advocated  a  system  of 
peasant  proprietorship  by  colonising  the  com- 
mon lands  with  superannuated  soldiers  and 
sailors,  beginning  as  an  experiment  with  the 
New  Forest.  2. '  Observations  on  the  Danger 
of  a  Premature  Peace,'  1800.  3.  '  A  Com- 
pendium of  the  Law  of  Marine  Insurance, 
Bottomry,  Insurance  on  Lives,  and  of  In- 
surance against  Fire,  in  which  the  mode 
of  calculating  averages  is  defined  and  il- 
lustrated by  example,'  1808.  A  brief  his- 
tory of  English  commerce  and  navigation 
forms  the  introduction  to  the  treatise,  and 
very  full  references  are  given  to  the  leading 
law  cases  bearing  on  the  subject.  It  is  dedi- 
cated to  John  Julius  Angerstein.  Testimony 
to  the  usefulness  of  the  book  at  the  present 

VOL.  II, 


time  is  borne  by  Mr.  Cornelius  Walford  in 
his  '  Insurance  Cyclopaedia  '  (i.  96)  published 
in  1871.  Annesley  contributed  largely  to 
Tomlin's  *  Law  Dictionary,'  and  to  the  *  Edin- 
burgh Encyclopicdia.' 

[Gont.  Mag.  Ixx.  1270,  Ixxi.  58,  Ixxviii.  419- 
24,  Ixxxiv.  94,  where  a  memoir  may  l)e  fountl ; 
Brit.  Mus.  Cat. ;  Annesley's  Works.]      S.  L.  L. 

ANNESLEY,  ARTHUR,  first  Earl  op 
Anglesey  (1614-1686),  was  born  at  Dublin 
on  10  July  1614.  His  father.  Sir  Francis  An- 
nesley [q  .v.],better  known  as  the  Lord  Mount- 
non-is  of  Straftbrd's  rule  in  Ireland,  had  held 
high  office  under  James  I  and  Charles  I  for 
forty  years.  His  mother's  name  was  Dorothy 
Phillips.  In  1624  he  Avas  sent  to  England, 
and  in  1630  to  Magdalen  College,  Oxford, 
where  he  took  his  degree  in  16.34  (Wood's 
A  th.  O.von.  iv.  181,  and  Happy  Future  Strife  of 
Emjlmid,  p.  3).  In  the  same  year  he  joined 
Lincoln's  Inn.  Having  made  the  gi-and  tour, 
he  returned  to  Ireland  in  1640.  It  is  stated 
(CoLLiNs's  Peerage  \  Biographia  Britannica) 
that  he  was  then  elected  for  Radnor  covinty, 
but  that  he  at  once  lost  his  seat  upon  petition, 
and  that  Charles  Price,  Esq.,  was  elected  in 
his  place.  This  is  a  mistake.  No  such  vote 
occurs  in  the  Commons' Journals.  Moreover 
it  appears  {Pari.  Hist.  ii.  629)  that  Charles 
Price  was  the  first  member  elected,  but  that 
he  was  disabled,  and  that  Annesley  succeeded 
him,  though  it  is  uncertain  when ;  and  his 
admirer.  Sir  W.  Pett,  says  nothing  about  his 
being  a  member  until  1647  {Happy  Future 
State  of  England,  p.  5).  It  is  affirmed  also 
that  Annesley  sat  in  the  king's  parliament  at 
Oxford  in  1643.  Not  only,  however,  does 
his  name  not  occiir  in  the  list,  but  that  of 
Charles  Price  does  {Pari.  Hist.  iii.  219). 
These  mistakes  have  doubtless  arisen  from 
a    careless    misreading  of   the  passage  in 


Annesley 


Annesley 


Wood's  *  Athenae  '  (iv.  182,  ed.  Bliss),  from 
which  the  former  notices  have  evidently  been 
copied.  Annesley's  first  public  employment 
was  in  1645.  It  seemed  probable  that  Ormond 
would  succeed  in  establishing  a  cordial  union 
with  the  Scotch  forces  under  Monroe  in 
Ulster.  To  defeat  this,  Annesley  (selected 
no  doubt  for  his  knowledge  of  Irish  affairs) 
and  two  others  were  sent  over  with  a  com- 
mission under  the  gi-eat  seal.  Their  duty 
was  fulfilled  ably  and  Avith  entire  success 
(Reid,  History  of  the  Freshyterian  Church  in 
Ireland,  ii.  79,  100).  In  February  1647  Or- 
mond, who  was  with  difficulty  holding  Dublin 
against  the  Irish,  reluctantly  applied  to  the 
parliament  for  help,  and  Annesley  was  placed 
at  the  head  of  a  second  commission  to  con- 
clude the  matter  (Carte's  Ormond,  iii.  168, 
305).  By  the  19th  all  was  settled,  and 
Dublin  handed  over  to  the  parliament.  An- 
nesley appears  to  have  identified  himself  with 
the  parliamentary  as  opposed  to  the  repub- 
lican party,  and,  according  to  Heath's  *  Cliro- 
nicle '  (p.  420),  was  one  of  the  members  se- 
cluded in  1648.  This  appears  confirmed  by 
his  letter  to  Lenthall  printed  in  '  England's 
Confusion'  (note  to  p.  182  of  vol.  iv.  of 
Wood's  Athence).  His  name,  however,  does 
not  appear  on  the  list  in  the  parliamentary 
history  taken  from  the  well-known  *  Vindi- 
cation.' In  Bichard  Cromwell's  parliament 
of  1658  he  sat  for  the  city  of  Dublin,  and 
endeavoured,  with  some  others  of  the  se- 
cluded members,  to  gain  admittance  into 
the  Rump  parliament  when  restored  by  the 
officers  in  1659  (Heath,  p.  420).  For  the 
statement  {Biog.  Brit.)  that  he  was  con- 
cerned in  Booth's  abortive  rising  there  seems 
no  authority ;  but  he  was  ceilainly  in  the 
confidence  of  the  royalist  party,  though  a  pro- 
fessed friend  to  the  presbyterians  (Reid,  ii. 
335),  for  he  held  a  blank  commission  from 
Charles  II,  Avith  Grenville,  Peyton,  Mordaunt, 
and  Legge,  to  treat,  on  the  basis  of  a  free 
pardon,  with  any  of  his  majesty's  subjects  who 
had  borne  arms  against  his  father  except  the 
regicides  (Collins's  Peerage).  In  February 
1660  he  was  chosen  president  of  the  council 
of  state.  In  tlie  Convention  parliament  he  sat 
for  Carmarthen  town  {Pari.  Hist,  iv,  8).  On 
I  May  he  reported  from  the  council  to  par- 
liament an  unopened  letter  from  the  king  to 
Monk,  and  he  was  on  the  committee  for  pre- 
paring an  answer  to  that  sent  direct  to  the 
house.  On  the  same  day  he  took  part  in  the 
conference  with  the  lords  on  '  the  settlement 
of  the  government  of  these  nations.'  On 
1  June  he  was  sworn  of  the  privy  council,  and 
on  4  June  was  placed  on  the  commission  for 
tenderinsr  the  oaths  of  supremacy  and  alle- 
giance (Carte's  Orinond,  iv.  1).   It  was  now 


that  Annesley  and  men  of  his  moderate  and 
practical  views  played  a  useful  part.  To 
them  it  was  chiefly  due  that  the  lords  were 
checked  in  their  desires  for  revenge,  and 
that  the  restoration  was  wellnigh  bloodless. 
In  the  trials  of  the  regicides  and  in  the 
debates  on  the  Act  of  Indemnity,  Annesley 
was  throughout  on  the  side  of  lenity ;  and 
he  advised  the  carrying  out  of  the  king's 
declaration  in  its  integi-ity.  It  was  largely 
owing  to  him  that  Hazelrig's  life  was  spared. 
At  the  same  time  he  made  himself  useful  to 
the  court  by  securing  on  10  Aug.  the  pass- 
ing of  a  money  bill  before  the  act  of  grace, 
and  again  on  12  Sept.  by  helping  success- 
fidly  to  oppose  the  motion  that  the  king 
should  be  requested  to  marry,  and  to  marry 
a  protestant.  In  November,  probably  in  the 
court  interest,  he  moved  that  the  question 
of  passing  the  king's  declaration  concerning 
ecclesiastical  affairs  into  a  law  should  be 
referred  to  a  committee  of  the  whole  house. 
At  the  abolition  of  the  court  of  wards  he 
strenuously  but  vainly  resisted,  on  the 
ground  of  its  injustice,  the  proposal  made 
in  the  interests  of  the  landed  gentry  to  lay 
the  burden  on  the  excise.  In  the  settlement 
of  Ireland  his  services  were  often  called  for 
and  liberally  rewarded.  In  August  1660  he 
received  his  father's  office  of  vice-treasurer 
and  receiver-general  for  Ireland,  which  he 
held  until  July  1667,  when  he  exchanged  it 
with  Sir  G.  Carteret  for  the  treasurership  of 
the  navy  (Carte's  Ormo7id,  iv.  340;  Pepys, 
26  June  1667),  and  on  6  Feb.  1660-1  he 
received  a  captaincy  of  horse.  On  9  March 
1660-1  he  was  placed  on  the  commission 
for  executing  the  king's  declaration  for  the 
settlement  of  Ireland,  and  in  June  on  the 
permanent  committee  of  council  for  Irish 
affairs.  By  the  death  of  his  father  in  No- 
vember 1660,  he  became  Viscount  Valentia, 
and  on  20  April  1661  he  was  made  an 
English  peer  by  the  title  of  Lord  Annesley 
of  Newport-Pagnell  in  Bucks,  and  Earl  of 
Anglesey.  On  21  July  1663,  Anglesey  ap- 
peared as  the  sole  signer  of  a  protest  against 
the  bill  for  the  encouragement  of  trade  on 
gi-ounds  Avhich  show  how  little  such  ques- 
tions were  then  understood,  while  in  1666, 
on  the  other  hand,  he  strongly  opposed  the 
bill  for  prohibiting  the  importation  of  Irish 
cattle  {Pari.  Hist.  iv.  284;  and  Carte's 
Ormond,  iv.  234).  In  1667  he  was  threat- 
ened with  an  examination  of  his  accounts  if 
he  refused  to  assist  in  Buckingham's  attack 
on  Ormond;  and  such  an  examination  ac- 
tually took  place  in  1668,  but  no  charge 
could  be  sustained.  He  was,  however,  tem- 
porarily suspended  from  his  office  of  trea- 
surer to   the  navy  (Carte,  iv.   330,  340; 


Annesley 

Pepys,  8  Dec.  1667,  and  29  nnd  81  Oct.,  and 
4),  11,  and  14  Nov.  1668).  During  1671  and 
1672  Anglesey  was  employed  continuously 
upon  commissions  appointed  to  inquire  into 
the  working  of  the  acts  of  settlement ;  and 
in  1671  he  also  took  the  leading  part  in  the 
conference  between  tlie  houses  regarding  the 
lords'  right  to  alter  money  bills,  and  wrote  an 
acute  and  learned  comment  thereupon.  On 
22  April  1672  his  services  were  rewarded  with 
the  office  of  lord  X)rivy  seal,  and  in  1679  he 
■was  placed  on  the  newly  modelled  privy 
•council,  which  Avas  framed  at  Temple's  in- 
stance. AVhenthe  popish  terror  began,  Angle- 
sey showed  independence  of  character ;  he  is 
recorded  as  the  only  peer  who  dissented  from 
the  vote  declaring  the  existence  of  an  Irish 
plot ;  and,  according  to  his  own  testimony, 
he  interceded  for  Langhorne,  Plunket,  and 
Straftord,  though  convinced  of  the  guilt  of  the 
last  {Happy  Future  State,  p.  20o ;  SiR  W, 
Pett,  Memoirs  of  Anglesea,  pp.  8,  9).  This 
line  of  action  brought  upon  him,  on  20  Oct. 
1680,  an  accusation  by  Dangerfield,  and  he 
was  attacked  by  Sir  William  Jones,  attorney- 
general,  in  the  House  of  Commons  {Happy 
Future  State,  p.  267 ;  Dangerfield,  Nar- 
ration). In  1681  Anglesea  published  *  A 
Letter  from  a  Person  of  Honour  in  the 
Oountiy,'  containing  his  '  Animadversions ' 
upon  some  memoirs  regarding  Irish  affiiirs 
written  by  the  Earl  of  Castlehaven.  There 
were  in  this  letter  passages  which  seemed  to 
reflect  on  Charles  I ;  Ormond  was  called  upon 
to  answer  it,  and  on  9  Aug.  1682  Anglesey 
was  dismissed  from  his  lucrative  post  of 
privy  seal.  His  loss  of  office  was  doubtless 
hastened  by  another  paper  addressed  to  the 
king,  entitled  '  The  Account  of  Arthur,  Earl 
of  Anglesea,  to  your  most  excellent  Majesty, 
•of  the  true  State  of  your  Majesty's  Govern- 
ment and  Kingdom.'  This  was  dated  27  April 
1682,  immediately  after  the  dissolution  of 
Charles's  last  parliament.  The  boldness  of 
the  tone  of  remonstrance,  and  the  vehemence 
witli  which  the  attack  on  James  was  sup- 
ported at  such  a  time,  are  remarkable.  Upon 
his  dismissal  he  retired  to  his  seat  of  Blech- 
ingdon  in  Oxfordshire,  and  took  no  further 
])art  in  public  affairs,  except  by  voting  in  a 
minority  of  two,  in  1685,  against  the  reversal 
•of  Lord  Strafford's  attainder,  for  whose  con- 
demnation he  had  voted,  though  pleading 
afterwards  for  his  pardon  (Sir  W.  Pett,  Me- 
moirg,  p.  10).  He  died  of  quinsy  on  26  April 
1686. 

Anglesey  Avas  undoubtedly  a  most  useful 
official  during  his  unbroken  service  of  twenty 
years  (Pepys,  passim),  laborious,  skilful, 
cautious,  moderate,  and  apparently,  on  the 
whole,  honest  and  independent  in  action,  a 


Annesley 


sound  lawyer,  with  a  high  reputation  for 
scholarship,  research,  and  the  use  of  a 
'  smooth,  sharp,  and  keen  pen '  {Athena 
O.von.  ii.  784).  But  there  is  no  reason 
whatever  for  regarding  him  as  a  great  man. 
His  care  for  his  own  interests  was  constant 
and  successful.  Besides  the  profits  of  his 
various  offices  he  secured  large  sums  and 
grants  from  Ireland.  Thus,  in  1661,  he  had 
a  grant  of  the  forfeited  estates  of  the  regi- 
cides Ludlow  and  Jones,  as  well  as  other 
spoil;  on  10  3Iarch  166.'5-6  he  received  a 
pension  of  600/.  a  year  ;  on  24  March  in  the 
following  year  o007. ;  on  10  Oct.  5,000/.  out 
of  forfeited  lands,  as  well  as  many  grants, 
both  of  lands  and  money,  under  the  acts  of 
settlement,  at  various  times. 

Anglesey  is  noted  as  perhaps  the  first  peer 
who  devoted  time  and  money  to  the  forma- 
tion of  a  great  library.  I'he  sale  of  this 
library  at  his  death  is  remembered  because 
among  the  books  was  a  copy  of  the  *  Eikon 
Basilike,'  which  contained  a  memorandum, 
presumably  by  himself,  though  this  is  warmly 
disputed  {Biog,  liritan.),  to  the  effect  that 
the  writer  had  been  told  both  by  Charles  II 
and  James  II  that  the  '  Eikon  Basilike  '  had 
been  composed  not  by  Charles  I  but  by  Bishop 
Gauden. 

In  addition  to  the  works  mentioned, 
Anglesey  Avrote :  1.  'The  History  of  the 
late  Commotions  and  Troubles  in  Ireland,' 
from  the  Rebellion  of  1641  to  the  Restora- 
tion, the  manuscript  of  which  was  unfortu- 
nately lost.  2.  *  True  Account  of  the  whole 
Proceedings  betwixt  his  Grace  the  Duke  of 
Ormond  and  the  Earl  of  Anglesea.'  3.  '  The 
King's  Right  of  Indulgence  in  Spiritual  ]\Iat- 
ters  asserted.'  4.  '  Truth  Unveiled.'  5.  *  Re- 
flections on  a  Discourse  concerning  Transub- 
stantiation.' 

[Wood's  Athense  (Bliss),  iv.  18;   Biographia 
Britannica;  and  other  authorities  quoted  above.] 
p.9Li-vy  afciJ-/*^)  .-   E..M.  ^V'/VM^o,  ^, 

ANNESLEY,  FRANCIS,  Baron  Mount- 
NORRis  and  Viscount  Valentia  (1685-1660), 
descended  from  the  ancient  family  of  An- 
nesley of  Annesley,  Nottinghamshire,  was  the 
son  of  Thomas  Annesley,  high  constable  of 
Newport, Buckinghamshire,  and  was  baptised 
2  Jan.  1585-6.  As  early  as  1606  he  had  left 
England  to  reside  at  Dublin,  and  he  took 
advantage  of  the  frequent  distributions  of 
Irish  land  made  to  English  colonists  in  the 
early  part  of  the  seventeenth  century  to  ac- 
quire estates  in  various  parts  of  Ireland. 
With  Sir  Arthur  Chichester,  who  became 
lord  deputy  in  1604,  he  lived  on  terms  of 
intimacy,  and  several  small  offices  of  state, 
with  a  pen.sion  granted  5  Nov.  1607,  were 


Annesley 


Annesley 


bestowed  on  him  in  his  youthful  days.  In 
the  colonisation  of  Ulster,  which  began  in 
1608,  Annesley  played  a  leading  part,  and 
secured  some  of  the  spoils.  In  October  1609 
he  was  charged  with  the  conveyance  of  Sir 
Neil  O'Donnell  and  other  Ulster  rebels  to 
England  for  trial.  On  13  March  1611-12 
James  I  wrote  to  the  lord  deputy  confirming 
his  grant  of  the  fort  and  land  of  Mountnorris 
to  Annesley  *  in  consideration  of  the  good 
opinion  he  has  conceived  of  the  said  Francis 
from  Sir  Arthur's  report  of  him.'  On  26  May 
1612  Annesley  was  granted  a  reversion  to  the 
clerkship  of  the  '  Checque  of  the  Armies  and 
Garrisons,'  to  which  he  succeeded  9  Dec.  1625. 
In  1613  county  Armagh  returned  Annesley 
to  the  Irish  parliament,  and  he  supported 
the  protestants  there  in  their  quarrels  with 
the  catholics.  On  16  July  1616  the  king 
knighted  him  at  Theobalds  ;  in  1618  he  be- 
came principal  secretary  of  state  for  Ireland ; 
on  5  Aug.  1620  received  from  the  king  an  Irish 
baronetcy ;  and  on  11  March  1620-1  received 
a  reversionary  grant  to  the  viscounty  of  Va- 
lentia,  which  had  recently  been  confeiTed  on 
Sir  Henry  Power,  a  kinsman  of  Annesley, 
without  direct  heir.  In  1622  Lord  Falk- 
land became  lord  deputy  of  Ireland,  and  Sir 
Francis  sympathised  very  little  with  his 
efforts  to  make  the  authority  of  his  office 
effective  througliout  Ireland.  Dissensions 
between  him  and  Falkland  in  the  council 
chamber  were  constant,  and  in  March  1625 
the  lord  deputy  wrote  to  Conway,  the  Eng- 
lish secretaiy  of  state,  that  a  minority  of  the 
councillors,  '  amongst  whom  Sir  Francis  An- 
nesley is  not  least  violent  nor  the  least  im- 
pertinent,' was  thwarting  him  in  every  direc- 
tion. But  Annesley's  friends  at  the  JEnglish 
court  contrived  his  promotion  two  months 
later  to  the  important  post  of  vice-treasurer 
and  receiver-general  of  Ireland,  which  gave 
him  full  control  of  Irish  finance  (Rymer's 
Fcedera  (2nd  edition),  xviii.  148),  and  in  1628 
Charles  I  raised  him  to  the  Irish  peerage  as 
Baron  Mountnorris  of  Mountnorris.  In  Oc- 
tober of  the  same  year  an  opportunity  was 
given  Annesley,  of  which  he  readily  took  ad- 
vantage, to  make  Falkland's  continiiance  in 
Ireland  impossible.  He  was  nominated  on  a 
committee  of  the  Irish  privy  council  appointed 
to  investigate  charges  of  injustice  preferred 
against  Falkland  by  an  Irish  sept  named 
Byrne,  holding  land  in  Wicklow.  The  com- 
mittee, relying  on  the  testimony  of  corrupt 
witnesses,  condemned  Falkland's  treatment 
of  the  Byrnes,  and  Falkland  was  necessarily 
recalled  on  10  Aug.  1629.  On  13  June  16.32 
the  additional  office  of  *  treasurer  at  wars ' 
was  conferred  on  Mountnorris. 
In  1633  Sir  ThomasWentworth,  afterwards 


Earl  of  Strafford,  became  lord  deputy,  and  Lord 
MoimtnoiTis  soon  discovered  that  he  was  de- 
termined to  insist  on  the  rights  of  his  office 
more  emphatically  than  Falkland.  "Went- 
worth  disliked  Mountnorris  from  the  first  as 
a  gay  liver,  and  as  having  been  long  guilty,  ac- 
cording to  popular  report,  of  corruption  in 
the  conduct  of  official  duties.  In  May  1634 
"\A''entAvorth  obtained  an  order  from  the  Eng- 
lish privy  council  forbidding  his  practice  of 
taking  percentages  on  the  revenue  to  which 
he  was  not  lawfully  entitled ;  this  order- 
Mountnorris  refused  to  obey.  Fresh  charges 
of  malversation  were  brought  against  him  in 
1635,  and,  after  threatening  to  resign  office,, 
he  announced  that  all  intercourse  between 
the  lord  deputy  and  himself  was  at  an  end, 
and  that  he  shoidd  leave  his  case  with  the 
king.  Mountnorris's  relatives  took  \xn  the 
quarrel.  A  younger  brother  insidted  Went- 
worth  at  a  review,  and  another  kinsman 
di'opped  a  stool  in  Dublin  castle  on  Went- 
worth's  gouty  foot.  At  a  dinner  (8  April 
1635)  at  the  house  of  the  lord  chancellor,  one 
of  his  supporters,  Mountnorris  boasted  of 
this  last  act  as  probably  done  in  revenge  of 
the  lord  deputy  s  conduct  towards  himself ;. 
he  referred  to  his  brother  as  being  unwilling 
to  take '  such  a  revenge,'  and  was  understood  to- 
imply  that  some  further  insult  to  Wentworth 
was  contemplated.  Wentworth  was  now 
resolved  to  crush  Movintnon-is,  and  on  31  July 
following  obtained  the  consent  of  Charles  I 
to  inquire  formally  into  the  vice-treasurer's 
alleged  malversation  and  to  bring  him  before 
a  coiu-t-martial  for  the  words  spoken  at  the 
dinner  in  April.  At  the  end  of  November 
a  committee  of  the  Irish  privy  council  under- 
took the  first  duty,  and  on  12  Dec.  Mount- 
norris was  brought  before  a  coimcil  of  war 
at  Dublin  castle  and  charged,  as  an  officer 
in  the  army,  with  having  spoken  words  dis- 
respectful to  his  commander  and  likely  to 
breed  mutiny,  an  offence  legally  punishable  by 
death.  Wentworth  appeared  as  suitor  for- 
justice  ;  after  he  had  stated  his  case,  and 
counsel  had  been  refused  Mountnorris,  the 
court  briefly  deliberated  in  Wentworth 's 
presence,  and  pronounced  sentence  of  death. 
The  lord  deputy  informed  Mountnorris  that 
he  would  appeal  to  the  king  against  the 
sentence,  and  added :  '  I  would  rather  lose 
my  head  than  you  should  lose  your  head.'' 
In  England  the  sentence  was  condemned  on 
all  hands  ;  in  letters  to  friends, '  Wentworth 
attempted  to  justify  it  in  the  cause  of  dis- 
cipline, and  even  at  his  trial  he  spoke  of  it 
as  in  no  way  reflecting  upon  himself.  The 
only  real  justification  for  Wentworth's  con- 
duct, however,  lies  in  the  fact  that  he  had 
obviously  no  desire  to  see  the  sentence  exe- 


Annesley 


ciited ;  he  felt  it  necessary,  as  he  confessed 
two  years  later,  to  remove  Mountnorris  from 
office,  and  this  was  the  most  effective  means 
he  could  take.  Hume  attempts  to  extenuate 
Strafford's  conduct,  but  Hallam  condemns 
the  vindictive  bitterness  he  here  exhibited  in 
strong  terms ;  and  although  Mr.  S.  R.  Gardiner 
has  shown  that  law  was  technically  on  Went- 
worth's  side,  and  his  intention  was  merely 
to  terrify  Mountnorris,  Hallam's  verdict 
seems  substantially  just.  In  the  result  Mount- 
norris, after  three  days'  imprisonment,  was 
promised  his  freedom  if  he  Avould  admit  the 
justice  of  the  sentence,  but  this  he  refused  to 
do.  On  the  report  of  the  privy  council's 
committee  of  inquiry  he  was  stripped  of  all 
his  offices,  but  on  13  Feb.  1635-6  a  petition 
to  Strafford  from  Lady  Mountnorris,  which 
was  never  answered,  proves  that  he  was  still 
in  prison.  Later  in  the  year  Lady  Mount- 
noms  petitioned  the  king  to  permit  her 
husband  to  return  to  England,  and  the 
request  was  granted. 

The  rest  of  Mountnorris's  life  was  passed 
in  attempts  to  regain  his  lost  offices.  On 
11  May  1641  he  wrote  to  Strafford  enumerat- 
ing the  Avrongs  he  had  done  him,  and  desiring, 
in  behalf  of  wife  and  children,  a  reconciliation 
with  himself,  and  his  aid  in  regaining  the 
king's  favour.  But  other  agencies  had  al- 
ready been  set  at  work  in  his  behalf.  A 
committee  of  the  Long  parliament  had  begun 
At  the  close  of  1640  to  examine  his  rela- 
tions with  Strafford,  and  on  9  Sept.  1641  a 
vote  of  the  commons  declared  his  sentence, 
imprisonment,  and  deprivations  unjust  and 
illegal.  The  declaration  was  sent  up  to  the 
lords,  who  made  several  orders  between 
October  and  December  1641  for  the  attend- 
ance before  them  of  witnesses  to  enable  them 
to  judge  the  questions  at  issue ;  but  their 
final  decision  is  not  recorded  in  their  journals. 
In  164:2  Mountnorris  succeeded  to  the  vis- 
county of  Valentia  on  Sir  Henry  Power's 
death.  In  1643  the  House  of  Commons 
granted  him  permission,  after  much  delay, 
to  go  to  Duncannon  in  Ireland.  In  1646 
lie  was  for  some  time  in  London,  but  he  lived, 
when  not  in  Ireland,  on  an  estate  near  his 
birth-place,  at  Newport  Pagnell,  Bucking- 
hamshire, which  had  been  sold  to  him  by 
Charles  I  in  1627.  In  1648  parliament  re- 
stored him  to  the  office  of  clerk  of  the  signet 
in  Ireland,  and  made  him  a  grant  of  500^. 
Later  he  appears  to  have  lived  on  friendly 
terms  with  Henry  Cromwell,  the  lord  deputy 
of  Ireland  during  the  protectorate,  and  to 
have  secured  the  office  of  secretary  of  state 
at  Dublin.  In  November  1656  he  proposed 
to  the  English  government  that  he  should 
resign  these  posts  to  his  son  Aithur  {Bawl. 


Annesley 

MSS.,  A.  44,  f.  120:  A.  57,  f.  263}.     Henry 

Cromwell,  writing  to  General  Fleetwood 
(4  Feb.  1657-8),  urges  him  to  aid  in  carry- 
ing out  this  arrangement,  and  speaks  in  high 
terms  of  father  and  son  (Thurloe's  State 
Papers^  vi.  777).  Lord  Mountnorris  died  in 
1660. 

Lord  Mountnorris  married  Dorothy, 
daughter  of  Sir  John  riiillipps,  Bart.,  of 
Picton  Castle,  Pembrokeshire,  who  died  3  May 
1624.  By  her  he  had  three  sons,  of  whom 
Arthur,  the  eldest,  became  later  Lord  An- 
nesley and  Earl  of  Anglesey  [see  Annesley, 
Aethue]. 

[Lipscomb's  Buckinghamshire,  i.  279-80 ; 
Gardiner's  History  of  England,  ed.  1884,  V\\\. 
20-3,  182-198;  Nichols's  Progresses  of  James  I, 
vols.  iii.  and  iv. ;  Hallam's  Historj',  ii.  445 ; 
Calendars  of  Irish  Stiite  Papers,  1606-25;  Cla- 
rendon State  Papers,  vol.  i.  piissim  ;  Strafford's 
Letters,  i.  508,  et  seq. ;  Lords'  Journals,  vols.  iv. 
ix.;  Commons'  Journals,  vols.  ii.  iii.  v.  vi. ;  Liber 
Hibernise,  44,  45,  99.]  S.  L.  L. 

ANNESLEY,  JAMES  (1715-1760), 
claimant,  was  born  in  1715,  and  was  the  son 
of  Lord  Altham,  acconiing  to  one  account, 
by  his  wife  Mary  Sheffield,  natural  daughter 
of  the  Duke  of  Buckingham,  or,  according 
to  another,  by  a  woman  called  Juggy  Landy. 
Lord  Altham,  gi-andson  of  Arthui*,  the  first 
Earl  of  Anglesey,  was  a  dissolute  spend- 
thrift. He  was  married  in  1706,  quarrelled 
with  his  wife,  was  reconciled  to  her  in  1713, 
and  lived  with  her  for  some  time  at  his  house 
at  Dunmaine,  co.  Wexford.  During  their  co- 
habitation the  child  was  born.  In  1716  they 
were  again  separated;  the  cliild  remained 
with  the  father,  and  was  said  to  have  been 
treated  for  a  time  like  a  legitimate  heir. 
About  1722  Lord  Altham  fell  under  the  in- 
fluence of  a  mistress,  named  Gregoiy.  Lady 
Altham  returned  to  England  in  1723,  having 
for  some  time  suffered  from  paralysis,  and 
lingered  in  London  till  her  death  in  October 
1729.  Meanwhile  the  mistress  (it  is  sug- 
gested) alienated  the  father's  aftections  by 
persuading  him  that  the  boy  was  not  his 
own  son.  The  lad  was  left  to  himself,  ram- 
bled to  different  places  during  two  years  pre- 
viously to  his  father's  death  (16  Nov.  1727), 
and  was  at  one  time  protected  by  a  butcher 
named  Purcell.  Lord  Altham  was  succeeded 
by  his  brother  Richard,  afterwards  Earl  of 
Anglesey,  in  spite  of  the  reports  as  to  the 
existence  of  a  legitimate  son.  In  order  to 
make  things  pleasant,  the  uncle  attempted 
to  kidnap  the  nephew,  and  succeeded,  about 
four  months  after  the  father's  death,  in  having 
him  sent  to  America  and  sold  for  a  common 
slave.  The  boy  remained  tliere  till  the  term 
of  his  slavery  was  out ;  at  the  end  of  1740 


Annesley 


Annesley 


he  entered  one  of  the  ships  of  Admiral  Ver- 
non's fleet  as  a  sailor,  told  his  story  to  the 
officers,  and  was  brought  back  by  Vernon 
to  England,  where  he  took  measures  to  sup- 
port liis  claim.     He  was  actively  supported 

by  a  Mr.  Mackercher,  who  appears  as  M 

in  a  chapter  of  'Peregrine  Pickle,'  where 
Smollett  introduces  a  long  narrative  (of 
questionable  authenticity)  of  the  Annesley 
case  and  Mackercher's  previous  history.  An 
action  of  ejectment  was  brought  against 
the  uncle,  now  Lord  Anglesey,  in  possession 
of  the  Irish  estates.  On  1  May  1742  James 
Annesley  went  out  shooting  at  Staines, 
with  a  gamekeeper;  they  met  a  poacher 
netting  the  river,  and  a  dispute  followed, 
in  which  Annesley  shot  the  man  dead.  He 
was  tried  for  murder  (15  July  1742),  and 
Lord  Anglesey,  who  had  previously  been 
thinking  of  a  compromise,  now  thouglit  that 
he  could  get  rid  of  his  nephew,  instructed 
an  attorney  to  prosecute,  and  said  that  he 
did  not  care  if  it  cost  him  10,000/.  to  have 
his  nephew  hanged.  It  Avas,  however,  clearly 
proved  that  the  shot  was  fired  by  accident, 
and  James  Annesley  was  acquitted.  He 
went  to  Ireland  in  1743  with  Mackercher  to 
carry  on  his  action,  in  spite,  as  is  said,  of 
various  attempts  upon  his  life  by  the  uncle. 
On  16  Sept.  1743  they  went  to  some  horse 
races  at  the  Curragh,  where  they  encountered 
Lord  Anglesey  and  his  party.  A  riot  took 
place ;  the  party  were  violently  assaulted  by 
the  earl's  servants  and  friends ;  Annesley 
escaped  by  the  speed  of  his  horse,  though 
injured  by  a  bad  fall,  and  three  of  his  friends 
were  knocked  down,  beaten,  and  stunned. 
The  trial  for  ejectment  came  on  upon  11  Nov. 
1743,  and  lasted  for  the  then  unprecedented 
space  of  fifteen  days.  The  question  Avas  simply 
Avhether  Lady  Altham  or  Juggj^  Landy  was 
the  claimant's  mother.  The  most  contra- 
dictory eA'idence  was  given.  Several  wit- 
nesses swore  that  they  had  been  in  the  house 
at  the  time  of  the  birth,  and  said  that  Landy 
Avas  the  foster-mother ;  that  a  road  was  spe- 
cially made  to  her  cottage  after  the  eA'ent ; 
that  the  christening  Avas  celebrated  by 
bonfires ;  and  that  Lord  Altham  repeatedly 
acknowledged  James  as  his  legitimate  son 
and  treated  him  accordingly.  On  the  other 
hand  it  was  sworn,  especially  by  INIary  Heath, 
who  attended  Lady  Altham  until  her  death, 
that  the  lady  had  never  been  pregnant  at  all. 
The  weight  of  evidence  seems  to  be  against 
the  legitimacy,  as  the  parents  had  strong 
reasons  for  establishing  the  birth  of  a  legiti- 
mate heir ;  though  Lord  Anglesey's  unscru- 
pulous behaviour  implies  doubt  as  to  the 
sufficiency  of  his  cause.  The  Aerdict,  how- 
ever, Avas   giA'en   for  the   claimant.     Mary 


Heath  was  prosecuted  for  perjury  on  3  Feb. 
1744,  but,  after  a  repetition  of  much  of  the 
former  evidence,  Avas  acquitted.  On  3  Aug, 
1744  Lord  Anglesey,  with  Francis  Annesley 
and  John  Jans,  was  tried  for  the  assault  at 
tlie  Curragh,  and  they  Avere  all  conA'icted 
and  fined. 

It  seems  that  Annesley  was  ixnable  to 
raise  the  funds  necessary  to  prosecute  his 
case  further.  An  '  Abstract  of  the  Case  of 
James  Annesley,'  published  in  17ol,  is  an 
appeal  to  the  public  to  help  him.  He  died 
5  Jan.  1760,  liaAing  been  twice  married,  to  a 
daughter  of  Mr.  Chester  of  Staines  {d.  1749), 
by  Avhom  he  left  a  son  (d.  1763)  and  tAVO 
daughters,  and,  secondly,  to  a  daughter  of 
Sir  Thomas  I'Anson,  by  whom  he  had  a  son 
(d.  1764)  and  a  daughter  {d.  1765).  A  doubt- 
ful narratiA'e  of  his  life  in  America  is  giAen 
in  the  '  Gentleman's  Magazine,'  aoI.  xiii. 
The  Aery  cui-ious  trials  are  fully  reported  in 
the  '  State  Trials,'  vols.  xvi.  and  xvii.  The 
story  Avas  turned  to  account  by  Scott  in 
*  Guy  Mannering '  (see  Gent.  Mag.  for  Jixly 
1840),  and  it  has  been  more  directly  used  by 
Charles  Reade  in  the  '  Wandering  Heir.' 

[HoAvell's  State  Trials,  vols.  xvi.  and  xvii. ; 
Abstract  of  Caseof  James  Anneslej',  1751;  Gent. 
Mag.  vols.  xiii.  and  xiv.]  L.  S. 

ANNESLEY,  EICHARD,  Earl  of 
Anglesey  (1694-1761),  AA^as  se\'enth  Vis- 
count Valentia,  seventh  Baron  Mountnorris, 
and  fifth  Baron  Altham  in  the  peerage  of 
Ireland,  and  sixth  Earl  of  Anglesey  and 
Baron  of  NeAA^ort-Pagnell  in  the  peerage 
of  England,  and  held  for  some  time  the  post 
of  gOA'ernor  of  Wexford,  but  was  chiefly 
distinguished  for  the  doubts  Avhich  hung 
about  his  title  to  the  barony  of  Altham  and 
the  legitimacy  of  his  children.  He  took  his 
seat  in  the  Irish  House  of  Loi'ds  as  Baron 
Altham  in  1727,  on  the  death  of  his  brother, 
the  fourth  baron,  second  son  of  Richard,  the 
third  baron,  sometime  prebendary  of  West- 
minster, and  dean  of  Exeter  in  1680,  and 
succeeded  his  cousin  Arthur,  the  fifth  Earl  of 
Anglesey,  as  remainderman  in  default  of 
lawful  issue  in  1737,  Avhen  he  took  his  seat 
in  the  Irish  House  of  Lords  as  Lord  Viscount 
Valentia  and  Baron  Mountnorris,  and  in  the 
English  House  of  Lords  as  Earl  of  Angle- 
sey and  Baron  of  NeAvport-Pagnell.  He  was 
for  a  short  time  an  ensign  in  the  army,  but 
qiutted  the  service  in  1715.  In  this  year  he 
married  a  lady  named  Ann  Prust  or  Prest, 
daughter  of  Captain  John  Prust  or  Prest,  of 
Monckton,  near  Bideford,  DcAonshire,  but  he 
appears  to  haA'e  deserted  her  almost  imme- 
diately. She  died  in  1741  Avithout  issue. 
Between  1737  and  1740  he  lived  with  a  lady 


Annesley 


Annesley 


named  Ann  Simpson,  whom  he  forced  to 
quit  his  house  in  1740  or  1741.  From  that 
time  until  his  death  he  lived  with  one  Juliana 
Donnovan,  Avhom  he  married  in  1752.  In 
1741,  Ann  Simpson  having  taken  proceedings 
against  him  in  the  ecclesiastical  court  on  the 
grounds  of  cruelty  and  adultery,  with  a  view 
to  obtaining  permanent  alimony,  he  set  up  by 
way  of  defence  that  he  was  lawfully  married 
to  Ann  Prest  at  the  time  when  he  was 
alleged  to  have  gone  through  the  ceremony 
of  mari'iage  with  Ann  Simpson,  and  the  lady 
appears  to  have  gained  nothing  by  her  suit. 
She  survived  the  earl,  dying  in  1765,  leaving 
three  daughters,  Dorothea,  Caroline,  and 
Elizabeth,  but  no  son.  Juliana  Donnovan  is 
variously  reported  as  the  daughter  of  a  mer- 
chant in  Wexford,  and  of  an  alehouse-keeper 
in  Cammolin.  By  this  woman  the  earl  had 
four  children,  Arthur,  Richarda,  Juliana,  and 
Catherine.  In  or  about  1742  there  appeared 
in  England  one  James  Annesley,  who  repre- 
sented himself  to  be  the  legitimate  son  of 
Arthur,  the  late  Baron  Altham,  an  account  of 
whose  claim  is  given  under  Annesley,  James. 
James  Annesley  failed  to  establish  his  claim, 
and  the  earl  continued  in  the  enjoyment  of 
his  estates  and  his  titles  until  his  death  in 
1761.     Upon  that  event  two  memorials  were 

{•resented  to  the  Earl  of  Halifax,  the  lord- 
ieutenant  of  Ireland  :  one  by  Sir  John  An- 
nesley and  the  other  by  the  Countess  Jviliana, 
on  behalf  of  her  infant  son  Arthur,  both 
claiming  the  Irish  honours  of  Viscount  Va- 
lentia  and  Baron  Mountnorris.  Both  me- 
morials were  referred  to  the  attorney-general 
and  solicitor-general  for  consideration,  who 
in  1765  reported  to  the  lords-justices  in 
favour  of  the  claim  of  Arthur,  who  accord- 
ingly, on  coming  of  age,  took  his  seat  in  the 
Irish  House  of  Lords.  He  was  not,  how- 
ever, so  successful  in  the  proceedings  which 
he  took  to  make  good  his  claim  to  the  Eng- 
lish earldom.  In  1766,  being,  then  of  age, 
he  presented  a  petition  to  the  king,  praying 
to  be  summoned  to  parliament  as  Earl  of 
Anglesey  and  Baron  of  Newport-Pagnell'. 
The  petition  Avas  considered  by  the  committee 
of  privileges  in  1770-1.  It  was  opposed  by 
Constantine  Phipps,  Lord  Mulgrave,  who 
claimed  to  be  interested  in  the  result  by 
virtue  of  the  will  of  James,  Earl  of  Angle- 
sey, the  grandfather  of  the  claimant.  Mr. 
Wedderburn  (afterwards  Lord  Loughbo- 
rough, Earl  of  Rosslyn),  who  became  solicitor- 
general  during  the  progress  of  the  inquiry, 
and  Mr.  Dunning,  appeared  for  the  claimant ; 
Mr.  Seijeant  Leigh  and  Mr.  Mansfield  for 
Lord  Mulgrave.  The  issue  came  to  depend 
entirely  on  whether  a  certain  marriage  cer- 
tificate, bearing  date  1741,  was  genuine  or 


not.  The  countess  swore  that  she  had  been 
secretly  married  to  the  late  earl  in  1741,  and 
produced  the  certificate  in  evidence.  On  the 
other  hand  Lord  Mulgrave's  witnesses  swore 
that  the  certificate  had  been  made  out  at  the 
date  of  the  marriage  in  1752,  and  puriwsely 
antedated.  The  witnesses  to  the  alleged 
marriage  being  all  dead,  the  case  for  the 
claimant  broke  down,  and  the  committee  re- 
ported that  he  had  no  right  to  the  titles, 
honours,  and  dignities  claimed  by  him.  The 
English  peerage  accordingly  became  extinct. 
The  earl  by  his  will  had  entailed  his  estates 
upon  the  issue  of  his  son  Arthur,  whose 
right  to  the  Irish  titles  was  reinvestigated  on 
the  petition  of  John  Annesley  of  Ballysax, 
Esq.,  but  was  confirmed,  and  who  in  1793 
was  created  Earl  of  Mountnorris.  This  title 
has,  however,  since  become  extinct,  the 
pi'esent  Viscount  Valentia  and  Baron  Mount- 
norris being  the  lineal  descendant  of  the 
sixth  son  of  the  first  viscount.  The  family 
derives  its  name  from  Annesley,  in  Notting- 
shire,  where  it  is  supposed  to  have  been 
settled  before  the  conquest.  The  Irish  titles 
were  derived  from  Sir  Francis  Annesley,  who 
in  1619  was  created  baronet  of  Ireland,  and 
subsequently  (1621)  Viscount  Valentia  by 
James  I,  and  (1628)  Baron  Mountnorris  by 
Charles  I.  The  arbitrary  imprisonment  of 
the  first  viscount  by  Strafford  in  1635  for  a 
mere  personal  affront  was  made  part  of  the 
fifth  article  of  his  impeachment.  The  second 
viscount  was  created  Baron  Annesley  of 
Newport-Pagnell  in  Bucks  and  Earl  of 
Anglesey  in  1661.  As  to  the  title  of  Baron 
Altham,  see  Altham  ad  fin.  The  present 
Marquis  of  Anglesey  [see  Paget]  belongs  to 
a  difterent  family. 

[Peerage  Claims,  i. ;  Eep.  from  the  Committee 
for  Privileges  on  the  Anglesey  Peerage,  ordered 
to  be  printed  11  May  1819;  Howell's  Suite  Trials, 
xvii.  1094,  1124-5,  1139,  1148-9,  1245,  1443, 
1464 ;  Lodge's  Peerage  of  Ireland  and  Biu:ke's 
Extinct  Peerage,  sub  tit.  '  Annesley ; '  Gent. 
Mag.  xiii.  93,  204,  306,  332 ;  Joiu-nals  of  the 
House  of  Lords,  (Ireland)  iii.  1 ,  363,  (England) 
XXV.  113;  Calendar  of  Home  Office  Papers, 
1760-65,  2019,2037,2130;  1766-69, 173;  1770- 
1772,  869,  933,  1098,  1119,  1136,  1246.] 

J.  M.  R. 

ANNESLEY,  SAMUEL  (1620  ?-l 696); 
one  of  the  most  eminent  of  the  later  puritan 
nonconformists,  was  the  son  of  John  Aneley 
{sic)  of  Hareley,  in  Warwickshire ;  this  spell- 
ing of  his  father's  name  was  accentuated  by 
Anthony  a  Wood  in  order  to  su^jport  his 
baseless  representation  that  Samuel  Annes- 
ley, by  slightly  altering  his  name,  falsely 
sought  relationship  with  the  first  Earl  of 
Anglesey.     As  a  matter  of  fact,  he  was  ac- 


Annesley 


8 


Annesley 


knowledged  as  the  earl's  full  nephew,  and 
when  the  Countess  of  Anglesey  was  dying  she 
asked  to  be  buried  in  his  grave.  Annesley  was 
born  '  about  the  year  1620 '  at  Kellingworth, 
near  Warwick.  Deprived  of  his  father  in 
his  fourth  year,  the  care  of  his  education  de- 
volved on  his  mother,  who  was  *  a  very  pru- 
dent and  religious  woman.'  In  Michaelmas 
term,  1635,  he  was  admitted  a  student  in 
Queen's  College,  Oxford,  and  there  he  pro- 
ceeded successively  B.A.  and  M.A.  He 
seems  to  have  been  naturally  slow  and  slug- 
gish while  at  the  university,  but  to  have 
*  supplied  this  defect  in  nature  by  prodigious 
application.'  He  was  from  his  youth  '  in- 
clined to  the  ministry.'  Like  others  he  must 
have  had  a  twofold  ordination.  First  An- 
thony a  Wood  informs  us  *  he  took  holy  orders 
from  a  bishop.'  Secondly,  Calamy  adduces 
a  certificate  of  presbyterian  ordination,  dated 
18  Dec.  1644,  and  subscribed  by  seven  pres- 
byterian ministers.  The  latter  stated  that 
he  was  appointed  chaplain  on  *  a  man  of  war 
called  the  Globe.'  It  is  possible,  however, 
that  Anthony  a  Wood  was  misinformed,  see- 
ing that  in  1644  he  was  just  of  age  to  re- 
ceive orders.  In  the  Globe  he  was  chap- 
lain to  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  then  admiral 
of  the  parliament's  fleet. 

'  In  process  of  time  his  own  behaviour  and 
the  great  interest  he  had  with  such  as  were 
then  in  power '  procured  him  one  of  the 
prizes  of  the  church,  viz.  Cliffe  in  Kent. 
Ilere  he  succeeded  Dr.  Griffith  Higges,  who 
was  ejected  for  his  loyalty  to  the  king 
and  treason  to  the  Commonwealth.  Clift'e 
was  an  important  post ;  for  besides  its  in- 
come of  nearly  400/.  per  annum  *  a  great  juris- 
diction belonged  to  the  incumbent,  who  held 
a  court  wherein  all  matters  relating  to  wills, 
marriage  contracts,  &;c.,  were  decided.'  The 
parishioners  were  devoted  to  their  ejected 
clergyman,  and  were  disposed  to  show  their 
esteem  by  rude  and  rough  misconduct  to- 
wards his  successor.  Annesley  told  them 
'  that  if  they  conceived  him  to  be  biassed  by 
the  value  of  so  considerable  a  living,  they 
were  exceedingly  mistaken ;  that  he  came 
among  them  with  an  intent  to  do  good  to 
their  souls,  and  that  he  was  resolved  to  stay, 
how  ill  soever  they  used  him,  till  he  had  fitted 
them  for  the  reception  of  a  better  minister ; 
which  whenever  it  happened,  he  would  leave 
them,  notwithstanding  the  great  value  of  the 
living.' 

On  26  July  1648  he  preached  the  fast  ser- 
mon before  the  House  of  Commons,  which 
Anthony  k  Wood  vehemently  attacks  and 
supporters  of  the  parliament  highly  praise. 

'  About  this  time '  he  was  '  honoured  with 
the  title  of  doctor  of  laAVS  by  the  university 


of  Oxford.'  Nearly  contemporaneously  he 
was  again  at  sea  with  the  Earl  of  Warwick, 
'  who  was  employed  in  giA'ing  chase  to  that 
part  of  the  English  navy  which  went  over  to 
the  then  prince,  afterwards  King  Charles  II.' 

The  parishioners  of  Cliffe  being  not  only 
reconciled  but  greatly  attached  to  Annesley, 
he  resigned  the  living  that  he  might  keep 
the  promise  he  had  made  to  them  '  when 
they  were  in  another  disposition.'  In  1657 
he  was  nominated  directly  by  Cromwell 
*  lecturer  of  St.  Paul's,'  and  in  1658  was 
presented  by  Richard  Cromwell  to  the 
vicarage  of  St.  Giles,  Oripplegate,  London. 
This  presentation  becoming  '  useless,'  he,  in 
1660,  procured  another  '  from  the  trustees 
for  the  maintenance  of  ministers,'  being  also 
a  commissioner  for  'the  approbation  and 
admission  of  ministers  of  the  Gospel  after 
the  presbyterian  manner.'  This  second  pre- 
sentation growing  equally  out  of  date  with 
the  first,  he,  on  28  Aug.  1660,  procured  a 
third  presentation  from  Charles  II.  But 
even  this  did  not  hold  him  long  at  St.  Giles, 
for  in  1662  he  chose  to  be  one  of  the  illus- 
trious band  of  the  ejected  two  thousand. 
His  undoubted  relative,  the  Eai-l  of  Angle- 
sey, did  all  he  could  to  induce  him  to  con- 
form, but  in  vain.  He  preached  semi-pri- 
vately  wherever  opportunity  was  given  him. 
His  nonconformity '  created  him,'  says  Neal, 
'  troubles,  but  no  inward  imeasiness.'  His 
goods  were  distrained  for,  as  the  phrase  ran, 
'  keeping  a  conventicle.'  That  *  conventicle ' 
was  the  meeting-house  in  Little  St.  Helen's. 
He  was  spared  to  '  a  good  old  age.'  He  died 
on  31  Dec.  1696,  and  his  funeral  sermon  was 
preached  by  Dr.  Daniel  AVilliams,while  Daniel 
Defoe  (who  was  a  member  of  his  congregation) 
wrote  a  pathetic  and  melodious  elegy  on  his 
death.  *  He  had  the  reputation,'  concludes  the 
'  Biographia  Britannica,' '  of  being  a  warm,  pa- 
thetic preacher,  as  well  as  a  pious,  prudent, 
and  very  charitable  divine,  laying  by  the 
tenth  part  of  his  income,  whatever  it  was, 
for  the  use  of  the  poor.'  The  *  notorious ' 
John  Dunton  was  his  son-in-law  (see  his 
Life  and  Errors).  More  memorable  still,  his 
daughter  Ann,  as  wife  of  the  Rev.  Samuel 
Wesley,  became  the  mother  of  the  Wesleys. 
His  writings  consisted  of  sermons  separately 
published,  and  in  the  various  '  Morning 
Exercises'  and  certain  minor  biographical 
things. 

[Kippis's  Biogr.  Brit.,  where  his  will  is 
printed ;  Calamy  and  Pahner's  Nonconf.  Mem. 
i.  124 ;  Wood's  Athenje  (Bliss),  iv.  509,  and 
Fasti,  ii.  114,  Oxen. ;  Walker's  Sufferings,  pt.  ii. 
p.  39 ;  Calamy's  Abridgment  of  Baxter,  iii.  67 ; 
Turner's  Remarkable  Providences,  ch.  143;  Wil- 
son's   History    and  Antiquities    of  Dissenting 


Annet 


Annet 


Churches,    i.   365-70 ;  Adam   Clarke's  Wesley 
Family ;  Nichols's  Lit.  Anec.  v.  232.]  A.  B.  G. 

ANNET,  PETER  (1693-1769),  deistical 
writer,  is  said  to  have  been  born  at  Liver- 
pool in  1693.  lie  was  at  one  time  a  school- 
master, but  about  the  years  1743  and  1744 
he  published  some  bitter  attacks  upon  the 
apologetic  writings  of  Bishop  Sherlock  and 
others,  and  in  consequence  lost  his  employ- 
ment, lie  was  one  of  the  most  conspicuous 
members  of  the  Robin  Hood  Society,  which 
took  its  name  from  the  public  house — the 
Robin  Hood  and  Little  John  in  Butcher  Row 
— where  its  debates  were  held.  Its  theolo- 
gical discussions  are  ridiculed  by  Fielding 
in  the  '  Covent  Garden  Journal '  (1752).  In 
17o6,  as  appears  by  a  letter  of  Annet's 
{Geytt.  Mag.  liv.  250),  he  held  a  small  post 
in  some  public  office,  and  he  says  that  some 
one  of  his  way  of  thinking  had  offered  to 
make  him  steward  to  an  estate  in  the  coun- 
try. He  is  supposed  to  have  been  the 
author  of  '  A  History  of  the  3Ian  after  God's 
own  Heart'  (1761);  the  preface  says  that 
George  II  had  been  compared  to  David  by 
his  panegyrists,  and  the  book  is  intended 
to  show  '  how  the  memory  of  the  British 
monarch  is  insulted  by  the  comparison.' 
This  book  seems  to  have  suggested  \  oltaire's 
*  Saul,'  which  is  described  by  its  author,  with 
obvious  mystification,  as  translated  from  the 
English  of  '  M.  Huet,'  member  of  the  Eng- 
lish parliament  and  nephew  of  the  famous 
bishop  of  Avranches,  'qui,  en  1728,  composa 
le  petit  Yi\re  tres  curieux, "  The  Man  after  the 
Heart  of  God."  Indign6  d'avoir  entendu  un 
pr^dicateur  comparer  a  David  le  roi  Georges  II, 
qui  n'avait  ni  assassin^  pei'sonne,  ni  fait  bruler 
8es  prisonniers  fran9ais  dans  des  fours  a. 
briques,  il  fit  une  justice  6clatante  de  ce  roi- 
telet  juif.'  The  book  has  also  been  attributed 
to  a  John  Noorthook  {Notes  and  Queries,  1st 
series,  xi.  204).  In  1761  Annet  published 
nine  numbers  of  a  paper  called  the  Tree 
Enquirer,'  attacking  the  Old  Testament  his- 
tory. He  was  tried  for  blasphemous  libel  in 
the  Michaelmas  term  of  1763,  the  information 
stating  that  he  had  ridiculed  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures ( in  the  '  Free  Enquirer ')  and  tried  to 
show  '  that  the  prophet  Moses  was  an  im- 
postor, and  that  the  sacred  truths  and  miracles 
recorded  and  set  foi'th  in  the  Pentateuch  were 
impositions  and  false  inventions,  and  thereby 
to  infuse  and  propagate  iiTeligious  and  diabo- 
lical opinions  in  the  minds  of  his  majesty's 
subjects  and  to  shake  the  foundations  of  the 
christian  religion  and  of  the  civil  and  eccle- 
siastical government  established  in  this  king- 
dom '  (Starkie's  Law  of  Libel,  1876,  p.  596). 
He  Avas  convicted  and  sentenced  to  a  month's 


imprisonment  in  Newgate,  to  stand  twice  in 
the  pillorj',  then  to  have  a  year's  hard  labour 
in  Bridewell,  and  to  find  sureties  for  good 
behaviour  during  the  rest  of  his  life.  lie  is 
described  as  *  withered  with  age '  and  making 
no  defence.  Some  *  liberal  minds,'  we  are 
told,  subscribed  to  relieve  him  in  Newgate. 
Archbishop  Seeker,  it  is  added,  *  afterwards 
repented  so  far ' — or,  according  to  his  friends, 
showed  so  much  christian  charity — as  to  re- 
lieve Annet's  wants  till  the  day  of  his  death. 
Goldsmith  procured  for  him  an  offer  of  ten 
guineas  for  a  child's  grammar ;  but  the  offer 
was  withdrawn  upon  Annet's  passionately 
refusing  to  be  anonymous.  He  Kept  a  small 
school  at  Lambeth  after  his  release,  where 
one  of  his  pupils  was  James  Stephen  (1758- 
1832'),  afterwards  master  in  Chancery  (un- 
published papers).  Annet  died  on  18  Jan. 
1769. 

Annet's  writings  are  of  some  interest  as 
forming  a  connecting  link  between  the  deism 
of  the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth  century 
and  the  more  aggressive  and  outspoken  deism 
of  Paine  and  the  revolutionary  period.  He 
is  a  coarse  but  forcible  writer.  '  A  Collec- 
tion of  the  Tracts  of  a  certain  Free  Enquirer 
noted  by  his  sufferings  for  his  opinions' 
(n.  d.)  includes  '  Judging  for  Ourselves,  or 
Freethinking  the  great  Duty  of  Religion, 
displayed  in  two  lectures  delivered  at  Plais- 
terers'  Hall,  by  P.  A.,  minister  of  the  gospel,' 
1739;  'The  History  and  Character  of  St. 
Paul  examined'  (in  answer  to  Lyttelton); 
'  Supernaturals  examined '  (in  answer  to 
Gilbert  West  and  Jackson);  *  Social  Bliss 
considered '  (an  argument  in  favour  of  liberty 
of  divorce),  1749;  'The  Resurrection  of  Jesus 
considered,  in  answer  to  [Sherlock's]  the 
Tryal  of  the  Witnesses,  the  third  edition 
with  great  amendments,  by  a  Moral  Phi- 
losopher'  (1744);  'The  Resurrection  re- 
considered '  (1744)  ;  '  The  Sequel  of  the 
Resurrection  of  Jesus  considered  ; '  '  The 
Resurrection  Defenders  stripped  of  all  De- 
fence,' 1745.  A  volume  of  lectures  of  similar 
character,  'by  the  late  Mr.  Peter  Annet, 
coiTected  and  revised  by  him  just  before  his 
death,  with  the  head  of  the  author  curiously 
engraved  by  his  own  direction,'  has  a  por- 
trait of '  Peter  Annet,  aetat.  75,  anno  1768.' 

Besides  these  works,  Annet  was  author  of 
a  system  of  shorthand.  Priestley  learned  it 
at  school  and  entered  into  correspondence 
with  the  author.  A  copy  of  verses  by  Priest- 
ley is  prefixed  to  a  second  edition  of  the 
system. 

[Notes  and  Queries  (1st  series),  x.  405,  xi.  214  ; 
[h.  (5th  series),  viii.  98,  350;  European  Mag. 
xxiv.  92  ;  Gent.  Mai?,  xxxii.  560,  xxxiii.  26,  28, 
60,  86,  105,  liv.  250;  Robiu  Hood  Society  by 


Ansell 


lO 


Ansel  m 


Peter  Pounce  (Eichard  Lewis),  1756 ;  Bentham's 
Works,  X.  65 ;  Hawkins's  Johnson,  566 ;  Rutt's 
Life  of  Priestley,  i.  19;  Priestley's  Essay  on 
Government,  sect,  x.]  L.  S. 

ANSELL,  CHAKLES,  F.R.S.,  F.SA. 
(1794-1881),  known  for  some  years  before 
liis  death  as  the  father  of  the  profession  of 
actuaries,  was  born  (probably  in  Essex)  in 
1794,  entered  the  Atlas  Fire  and  Life  As- 
surance Company  in  1808,  and  took  a  pro- 
minent position  on  the  staff  in  1810.  In 
1823  he  was  appointed  actuary  of  the  life 
branch  of  the  company,  and  lield  the  office 
down  to  1864— a  period  of  forty-one  years 
— when  he  retired  from  active  official  life, 
but  still  remained  the  considting  actuary  of 
the  company.  He  also  filled  a  similar  post 
in  the  National  Provident,  the  Friends'  Pro- 
vident, and  the  Clergy  Mutual  Life  Offices, 
and  was,  likewise,  the  actuary  of  the  Cus- 
toms' Annuity  and  Benevolent  Fund. 

He  Avas  on  several  occasions  called  upon 
to  advise  on  various  schemes  of  national 
finance,  notably  on  the  government  super- 
annuation scheme,  which  ultimately  fell 
through.  He  gave  evidence  before  the  select 
parliamentary  committee  (1841-43)  to  con- 
sider the  law  of  joint-stock  companies,  and 
the  select  committee  on  assurance  associa- 
tions (185.3). 

His  chief  practice  for  many  years  was  in 
connection  with  the  actuarial  problems  in- 
volved in  the  working  of  friendly  societies. 
He  published  a  Avork  upon  that  subject  in 
1835,  which  attracted  much  attention  at 
the  time,  and  remained  a  useful  handbook 
for  many  years  afterwards.  It  was,  indeed, 
almost  a  first  effort  to  treat  friendly  so- 
cieties from  a  scientific  standpoint.  The 
work  was  published  under  the  superinten- 
dence of  the  Society  for  the  Diffusion  of  Use- 
ful Knowledge.  He  gave  evidence  before  the 
select  parliamentary  committee  on  friendly 
societies  in  1849,  and  before  some  of  the 
later  committees.  Many  years  since  he  was 
instructed  by  the  then  Bishop  of  London 
(Dr.  Blomfield)  to  make  some  calculations  of 
this  class,  and  he  named  as  his  fee  100 guineas. 
'  A  hundred  guineas,  Mr.  Ansell !  Why, 
thei'e  are  many  curates  in  my  diocese  who 
don't  get  more  than  that  for  a  year's  ser- 
vices.' *  That  may  be,'  was  the  quiet  re- 
joinder ;  *  but  actuaries  are  bishops.'  The  fee 
was  paid. 

Mr.  Ansell  resided  during  the  later  years 
of  his  life  at  Brighton,  but  he  was  only  a 
feAV  years  before  his  death  high  sheriff'  of 
Merionethshire,  where  he  had  considerable 
landed  property.  He  superintended  the  bonus 
investigation  of  the  National  Provident  As- 
sociation when  close  upon  eighty  years  of 


age,  and  died  at  the  close  of  1881,  at  the  age 
of  87.  His  personal  estate  was  proved  for 
21,000/. 

[For  further  and  more  technical  details  seo 
Insurance  Cyclopiedia,  vol.  i.]  C.  W. 

ANSELL,  GEORGE  FREDERICK 
(1826-1880),  scientific  inventor,  was  born  at 
Oarshalton  on  4  March  1826.  He  was  ap- 
prenticed for  four  years  to  a  surgeon,  and 
studied  medicine  with  the  intention  of  adopt- 
ing a  medical  life  as  his  profession,  but  aban- 
doned it  for  chemistry.  After  undergoing  a 
course  of  instruction  at  the  Royal  College  of 
Chemistry,  he  became  an  assistant  to  Dr. 
A.  W.  Hofmann  at  the  Royal  School  of 
Mines.  In  1854  he  gave  lectures  in  chemistry 
at  the  Panopticon  in  Leicester  Square,  Lon- 
don, but  that  institution  did  not  last  long, 
and  Mr.  Ansell  accepted  from  Mr.  Thomas 
Graham,  in  November  1856,  a  situation  in  the 
Royal  Mint.  He  remained  in  this  office  for 
more  than  ten  years,  when  differences  of 
opinion  between  him  and  its  chiefs  led  to 
the  loss  of  his  position.  After  his  retire- 
ment and  until  his  death,  which  took  place 
on  21  Dec.  1880,  he  practised  as  an  analyst. 
Mr.  Ansell  devoted  much  attention  to  the 
dangers  arising  from  firedamp  in  collieries, 
and  made  a  valuable  series  of  experiments 
on  the  subject  in  the  Ince  Plall  collieiy  near 
Wigan.  The  '  firedamp  indicator,'  which  he 
subsequently  patented,  has  been  adopted 
with  considerable  success  in  many  of  the 
collieries  on  the  continent.  For  the  cyclo- 
psedia  of  Mr.  Charles  Tomlinson  he  wrote  a 
treatise  on  coining — one  hundred  copies  of 
which  Avere  struck  off'  for  private  circulation 
— and  his  work  on  the  '  Royal  Mint '  Avas  an 
amplification  of  this  article.  This  Aolume 
first  appeared  in  1870,  and  was  reissued  in 
the  next  year ;  its  popularity  Avas  somewhat 
marred  by  the  introduction  of  the  narratiAe 
of  his  quarrels  with  his  colleagues  in  the 
office,  but  it  contained  much  information 
not  to  be  found  elsewhere.  SeAcral  articles 
on  the  subjects  in  which  he  took  most  in- 
terest were  contributed  by  him  to  the  seA'entli 
edition  of  Ure's  '  Dictionary  of  Arts,'  &c. 

[Times,  25  Dec.  1880,  p.  10 ;  Athenaeum,  1  Jan. 
1881,  p.  24.]  W.  P.  C. 

ANSELM,  Saint  (1033-1109),  arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  Avas  born  at  or  near 
Aosta  about  the  year  1033,  or  two  years  be- 
fore the  death  of  Cnut,  king  of  England, 
and  tAvo  years  before  William  the  Conqueror 
became  duke  of  Normandy.  At  the  date 
of  Anselm's  birth  Aosta  Avas  on  the  bor- 
ders of  Lombardy  and  Burgundy,  but  was 
reckoned  as  belonging  to  the  latter,  which 


Anselm 


II 


Anselm 


had  ceased  to  be  an  independent  king- 
dom by  the  death  of  Rudolph  III  in  1032, 
and  had  become  part  of  the  empire.  Tliere 
is  some  probability  that  Ermeuberga,  the 
motherof  Anselm,  was  a  niece  of  Rudolph  III. 
She  was  also  related  to  Odo,  count  of  Mau- 
rienne,  who,  by  his  marriage  with  Adelaide, 
marchioness  of  Susa,  added  the  valley  of 
'  Aosta  to  his  domains,  and  became  progenitor 
of  the  royal  house  of  Savoy.  Anselm's 
father  also,  Gundulf,  who  was  a  Lombard  by 
birth,  but  thoroughly  naturalised  at  Aosta, 
seems  to  have  been  a  kinsman  to  the  j\Jai'- 
chioness  Adelaide.  A  comparison  of  passages 
in  several  chroniclers  respecting  the  parentage 
of  Anselm  suggests  the  conclusion  that  he  had 
royal  blood  in  his  veins  on  his  mother's  side, 
but  not  on  his  father's.  At  any  rate  both 
parents  were  well  born,  and  held  considerable 
property  under  the  counts  of  Maurienne.  It 
probably  included  the  village  of  Gressan,  about 
three  miles  south-west  of  Aosta.  "Whether 
a  tower  at  Gressan,  called  St.  Anselm's  tower, 
can  have  been  a  part  of  his  parents'  dwelling- 
place,  is  more  than  doubtful,  but  it  is  likely 
enough  that  they  had  a  house  here,  and  the 
solitary  anecdote  of  Anselm's  early  childhood 
bears  the  impress  of  the  scenery  amidst  which 
he  must  have  lived.  He  imagined  that  heaven 
rested  upon  the  mountains  ;  he  dreamed  that 
one  day  he  climbed  the  mountain-side  until 
he  reached  the  palace  of  the  great  King,  and 
there  having  reported  to  Him  the  idleness  of 
His  handmaidens,  Avhom  he  had  passed,  lazily 
reaping  the  corn  in  the  valley,  he  was  re- 
freshed with  bread  of  heavenly  purity  and 
wliiteness  by  the  steward  of  the  divine  house- 
hold (Eadmek,  Vita  Ans.  i.  2). 

It  was  from  his  mother  that  he  first  learned, 
as  was  natural,  his  religious  ideas  and  love  of 
holy  things.  She  was  a  good  and  prudent 
housewife,  as  well  as  a  devout  woman.  His 
father  Gundulf  was  an  impetuous  man,  liberal 
and  generous  to  a  fault.  Anselm  seems  to 
have  been  their  only  son,  and  he  had  an  only 
sister  younger  than  himself,  liichera,  or  Ri- 
cheza,  who  married  a  man  named  Burgundius, 
by  whom  she  became  the  mother  of  a  son 
who  bore  his  uncle's  name.  Anselm  took 
great  interest  in  the  education  of  this  nephew, 
and  several  letters  are  addressed  to  him  (see 
esp.  Epist.  iv.  31,  52).  From  an  early  age 
Anselm  Avas  studious,  as  well  as  clever  and 
amiable.  He  made  rapid  progi-ess  in  learning, 
and  grew  up  loving  and  beloved.  He  pro- 
bably received  his  earliest  teaching  in  the 
school  of  the  abbey  of  St.  Leger,  near  Aosta  ; 
but  after  a  time  he  was  entrusted  to  the  care 
of  a  kinsman  as  his  private  tutor,  who  kept 
him  so  closely  confined  to  his  studies  that  his 
health  gave  way.     He  became  shy  and  me- 


lancholy. His  mother's  good  sense  saved  his 
reason,  if  not  his  life ;  she  brought  him  home 
and  bade  her  servants  let  him  do  exactly  what 
he  liked,  until  he  gradually  recovered  his 
health  and  spirits  (Cod.  499,  Queen  of  Swe- 
den's collection  in  Vatican  library,  copied  by 
Mr,  Rule,  Life,  vol.  i.  appendix). 

Before  he  was  fifteen  he  began  to  consider 
how  he  might  best  shape  his  life  according  to 
God,  and  he  became  persuaded  that  there  was 
nothing  in  the  ways  of  men  better  than  the 
life  of  monks.  So  he  went  to  a  certain  abbot 
whom  he  knew,  and  begged  that  he  might  be 
made  a  monk ;  but  the  abbot  refused  on  find- 
ing that  the  request  was  made  without  his 
father's  knowledge.  The  boy  then  prayed  for 
an  illness,  hoping  that  it  might  induce  his 
father  to  yield  to  his  inclination.  The  sick- 
ness came;  he  sent  for  the  abbot  and  imjjlored 
him,  as  one  who  was  about  to  die,  to  make 
him  a  monk  without  delay.  The  abbot,  how- 
ever, dreading  the  displeasure  of  Anselm's 
father,  still  refused ;  and  the  lad  recovered. 
A  period  of  reaction  foUoAved ;  his  longing 
for  the  religious  life,  and  even  his  ardour  for 
study,  cooled ;  he  began  to  devote  himself 
more  to  youthful  sports,  and  after  the  death 
of  his  mother,  being  like  a  ship  parted  from 
its  anchor,  he  drifted  yet  more  completely 
into  a  worldly  course  of  life  (Eadmek,  Vita, 
i.  3,  4).  Some  passages  in  one  of  his  '  Medi- 
tations '  (xvi.)  would,  if  literally  interpreted, 
imply  that  he  fell  into  very  serious  sin  ;  but 
there  is  some  doubt  whether  he  is  speaking 
in  his  OAvn  person,  and,  even  if  he  is,  the  lan- 
guage may  be  no  more  than  the  self-reproaches, 
rhetorically  expressed,  of  a  highly  sensitive 
conscience.  For  some  reason  not  explained, 
his  father,  Gundulf,  conceived  a  great  dislike 
to  him,  which  Anselm's  meekness  and  sub- 
mission seemed  rather  to  inflame  than  soften. 
At  last  in  despair,  when  he  Avas  about  tAventy- 
three  years  of  age,  he  resohed  to  quit  his  home 
and  seek  his  fortune  in  some  other  land.  He 
set  out  northwards,  accompanied  by  a  single 
clerk.  In  crossing  Mont  Cenis,  Anselm  was 
much  exhausted,  their  provisions  Avere  spent, 
and  but  for  his  companion  moistening  his  lips 
with  snow,  and  the  timely  discovery  of  a 
morsel  of  bread  in  the  wallet,  he  must  have 
perished  on  the  road.  Having  spent  three 
years  partly  in  Burgundy,  partly  in  France, 
he  made  his  Avay  to  Normandy,  and  took  up 
his  abode  at  Avranches  about  the  year  1069. 
Here  Lanfranc  had  kept  a  school ;  but  he  had 
now  become  prior  of  the  abbey  of  Le  Bee. 
His  fame  as  a  scholar  had  made  that  house 
one  of  the  most  renowned  seats  of  learning 
in  Avestern  Christendom,  and  to  Bee,  after  a 
brief  sojourn  at  Avranches,  Anselm  also  re- 
paired.  AVhen  Anselm  came  to  Bee,  Lanfranc 


Anselm 


12 


Anselm 


had  been  prior  for  several  years,  and  the  house 
was  at  the  height  of  its  reputation.  Students 
flocked  to  it  from  all  quarters,  and  the  great 
men  of  Normandy  lavished  gifts  upon  it.  An- 
selm threw  himself  heartily  into  the  work  of 
the  place.  The  severity  of  his  studies  and  the 
austerities  of  the  monastic  rule  were  almost 
more  than  the  delicate  frame  could  bear  ;  but 
he  was  persuaded  that  the  moral  discipline 
was  good  for  his  soul,  and  his  desire  to  become 
a  monk  increased  in  strength.  But  if  he  be- 
came a  monk,  whither  was  he  to  go  ?  If  to 
Clugny,  he  thought  his  learning  would  be 
thrown  away,  owing  to  the  excessive  strict- 
ness of  the  rule.  If  he  remained  at  Bee,  he 
thought  it  would  be  so  completely  over- 
shadowed by  that  of  Lanfranc  as  to  be  of 
little  use.  Meanwhile,  by  the  death  of  his 
father,  he  became  the  heir  of  the  family  pro- 
perty. Three  courses  then  presented  them- 
selves for  selection.  Should  he  settle  at  Bee, 
or  become  a  hermit,  or  return  to  his  native 
valley  and  administer  his  patrimony  for  the 
benefit  of  the  poor  ?  He  took  counsel  with 
Lanfranc.  Lanfi'anc  advised  him  to  consult 
Maurilius,  archbishop  of  Rouen,  and  accom- 
panied him  on  a  visit  to  that  prelate.  Mau- 
rilius decided  in  favour  of  the  monastic  life, 
and  so  in  1060  Anselm  took  the  coavI  and 
remained  at  Bee.  Three  years  afterwards 
Lanfranc  was  made  abbot  of  the  new  house 
of  St.  Stephen  at  Caen,  founded  by  Duke 
"William.  Anselm  succeeded  him  at  Bee  in 
the  office  of  prior.  He  held  this  post  for 
fifteen  years,  1063-78.  Then  Herlwin,  founder 
and  abbot,  died,  and  for  fifteen  years  more 
Anselm  governed  the  house  as  abbot,  1078-93, 
It  was  during  this  period  of  thirty  years 
that  his  powers  developed  themselves  to  the 
full.  If  Lanfranc  was  a  man  of  great  talent, 
Anselm  was  a  man  of  lofty  genius.  Both 
morally  and  intellectually  his  character  was 
of  a  finer  type.  He  had  not  only  more  tender- 
ness, more  breadth  of  sympatliy,  and  more 
transparent  simplicity  of  purpose,  but  far  pro- 
founder  and  more  original  powers  of  thought. 
Having  an  absolute  and  unshakeable  faith  in 
Holy  Scripture,  he  did  not  shrink  from  apply- 
ing to  it  the  full  force  of  his  reason,  and 
therefore  he  was  enabled,  in  the  words  of  his 
biographer  Eadmer  (  Vita,  i.  9),  to  penetrate 
and  unravel  some  of  tlie  most  intricate  and, 
before  his  time,  unsolved  questions  touching 
the  nature  of  God  and  of  our  faith.  The 
whole  day  between  the  hours  of  prayer  was 
often  consumed  in  giving  advice  orally  or  by 
letter  to  persons,  many  of  them  of  high  rank, 
Avho  consulted  him  on  questions  of  faith  or 
conduct;  and  the  greater  part  of  the  night  was 
spent  either  in  correcting  the  books  of  the 
monastery  (which  up  to  that  time  Eadmer 


says  were  the  most  ill- written  in  the  world), 
or  in  meditation  and  devotional  exercises. 
He  did  not  shrink  even  from  the  drudgery  of 
instructing  boys  in  the  rudiments  of  gram- 
mar, although  he  owned  (^Epist.  i.  55)  that 
he  found  this  an  irksome  task.  But  the  work 
in  which  he  most  delighted  and  excelled  was 
that  of  moulding  the  minds  and  characters  of 
young  men.  For  this  he  was  eminently  fitted 
by  his  affectionate  sweetness  and  sympathy 
which  Avon  their  hearts,  by  his  deep  piety 
and  powerful  intellect,  by  his  acuteness  in 
discerning  character,  and  his  practical  wis- 
dom in  suggesting  rules  for  moral  conduct. 
He  compared  the  age  of  youth  to  wax  fitly 
tempered  for  the  seal.  If  the  Avax  be  too 
hard  or  too  soft,  it  will  not  take  a  clear  im- 
pression. Youth,  being  betAveen  the  two, 
was  an  apt  compound  of  softness  and  hard- 
ness, Avhich  could  receiAe lasting  impressions 
and  be  turned  to  any  shape.  Similar  good 
sense  in  the  education  of  the  young  is  mani- 
fested in  his  advice  to  an  abbot  Avho  com- 
plained of  the  difficulty  of  teaching  the  boys 
brought  up  in  his  monastery.  They  were  in- 
corrigibly perverse,  the  abbot  said,  and  al- 
though beaten  continually  day  and  night  they 
only  gTeAv  Avorse.  '  Beat  them,  do  you  ?  '  said 
Anselm ;  '  and  pray  what  kind  of  creatures  are 
they  Avhen  they  are  groAvn  up ? '  'Dull  and 
brutal,'  Avas  the  reply.  '  You  are  A-erily  un- 
fortunate,' said  Anselm, '  if  you  only  succeed 
in  turning  men  into  beasts.'  '  But  what  can 
we  do  then  ?  '  rejoined  the  abbot ;  '  Ave  con- 
strain them  in  every  possible  way,  but  all  to 
no  purpose.'  '  Constrain  them,  my  lord  ab- 
bot !  If  you  planted  a  young  shoot  in  your 
garden,  and  then  confined  it  on  all  sides,  so 
that  it  could  not  put  forth  its  branches, 
would  it  not  turn  out  a  strange  misshapen 
thing  Avhen  at  last  you  set  it  free,  and  all 
from  yoiu'  OAvn  fault?  So  these  children 
have  been  planted  in  the  garden  of  the  church 
to  grow  and  bear  fruit  for  God.  But  you 
cramp  them  so  excessiA'ely  Avith  threats  and 
punishments  that  they  contract  all  manner 
of  evil  tempers,  and  doggedly  resent  all  cor- 
rection.' After  more  plain  speaking  of  this 
kind  the  abbot,  Avith  a  sigh,  confessed  that  his 
method  of  education  had  been  all  Avrong,  and 
promised  to  try  and  amend  it  (Eadmek,  Vita, 
i.  29-31). 

Anselm's  own  tact  in  dealing  with  the 
young  Avas  illustrated  by  his  management  of 
a  youthful  monk  named  Osbern.  Osbern 
was  clever,  but  headstrong,  and  set  himself 
up  as  the  leader  of  a  small  faction  Avhich 
resented  the  appointment  of  Anselm  as  prior. 
Anselm  first  softened  him  by  forbearance 
and  small  indulgences.  Having  thus  gained 
his  affection,  he  gradually  withdrew  the  in- 


Ansel  m 


13 


Anselm 


diligences,  and  subjected  him  at  last  to  the 
full  rigour  of  monastic  discipline,  even  to 
the  extent  of  punishing  him  with  stripes. 
Osbern  stood  all  these  tests  even  in  the  face 
of  taunts  from  his  companions,  and  became 
exceedingly  dear  to  the  prior,  who  rejoiced 
over  his  steady  growth  in  goodness.  After 
a  while,  however,  he  was  stricken  with  a 
mortal  illness.  Anselm  watched  him  by  day 
and  night.  As  the  end  drew  near,  Anselm 
charged  him,  if  it  were  possible,  to  reveal  him- 
self to  him  after  deatli.  Osbern  promised  and 
passed  away.  Wlien  the  body  was  placed  in 
the  church  and  the  brethren  were  chanting 
the  psalms,  Anselm  ret ii-ed  to  a  corner  of  the 
building  to  weep  and  pray  in  secret,  and  at 
length,  overpowered  by  weariness  and  sorrow, 
he  fell  asleep.  In  his  sleep  he  saw  certain 
forms  of  most  reverend  aspect,  clad  in  the 
whitest  of  garments,  enter  the  room  where 
Osbern  had  died,  and  sit  in  a  circle  as  if  to 
gi^e  judgment.  Presently  there  entered  Os- 
bern himself,  pale  and  haggard.  Anselm 
asked  him  how  he  fared.  '  Thrice,'  said  he, 
'did  the  old  sei-pent  rise  up  against  me,  thrice 
did  I  fall  backwards,  and  thrice  did  the  bear- 
ward  of  the  Lord  deliver  me.'  Then  Anselm 
awoke  and  was  comforted  (Eadmek,  Vita, 
i.  13-16).  The  memory  of  Osbern  never 
faded  from  his  mind.  During  a  whole  year 
he  offered  a  daily  mass  for  Osbern's  soul,  and 
in  one  of  his  letters  to  his  friend  Gundulf, 
bishop  of  Rochester  {Ep.  i.  4),  he  writes : 
'  AVherever  Osbern  is,  his  soul  is  my  soul ; 
farewell !  farewell !  I  pray,  I  pray,  I  pray, 
remember  me,  and  forget  not  the  soul  of 
Osbern  my  beloved,  and  if  that  seem  too 
much  for  you,  then  forget  me  and  remember 
him.' 

Notwithstanding  his  powerful  influence, 
Anselm  shrank  with  extreme  reluctance  from 
the  responsibility  of  ruling  others.  When  he 
was  unanimously  elected  abbot  of  Bee  on  the 
death  of  Ilerlwin,  he  besought  the  brethren 
with  the  most  passionate  entreaties  to  spare 
him ;  and  it  was  only  in  deference  to  their 
persistence  and  the  authority  of  the  arch- 
bishop of  Rouen  that  he  yielded  at  last. 
As  abbot  he  gave  up  most  of  the  secular 
business  of  the  liouse  to  such  of  the  brethren 
as  he  could  trust,  and  devoted  himself  to 
study,  meditation,  and  the  instruction  of 
others.  If  the  monastery,  however,  was  in- 
voh'ed  in  any  lawsuit  of  importance,  he  took 
care  to  be  present  in  court,  in  order  to  prevent 
any  chicanery  being  practised  by  his  own 
party ;  but  if  the  other  side  used  craft  and 
sophistry,  he  heeded  not,  and  occupied  his 
time  in  discussing  some  passage  in  the  Scrip- 
tures or  some  question  of  ethics,  or  calmly 
went  to  sleep.      Yet  if  the  cunning  argu- 


ments of  his  opponents  were  submitted  to 
his  judgment  he  speedily  detected  the  flaws 
in  them,  and  tore  them  to  pieces  as  if  he 
had  been  wide  awake  and  listening  all  the 
time  (Eadmer,  Vita,  i.  37),  He  was  also 
obliged  occasionally  to  visit  the  property  of 
the  house  in  various  parts  of  Normandy  and 
Flanders.  These  journeys  brought  Iiim  into 
contact  with  persons  of  all  ranks  and  con- 
ditions, and  many  gave  themselves  and  their 
property  to  the  monastery.  For  himself  he 
never  would  accept  anything  as  his  private 
possession  (Eadmbb,  Vita,  i.  33). 

He  visited  England  soon  after  he  became 
abbot,  not  only  to  look  after  the  English 
possessions  of  his  house,  but  also  to  see  Lan- 
franc,  now  primate.  He  was  received  with 
great  respect  at  Canterbury,  and,  after  making 
an  address  to  the  monks  of  Christ  Church, 
was  admitted  as  a  member  of  the  house. 
Here  began  his  acquaintance  with  Eadmer, 
one  of  the  brotherhood,  who  became  his  most 
devoted  friend  and  biographer.  He  has  re- 
corded the  great  impression  which  Anselm 
made  at  Canterbury  by  the  wonderful  way 
he  discoursed  and  by  his  private  conversation. 
His  large-heartedness  also  was  displayed  on 
this  occasion  in  his  decision  of  a  case  Avhich 
the  ai'chbishop  submitted  to  him.  Lanfranc 
told  Anselm  that  he  doubted  the  claim  of 
one  of  his  predecessors,  Archbishop  ^Elfeah, 
to  martyrdom,  because,  although  he  had  been 
murdered  by  the  Danes,  he  did  not  die  in 
defence  of  any  religious  truth.  Anselm,  how- 
ever, maintained  that  since  yElfeah  died 
rather  than  wring  a  ransom  from  his  tenants, 
he  had  died  for  righteousness'  sake,  and  that 
he  who  died  for  righteousness  would  cer- 
tainly have  died  for  Christ  himself  who 
taught  it,  and  therefore  he  was  fully  entitled 
to  the  honours  of  martyrdom  (Eadmek,  Vita^ 
i.  41-44). 

The  almost  feminine  tenderness  of  Anselm's 
nature  appeared  in  his  treatment  of  the  lower 
animals,  which  he  regarded  with  respect  as 
the  product  of  God's  hand.  And,  as  in  the 
love  of  animals  for  their  oftsjjring  he  saw  an 
emblem  of  the  love  of  God  for  man,  so  in 
any  cruelty  to  animals  on  the  part  of  man 
he  saw  a  figure  of  the  devil's  malice  and  his 
hatred  to  all  God's  creatures.  Thus,  one  day 
seeing  a  bird  teased  by  a  boy  who  had  fastened 
a  string  to  its  leg  and  let  it  fly  a  little  way 
in  order  to  pull  it  back  again,  he  made  him 
release  it,  saying  that  was  just  the  Avay  in 
which  the  devil  sensed  his  victims.  So  also 
when  a  hare  ran  for  shelter  under  the  legs  of 
his  horse,  and  the  hunters  crowded  round 
with  noisy  delight  at  its  capture,  he  burst 
into  tears  and  forbade  them  to  touch  it, 
saying   that   it    was   an   apt  image   of  the 


Anselm 


14 


Anselm 


departing  soul  of  man,  which  on  going  forth 
from  the  body  was  beset  by  the  evil  spirits 
who  had  pursued  it  all  through  life.  So  he 
suffered  not  the  dogs  or  hunters  to  touch  the 
hare  (Eadmer,  Lib.de  Similitudinibus  S.  Atis. 
189,  190). 

William  the  Conqueror  received  his  death- 
Avound  in  1087.  In  the  presence  of  Anselm 
we  are  told  that  he  who  to  most  men  seemed 
harsh  and  terrible  became  so  mild  that  by- 
.standers  looked  on  with  amazement  (P^admer, 
Vit.  Ans.  i.  47).  And  Avhen  he  lay  dying  in 
the  abbey  of  St.  Gervase  at  llouen  he  sent 
for  Anselm  to  hear  the  confession  of  his 
burdened  conscience.  Anselm  came  from 
Bee.  William,  however,  put  oiF  seeing  him 
for  a  few  days,  deeming  that  he  should  get 
better.  Meanwhile  Anselm  himself  fell  ill, 
and  before  he  had  recovered  the  king  died 
(  Eadmer,  Hist.  Nov.  1, 17  c).  Anselm,  how- 
ever, was  present  at  the  strange  and  terrible 
scenes  amidst  which  the  body  of  the  Con- 
queror was  laid  in  the  minster  of  St.  Stephen 
at  Caen. 

Lanfranc  crowned  William  the  Red  king 
of  England,  and  in  the  following  year,  1089, 
he  died.  William  the  Red  was,  unlike  his 
father,  profligate  and  profane,  without  re- 
A'erence  for  goodness,  or  respect  for  law  and 
justice.  He  found  a  minister  worthy  of  him- 
self in  Ralph  Flambard,  a  lowborn  Norman 
clerk,  a  coarse  and  unscnipulous  man.  One 
simple  expedient  for  replenishing  the  royal 
treasury  was  to  keep  the  great  offices  of  the 
church  vacant  and  confiscate  their  revenues. 

After  the  death  of  Lanfranc  the  see  of 
Canterbury  was  kept  vacant  for  more  than 
tliree  years,  and  its  lands  were  farmed  to 
tlie  highest  bidders.  The  whole  nation  was 
shocked  by  this  shameless  spoliation  of  the 
metropolitan  see,  and  longed  to  see  the  man 
appointed  to  it  who,  on  his  visits  to  England, 
liad  won  the  hearts  of  all  men,  and  who  was 
admitted  to  have  no  superior  in  Christen- 
dom in  xjiety  and  learning.  But  the  king 
cared  not.  MeanAvhile,  in  1092  Hugh  of 
Avranches,  eai-1  of  Chester,  invited  Anselm 
to  England,  to  assist  him  in  the  work  of  sub- 
stituting monks  for  canons  in  the  minster 
of  St.  AVei'burgh  at  Chester.  Anselm,  how- 
ever, having  heard  the  rumour  which  marked 
him  out  for  the  primacy,  and  fearing  that 
the  motives  of  his  visit  might  be  miscon- 
strued, declined  to  come  ;  but  at  last  he  was 
com])elled  to  yield  to  the  urgent  entreaties 
of  the  earl,  who  said  that  he  was  mortally 
ill,  and  that  if  Anselm  did  not  come  his 
soul's  peace  in  the  future  world  might  be 
for  ever  disturbed.  The  chapter  of  Bee  also 
wished  him  to  go,  in  order  to  get  the  royal 
xactions  on  their  English  property  lightened. 


So  he  set  sail  from  Boulogne,  where  he  had 
been  staying  with  the  Countess  Ida,  and 
reached  Canterbury  on  8  Sept.,  the  eve 
of  the  Nativity  of  the  "S^irgin  ;  but  being 
hailed  by  monks  and  people  as  their  future 
archbishop,  he  hurried  away  early  the  next 
morning.  On  his  road  to  Chester  he  visited 
the  court,  Avhere  he  was  received  with  great 
honour,  even  by  the  king  himself.  Anselm 
asked  for  a  private  interview,  in  which  he 
rebuked  the  king  for  the  evil  things  which 
men  said  were  done  by  him.  William  seems 
to  have  turned  the  suljject  off  with  a  laugh, 
saying  he  could  not  prevent  idle  rumours, 
and  that  the  holy  man  ought  not  to  believe 
them.  So  they  parted,  and  Anselm  went  on 
to  Chester.  Here  he  found  Earl  Hugh  re- 
stored to  health,  and  after  spending  some 
months  in  settling  the  new  constitution  of 
St.  Werburgh  he  desired  to  return  to  Nor- 
mandy ;  but  the  king  Avould  not  give  him 
leave  to  go.  In  the  baseness  of  his  soul  he 
may  liave  thought  that  Anselm  secretly  de- 
sired the  primacy,  and  that  even  he  might 
be  induced  to  pay  some  price  for  it.  Mean- 
while the  midwinter  gemot,  held  at  Glou- 
cester, had  passed  a  resolution  that  the  king- 
should  be  asked  to  allow  prayers  to  be  offered 
in  all  churches  that  God  would  put  it  into 
his  heart  to  appoint  some  Avorthy  man  to  the 
long  vacant  see.  The  king  assented,  but 
contemptuously  remarked,  •'  Pray  what  ye 
Avill ;  no  man's  prayer  shall  shake  my  pur- 
pose.' Anselm  Avas  compelled  to  frame  the 
prayer.  After  the  gemot  the  king  AA-ent  to 
a  royal  seat  at  Ah-estone,  near  Gloucester. 
Here  one  of  his  nobles  spoke  one  day  of  the 
A'irtues  of  Anselm,  hoAv  he  was  a  man  who 
loA'ed  God  only,  and  desired  nothing  belong- 
ing to  this  fleeting  AA'orld.  '  Not  CA'en  the 
archbishopric  ?  '  said  William,  Avith  a  sneer. 
*  No,  not  even  that,'  replied  the  other,  '  and 
many  think  Avith  me.'  The  king,  howeA'er, 
maintained  that  had  Anselm  the  least 
chance  of  it  he  AA'ould  rush  to  embrace  it, 
but  '  by  the  holy  face  of  Lucca,'  he  added, 
'  neither  he  nor  any  one  else  shall  be  arch- 
bishop at  present  except  myself.'  Soon  after 
this  the  king  Avas  taken  very  ill.  He  Avas 
moAed  to  Gloucester ;  the  lay  nobles,  bishops, 
and  other  great  men  visited  the  sick  and,  as 
it  Avas  thought,  dying  man,  and  virged  him  to 
redress  the  wrongs  Avhich  he  had  inflicted 
on  the  nation,  and  especially  on  the  church. 
But  the  king's  advisers  felt  the  need  of  some 
one  at  this  critical  moment  aa'Iio  had  peculiar 
skill  in  aAA'akening  the  conscience  and  mini- 
stering to  the  diseases  of  the  soul.  Thei-e 
was  no  one  comparable  to  Anselm,  and  he, 
unconscious  of  the  king's  illness,  was  sojourn- 
ing not  far  from  Gloucester.  He  Avas  fetched 


Anselm 


15 


Anselm 


with  all  speed.     He  heard  and  approved  of 

the  advice  already  given  to  the  king ;  the 
holy  man  was  brought  to  the  bedside  of  the 
royal  sinner ;  he  bade  him  make  a  clean 
confession  of  his  misdeeds,  solemnly  promise 
amendment  if  he  should  recover,  and 
promptly  perform  it.  The  king  confessed, 
and  pledged  his  faith  that  if  he  recovered 
he  would  rule  with  justice  and  mercy.  He 
took   the   bishops   to   be   witnesses   of    his 

5)romise,  and  to  record  it  before  the  altar. 
<'urther,  a  ])roclamation  was  issued  under 
the  royal  seal,  promising  all  manner  of  re- 
forms, ecclesiastical  and  civil.  But  the  great 
men  of  the  realm  urged  on  him  the  duty  of 
proving  his  repentance  by  doing  immediate 
justice  to  the  long  vacant  see  of  Canterbury. 
The  sick  man  signified  his  willingness.  lie 
was  asked  to  name  the  man  whom  he  deemed 
worthy  of  such  an  office.  He  raised  himself 
with  an  effort  on  his  arm  in  the  bed,  and, 

Eointing  to  Anselm,  said,  '  I  choose  yonder 
oly  man'  (Will.  Malm.  Gest.  Tout.  i.  48). 
A  shout  of  joy  rang  through  the  chamber. 
When  Anselm  heard  it  he  trembled  and 
turned  pale,  and  when  the  bishops  tried  to 
drag  him  to  the  king  to  receive  the  pastoral 
staff  at  his  hands  he  resisted  with  all  his 
force.  The  bishops  took  him  aside  and 
remonstrated  with  him.  Anselm  pleaded 
that  he  was  an  old  man,  unused  to  Avoi'ldly 
affairs,  and  unfitted  for  the  duties  of  so 
burdensome  an  office.  Moreover,  he  was  the 
subject  of  another  realm,  and  he  owed  alle- 
giance not  only  to  the  Duke  of  Normandy 
but  to  the  archbishop  of  Rouen,  and  to  the 
chapter  of  his  own  abbey.  These  pleas,  how- 
ever, were  all  made  light  of,  and  he  was 
again  taken  to  the  bedside  of  William,  who 
besought  him  by  his  friendship  for  his  father 
and  mother  to  yield  to  the  general  wish. 
Anselm  was  inflexible.  At  the  king's  bidding 
they  fell  down  at  his  feet,  but  Anselm  pro- 
strated himself  also,  and  could  not  be  per- 
suaded. Then  they  lost  patience  ;  they 
partly  pushed  and  partly  pulled  him  to  the 
king's  bedside.  The  king  presented  the  pas- 
toral staff;  they  held  out  Anselm's  hand  to 
take  it,  but  he  kept  his  hand  tightly  clenched ; 
they  tried  to  force  it  open  till  he  cried  aloud 
Avith  pain.  At  length  they  succeeded  in  im- 
closing  his  forefinger,  and  thrust  the  staff 
in  between  that  and  the  other  clenched 
fingers.  Anselm  was  borne  rather  than  led 
into  the  neighbouring  church,  still  protest- 
ing and  exclaiming,  *  It  is  nought  that  ye 
do.'  '  It  would  have  been  difficult,'  he  says. 
In  a  letter  to  the  monks  at  Bee,  'for  a 
looker-on  to  say  Avhether  a  sane  man  was 
being  dragged  by  a  crowd  of  madmen,  or 
Avhether  sane  men  were  dragging  a  madman 


along '  {Ep.  iii.  1 ).  After  some  ceremony  in 
the  church,  Anselm  went  back  to  the  king 
and  renewed  his  protest  in  the  shape  of  a 
prophecy.  'I  tell  thee,  my  lord  king,  that 
thou  wilt  not  die  of  this  sickness  ;  therefore 
thou  mayest  undo  Avhat  thou  hast  done  In 
my  case,  fttr  I  have  not  consented,  nor  do  I 
noAV  consent,  to  its  being  ratified.'  Then, 
turning  to  the  bishojjs,  he  told  them  they 
did  not  knoAv  Avhat  they  were  doing :  they 
were  yoking  an  untamed  bull  Avith  a  AA'eak 
old  sheep  to  the  plough  of  the  church,  which 
ought  to  be  drawn  by  tAA'o  strong  oxen.  He 
then  burst  Into  tears,  and,  faint  with  fatigue 
and  distress,  retired  to  his  lodging.  (Eadmer, 
Vit.  Am.  li.  1,  2;  Hist.  Nov.  i.  18,  19).  All 
this  took  place  on  the  first  day  of  Lent, 
6  March  10f)3.  The  king  gave  orders  that 
Anselm  should  be  Inducted  without  delay 
into  the  tem])oral  possessions  of  the  see,  and 
that  meanAvhile  he  should  reside  on  some 
of  the  archiepiscopal  manors  under  the  care 
of  his  friend  Gundulf,  bishop  of  Rochester. 
The  consent  of  Robert,  duke  of  Normandy, 
and  of  the  archbishop  of  Rouen  to  the  ap- 
pointment of  Anselm  was  easily  obtained, 
but  the  monks  of  Bee  were  very  reluctant  to 
part  with  their  beloved  abbot,  and  it  was 
after  a  long  debate  and  by  a  Aery  narrow 
majority  that  they  acquiesced  In  the  appoint- 
ment {Epist.  HI.  3,  6). 

MeanAvhile  the  Red  King  recovered,  and 
repented  of  his  repentance.  His  last  state 
Avas  Avorse  than  the  first,  and  the  ill  Avhich  he 
had  done  before  seemed  good  in  comparison 
with  the  evil  Avhicli  he  did  noAv,  And  Avhen 
Bishop  Gundulf  remonstrated  with  him  he 
SAA'ore  by  his  faA'ourlte  oath,  the  holy  face  of 
Lucca,  that  he  Avould  neA'er  requite  good  for 
the  ill  which  God  had  done  to  him  (Eadmek, 
Hist.  Nov.  I.  19  b).  He  did  not,  however, 
reA'oke  the  ap])oIntment  of  Anselm. 

In  the  course  of  the  summer  of  1093 
William,  returning  from  a  conference  at 
Dover  with  the  count  of  Flanders,  met  An- 
selm at  Rochester.  Anselm  then  told  him 
that  he  was  still  hesitating  Avhether  he 
Avould  accept  the  archbishopric,  but  if  he 
did  it  must  be  on  three  conditions :  (1)  that 
all  the  lands  belonging  to  the  see  in  the  time 
of  Lanfranc  should  be  restored  Avithout  any 
laAvsuIt  or  dispute,  (2)  that  the  king  should 
see  justice  done  in  respect  of  lands  upon 
which  the  see  had  a  long-standing  claim, 
(3)  that  In  matters  pei'talning  to  God  the 
king  should  take  him  for  his  counsellor  and 
spiritual  father,  as  he  on  his  part  Avould 
acknoAA'ledge  the  king  as  his  earthly  lord. 
Lastly  he  warned  the  king  that  of  the  tAVo 
rlA'al  claimants  to  the  papacy,  Clement  and 
ITrban,   he   himself,   in   common  with    the 


Anselm 


i6 


Anselm 


whole  Norman  church,  had  acknowledged 
Urban,  and  to  this  choice  he  must  adhere. 
The  king  took  counsel  with  Count  Robert  of 
Meulan  and  William  of  St.  Calais,  bishop  of 
Durham,  a  prelate  who  had  a  few  years 
before  been  banished  for  appealing  to  the 
pope  against  a  judgment  of  the  king  and 
witan  on  a  purely  temporal  charge,  but  wlio 
appears  throughout  the  transaction  with 
Anselm  one  of  the  most  zealous  supporters 
of  the  royal  supremacy  (Freeman,  Will. 
Rufu.9,  i.  ch.  2).  The  king  asked  Anselm  to 
repeat  his  statement  in  the  hearing  of  these 
counsellors,  and  after  conferring  with  them 
he  replied  that  he  would  restore  all  the  lands 
which  had  belonged  to  the  see  in  the  time  of 
Lanfranc,  but  upon  the  other  points  he 
sliould  reserve  his  judgment. 

A  few  days  afterwards  he  summoned 
Anselm  to  Windsor,  and  begged  him  to  ac- 
cept the  primacy  to  which  he  was  called  by 
the  choice  of  the  whole  realm  (Eadmer, 
Hist.  Noi\  i.  371).  It  is  remarkable  that 
neither  at  this  point  of  the  story  nor  any 
other  is  there  a  distinct  record  of  any  formal 
election,  either  by  the  monks  at  Canterbury 
or  by  the  witan.  Expressions  to  that  effect 
seem  to  be  used  in  a  vague  and  rhetorical 
sense,  and  to  signify  no  more  than  the  gene- 
ral desire  that  the  archbishopric  might  be 
conferred  on  Anselm,  and  the  unanimous  , 
approval  of  the  appointment.  We  must 
either  suppose  that,  the  general  wish  in  favour 
of  Anselm  being  notorious,  a  formal  election 
was  deemed  unnecessaiy,  or  that,  if  it  did  i 
take  place,  it  was  for  the  same  reason  deemed  i 
needless  by  the  chroniclers  to  make  any 
formal  i-ecord  of  it.  With  the  request  that 
Anselm  would  accept  the  primacy,  the  king 
coupled  a  request  which  started  a  fresh  diffi- 
culty. Certain  lands  held  of  the  archiepi- 
scopal  see  by  Englishmen  on  tenure  of  knight's 
service  before  the  Norman  conquest  had 
lapsed  to  the  lord  for  lack  of  heirs  during 
the  incumbency  of  Lanfranc.  They  had,  in 
fact,  become  demesne  lands  of  the  see,  but 
during  the  vacancy  the  king  had  turned 
them  into  militaiy  fiefs,  and  he  now  arbi- 
trarily summoned  Anselm  into  the  king's 
court  in  order  that  this  arrangement  might 
be  made  permanent.  But  Anselm  refused  ; 
it  would  involve,  he  thought,  a  Avrong  to 
the  church  which  the  king,  as  advocate,  had 
no  right  to  inflict,  and  which  he  himself,  as 
trustee,  had  no  right  to  permit.  To  accept 
the  archbishopric  on  such  terms  would  be 
very  like  a  simoniacal  transaction.  The  king 
was  so  much  irritated  by  his  refusal  that 
Anselm  began  to  hope  he  might,  after  all, 
escape  the  burden  of  the  office  he  so  much 
dreaded  {Ep.  iii.  24). 


This,  however,  was  not  to  be.  The  whole 
nation  was  enraged  by  the  king's  relapse 
into  evil  courses,  and  Avas  determined  to 
force  him,  if  possible,  to  a  renewal  of  the 
promises  which  he  had  made  during  his 
sickness  at  Gloucester.  A  special  gemot 
was  held  for  this  pui-pose  at  Winchester, 
in  which  the  king  solemnly  renewed  his 
pledges.  Anselm  was  now  persuaded  to 
accept  the  archbishopric,  and  did  homage 
according  to  custom.  The  royal  writ  was 
'  issued,  announcing  that  the  king  had  be- 
stowed the  archbishopric  on  Anselm  with 
all  the  rights,  powers,  and  possessions  which 
belonged  to  the  see,  and  with  all  liberties 
over  all  his  men,  and  over  as  many  thegiis 
as  King  Edward  had  granted  to  the  church 
(Eadm.  Hist.  Nov.  i.  372 ;  Focdem,  i.  o). 
These  last  words  seem  to  imply  that  the 
point  disputed  at  Windsor  was  conceded  in 
Anselm's  favour.  On  5  Sept.  1093,  Anselm 
was  enthroned  at  Cantei'bury  amidst  a  re- 
joicing multitude.  But  the  solemnity  and 
festivity  of  the  event  was  disturbed  by  one 
whose  appearance  was  a  sinister  omen  of 
troubles  to  come.  To  the  indignation  of  all, 
the  insolent  Ralph  Flam  bard  took  this  strange 
opportunity  of  serving  a  writ  in  the  king's 
name  for  a  suit  against  the  primate.  The 
object  of  the  A\Tit  is  not  stated ;  we  are  only 
told  that  it  concerned  a  matter  with  which 
the  king's  court  had  properly  nothing  to  do 
(Eadm.  Hist.  Nov.  i.  372). 

On  4  Dec.  Anselm  was  consecrated  by 
Thomas  of  Bayeux  archbishop  of  York, 
assisted  by  all  the  bishops  of  the  southern 
province  except  Wulfstan  of  Worcester, 
Herbert  of  Thetford,  and  Osbern  of  Exeter. 
According  to  the  old  ritual,  the  book  of  the 
Gospels,  opened  at  random,  was  laid  6n  the 
shoulders  of  the  newly  consecrated  prelate, 
and  the  passage  at  which  it  opened  was 
taken  as  a  sort  of  omen  of  his  episcopate. 
The  passage  which  now  presented  itself  was, 
'  He  bade  many,  and  sent  his  servant  at 
supper-time  to  say  to  them  that  were  bidden, 
Come,  for  all  things  are  now  ready.  And 
they  all  with  one  consent  began  to  make 
excuse.' 

The  Christmas  gemot  of  1093  Avas  held  at 
Gloucester.  Anselm  attended,  and  Avas 
AA'armly  Avelcomed,  not  only  by  the  nobility 
of  the  realm,  but  by  the  king  himself.  At 
this  gemot  a  hostile  message  from  Robert, 
duke  of  Normandy,  Avas  considered,-  and  war 
AA'as  decreed.  As  usual  the  great  need  Avas 
money.  The  chief  men  offi^red  their  con- 
tributions, and  Anselm  offered  500  pounds  of 
sih'er.  The  king  accepted  the  gift  gi-a- 
ciously,  but  some  malignant  persons  repre- 
sented  that   he   ought   to  liaAe  receiA'ed  a 


Anselm 


17 


Anselm 


much  larger  sum,  :?,0(X)/.  or  ],0(K)/.  at  least. 
So  a  message  was  sent  later  to  Anselm  that 
his  ott'er  was  rejected.  Anselm  sought  an 
audience  with  the  king,  and  entreated  him 
to  take  the  contribution,  which,  although 
his  first,  would  not  be  his  last.  A  free  gift, 
however  small,  was  far  more  valuable  than 
a  much  larger  one  forcibly  exacted.  The 
king  felt  that  this  remark  Avas  intended 
as  a  reproof  of  his  extortionate  methods  of 
raising  money,  and  he  angrily  rej)lied,  '  Keep 
your  scolding  and  your  money  to  youxself. 

1  have  enough  of  my  own.  Begone.' 
Anselm  departed,  thankful,  after  all,  that 
the  gift  had  been  refused,  for  no  man  could 
now  insinuate  that  his  gift  was  a  precon- 
certed price  for  the  ai'chbishopric.  He  was 
lu'ged  to  oiTer  double  the  sum,  but  stead- 
fastly refused,  and  bestowed  his  despised 
present  on  the  poor.  So  the  midwinter 
gemot  broke  uj) :  Anselm  went  to  his  manor 
at  HaiTow,  where  he  consecrated  a  church 
built  by  Lanfranc.  His  right  Avas  disputed 
by  Maurice,  bishop  of  London,  in  whose 
diocese  the  manor  lay.  The  question  was 
referred  to  the  aged  Wulfstan,  bishop  of 
AVorcester  (£pi>^t.  iii.  19),  who  decided  in 
favour  of  Anselm,  declaring  that  the  pri- 
mates had  always  exercised  free  spiritual 
rights  in  all  their  manors  wherever  they 
might  be  (Eadm.  Hist.  Nov.  372-5).     On 

2  Feb.  1094,  the  forces  destined  for  the  inva- 
sion of  Normandy  were  collected  at  Hast-  [ 
ings.  Anselm  and  other  bishops  were  sum-  I 
moned  thither  to  invoke  a  blessing  on  the 
expedition.  The  passage  of  the  army  was 
delayed  for  more  than  a  month  by  contrary 
winds.  During  this  interval,  on  11  Feb., 
Ar^elm,  assisted  by  seven  bishops,  conse- 
crated the  church  of  the  great  abbey  which 
the  late  king,  in  fulfilment  of  his  vow,  had 
reared  upon  the  ground  where  his  victory 
over  Harold  had  been  won.  In  one  reli- 
gious act,  at  least,  the.  two  unequal  yoke- 
fellows, the  fierce  bull  and  the  gentle  sheep, 
William,  the  sinner,  and  Anselm,  the  saint, 
took  part  together  as  they  stood  before  the 
altar  of  '  St.  Martin  of  the  place  of  battle.' 

On  12  Feb.  Anselm  consecrated  Robert 
Bloet  bishop  of  Lincoln   in  the  chapel   of 
the    castle   at   Hastings,  and   on   the   first 
day  of  Lent  he  presided  at   the  ceremony 
of  sprinkling  ashes,  and  preached  a  sermon,  | 
in  which  he   took   the  opportunity  of  re-  i 
buking  the  young  courtiers  for  their  mincing  j 
gait,  their  effeminate  dress  and  habits,  and  ; 
especially  that  of  wearing  their  hair  long. 
He  refused  to  give  the  ashes  of  penitence  or 
administer  absolution  to  those  who  would 
not  abandon  these  customs.     He  had  good 
reason  for  attacking  them,  since  they  were 

VOL,  II. 


the  outward  signs  of  gross  and  detestable 
vice,  vice  which  Anselm  says  in  one  of  his 
letters    (iii.   62)    had    grown    so    common 
that  many   practised    it   without  any  con- 
sciousness of  sin.    The  king  himself  was  ad- 
dicted to  it ;  nevertheless  Anselm  tried  to 
get  his  help  in  repressing  it.     In  one  of  the 
daily   interviews  which   he  seems   to   have 
had  Avith  AVilliam  at  Hastings,  he  frankly 
told  him  that  if  he  Avould  hope  for  a  bless- 
ing  upon   his  expedition   to  Normandy  or 
any   other   enterjjrise,   he   must   aid  in  re- 
establishing Christianity,  which  had  Avell- 
I  nigh  perished  out  of  the  land.     He  there- 
I  fore  asked  leave  to  hold  a  national  synod  of 
!  bishops,  which  was  a  time-honoured  remedy 
!  in  ICngland  and  Normandy  for  ecclesiastical 
■  and  moral  evils,     AVilliam  replied  that  he 
I  Avould  call  a  council  at  his  OAvn  pleasure, 
;  not  Anselm's ;  '  and  pray,'  said  he,  with  a 
I  sneer,  'what  will  you   talk  about  in  your 
council  ? '      '  The  sin  of  Sodom,'   answered 
I  Anselm,  '  to  say  nothing  of  other  detestabh* 
vices  which  have  become  rampant.      Only 
let  the   king  and  the   primate   unite  their 
authority,   and    this     new   and    monstrous 
growth  of  evil  may  be  rooted  out.'     But  the 
heart  of  the  Red  King  Avas  hardened,  and 
he  only  asked, '  And  what  good  Avill  come  of 
this  matter  for  you  ?  '     '  For  me,  perhaps, 
nothing,'  replied  Anselm,  'but  something, 
I  hope,  for  God  and  for  thyself.'     '  Enough ! ' 
rejoined  the  king ;  '  speak  no  more  on  this 
subject.'      Anselm   obeyed,   but   turned   to 
another  eAil,  the  injury  done  to  religion  by 
the  ])rolonged  Aacancies  in  the  abbeys.    This 
touched   the  king  in  tAvo  of  his  tenderest 
points,  his   greed   of  money   and  his   royal 
rights.     '  AVhat,'  he   burst   forth,  '  are   the 
abbeA's  to  you  ?  Are  they  not  mine  ?   Shall 
you  do  as  you  like  with  your  manors,  and 
shall    I    not    deal   as    I    choose   Avith  my 
abbeys .P'     'The  abbeys,'  returned  Anselm, 
'  are  yours  to  protect  as  their  advocate,  not 
to  waste  and  destroy.     They  belong  to  God, 
and   their  revenues   are    intended   for   the 
support  of  His  ministers,  not  of  your  Avars.' 
'  Your  words  are  highly  offensive  to  me,' 
said   tlie   king ;    '  your    predecessor    Avould 
never  have  dared  to  speak  thus  to  my  father. 
I  Avill  do  nothing  for  you.'     So   Anselm, 
seeing  that  his  words  were  cast  to  the  winds, 
rose   up    and  Avent  his  way.     But  he   Ava.** 
deeply  A'exed  at  this  loss  of  the  royal  favour, 
because  he  felt  that  without  it  he  could  not 
accomplish  the  reforms  on  which  his  heart 
was  set.     He  sent  the  bishops  to  the  king 
to  beg   that   he  would  take  him  into  hi.-, 
friendship,  or,  at  least,  say  Avhy  lie  refused 
it.     The  bishops  returned,  saying  that  the 
king  did  not  accuse  Anselm   of  anything, 

C 


Anselm 


Anselm 


but  would  not  show  bim  any  favour,  because 
he  '  heard  not  wherefore  he  should.'  Anselm 
inquired    what    the    latter    words    meant.  1 
*  The  mystery,'  replied  the  bishops,  '  is  plain.  ] 
If  you  want  peace  with  him,  you  must  give  I 
plenty  of  money.     Offer  him  again  the  oOOl. 
which  he  refused,  and  promise  him  as  much  j 
more,   to    be    raised    from    your    tenants.'  j 
Anselm  indignantly  rejected  such  a  method.  I 
It   would    set   a  disastrous   precedent   for  | 
buying  oif  the  king's  wrath.     The  bishops  | 
urged  him  at  least  to  repeat  the  offer  of  the  ! 
500/.,   but  Anselm   refused   to  give    again 
what  had  been  once  rejected ;  moreover,  he  j 
said  he  had  promised  it  to  the  poor,  and  the  ' 
greater  part  had  already  been  given  away. 
His  words  were  reported  to  the  king,  who 
sent  back  his  answer.     '  Yesterday  I  hated 
him  much,  to-day  I  hate  him  more,  and  to- 
morrow and   henceforth   I   shall  hate  him 
with  even  bitterer  hatred.     I  will  no  longer 
hold  him  as  father  and  archbishop,  and  his 
blessing  and  prayers   I   utterly  abhor  and 
despise.     Let  him   go  where    he  will,  and 
not  tarry  any  longer  to  bless  my  voyage.' 
*  We  therefore  speedily  left  the  court,'  says 
Eadmer,  who   became  from  this  time  his 
constant   companion,    'and   abandoned   the 
king  to   his   will'    {Hist.   Nov.   i.  379  b). 
William  crossed   at    length  to    Normandy 
about  the   middle    of    March.      He    spent 
much  and  gained  little  in  his  campaign,  and 
returned  to  England  on  28  Dec.  1094. 

Anselm  had  not  yet  received  his  pallium 
from  the   pope,  which,   although   not   con- 
sidered essential  to   the  validity  of  archi- 
episcopal  functions,  was  looked  upon  as  an 
indispensable  badge  of  metropolitan  autho- 
rity ;  and  Anselm  had  now  been  a  full  year 
in  office  without  receiving  it.     Some  time, 
therefore,  in  February  1095,  he  went  to  Gil- 
lingham,  near  Shaftesbury,  where  the  king 
was  keeping  court,  and  asked  leave  to  go  to 
Rome  for    his    pallium.     The  papacy   was 
now    claimed  by  two    rivals.    Urban   and 
Clement.    Normandy  had  acknowledged  Ur- 
ban.    England  had  not  as  yet  acknowledged 
either.     William  asked  Anselm  from  which 
of  the  two  he  intended  to  get  his  pallium. 
'  From   Urban,'  was  the  reply :  and  he  re- 
minded the   king  of  the   warning   he  had 
given  him  at  Rochester,  that  he  had,  when 
abbot  of  Bee,  promised  allegiance  to  Urban, 
and   could   not   recede  from    it.     William, 
however,    maintained    that   Anselm   could 
not  obey  the  pope  against  the  king's  will 
consistently   with    the    allegiance    due   to 
himself.      He    had   not  yet  acknowledged 
Urban,  and  it  was  neither  his  custom  nor 
his  father's  to    let   any    one   in    England 
acknowledge   any  pope   without   his  leave. 


Anselm  felt  that  the  king  had  no  right  to 
force  any  one  into  renouncing  a  choice  made 
before  he  became  a  subject.  The  conflict, 
however,  between  the  claims  of  the  king 
and  of  the  pope  oh  his  obedience  was  one 
which  he  rightly  thought  could  be  settled 
only  by  the  great  council  of  the  nation.  He 
asked  for  such  a  council,  and  the  request 
was  granted.  A  great  assembly  of  the  chief 
men  in  church  and  state  was  convened  for 
Sunday,  11  March  1095,  at  the  royal  castle 
of  Rockingham,  on  the  borders  of  Leicester- 
shire and  Northamptonshire.  A  crowd  of 
bishops,  abbots,  nobles,  monks,  clerks,  and 
laymen  were  gathered  at  an  early  hour  in 
the  castle  and  the  precincts.  The  king  and 
a  party  of  privy  councillors  sat  in  a  sepa- 
rate chamber;  a  messenger  passed  to  and 
fro  between  them  and  the  general  assembly, 
which  seems  to  have  been  either  in  the 
chapel  of  the  castle  or  the  great  hall  which 
may  have  opened  out  of  it. 

Anselm  himself  opened  the  proceedings 
with  an  address  ;  the  bishops  came  from  the 
royal  presence  chamber  to  hear  it.  He  ex- 
plained the  object  of  the  assembly,  Avhich 
was  to  decide  whether  there  was  any  real 
incompatibility  between  his  allegiance  to 
the  king  and  his  obedience  to  Urban.  The 
bishops,  who,  throughout  these  transactions, 
appear  as  timid  and  obsequious  courtiers, 
replied  that  the  archbishop  was  too  wise  and 
good  a  man  to  need  advice  from  them ;  but, 
at  any  rate,  no  advice  could  they  give  him 
unless  he  first  submitted  absolutely  to  the 
king's  will.  They  reported  his  speech,  how- 
ever, to  the  king,  who  adjourned  the  pro- 
ceedings to  the  morrow. 

On  Monday,  therefore,  Anselm,  sitting  in 
the  midst  of  the  assembly,  asked  the  bishops 
if  they  were  now  ready  with  their  advice. 
But  they  had  only  the  same  answer  to 
make.  Then  Anselm  spoke  in  solemn 
tones,  with  uplifted  eyes  and  kindling 
countenance,  '  Since  you,  the  shepherds  of 
the  people,  who  are  called  the  leaders  of  the 
nation,  will  give  no  counsel  to  me,  your 
head,  save  according  to  the  will  of  one  man, 
I  will  betake  me  to  the  chief  Shepherd  and 
Head  of  all,  to  the  Angel  of  great  counsel, 
and  will  follow  the  counsel  which  I  shall 
receive  from  Him  in  ray  cause,  yea,  rather 
in  His  cause  and  that  of  His  church.  He 
Avho  declared  that  obedience  was  due  to 
St.  Peter  and  the  other  apostles,  and 
through  them  to  the  bishops,  saying,  "  He " 
that  despiseth  you  despiseth  me,"  also  taught 
that  the  things  of  Caesar  Avere  to  be  i-endered 
to  CsBsar.  By  those  words  I  wall  abide. 
In  the  things  which  are  God's  I  will  give 
obedience  to  the  vicar  of  the  blessed  Peter ; 


I 


Anselm 


19 


Anselm 


in  things  touching  the  earthly  dignity  of  deny.     Meanwhile  a  murmur  of  svmpatliv 

my  lord  the  king,  I   will,  to   the   best  of  with  Anselm  ran  through  the  mixed  throng, 

my  ability,  give   him  faitliful  counsel  and  A  soldier   stepped   forward,    and,   kneeling 

help.'      The    cowardly    bishops    could   not  before    the    archbishop,    said,     '  My    lord 

gainsay  the  words  of  Anselm,  but  neither  father,  thy  children  beseech  thee,  t'hrougli 

<lid  they  dare  cany  them  to  the  king.     So  me,  not  to  be  disquieted,  but  to  be  mindful 


Anselm    went    himself    to     the    presence 
chamber,  and  repeated  them  in  the  audience 
of  William.      The    king   was   exceedingly 
wroth,  and  consulted  with  the  bishops  and 
nobles  concerning  the  answer  to  be  given. 
Their  perplexity  was  extreme.     They  broke 
up  into  small  groups,   each  discussing  how 
some   answer   might    be   framed.      Anselm 
meanwhile,  having  retired  to  the  place  of 
assembly,  rested  his  head  against  the  wall, 
and  went  quietly  to  sleep.     At  last  he  was 
roused  by  a  party  of  bishops  and  lay  lords 
bearing  a  message  from  the  king.     lie  de- 
manded an  immediate  answer  from  Anselm. 
As  for  the  matter  at  issue  between  him  and 
the  primate,  it  needed  no  explanation.     For 
themselves  the   bishops  counselled  Anselm 
to  cast  away  his   obedience  to  Urban,  and 
freely  submit,  as  became  an  ai'chbishop  of 
Canterbury,  to  the  king's  will  in  everything, 
Anselm  replied  that  he  certainly  would  not 
renounce  his  obedience  to  the  pope,  but  as 
the   day   was   far  spent  he    asked  leave  to 
reserve   his  ansAver  for  the    morrow.     The 
bishops  suspected  this  meant  that  he  was 
wavering,  or  that  he  did  not  know  what  to 
say.     The  crafty  and  unscrupulous  William 
of  St.  Calais,  bishop  of  Durham,  who  was 
the  leader  of  the  bishops  on  the  king's  side, 
now  thought  he   would   be   able   to    drive 
Anselm  into  a  corner.     lie  boasted  to  the 
king  that  he  would  force  the  primate  either 
to  renounce   obedience   to  the   pope,  or  to 
resign  the  archiepiscopal  staff  and  ring.    This 
fell  in  with  the  king's  wishes.    So  the  bishop 
of  Durham  and  his  party  hastened  back  to 
Anselm,    and  informed   him  that  no  delay 
would    be   gi-anted    him    unless   he   imme- 
diately reinvested   the   king   with   the  im- 
perial dignity  of  which  he  had  robbed  him 
by   having  made    the  bishop  of  Ostia  pope 
without    his    authority.      Anselm,    having 
patiently  listened  to  this  peremptory  address, 
calmly  replied :  '  Whoever  wishes  to  prove 
that  I  violate  my  allegiance  to  my  earthly 
sovereign,  because  I  will  not  renounce  my 
obedience   to  the   sovereign  pontiff  of  the 
Holy  Roman  Church,  let  him  come  forward, 
and  he  will  find  me  ready  to  answer  him 
as  I  niiffkt  and  where  I  oiu/htj'    These  last 
words  disconcerted  the  bishop  and  his  friend, 
for  they  understood  him  to  mean  that,  as 
archbishop  of  Canterbury,  he  could  not  be 
judged  by  any  one  save  the  pope — a  doctrine 
which  it   seems   no  one  was  prepared  to 


how  the  blessed  Job,  on  his  dunghill,  over- 
came   the   devil,  and  avenged  Adam,  who 
had  been  vanquished  in  Pai-adise.'     Anselm 
graciously  received  this    odd  address  li'om 
the   honest   man,  for  it  assured   him   that 
he  had  the  good  will  of  the  people.     The 
discomfited  bishops   returned   to   the  king, 
and  were  loaded  with  reproaches.      On  the 
morrow,  Tuesday,  Anselm  once  more  took 
his  seat,  a^vaiting  the  king's  message.     The 
councillors  were  perjilexed.     Even  William 
of  St.  Calais  had  no  course  to  recommend 
but  force.      The  staff  and    ring   might   be 
\ATested  from  the  primate,  and  he  liimself 
expelled  from  the  kingdom.     But  this  sug- 
gestion  did  not  please  the  lay  nobles.     It 
would  be  an  awkward  precedent  if  the  fii-st 
vassal  in  the  kingdom  were  deprived  of  his 
fief  at  the  king's  pleasure,     William,  in  a 
rage,  told   them   that   he  would  brook  no 
egual  in  his  kingdom  ;  if  the  proposal  of  the 
bishop  of  Durham  did  not  please  them,  let 
them  consult  and  say  Avhat  would ;  for,  by 
the  face   of  God,  if  they  did  not  condemn 
Anselm,  he  would  condemn  them.     Count 
Robeit  of  Meulan  then  spoke :  '  As  for  our 
counsel  I  own   I   know  not  what  to  sav ; 
for  when  Ave  haAe  been  devising  plans  all 
day,    and   considering   hoAv   we    can   make 
them   hang  together,  the  archbishop  inno- 
cently goes   to  sleep,  and  then  Avhen  they 
are  submitted  to  him,  with  one  puff  of  his 
lips    he   blows   them   to  pieces  as    if  they 
Avere  cobAvebs.'     The   king  then    turned  to 
the  bishops,  but  they  had  no  suggestion  to 
offer.     Anselm  was  their  primate,  and  they 
had  no  power  to  judge   or  condemn  him, 
eA'en  had  any  crime  been  proA'ed  against  him. 
The  king  then  proposed  that  they  might  at 
least  withdraw  their  obedience  and  brotherly 
intercourse  from   the  archbishop.     And   to 
this  strange  suggestion  they  had  the  base- 
ness   to    accede.       Accompanied   by  some 
abbots,  they  annoimced  their  intention  to 
Anselm,   and  infomied  him  that   the  king 
also  AvithdreAv  his  trust  and  protection,  and 
Avould  no  longer  hold  him  for  archbishop  or 
spiritual    father.      Anselm    mildly   replied 
that  they  did  ill  to  AAithdraAV  their  allegiance 
from  him  because  he  refused  to  Avithdraw 
his    own   from   the  successor  of  the   chief 
of  the  apostles.     Although  the  king  Avith- 
dreAV  all  protection  fi'om  iiim,  he  Avould  not 
cease  to  care  for  the  kiiig's  soul ;  retaining 
the  title,  power,  and  office  of  archbishop, 

C  2 


Anselm 


20 


Anselm 


whatever  oppression  it  might  be  his  lot  to 
suffer.  William  now  tried  to  make  the  lay 
lords  abandon  the  archbishop,  saying,  *No 
one  shall  be  my  man  Avho  chooses  to  be  his,' 
to  which  the  nobles  replied  that  as  they 
never  were  the  archbishop's  men,  they  had 
no  fealty  to  withdraw;  'notwithstanding,' 
they  said,  '  lie  is  our  archbishop  ;  to  him  per- 
tains the  rule  of  Christianity  in  this  land, 
and  in  this  respect  Ave  cannot,  whilst  we 
live  here  as  christians,  refuse  his  guidance.' 
William  dissembled  his  wrath,  for  he  was 
afraid  of  offending  the  nobles,  whose  manly 
utterance  put  the  craven  conduct  of  the 
bishops  in  a  more  odious  light.  The  king 
tightened  his  grip  upon  these  wretched  time- 
servers,  required  an  unconditional  renun- 
ciation of  their  obedience  to  Anselm,  and 
squeezed  more  money  out  of  them  to  buy 
back  his  favour.  Anselm  meanwhile  re- 
quested a  safe-conduct  to  one  of  the  havens 
and  leave  to  quit  the  kingdom.  William 
heartily  wished  to  be  rid  of  him,  but  did  not 
wish  him  to  go  while  seised  of  the  arch- 
bishopric, yet  saw  no  way  to  disseise  him  of 
it.  In  this  dilemma  the  nobles  proposed  a 
truce,  and  an  adjournment  of  the  whole  ques- 
tion to  Whitsimtide.  This  proposal  Avas  made 
on  the  fourth  day  of  the  meeting,  Wednes- 
dav,  14  March,  and  Anselm  assented  to  it 
(Eadm.  Msf.  Nov.  i.  379-87).  And  so 
ended  the  famous  meeting  at  Rockingham. 
It  seemed  to  come  to  nothing ;  nevertheless 
a  great  moral  victory  had  been  gained. 

William  kept  the  letter  of  the  truce  with 
Anselm,  but  A'ented  his  spite  by  attacking 
his  friends.  lie  expelled  Baldwin  of  Tournay, 
a  monk  of  Bee,  one  of  Anselm's  most  confi- 
dential friends,  from  the  kingdom,  he  arrested 
his  chamberlain,  and  Avon*ied  his  tenants  by 
unjust  lawsiiits  and  imposts.  His  next  device 
was  to  gain  the  pope  to  his  side.  He  secretly 
despatched  two  clerks  of  the  Chapel  Royal, 
Gerard,  afterwards  archbishop  of  York,  and 
William  of  Warelwast,  afterwards  bishop  of 
Exeter,  to  Rome,  first  to  ascertain  Avhich  was 
the  real  pope,  secondly  to  persuade  him  to 
send  the  pallium  to  the  king,  so  that  he  might 
be  able  to  bestoAv  it  on  any  one  he  pleased 
should  he  succeed  in  getting  rid  of  Anselm, 
The  envoys  had  no  difficulty  in  discovering 
that  Urban  was  the  pope  in  possession.  They 
acknowledged  him  in  the  name  of  the  king, 
and  obtained  their  request.  Cardinal  Wal- 
ter, bishop  of  Albano,  returned  to  England 
with  them,  bringing  the  pallium.  The  journey 
was  made  with  all  speed,  in  order  to  reach 
England  before  Whitsuntide.  Great  secrecy 
also  Avas  obserA'ed.  The  legate  was  not  al- 
lowed to  converse  Avith  any  one,  except  in 
the  presence  of  the  enA'oys,  and  on  reaching 


England  he  Avas  hurried  to  the  court  with- 
out being  alloAved  to  tarry  in  Canterbury  or 
to  see  Anselm.  Shortly  before  Whitsuntide 
he  had  an  interA'ieAA'  Avith  the  king.  What 
passed  is  not  recorded,  but  it  AA'as  understood 
that  William  was  encouraged  to  hope  that 
his  Avishes  Avould  be  gTanted,  and  that  the- 
legate  had  not  spoken  a  AAord  on  Anselm's 
behalf  Tlie  king  noAv  ordered  a  formal  recog- 
nition of  Urban  as  pope  to  be  published 
throughout  his  dominions,  and  he  then  asked 
the  legate  that  Anselm  might  be  deposed  by 
papal  authority,  promising  a  large  annual 
payment  to  the  Roman  see  if  his  request  was 
granted.  But  he  had  overshot  his  mark. 
The  cardinal  flatly  declared  such  a  compact 
to  be  out  of  the  question.  Thus  William  had 
gained  nothing  and  lost  much  by  his  dealing 
with  Rome,  He  had  acknowledged  Urban, 
whom  Anselm  had  acknoAvledged  long  ago, 
and,  instead  of  getting  rid  of  the  primate,  it 
seemed  noAV  impossible  to  avoid  going  through 
the  form  at  least  of  reconciliation  with  him. 
This  took  place  at  Windsor,  Avhere  Anselm 
Avas  summoned  to  meet  the  king  at  Whit- 
suntide. He  was  again  urged  to  propitiate 
the  king  by  money  and  to  receive  the  pal- 
lium from  his  hands  ;  but  he  was  inflexible, 
and  the  king  had  to  giA-e  way.  On  the  third 
Sunday  after  Trinity  (10  June  1095)  the 
legate  brought  the  pallium  Avith  great  pomp 
in  a  sih'er  casket  to  Canterbury.  He  was 
met  by  the  monks  of  the  two  monasteries  of 
Christchurch  and  St.  Augustine,  and  a  vast 
concourse  of  clergy  and  laity.  Near  the 
cathedral  the  procession  was  met  by  Anselm,. 
barefoot,  but  in  full  pontificals  and  attended 
by  his  suffragans.  The  sacred  gift  was  laid 
upon  the  altar,  thence  it  was  taken  by  An- 
selm and  presented  to  be  kissed  by  those 
Avho  Avere  ro.und  about  him,  after  Avhich  he- 
put  it  on  and  celebrated  mass  (Eadm.  Hist. 
Nov.  ii.  390-2).  A  short  interval  of  peace- 
noAV  followed.  The  king  went  nortliAvards  to 
put  down  a  rcA-olt  of  Robert  of  Mowbray, 
Earl  of  Northumberland.  The  archbishop 
stayed  at  Canterbury,  the  care  of  the  city, 
and  apparently  of  Kent,  being  committed  to 
him  under  the  king's  Avrit  and  seal,  against 
an  expected  attack  from  Normandy.  So 
faithful  was  he  to  this  trust  that  he  refused 
to  leaA^e  Canterbury  even  for  a  day  to  confer 
with  the  papal  legate  upon  tlie  reforms  in 
the  church  Avhich  he  had  so  much  at  heart 
{JEpist.  iii.  35,  36).  He  attended  the  Christ- 
mas gemot  at  Windsor,  where  his  bitter  ad- 
versary, William  of  St.  Calais,  died.  Anselm 
recei\'ed  his  confession  and  tended  him  in 
his  dying  hours  with  affectionate  care.  He 
had  already  absoh-ed  tAvo  bishops  who  had 
expressed  penitence  for    their  conduct   at 


Anselm 


31 


Ansclm 


llockiiigham,  Osmund  of  Salisbury,  the  com- 

Siler  of  the  celebrated  Use  of  Sarum,  and 
[obert  of  Hereford.  Most  of  the  otlier 
bishops  now  followed  their  example ;  yet 
there  were  some  who  still  remained  hostile, 
and  when  the  papal  legate  remonstrated, 
they  had  the  incredible  baseness  to  say  that 
Anselm  was  not  a  lawful  archbishop  because 
he  had  received  investiture  from  a  king  who 
at  the  time  was  in  schism  with  Ilome,  the 
very  king  to  whom  they  themselves  had  "paid 
the  most  obsequious  homage  (^??«f.  iii.  36). 
On  18  Nov.  1095  the  first  crusade  was 

f  reached  by  Urban  at  Clermont  in  Auvergne. 
lobert,  duke  of  Normandy,  was  seized  with 
the  impulse  which  stirred  the  heart  of  Christ- 
•endom,  but  his  treasury  was  empty  and  his 
hold  on  his  duchy  Avas  weak.  He  therefore 
mortgaged  it  for  three  years  to  his  brother 
Willuim  for  tlie  sum  of  10,000  marks,  which 
the  Red  King  undertook  to  raise.  Tlie  sum 
was  levied  with  great  difficulty.  The  clergy 
were  already  so  impoverished  that  to  furnish 
contributions  they  were  forced  to  part  with 
many  of  their  most  sacred  treasures.  An- 
selm was  willing  to  contribute,  but  he  had 
not  enough  ready  money.  By  the  advice  of 
Walkelin,  bishop  of  Winchester,  and  Gun- 
<lulf  of  Rochester,  he  borrowed  1 00  pounds 
from  the  monks  of  Christ  Church  on  the 
security  of  his  manor  of  Peckham,  which  he 
mortgaged  to  them  for  seven  years.  It  turned 
out  a  very  good  bargain  for  the  monks,  who 
enlarged  the  east  end  of  the  cathedral  out  of 
the  Peckham  rents.  Altogether  Anselm 
scraped  together  200  pounds,  and  the  king 
seems  to  have  been  satisfied.  The  bargain 
between  the  king  and  his  brother  was  settled 
in  September  1096.  Robert  started  for  Pales- 
tine. William  took  possession  of  Normandy, 
and  remained  in  the  duchy  till  the  following 
Easter,  when  the  disturbed  state  of  Wales 
brought  him  back  to  England.  After  hold- 
ing a  gemot  at  Windsor  in  April  he  made  a 
great  expedition  into  Wales,  which  seemed 
to  be  successful.  The  submission  of  the 
country  turned  out  to  be  only  nominal,  but 
at  the  moment  the  Red  King,  by  the  acqui- 
sition of  Normandy  and  reduction  of  Wales, 
appeared  to  have  reached  the  height  of  his 
prosperity.  A  favourable  opportunity  seemed 
to  have  come  for  again  pi'essing  reforms  on 
the  king.  It  may  have  been,  as  Anselm  be- 
lieved, only  another  device  to  put  oft"  the 
discharge  of  this  duty,  that  the  king,  on  his 
return  from  Wales,  wrote  an  angry  letter 
complaining  of  the  contingent  of  knights 
whom  Anselm  had  furnished  for  the  Welsh 
campaign.  They  were  so  ill  equipped,  he 
said,  and  ill  trained  as  to  have  been  quite 
iiseless,  and  Anselm  must  expect  a  summons 


'  in  the  King's  court  to  '  do  liim  right.'  The 
archbishop  did  not  think  it  necessary  to  take 
any  notice  of  this  petulant  message.  He  at- 
tended the  Whitsuntide  gemot,  and  was  gra- 
ciously received.  He  again  exhorted  the 
king  to  set  about  the  work  of  reform,  but 
his  appeals  were  utterly  vain,  and  he  now 
I  resolved  to  take  the  step  to  which  his  mind 
had  been  gravitating  for  some  time.  He 
sent  a  formal  message  to  the  king  by  some 
of  the  nobles,  saying  that  he  was  driven  by 
urgent  need  to  ask  his  leave  to  go  to  Rome. 
The  king  refused  the  license.  I3ut  Anselm 
had  quite  made  up  his  mind  that  the  only 
hope  of  redress  for  his  own  wrongs  or  the 
wrongs  of  the  church  lay  in  an  appeal  to  the 
pope.  He  renewed  his  request  at  another 
gemot  held  in  August,  and  again  at  Win- 
chester in  October.  The  king  was  now 
thoroughly  enraged.  He  not  only  refused 
the  license,  but  declared  that  Anselm  must 
pay  a  fine  for  asking  it.  Anselm  offered  to 
give  good  reasons  for  his  request,  which  the 
J  king  declined  to  hear,  and  told  him  that  if 
he  did  go  he  should  seize  the  archbishopric 
and  never  receive  him  as  archbishop  again. 
An  adjournment  was  granted  for  one  day, 
I  and  on  the  morrow  Anselm  said  he  still 
'  asked  for  the  license.  For  the  sake  of 
'  his  own  soul,  for  the  sake  of  religion,  and 
:  for  the  king's  own  honour  and  profit,  it  was 
!  needful  he  should  go,  and  if  the  kin^  would 
not  gi-ant  leave  he  must  go  Avithout  it,  obey- 
[  ing  God  rather  than  man.  The  bishops 
!  again  urged  submission.  '  You  have  spoken 
I  well,'  said  Anselm ;  '  do  you  go  to  your  lord, 
and  I  will  cleave  to  my  God.'  The  lay 
barons  also  were  now  against  him.  He  had 
SAVorn  to  observe  the  customs  of  the  realm, 
and  it  was  contrary  to  those  customs  for  any 
man  in  his  position  to  go  to  Rome  without 
the  king's  license.  Anselm  replied  that  he 
had  indeed  promised  to  observe  the  customs, 
but  only  so  far  as  they  were  in  accordance 
with  right  and  agreeable  to  the  will  of  God. 
He  went  into  the  royal  presence  chamber, 
and,  seating  himself  at  the  king's  right  hand, 
maintained  this  doctrine  at  some  length, 
until  the  king  and  Count  Robert  of  Meulan 
exclaimed  that  he  Avas  preaching  a  sermon, 
and  a  general  uproar  folloAved.  Anselm 
quietly  Avaited  till  it  had  subsided,  and  then 
summed  up  his  argument.  He  then  rose 
and  departed,  accompanied  by  the  faithful 
Eadmer.  They  Avere  followed  by  a  mes- 
senger from  AVilliam,  who  told  Anselm  that 
he  might  leave  the  kingdom,  but  must  not 
take  anything  belonging  to  the  king.  'I 
have  horses,  clothes,  and  furniture,'  replied 
Anselm ;  '  perhaps  some  one  will  say  they  be- 
long to  the  king ;  if  so,  I  Avill  go  naked  and 


Anselm 


Anselm 


barefoot  rather  than  abandon  my  purpose.' 
The  king  sent  word  back  that  he  did  not 
wish  him  to  go  naked  and  barefoot,  but  he 
must  be  at  the  haven  ready  to  cross  within 
eleven  days,  and  there  a  messenger  would 
meet  him,  and  let  him  know  what  he  might 
take  with  him.  Anselm  returned  to  the 
presence  chamber,  and,  addressing  the  king 
with  a  cheerful  countenance,  '  My  lord,'  he 
said,  '  I  am  going.  .  .  .  Xow,  therefore,  not 
knowing  when  I  shall  see  you  again,  I  com- 
mend you  to  God,  and  as  a  spiritual  father 
to  a  beloved  son,  as  archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury to  the  king  of  England,  I  would  fain, 
before  I  go,  give  you  God's  blessing  and  my 
own,  if  you  refuse  it  not.'  For  a  moment 
the  heart  of  the  Red  King  was  touched :  '  his 
good  angel  perhaps  spoke  to  him  then  for  the 
lasttime.  "I  refusenot  your  blessing," was  his 
answer.  The  man  of  God  arose,  the  king 
bowed  his  head,  and  Anselm  made  the  sign 
of  the  cross  over  it '  (Freeman,  Will.  Hufus, 
i.  594).  Then  he  departed,  and  the  saint 
and  the  sinner  never  met  again  (Eadm.  Hist. 
Nov.  ii.  395-402). 

This  happened  on  15  Oct,  1097,  and  An- 
selm immediately  left  Winchester  for  Can- 
terbury. On  the  day  after  his  arrival  he  took 
an  affecting  farewell  of  the  monks.  Then,  in 
the  presence  of  a  great  congregation,  he  took 
the  pilgrim's  staff'  and  scrip  from  oft'the  altar, 
and,  having  commended  the  weeping  multi- 
tude to  Christ,  he  set  forth  for  Dover,  accom- 
panied by  Eadmer  and  Baldwin.  At  Dover 
they  found  the  king's  chaplain,  William  of 
AVarelwast,  awaiting  them.  For  fourteen 
days  they  were  detained  by  stress  of  weather, 
during  which  William  of  Warelwast  was 
Anselm's  guest.  At  last  the  wind  was  fa- 
vourable, and  Anselm  and  his  party  hastened 
to  the  shore.  But  William  of  Warelwast 
forbade  their  embarking  until  their  baggage 
had  been  searched.  This  was  done  upon  the 
beach  amidst  the  astonishment  and  execration 
of  the  bystanders ;  but  nothing  was  found 
which  could  be  seized  for  the  king,  and  after 
this  vexatious  delay  Anselm  and  his  friends 
set  sail  and  landed  safely  at  Whitsand.  As 
soon  as  they  were  out  of  the  country,  the  king 
not  only  seized  the  estates  of  the  see,  but  can- 
celled all  acts  and  decrees  relating  to  them 
made  by  the  archbishop.  Meanwhile  An- 
selm, after  halting  a  while  at  the  monastery 
of  St.  Omer,  journeyed  through  France  and  the 
duchy  of  Burgundy  to  Cluny,  where  he  had 
a  hearty  welcome  and  spent  Christmas.  A 
curious  story  is  told  by  Eadmer  (Hist.  Nov. 
ii.  404)  how  Odo,  duke  of  Burgundy,  tempted 
by  the  report  of  the  archbishop's  riches,  set 
out,  intending  to  plunder  him  on  the  way, 
but  was  so  completely  captivated  by  Anselm's 


manner  and  appearance  that  he  accepted  his 
kiss  and  his  blessing,  and  gave  him  a  safe  con- 
duct. The  roads  were  deemed  dangerous  for 
travelling  in  the  winter ;  so  the  rest  of  the 
season  was  spent  at  Lyons  with  the  Arch- 
bishop Hugh,  Avho  Avas  an  old  friend  of  An- 
selm. From  Lyons  he  wrote  a  letter  to  Pope 
Urban,  explaining  the  purpose  qf  his  coming ; 
how  he  had  spent  four  fruitless  miserable^ 
years  in  the  high  office  which  had  been  forced 
upon  him,  how  he  had  seen  the  church  plun- 
dered and  oppressed,  how  he  had  no  hope  of 
getting  these  evils  redressed  in  England.  He 
therefore  sought  the  protection  and  counsel 
of  the  apostolic  see.  The  bearers  of  the  let- 
ter returned  with  a  pressing  invitation  from 
the  pope,  and  in  the  spring  Anselm  and  his 
friends  set  forth.  They  preserved  a  strict  in- 
cognito, for  fear  of  robbers  in  the  pay  of  the 
antipope  Clement,  and  reached  Rome  in  safety. 
Here  they  were  warmly  welcomed  by  the 
pope,  and  lodged  in  the  Lateran.  The  day 
after  they  annved  there  Avas  a  grand  gathering- 
of  the  Roman  nobility  at  the  papal  palace, 
which  Anselm  attended.  When  he  prostra- 
ted himself  at  the  feet  of  the  pontiff",  Urban 
raised  him  up  and  embraced  him,  and  made 
him  sit  by  his  side.  He  then  introduced  him 
to  the  assembly  as  the  patriarch  or  pope  of 
another  world,  a  miracle  of  virtue  and  learn- 
ing, the  champion  of  the  Roman  see,  yet  so 
humble  as  to  seek  from  the  unworthy  occu- 
pant the  counsel  Avhich  he  himself  was  more 
fitted  to  give.  In  fact,  Eadmer  says  Ansebn 
was  quite  disconcerted  by  the  pope's  flattery. 
After  the  public  reception  Urban  heard  the 
narrative  of  his  wrongs,  and  promised  him  his 
assistance  (Eadm.  Vit.  A7is.  ii.  42 ;  Jlist.  Nov. 
ii.  405-8). 

Meanwhile  the  season  was  approaching 
when  Rome  was  unhealthy  for  strangers,  and 
Anselm  was  urged  by  the  abbot  of  Telese  in 
Apulia,  formerly  one  of  his  scholars  at  Bee, 
to  take  up  his  abode  with  him.  This  he  did 
with  the  consent  of  the  pope,  and  as  the  heat 
increased  the  abbot  transferred  him  to  the 
mountain  village  of  Schiavi.  The  weary  old 
man  was  enchanted  with  the  pure  cool  air, 
the  seclusion  and  repose  of  this  sweet  retreat. 
He  resumed  the  simple  studious  habits  which 
he  had  loved  so  well  in  his  happy  days  at 
Bee,  and  he  completed  his  treatise  on  the  in- 
carnation, the  '  Cur  Deus  Homo  ? '  which  he 
had  begun  amidst  all  the  turmoil  of  his  life 
in  England.  lie  was  obliged,  however,  to 
leave  Ids  retreat,  in  order  to  meet  the  pope  in 
the  camp  of  Duke  Roger  of  Apulia,  who  was 
besieging  Capua.  Their  quarters  were  close 
together,  a  little  outside  the  actual  camp, 
Eadmer  tells  us  how  all  folk,  including  even 
the  Saracens  in  the  army  of  Count  Roger  of 


Anselm 


23 


Anselm 


Sicily,  were  charmed  by  Anselm.  William 
of  Malmesbury  (Gest.  Pont.  98)  says  that 
the  Keel  King  wrote  to  Duke  Roger  to  try 
and  prejudice  liim  against  Anselm.  The 
duke,  however,  was  so  captivated  by  An- 
selm, that  he  besought  him  to  take  up  his 
abode  in  Apulia,  ofi'ering  to  bestow  some  of 
his  best  lands  upon  him  if  he  did.  To  this 
Anselm  would  not  consent,  but  he  enti'eated 
the  pope  to  relieve  him  of  the  archbishopric, 
in  which  he  was  convinced  that  he  could  do 
no  good  whilst  William  was  on  the  throne, 
of  whose  outrages  on  religion  and  morals  tra- 
vellers continually  brought  fresh  tidings. 
Urban,  however,  would  not  release  him,  and 
for  the  present  he  returned  to  Schiavi,  where 
he  remained  until  summoned  to  attend  the 
council  of  Bari  in  October  1098.  At  the 
council  of  Bari  the  question  of  the  '  proces- 
sion of  the  Holy  Ghost '  was  discussed  with 
the  Greek  delegates.  A  hot  debate  arose. 
The  pope  referred  to  Anselm's  work  on  the 
Incarnation,  and  presently  called  on  Anselm 
himself  to  step  forward  and  vindicate  the  true 
doctrine  of  the  Holy  Ghost  before  the  assem- 
bly. An  eager  crowd  thronged  round  the 
papal  throne,  immediately  below  which  An- 
selm was  placed.  Urban  then  formally  in- 
troduced him,  and  expatiated  on  the  wrongs 
Avhich  had  driven  him  from  England.  His 
speech  on  the  doctrinal  question  was  delivered 
the  next  day,  and  is  described  as  a  master- 
piece of  learning  and  power,  for  which  he  was 
publicly  thanked  by  the  pope  ;  but  we  have 
no  detailed  report  of  it.  The  sympathy  of  the 
council  with  his  troubles  was  so  strong  that 
they  unanimously  urged  the  excommunication 
of  the  Red  King,  which,  according  toEadmer, 
the  pope  was  only  hindered  from  promulga- 
ting by  the  intercession  of  Anselm  himself. 
Urban,  however,  was  a  wary  man,  and  it  may 
be  doubted  whether  he  intended  more  than 
a  demonstration  (Eadm.  Vit.  Ans.  ii.  45-9 ; 
Hist.  Nov.  ii.  408,  409,  413-16).  Anselm 
and  his  friends  accompanied  the  pope  from 
Bari  to  Rome,  and  soon  after  their  arrival 
shortly  before  Christmas,  1098,  William  of 
Warelwast  appeared  as  advocate  for  the  Red 
King.  In  a  public  audience  Urban  adopted 
a  severe  and  threatening  tone,  telling  him 
that  if  the  king  did  not  reinstate  Anselm  be- 
fore the  council  to  be  held  the  next  Easter 
he  must  expect  to  be  excommunicated.  Wil- 
liam's agent,  however,  knew  how  to  deal  with 
the  papal  court.  He  tarried  several  days  in 
Rome,  and  made  good  use  of  his  time  by  a  ju- 
dicious distribution  of  gifts  amongst  the  coun- 
cillors of  the  pope.  The  result  of  his  dealings 
was  that  the  pope  granted  W'illiam  a  respite 
to  the  following  Michaelmas.  Anselm  and 
his  companions  now  began  to  see  that  they 


were  leaning  upon  a  broken  reed,  and  they 
asked  leave  to  return  to  Lyons.  But  the 
pope  insisted  on  their  remaining  for  the  great 
council  to  be  held  at  Easter,  and  meanwhile 
paid  Anselm  all  possible  honour.  When  the 
council  assembled  in  St.  Peter's  in  April  1099, 
there  was  some  curiosity  to  see  where  he 
would  be  seated,  as  no  one  present  had  ever 
seen  an  archbishop  of  Canterbury  attend  a 
general  council  at  Rome.  The  pope  ordered 
him  to  be  placed  in  the  seat  of  honour  in  the 
centre  of  the  half-circle  of  prelates  who  sat 
on  either  side  of  the  papal  chair,  and  there- 
fore immediately  opposite  himself.  Decrees 
were  passed  or  renewed  against  simony  and 
clerical  marriages,  and  anathema  was  pro- 
nounced against  the  layman  who  should  be- 
stow investiture  of  an  ecclesiastical  benefice, 
or  the  clerk  who  should  receive  it  at  his  hands 
and  become  his  man.  This  decree  was  flatly 
opposed  to  the  '  customs '  of  England  and 
Normandy,  and  became  the  occasion  of  the 
dispute  which  afterwards  arose  between  An- 
selm and  Henry  I.  Wlien  the  canons  were 
to  be  read  in  St.  Peter's,  the  pope  ordered 
Reinger,  bishop  of  Lucca,  a  man  of  great  sta- 
ture and  powerful  voice,  to  read,  so  that  all 
might  hear.  Reinger  read  a  little  way,  then 
suddenly  stopped,  and  burst  forth  into  an  indig- 
nant declamation uponthe  uselessness  of  pass- 
ing laws  when  they  did  nothingto  right  a  man 
who  was  the  meek  victim  of  tyrannical  oppres- 
sion. 'If  you  do  not  all  know  whom  I  mean,' 
he  said,  'it  is  Anselm,  archbishop  of  England;' 
and  he  ended  by  smiting  the  floor  thrice  with 
his  staff",  and  uttering  a  groan  through  his 
teeth  tightly  clenched.  '  Enough,  enough  ! 
brother  Reinger,'  said  the  pope  ;  *  good  order 
shall  be  taken  concerning  this.'  The  whole 
scene  reads  like  a  piece  of  acting.  Anselm 
clearly  suspected  it  to  be  so.  At  any  rate 
nothing  came  of  the  demonstration,  and  the 
next  day  Anselm  left  Rome,  '  having  ob- 
tained,' says  his  biographer,  with  subdued 
irony,  '  nought  of  counsel  or  assistance  save 
what  I  have  related '  (Hist.  Nov.  ii.  418-21). 
They  reached  Lyons  in  safety,  travelling  by 
a  circuitous  route  to  avoid  the  agents  of  the 
antipope,  and  were  heartily  welcomed  by 
Archbishop  Hugh.  Anselm  resided  with  him, 
and  assisted  him  in  his  episcopal  duties. 

In  the  following  July,  1099,  Pope  Urban 
died ;  and  on  2  Aug.  1100  William  fell  in 
the  New  Forest,  pierced  by  an  arrow  from  an 
unknown  hand.  Anselm wassojoumingat  the 
monastery  of  God's  House  (Casa  Dei),  not  far 
fromBrioude  in  Auvergne,  when  the  tidings  of 
William's  death  reached  him.  It  was  brought 
by  two  monks,  one  from  Canterbury,  the 
other  from  Bee,  At  first  he  was  stupefied  by 
the  shock,  and  then  he  broke  into  a  flood  of 


Anselm 


24 


Anselm 


tears.  His  friends  were  astonished  at  this 
burst  of  grief  over  such  a  man  as  AVilliam  ; 
but  Ansehn,  in  a  voicebrokenby  sobs, declared 
tliat  he  would  I'atlier  have  died  himself  than 
tliat  the  king  should  have  perished  by  such  a 
death.  He  then  returned  to  Lyons,  where 
another  monk  from  Canterbuiy  presently  ar- 
rived, bearing  aletter  from  the  mother-church, 
imploring  him  to  return  and  comfort  his  chil- 
dren now  the  tyrant  was  no  more.  Arch- 
bishop Hugh  was  most  unwilling  to  part  with 
him,  but  owned  that  it  was  his  duty  to  go. 
Before  he  reached  Cluny  another  messenger 
came,  bringing  a  letter  from  the  new  king 
Henry  and  the  lay  lords,  begging  Anselm  to 
return  with  all  speed,  and  even  chiding  him 
for  not  coming  sooner.  Normandy  was  in  a 
disturbed  state,  as  Robert  had  just  returned, 
and  the  Norman  nobles  were  intriguing  with 
him,  or  through  him,  against  his  brother.  So 
Anselm,  by  Henry's  advice,  avoided  Normandy 
on  his  journey  to  Whitsand,  from  which  port 
he  crossed  to  Dover.  He  landed  on  23  Sept., 
and  his  return,  after  nearly  three  years'  ab- 
sence, was  welcomed  with  transports  of  joy  by 
the  whole  countiy.  The  hopes  of  the  nation 
revived.  But  as  regarded  the  relations  between 
the  king  and  the  primate  they  speedily  re- 
ceived a  check.  Anselm  had  returned,  pledged, 
as  he  conceived,  to  obey  the  canons  of  the 
councils  of  Clermont,  Bari,  and  Rome,  which 
forbade  clerics  to  receive  investiture  at  the 
hands  of  laymen,  or  do  homage  to  them  for 
their  benefices.  A  difficulty  arose  at  once  be- 
tween him  and  Henry  on  this  point.  They 
met  at  Salisbury  a  few  days  after  he  had 
landed,  and  the  king  was  cordial  in  his  greet- 
ing ;  but  the  tem])oralities  of  the  see  of  Can- 
terbury being  in  his  hands,he  required  Anselm 
to  do  homage  for  their  restitution,  according 
to  the  ancient  custom  of  the  country.  An- 
selm replied  that  he  could  not  do  this  in  the 
face  of  the  canons  lately  passed  by  the  coun- 
cil of  Rome.  The  king  was  grievously  per- 
plexed. He  was  most  unwilling  to  give  up 
the  ancient  rights  of  investiture  and  homage, 
but  he  was  also  most  unwilling  to  quarrel 
with  Anselm,  and  especially  before  he  was 
fiiinly  established  on  the  throne.  He  there- 
fore proposed  a  truce  until  the  following  Eas- 
ter, during  which  envoys  should  be  sent  to 
Rome  to  induce  the  pope  to  relax  the  decrees 
in  favour  of  the  ancient  custom  of  the  realm, 
and  meanwhile  Anselm  was  to  be  reinstated 
in  all  the  possessions  of  his  see  (Eadm.  Hist. 
Nov.  iii.  424-5).  Anselm  consented,  although 
with  little  hope  of  the  pope's  yielding.  Per- 
sonally he  does  not  seem  to  have  entertained 
any  objection  to  the  customs  in  question,  to 
which  he  had  himself  formerly  conformed. 
His  opposition  to  the  king  was  simply  a  mat- 


ter of  obedience  to  the  Roman  see.  While 
matters  were  thus  in  a  state  of  suspense,  An- 
selm did  the  king  a  piece  of  good  service. 
Henry  Avas  anxious  to  many  Matilda,  whose 
English  name  was  Eadgyth,  the  daughter  of 
Malcolm,  king  of  Scotland,  and  Margaret,  his 
wife.  Margaret  was  a  granddaughter  of 
Eadmund  Ironside,  and  consequently  an 
alliance  with  her  daughter  would  connect 
Henry  with  the  old  royal  line  of  England. 
But  it  was  said  by  many  that  Matilda  or 
Eadgyth  was  a  nun,  and  therefore  could  not 
legally  be  married.  Matilda,  however,  de- 
nied that  she  had  taken  any  monastic  vows. 
Her  aunt  Christina,  a  nun  in  the  abbey  of 
Romsey,  to  whose  care  she  had  been  en- 
trusted as  a  child,  had  made  her  wear  the 
veil,  and  wished  her  to  become  a  nun,  but 
she  had  always  refused.  Anselm  laid  the 
case  before  a  large  assembly  of  clerics  and 
laymen  at  Lambeth.  Having  heard  the  evi- 
dence of  the  maiden  herself  and  of  others, 
they  decided  that  she  was  free.  Anselm 
heard  their  reasons  and  approved  their  judg- 
ment. In  the  presence  of  a  vast  concourse 
whicli  came  to  witness  the  royal  marriage,  he 
challenged  any  one  who  disputed  its  legality 
to  come  forward  and  prove  his  objection.  A 
unanimous  shout  of  approval  was  the  response. 
Anselm  then  celebrated  and  blessed  the  mar- 
riage on  11  Nov.  1100.  Matilda  was  his 
firm  friend  through  all  his  difficulties,  and 
constantly  corresponded  with  him  when  he 
was  absent  from  England  (see  esp.  Epist.  iii. 
55). 

Easter  came  (1100),  but  the  envoys  had 
not  returned  from  Rome.  The  truce  there- 
fore between  Henry  and  Anselm  was  ex- 
tended, and  meanwhile  he  rendered  another 
good  seiwice  to  the  king.  Ralph  Flambard, 
the  infamous  bishop  of  Durham,  had  escaped 
from  the  Tower,  in  which  he  was  imprisoned 
soon  after  Henry's  accession.  He  made  for 
Normandy  and  stirred  up  Robert  to  attempt 
an  invasion  of  England.  It  was  a  critical 
time  for  Henry.  Tlie  chief  men  of  Noi'man 
birth  in  England  wavered  in  their  allegiance. 
At  the  Whitsuntide  gemot  king  and  nobles 
met  with  mutual  suspicion.  Both  sides  looked 
to  Anselm  as  a  mediator,  and  the  king  holding 
his  hand  renewed  the  promise  of  good  laws 
which  he  had  made  at  his  coronation.  Robert 
landed  at  Portchester  in  July,  and  the  armies 
met  near  Alton.  Several  of  the  Norman 
barons  went  over  to  Robert's  side,  biit,  mainly 
owing  to  the  indefatigable  exhortations,  public 
and  private,  of  the  archbisliop,  the  mass  of 
the  English  army  and  the  bishops  remained 
loyal  to  Henry.  Tlie  brothers  held  a  parley 
and  came  to  terms  without  fighting.  Robert 
gave  up  England.   Henry  gave  up  Normandy 


Anselm 


25 


Anselm 


except  Domfront,  but  it  was  only  for  a  little 
time  (Eadm.  Hist.  Nov.  ii.  426-31).  At 
last  the  envoj's  returned  from  llorae.  They 
brought  a  letter  from  Pope  Paschal  distinctly 
refusing  to  recognise  Henry's  claim  to  invest 
prelates  by  the  delivery  of  the  pastoral  staff 
and  ring.  The  will  of  the  pope  and  the  will 
of  the  king  Avere  thus  placed  in  direct  con- 
flict. Heniy  was  not  a  violent  man  like 
llufus,  and  he  did  not  wish  to  (juarrel  with 
Anselm,  but  he  was  cold-blooded  and  reso- 
lute. Anselm  was  summoned  to  court  and 
again  asked  if  he  Avould  do  homage  and  con- 
secrate the  prelates  whom  the  king  invested. 
Anselm  replied  that  he  must  abide  by  the 
decrees  of  the  council  at  which  he  had  been 
present.  The  king  proposed  that  a  second 
and  more  distinguished  embassy  should  be 
sent  to  Home  rejjresenting  both  sides.  On 
Anselm's  side  were  his  old  friend  and  com- 
panion Baldwin  of  Bee,  and  Alexander,  a 
monk  of  Canterbury ;  on  the  side  of  the  king 
were  Gerard,  archbishop  of  York,  who  also 
went  to  get  his  pallium,  Herbert,  bishop  of 
Thetford,  and  Robert,  bishop  of  Chester. 
The  envoys  found  Paschal  as  inflexible  as 
before.  A  letter  in  the  same  determined 
strain  was  sent  to  the  king,  and  another  to 
Anselm  bidding  him  to  persevere  in  his  pre- 
sent attitude.  On  the  return  of  the  envoys 
an  assembly  of  the  great  men  of  the  realm 
was  convened  in  London.  An  unconditional 
.surrender  was  again  demanded  from  Anselm. 
This  he  declared  to  be  impossible  in  the  face 
of  the  letter  which  he  had  received  from  the 
pope.  Every  one  was  allowed  to  read  this 
letter.  The  letter  to  the  king,  on  the  con- 
trary, was  not  made  public.  And  now,  to 
the  bewilderment  of  all,  the  king's  agents 
stepped  forward  and  declared  on  their  faith 
as  bishops  that  the  pope  in  a  secret  interview 
had  bidden  them  tell  the  king  that  so  long 
as  he  appointed  good  and  pious  prelates,  and 
otherwise  conducted  himself  as  a  good  prince, 
the  pope  would  not  interfere  with  his  claim 
to  investiture,  but  the  pope,  they  said,  would 
not  commit  this  to  writing,  lest  other  princes 
should  quote  it  as  a  precedent.  Anselm's 
agents  expressed  the  greatest  amazement  at 
this  announcement.  The  assembly  was  divi- 
ded. Some  maintained  that  the  greatest  cre- 
dence must  be  given  to  letters  bearing  the 
pope's  own  seal  and  signature,  others  that  the 
word  of  bishops  must  outweigh  the  authority  of 
mere  documents  supported  only  by  the  testi- 
mony of  paltry  monks  {^inonachelloruni)  un- 
versed in  secular  aft'airs.  In  such  a  conflict 
of  evidence  and  opinion  there  was  clearly  no 
alternative  but  to  send  yet  another  deputation 
to  Rome  to  learn  what  the  pope  really  had 
•said.    All  that  Anselm  wanted  to  know  was 


the  truth.  He  wrote  to  the  pope  {Epist  iii. 
73),  saying  that  he  did  not  wish  to  doubt 
either  the  letter  or  the  bishops.  Let  the 
pope  either  exempt  England  from  the  decrees 
of  the  council,  or  let  him  say  that  they  were 
to  be  obeyed,  and  Anselm  would  let  them 
drop  or  he  would  enforce  them,  even  at  the 
peril  of  his  life.  Meanwhile  he  consented 
that  the  king  should  act  on  the  assumption 
that  the  story  of  the  bishops  was  true,  and 
invest  prelates  with  the  ring  and  staff",  and 
further  he  consented  to  hold  intercourse  with 
such  prelates,  provided  he  was  not  required 
to  consecrate  them.  The  king  lost  no  time 
in  acting  on  this  understanding.  He  gave 
the  see  of  Sarum  to  his  clerk  Roger,  Avho 
became  one  of  the  ablest  chancellors  of  the 
realm,  and  Hereford  to  another  Roger  who 
had  been  the  steward  of  his  larder.  During 
this  period  of  compromise,  about  Michaelmas 

1102,  a  large  mixed  council  was  held  at 
Westminster  for  the  reform  of  abuses  eccle- 
siastical and  moral.  It  was  the  sort  of  na- 
tional synod  for  which  Anselm  had  repeatedly 
asked  in  vain  during  the  reign  of  Rufus. 
Several  abbots  were  deposed  for  simony, 
canons  were  passed  against  the  secular  habits 
of  the  clergy,  and  especially  against  their 
marriage  and  concubinage.  One  decree  was 
passed  against  the  slave  traffic  in  England, 
whereby  it  is  said  men  were  sold  like  brute 
beasts ;  others  were  directed  against  those  gross 
forms  of  vice  which  had  become  common 
during  the  reign  of  the  late  king  (Hist.  Nov. 
ii.  438-9;  Will.  Malm.  Gest.  Pont.  i.  64). 
Henry  seems  to  have  violated  the  terms  of 
the  compromise  with  Anselm  in  asking  him 
to  consecrate  the  bishops  whom  he  appointed 
and  invested.  Anselm  of  covirse  refused,  and 
Gerard  of  York,  a  timeserving  courtier  who 
was  ready  to  consecrate  anybody,  was  called 
upon  to  discharge  the  duty.  But,  to  the 
general  astonishment,  some  of  the  king's 
nominees  now  began  to  turn  scrupulous. 
Reinhelm,  bishop-elect  of  Hereford,  sent  back 
his  ring  and  staff,  and  William  Giffard,  when 
on  the  point  of  being  consecrated  bishop  of 
Winchester,  declared  that  he  would  rather 
be  spoiled  of  all  his  goods  than  wrongfully 
receive  the  rite  at  the  hands  of  Gerard.  The 
multitude  which  had  come  to  witness  the  con- 
secration applauded  the  resolution  of  William, 
but  the  king  was  highly  displeased,  and  in 
spite  of  Anselm's  intercession  (Ej).  iv.  126) 
William  Giffard  was  banished. 

About  the  middle  of  the  following  Lent, 

1103,  the  king  and  Anselm  met  at  Canter- 
bury. The  messengers  had  returned  from 
Rome  bringing  an  indignant  repudiation  by 
the  pope  of  the  story  told  by  Gerard  and  the 
other  prelates,  and  confirming  the  contents 


.    Ansel  m 


26 


Anselm 


of  his  letters  in  every  particular.  The  king, 
however,  still  demanded  submission  from 
Anselm  ;  his  patience,  he  said,  Avas  worn  out, 
he  would  brook  no  more delajs,  the  pope  had 
nothing  to  do  with  the  rights  which  all  his 
Ijredecessors  had  enjoyed.  Anselm  was,  as 
ever,  respectful,  but  firm  :  he  did  not  wish  to 
deprive  the  king  of  his  rights,  but  he  could 
not,  even  to  save  his  life,  disobey  the  canons 
which  he  had  with  his  own  ears  heard  pro- 
mulgated in  the  Roman  council.  For  the 
moment  the  aspect  of  things  seemed  blacker 
than  ever ;  men  even  began  to  fear  for  the 
personal  safety  of  the  primate,  when  sud- 
denly, and  with  a  mildness  which  makes  one 
think  that  Henry  had  all  along  been  assuming 
more  sternness  than  he  really  felt,  he  sug- 
gested, almost  besought,  Anselm  to  go  him- 
self to  Rome  and  try  Avhether  he  could  not 
induce  the  pope  to  give  Avay.  Anselm  asked 
that  the  proposal  might  be  reserved  for  the 
decision  of  the  Easter  gemot,  Avhich  AA'as  then 
about  to  be  held  at  Wincliester.  The  as- 
sembly considered  it  and  urged  him  to  go. 
He  replied  that  since  it  Avas  their  Avill  he 
Avould  go,  weak  and  aged  though  he  Avas. 
Anselm  hastened  back  to  Canterbury,  and, 
setting  out  four  days  afterAA-ards,  embarked 
at  DoA'er  and  crossed  once  more  to  "Whitsand, 
He  had  not  to  sufter  any  indignities  this 
time,  but  travelled  in  the  king's  peace,  and 
throughout  his  absence  friendly  letters  passed 
betAveen  him  and  the  king.  He  Avas  Avarmly 
welcomed  CA^eryAvliere,  more  especially,  of 
course,  at  Bee,  Avliere  lie  spent-  the  summer 
on  account  of  the  risk  to  health  of  visiting 
Rome  in  the  hot  season.  By  the  end  of 
August  he  set  out.  At  Rome  he  found  his 
old  opponent  William  of  Warehvast  come  to 
act  as  the  king's  adA'ocate.  William  pleaded 
so  skilfully  that  he  made  a  gi'eat  impression 
on  some  of  the  pope's  councillors,  and  boldly 
Avound  up  an  harangue  by  saying,  *  KnoAv  all 
men  present  that  not  to  save  his  kingdom 
Avill  King  Henry  lose  the  iuAestiture  of  the 
churches.'  '  And  before  God,  not  to  save 
his  head  Avill  Pope  Paschal  let  him  have 
them,'  Avas  the  ansAver.  Nevertheless  a  mo- 
derately Avorded  letter  Avas  despatched  to 
Henry,  informing  him  that  though  the  rights 
of  investiture  could  not  be  granted,  and  those 
Avho  received  it  at  his  hands  must  be  ex- 
communicated, yet  he  himself  should  be 
exempted  from  excommunication  and  enjoy 
the  exercise  of  all  other  ancestral  customs. 
In  fact  it  Avas  intended  to  be  a  soothing 
letter,  and  the  points  at  issue  Avere  someAvhat 
veiled  by  compliments  and  congratulations 
to  the  king  on  the  birth  of  his  son.  Mean- 
AA-hile  Anselm  and  his  friends  set  out  on  their 
homeward  journey.     They  were  conducted 


through  the  Apennines  by  the  renowned 
Countess  Matilda.  At  Placentia  they  Avere 
joined  by  William  of  Warelwast,  Avho  tra- 
A-elled  Avith  them  OAcr  the  Alps  and  then 
hastened  to  England,  Avhile  Anselm  Avent  to 
Lyons  to  spend  Christmas  AA-ith  his  old  friend 
the  archbishop.  Before  they  parted  William 
told  him  that  he  had  been  bidden  by  the  king 
to  say  that  he  felt  the  Avarmest  regard  for 
Anselm,  and  if  Anselm  Avould  only  be  to 
the  king  all  that  liis  predecessor  had  been  to 
Henry's  predecessors  he  Avould  be  right  gladly 
welcomed.  *  HaAe  you  no  more  to  say  I-' ' 
asked  Anselm.  *  I  speak  to  a  man  of  under- 
standing,' Avas  the  reply.  '  I  knoAv  Avhat  you 
mean,'  said  Anselm,  and  so  they  parted.  At 
Lyons  Anselm  sojourned  for  a  year  and  a 
half.  The  king  confiscated  the  revenues  of 
the  see  of  Canterbury,  but  tAvo  of  Anselm's 
OAA'n  men  wei'e  appointed  receiAers,  that  the 
tenants  might  not  be  oppressed.  Anselm 
Avas  to  be  allowed  Avhatever  Avas  conAenient 
for  his  OAvn  needs,  and  the  king  continued  to 
keep  up  an  amicable  correspondence  with 
him.  At  the  same  time  he  sent  another  em- 
bassy to  Rome.  His  aim  seems  to  have  been 
tAvofold.  He  Avanted  to  persviade  the  pope 
to  dispense  Avith  the  canon  against  lay  in- 
Aestiture  in  his  favour,  and  meauAvhile  he 
hoped  to  pei'suade  Anselm  to  act  on  the  as- 
sumption that  the  pope  Avould  yield.  He 
was  not  successful  in  either  aim.  The  pope 
did  not  dare,  CAen  for  the  sake  of  securing 
Henry's  support,  openly  to  set  aside  the 
canons  of  a  Roman  council,  although  he  Avas 
dilatory  in  action  and  hesitating  in  speech. 
Anselm,  on  the  contrary,  was  as  firm,  clear, 
and  straightforAvard  as  ever.  In  spite  of  re- 
proachful or  suppliant  letters  from  England 
urging  him  to  return  to  his  bereaAed  church, 
he  steadfastly  refused  until  the  point  in  dis- 
pute Avas  settled  one  Avay  or  the  other.  He 
Avould  be  to  Henry  all  that  Lanfranc  had  been 
to  Henry's  father,  if  he  could  be  put  in  Lan- 
franc's  position,  if  the  decrees  which  had 
been  passed  since  Lanfranc's  time  AA'ere  re- 
scinded by  the  same  authority  Avhich  had 
issued  them,  not  otherAvise  (jEpi'st.  iii.  93, 94, 
95,  97,  iv.  43,  44).  The  perfect  straight- 
forwardness of  Anselm  Avas  in  fact  embar- 
rassing both  to  Henry  and  the  pope  ;  neither 
of  them  Avished  to  act  Avith  complete  decision 
and  honesty  of  puri)0se,  nothing  short  of 
wliich  Avould  satisfy  Anselm.  He  continually 
sent  letters  or  messengers  to  the  pope,  but 
receiA'ed  nothing  but  consolatoiy  promises 
AA'hich  came  to  nothing,  Avhile  from  Henry 
he  got  nothing  but  polite  excuses.  At  last 
he  resolved  upon  an  act  Avhich  should  force 
the  question  to  a  crisis.  In  the  summer  of 
1105  he  set  out  for  Normandy,  Avhere  the 


Anselm 


27 


Anselm 


king  then  was.     On  the  way  he  heard  that 

Adela,  countess  of  Blois,  sister  of  the  king, 
was  very  ill.  He  turned  liis  steps  to  Blois, 
and  taiTied  there  some  days  till  she  was 
convalescent.  Then  he  told  her  that  for  the 
wrong  which  her  hrother  had  done  to  God 
and  to  him  for  two  years  and  nioi'e  he  was 
going  to  excommunicate  lum.  Adela  was 
greatly  distressed,  and  Henry  himself  was 
alarmed  when  he  heard  t)f  Anselm's  intention. 
It  would  tarnish  his  reputation  to  undergo 
such  a  sentence  from  a  man  of  Anselm's 
character,  and  might  strengthen  the  hands 
of  his  adversaries  in  the  critical  struggle  in 
which  he  was  then  engaged  for  the  possession 
of  Normandy.  Tlirough  the  mediation  of 
Adela  an  interview  was  arranged  between 
him  and  Anselm  at  Laigle  on  22  July  1105. 
Nothing  could  exceed  the  courtesy  of  Henry ; 
he  restored  the  I'evenues  of  the  see,  he  im- 
plored the  primate  to  return  if  only  he  would 
recognise  those  Avho  had  been  invested  by 
the  king.  But  Anselm  insisted  that  per- 
mission to  do  this  must  be  given  from  Rome. 
This  involved  yet  another  embassy,  and  there 
was  considerable  delay  in  sending  it.  Henry 
meanwhile  added  to  the  list  of  his  wrongs 
done  to  the  church  by  levying  heavy  taxes 
upon  it  for  his  expenses  in  the  war  with 
Normandy.  He  began  by  exacting  fines 
from  the  clergy  who  had  disobeyed  the  canons 
against  marriage,  but,  finding  tlie  simis  so 
raised  inadequate,  he  imposed  the  tax  on  the 
whole  body.  The  clergy  Avere  in  great  dis- 
tress, and  besought  the  queen,  '  good  Queen 
Mold,'  to  plead  for  them  with  the  king ;  but 
though  moved  to  tears  by  their  sad  plight 
slie  dared  not  interfere.  In  this  strait  even 
the  court  bishops  began  to  turn  to  Anselm 
for  help.  They  wrote  a  piteous  letter,  saying 
that  if  only  he  would  return  they  would 
stand  by  him  and  fight  for  the  honour  of 
Christ  {Ep.  iii.  121).  Anselm  Avrote  a  letter 
of  sympathy  (iii.  122), mixed  with  some  gently 
ironical  congratulations  on  their  having  per- 
ceived at  last  the  consequences  of  their  sub- 
servience, and  expressing  his  regret  that  he 
could  not  return,  anxious  as  he  was  to  do  so, 
until  the  pope  had  decided  the  point  in  dis- 
pute between  him  and  the  king.  Meanwhile 
he  -wrote  a  severe  letter  of  reproof  to  Henry 
(Ep.  iii.  109)  for  taking  upon  himself  to 
punish  priests,  a  duty  which  pertained  to 
bisliops  only,  and  he  warned  him  that  the 
money  so  raised  would  not  turn  to  his  profit. 
At  the  same  time  he  wi'ote  to  his  archdeacon 
and  to  the  prior  and  chapter  of  Canterbury, 
ordering  the  penalties  of  deprivation  or  ex- 
communication to  be  enfoi-ced  upon  those 
clergy  who  infringed  the  canons  concerning 
man-iage  (Ep.  iii.  110-12).     Henry  replied 


to  Anselm  in  polite  but  evasive  terras,  ex- 
pressing himself  ready  to  make  amends  if  he 
had  ort'ended,  and  promising  that  the  archi- 
episcopal  propertj-  should  not  be  molested 
{Jlist.  Nov.  iv.  460). 

At  length,in  April  1106,  William  of  Warel- 
wast  and  Baldwin  of  liec  returned  with 
the  latest  instructions  of  tlie  pope.  Anselm 
was  now  authorised  to  release  from  excom- 
munication those  who  had  broken  the  canons 
about  investiture  and  homage.  The  judg- 
ment laid  down  no  rule  for  the  future,  but  it 
set  Anselm  free  to  return  and  renew  inter- 
course with  the  offending  bishops,  and  the 
king  sent  messengers  to  Anselm  at  Bee  urging 
him  to  come  without  delay.  He  was  detained, 
however,  for  some  time,  partly  at  Bee,  partly 
at  Jumieges,  by  alarming  illness.  Henry 
expressed  the  greatest  anxiety;  all  his  wants 
were  to  be  supplied,  and  the  king  would 
shortly  cross  to  Normandy  and  pay  him  a 
visit.  His  life  was  despaired  of,  but  just  as 
he  seemed  on  the  brink  of  death  he  began 
to  recover,  and  on  the  feast  of  the  Assump- 
tion he  was  well  enough  to  see  the  king  at 
Bee.  At  this  interview  the  king  pledged 
himself  to  release  the  churches  henceforth 
fi'om  the  vexatious  burdens  laid  on  them  by 
his  brother,  to  exact  no  more  fines  from  the 
clergy,  to  compensate  in  the  course  of  three 
years  those  who  had  already  paid  them,  and 
to  restore  eveiything  which  he  had  kept  in 
his  hands  belonging  to  the  see  of  Canter- 
bury. Anselm  now  started  for  England,  and 
landing  at  Dover  was  greeted  with  enthusi- 
astic joy,  in  Avliich  the  queen  took  a  prominent 
part,  going  to  meet  him,  and  then  traAelling 
in  advance  in  order  to  arrange  for  his  comfort 
at  the  places  Avhere  he  halted.  Henry  re- 
mained in  Normandy,  and  before  long  wrote 
to  Anselm  announcing  his  decisive  victory 
at  Tenchebrai  over  his  brother  Robert,  and 
the  complete  subjugation  of  Normandy,  28 
Sept.  1106  (Hi^f.  Nov.  iv.  464). 

The  final  and  formal  settlement  of  the 
long  dispute  concerning  investiture  was 
made  at  a  large  gemot  held  in  London  on 
1  Aug.  1107.  It  was  debated  for  three  days 
by  the  king  and  the  bishops,  Anselm  being 
absent.  Some  were  for  still  insisting  on  the 
old  custom,  but  Pope  Paschal  had  conceded 
the  question  of  homage,  and  so  the  king  on 
his  part  was  the  more  willing  to  concede  the 
right  of  investiture.  In  the  presence,  there- 
fore, of  Anselm  and  a  great  multitude  of 
witnesses,  the  king  granted  and  decreed  that 
thenceforth  no  man  in  England  should  be 
invested  with  bishopric  or  abbey  by  staff 
and  ring  either  by  the  hand  of  the  king  or 
any  other  layman,  and  Anselm  on  liis  side 
promised  that  no  one  elected  to  a  prelacy 


Anselm 


Anselm 


should  be  debarred  from  consecration  on 
account  of  having  done  homage  to  tlie  king. 
In  accordance  with  this  compromise  appoint- 
ments were  immediately  made  to  several 
churches  which  had  long  been  destitute  of 
incumbents  without  any  investiture  by  staif 
and  ring  from  lay  liands.  (Jn  Sunday,  the 
11th,  Anselm  consecrated  several  men  with 
whom  he  had  not  been  able  to  hold  com- 
munion to  bishoprics,  mcluding  William 
Giftard  to  AN'inchester,  and  lleinhelm  to 
Hereford,  who  had  refused  to  be  consecrated 
by  Gerard  of  York,  Koger  to  Sarum,  and 
William  of  Warelwast,  so  long  his  oppo- 
nent but  now  his  friend,  to  Exeter  (Hist. 
Nov.  iv.  466).  Anselm  did  not  long  survive 
the  termination  of  his  protracted  struggle 
for  the  rights  and  liberties  of  the  church ; 
and  during  this  brief  remainder  of  his  life 
he  was  repeatedly  attacked  by  severe  ill- 
ness. But  in  the  intervals  he  was  actively 
engaged,  and  we  see  the  same  indomitable 
spirit  at  work.  He  not  only  laboured  to 
enforce  the  canons  of  London  against  simony 
and  the  marriage  of  the  clergy,  but  largely 
tlu'ough  his  efforts  the  king  was  moved  to 
put  down  false  coining  with  a  strong  hand, 
and  a  stricter  discipline  was  maintained 
amongst  his  followers,  Avhose  acts  of  violence, 
when  he  made  his  progresses,  had  long  been 
a  cause  of  misery  to  the  people.  Anselm 
also  promoted  the  erection  of  Ely  into  an 
episcopal  see  to  relieve  the  gi-eat  diocese  of 
Lincoln,  and  lie  upheld  the  paramount  dig- 
nity of  the  see  of  Canterbury  against  the 
pretensions  of  Thomas,  archbishop  elect  of 
York,  who  tried  to  evade  making  his  pro- 
fession of  obedience,  but  was  compelled  to 
do  so  by  a  deci'ee  passed  in  a  gemot  at 
London.  Nor  were  his  literary  labours  di- 
minished ;  he  carried  on  a  wide  correspon- 
dence with  distinguished  persons,  clerical 
and  lay,  who  sought  his  counsel  in  all  parts 
of  Christendom,  including  Alexander,  king 
of  the  Scots,  Murdach,  king  of  the  Irish,  and 
Baldwin,  king  of  Jerusalem  ;  and  he  wrote 
a  treatise  *  concerning  the  agreement  of  fore- 
knowledge, predestination,  and  the  gi-ace  of 
God  with  free  will.'  The  composition  of  this 
treatise  was  delayed  by  frequent  interrup- 
tions of  illness  and  increasing  weakness.  At 
last  he  became  so  feeble  that  he  had  to  be 
carried  in  a  litter  from  place  to  place  instead 
of  riding  on  horseback.  Till  within  four 
days  of  his  death  he  was  carried  daily  into 
his  chapel  to  attend  mass.  Then  he  took  to 
his  bed.  On  Palm  Sunday,  being  told  by 
one  of  those  wlio  stood  around  liim  that  they 
thought  he  was  about  to  leave  the  world  to 
keep  his  Master's  Easter  court,  lie  replied, 
'  If  His  will  be  so,  I  shall  gladly  obey  it ; 


but  if  He  pleased  rather  that  I  should  yet 
remain  amongst^  you  till  I  have  solved  a 
question  which  I  am  turning  in  my  mind 
about  the  origin  of  the  soul,  I  should  receive 
it  thankfully  ;  for  I  know  not  any  one  who 
will  finish  it  after  I  am  gone.'  This  wish, 
however,  was  not  to  be  fulfilled.  On  Thurs- 
day he  could  no  longer  speak  intelligibly, 
and  on  Wednesday,  21  April,  at  dawn  he 
passed  away,  in  the  year  1109,  the  sixteenth 
of  his  pontificate  and  the  seventy-sixth  of 
his  life.  He  was  buried  in  the  cathedral  at 
Canterbury,  next  his  friend  Lanfranc,  in  the 
body  of  the  church  in  front  of  the  great 
rood ;  but  his  remains  were  afterwards  re- 
moved to  the  chapel,  beneath  the  south-east 
tower,  which  bears  his  name,  and  there  they 
now  rest  (Eadmer,  Vif.  Am.  ii.  c.  7  ;  Hist. 
Nov.  iv.  467,  ad  finem).  If  guileless  sim- 
plicity, spotless  integrity,  faithful  zeal,  and 
patient  suffering  for  righteousness  sake  give 
any  one  a  claim  to  be  called  '  saint,'  Anselm 
certainly  deserved  the  title.  And  it  was  by 
virtue  of  these  qualities,  combined  with  in- 
flexible firmness,  courage,  and  straightfor- 
ward honesty  of  purpose,  more  than  by  his 
intellectual  gifts,  great  as  they  were,  that 
he  won  the  day  in  his  struggle  first  with 
lawless  insolence,  and  then  with  diplomatic 
craft.  After  his  death  he  became  the  object 
of  increasing  veneration  to  men  of  his  own 
time,  and  to  later  generations.  Dante,  in 
his  vision  of  Paradise,  saAv  him  '  among  the 
spirits  of  light  and  power  in  the  sphere  of 
the  sun.'  A  halo  of  miraculous  legend  ga- 
thered round  the  stoiy  of  his  life.  Yet, 
strange  to  say,  the  first  demand  for  his 
canonisation  made  by  Thomas  Becket  was 
not  successful,  and  he  was  not  formally 
placed  on  the  roll  of  saints  till  1494,  when 
he  suffered  what  has  been  well  called  the 
*  indignity  of  canonisation '  at  the  hands 
of  Roderic  Borgia,  Pope  Alexander  VI 
(Church's  Anselm,  p.  301). 

A  catalogue  of  Anselm's  vsrritings  is  given 
below.  His  fame  as  a  philosopher  and 
theologian  rests  mainly  upon  three  treatises 
— the  *  Monologion,'  the  *  Proslogion,'  and 
the  '  Cur  Deus  Homo  ?' 

The  '  Monologion,'  which,  as  the  name  im- 
plies, is  in  the  form  of  a  continuous  discourse 
as  distinguished  from  a  dialogue,  is  an 
attempt  to  prove  the  existence  and  nature 
of  God  by  pure  reason  without  the  aid  of 
Scripture  or  of  any  appeal  to  authority.  It 
is  an  application  of  the  Platonic  theory  of 
'  ideas '  to  the  demonstration  of  christian 
doctrine.  Some  eftbrts  in  this  direction  had 
been  made  by  the  (so-called)  Dionysius  the 
Areopagite,  whose  writings  had  become  well 
known   in  western  Christendom  through  a 


Anselm 


29 


Anselm 


translation  made  by  John  Scotus  Erif^ena. 
St.  Augustine  worked  out  the  method  more 
systematically  in  his  treatise  on  the  Trinity 
(lib.  viii.  c.  3),  but  not  with  such  complete- 
ness and  precision  as  Anselm,  wliose  treatise 
is  one  close  and  compact  chain  of  reasoning, 
every  link  being,  so  to  s])eak,  tightly  fastened 
to  that  which  precedes  and  follows  it.  Start- 
ing from  the  contemplation  of  sensible  objects, 
he  propounds  the  question  Avhetherthe  good- 
ness in  all  good  things,  although  kiiown'by 
different  names,  such  as  justice  in  a  man, 
strength  or  swiftness  in  a  horse,  and  so  on, 
comes  from  one  source  or  divers.  All  va- 
rieties of  excellence,  by  whatever  name  they 
may  be  called,  are  resolvable  at  last  into  a 
few  simple  elements — the  good,  the  beauti- 
ful, the  great,  the  usefid.  Hence  he  arrives 
at  the  conclusion  that  all  things  to  which 
any  of  these  qualities  in  various  degrees  and 
forms  are  attributed  must  derive  tliem  from 
something  which  is  in  itself  always  the 
same,  wliich  is  in  itself  absolutely  and  un- 
changeably good  and  great.  As  also  there 
is  a  difference  in  natures,  some  being  better 
than  others,  as  a  horse  is  superior  to  a  dog, 
and  a  man  to  a  horse,  there  must  be  one 
nature  so  superior  to  all  otliers  that  it  can- 
not be  exceeded  by  any ;  otherwise  there 
would  be  no  end  to  the  series,  which  is 
absurd.  This  supreme  nature  must  be  the 
author  of  its  own  existence :  it  must  be  '  per 
se'  and  'ex  se,'  *by  means  of  itself  and 
*  from  itself ;'  it  must  be  '  per  se,'  for  if  it 
was  by  means  of  another  that  other  would 
be  the  greater,  which  is  contrary  to  the 
supposition;  if  it  were  out  of  nothing, then 
it  must  be  brought  out  of  nothing  either  by 
itself  or  by  another ;  not  by  itself,  for  then 
itself  would  be  prior  to  itself,  which  is  ab- 
sui'd,  nor  by  another,  for  then  it  would  not 
be  the  highest  nature  of  all.  In  this  way 
he  proves  the  eternal  self-existence  of  the 
divine  nature.  And  by  similar  rigorously 
logical  methods  he  goes  on  to  prove  the  ex- 
istence and  nature  of  the  Word,  and  the 
Jloly  Spirit. 

In  the  *  Proslogion,'  so  called  because  it  is 
in  the  form  of  an  address  to  God,  he  endea- 
vours to  prove  the  existence  of  the  Deity  by 
a  shorter  method — by  a  single  deductive 
argument  instead  of  a  lengthened  inductive 
chain.  He  had  long  been  anxious,  he  says, 
to  discover  such  an  argument,  and  vexed 
that  it  continually  eluded  him,  tmtil  at  last, 
to  his  great  joy,  it  was  suddenly  revealed  to 
him.  The  point  of  departure  in  this  case 
was  not  the  contemplation  of  the  outer  but 
of  the  inner  world,  not  of  sensible  objects 
but  of  the  mind  of  man.  He  could  prove, 
he  thought,  the  being  of  a  God  out  of  the 


very  saying  of  the  fool  that  there  was  no 
God.  That  veiy  denial  involved  the  idea  of 
a  Being  than  whom  no  greater  can  be  con- 
ceived ;  but  if  no  greater  can  be  conceived, 
then  He  must  exist,  since  existence  is  a 
necessarj^  point  of  perfection.  This  is  sub- 
stantially the  argument  which  was  employed 
by  Descartes  six  hundred  years  afterwards, 
although  there  is  no  evidence  tliat  Descartes 
had  any  knowledge  of  Anselm's  writings. 
Leibnitz,  however,  is  inclined  to  suspect  that 
he  had,  because  he  thinks  that  both  in  the 
style  and  matter  of  Descartes'  writings  he 
detects  a  larger  obligation  to  other  authors 
than  Descartes  chose  to  acknowledge  {Epist. 
ad  Bierlim/ium,  1710,  v.  361,  393),  It  is 
to  be  noted  that  neither  Anselm  nor  Des- 
cartes seeks  to  prove  the  existence  of  God 
in  order  to  produce  belief,  but,  starting  from 
belief  as  a  fact,  their  aim  is  to  show  that 
reason  independently  followed  necessarily 
confirms  the  convictions  of  faith.  It  is  re- 
markable that  in  the  period  between  Anselm 
and  Descartes  no  one  seems  to  have  adopted 
the  same  method.  Anselm  cannot  properly 
be  considered  as  the  first  or  forerunner  of 
the  schoolmen ;  their  method  was  not  Pla- 
tonic, but  Aristotelian,  a  method  far  better 
adapted  than  Anselm's  to  the  ordinary  mind 
of  the  middle  ages.  In  boldness,  indeed, 
and  originality  of  thought,  Anselm  was  too 
far  ahead  of  the  intellectual  standard  of  his 
day  to  be  thoroughly  understood  or  appre- 
ciated. The  aim  of  the  *  Cur  Deus  Homo  ? ' 
is  to  prove  the  necessity  of  the  incarnation 
as  the  only  means  whereby  the  debt  of 
obedience  due  from  man  to  God  could  be 
discharged,  an  adequate  reparation  made  for 
his  offences,  and  the  immortality  of  body 
and  soul  recovered  for  which  he  was  origi- 
nally destined.  Unlike  the  other  two  trea- 
tises, it  is  in  the  foi'm  of  a  dialogue,  which 
renders  it  easier  reading,  although  the  reason- 
ing is  not  less  close  and  cogent.  There  is  no 
apparent  lack  of  finish  in  the  work,  although 
Anselm  in  his  preface  says  that  he  should 
have  made  several  additions  if  he  could 
have  secured  some  quiet  leisure,  but  that  it 
was  begun  in  England  amidst  great  distress 
of  heart — 'in  magna  cordis  tribulatione' — 
and  finished  during  his  sojourn  in  the  pro- 
vince of  Capua. 

If  his  philosophical  treatises  exhibit  the 
profundity,  the  daring  originality,  and  mas- 
terly gi-asp  of  his  intellect,  his  medita- 
tions and  prayers  reveal  the  spiritual  side 
of  his  nature,  the  deep  humility  of  his  faith, 
and  the  fervour  of  his  love  towards  God, 
while  his  letters  show  him  in  his  more  human 
aspect — his  tender  sympathy  and  affection,, 
his  courtesy  and  respectfulness,  combined 


Anselm 


30 


Anselm 


Avith  firmness  in  maintaining  what  lie  believed 
to  be  right,  and  in  reproving  what  he  believed 
to  be  wrong.  Thus  his  writings  completely 
verify  the  statement  of  William  of  Malmes- 
bury  (i.  §  47)  that  he  was  thoroughly  spiri- 
tual and  industriously  learned — '  penitus 
sanctus,  anxie  doctus.' 

The  first  complete  and  satisfactory  edition 
of  Anselm's  works  was  that  of  Gabriel  Ger- 
beron  (Paris,  1721),  a  monk  of  the  congre- 
gation of  St.  Maur.  He  says  in  his  preface 
that  hitherto  most  of  the  copies  of  his  works 
Avere  so  mutilated  or  disfigured  by  corrections 
that  they  were  scarcely  intelligible.  He 
framed  a  new  text  by  a  careful  collation  of 
as  many  manuscripts  as  he  could  collect,  and 
an  examination  of  existing  printed  editions. 
These  were — two  bearing  no  mark  of  date 
or  place  of  issue ;  one  printed  at  Nuremberg, 
1491  ;  two  at  Paris,  lo44  and  1549;  one  at 
Venice,  1549;  two  at  Cologne,  1573  and 
1612 ;  and  one  at  Lyons,  1630.  Gerberon 
arranged  the  works  in  his  edition  in  three 
divisions : — 

1.  The  theological  and  philosophical,  in- 
cluding the  Monologion,  the  Proslogion,  the 
attack  of  Gaunilo,  a  monk  of  Marmoutiers, 
on  the  same,  and  Anselm's  reply ;  the  '  De 
Fide  Trinitatis,'  the  '  De  Processione  Spiritus 
Sancti  contra  Graecos,'  '  Dialogus  de  Casu 
Diaboli,'  '  Cur  Deus  Homo,'  '  Ue  Conceptu 
Virginali  et  Originali  Peccato,'  '  Dialogus  de 
Veritate,'  'Liber  de  Voluntate,'  'Dialogus 
de  Libero  Arbitrio,'  '  De  Concordia  Praesci- 
entise  et  Prsedestinationis,'  '  De  Azymo  et 
Fermentato,'  '  De  Sacramentorum  Diversi- 
tate  (Waleranni  epistola),'  '  Responsio  ad 
AValeranni  Querelas,'  '  Oftendiculum  Sacer- 
df)tum,'  'De  Nuptiis  Consanguineorum,' 
'  Dialogus  de  Grammatico,'  '  De  Voluntate 
Dei.' 

2.  Devotional  and  hortatory :  '  Homilies 
and  Exhortations,'  '  Sermo  de  Passione  Do- 
mini,' '  Exhortatio  ad  Contemptum  Tempo- 
ralium  et  Desiderium  ^Etemorum,'  '  Admo- 
nitio  Morienti,'  '  Duo  Oarmina  de  Contemptu 
Mundi,'  '  Liber  Meditationum  et  Orationum 
xxi.,'  '  Meditatio  super  Miserere,'  '  De  Pace 
et  Concordia,'  '  Tractatus  Asceticus,'  '  Ora- 
tio  dicenda  ante  Perceptionem  Corporis  et 
Sanguinis  Domini,'  '  Salutatio  ad  Jesum 
Christum  ex  anecdotis  sacris  de  Levis,' 
*  Hymni  et  Psalterium  de  S.  Maria,'  '  Ver- 
sus de  Lanfranco,'  '  De  Verbis  Anselmi,' 
'  Qufedam  Dicta  utilia  ex  dictis  S.  Anselmi.' 

3.  Four  books  of  letters. 

The  Abb6  Migne's  edition,  in  two  volumes, 
imperial  octavo,  is  a  reproduction  of  Gerbe- 
ron's  edition,  i-evised,  including  the  footnotes 
of '  Henschenius,'  and  the  'Vita' and  *His- 
toria  Novorum '  of  Eadmer.      The  '  various 


readings '  are  in  this  edition  placed  at  the 
bottom  of  each  page  instead  of  being  put  at 
the  end  of  the  works,  as  in  Gerberon's  edi- 
tion. The  references  in  this  article  are  to 
Migne's  edition. 

[The  primary  authorities  for  the  life  of  An- 
selm are  the  two  works  by  Eadmer,  a  monk  of 
Canterbury,  afterwards  bishop-elect  of  St.  An- 
drewSjWhich  were  edited  by  Mr.  Eule  in  the  Rolls 
Series  in  1884.  After  Anselm  became  primate, 
Eadmer  was  his  domestic  chaplain  and  most  in- 
timate friend,  and  was  an  eye-witness  of  most  of 
the  events  which  he  relates.  He  first  wrote  tlie 
'  Historia  Novorum,'  which  might  be  called  a 
'  Life  and  Times  of  Anselm,'  and  the  '  Vita  An- 
selmi,' which  deals  more  with  the  inner  personal 
life  and  character  of  his  subject.  William  of 
Malmesbury  (Gesta  Pontificum,  lib.  i.)  and  John 
of  Salisbury,  Eishop  of  Chartres  (Life  of  An- 
selm in  '  Anglia  Sacra,'  vol.  ii.),  although  they 
supply  a  few  details  of  their  owti,  avowedly  draw 
their  accounts  mainly  from  Eadmer,  and  Orde- 
ricus  Vitalis,  in  his  somty  notices  (Hist.  Eccles. 
lib.  X.  and  xi.),  refers  his  readers  to  the  same 
source  for  further  information.  Next  to  the 
memoirs  of  Eadmer  in  value  are  Anselm's  own 
letters,  upwai-ds  of  four  hundred  in  number,  which 
throw  much  light  not  only  on  his  life  but  on  the 
history  of  the  times.  The  principal  modern 
biographies  are  by  :  1.  ^loliler,  formerly  Roman 
catholic  professor  at  Munich,  a  fragment  only, 
but  good  as  far  as  it  goes,  translated  into 
English  in  1842.  2.  Hasse,  protestant  professor 
at  Bonn,  1843,  18o2.  3.  Franck,  Tiibingen,  1842. 
4.  Charles  de  Remusat,  Paris,  1853,  and  second 
edition  1868,  an  excellent  biography  with  an 
able  and  lucid  criticism  of  Anselm's  philosophy. 
In  connection  with  the  latter  may  be  mentioned 
a  critique  on  the  philosophy  by  M.  Emile  Sais- 
set,  in  a  volume  of  miscellanies,  'Melange 
d'Histoire,  de  Morale,  et  de  Critique,'  which  was 
originally  written  as  a  review  of  M.  Remusat's 
work  for  the  '  Revue  des  Deux-Mondes ;'  also  a 
translation  of  the  ^Monologion  and  Proslogion, 
with  an  introductory  essay  by  H.  Bouchitte,  in 
'Le  Rationalisme  Chretien.'  5.  M  Charma, Paris, 
18.53,  a  short  but  interesting  study  with  a  com- 
panion one  on  Lanfranc.  6.  Montalembert,  a 
short  fragment  of  much  beauty,  1844.  7.  Crozet 
Mouehet  (Paris  andTournai),  1859,  valuable  for 
what  relates  to  the  early  life  at  Aosta.  8.  R.  W. 
Church,  dean  of  St.  Paul's,  London,  a  masterly 
sketch,  accurate,  vigorous,  and  graceful,  and  as 
full  as  was  possible  within  the  prescribed  limits 
of  the  series  for  which  it  was  written,  Macmil- 
lan's  Sunday  Library.  9.  Mr.  E.  A.  Freeman 
has  dealt  twice  over  most  carefully  with  the  his- 
tory of  Anselm,  first  in  his  'History  of  the  Nor- 
man Conquest,'  vols,  iii.,  iv.  and  v.  (also  notices 
in  i.  355,  564,  and  ii.  25,  215,  217),  and  again 
more  fully  in  his  'HLstory  of  the  Reign  of 
William  Rufus,'  vol.  i.  ch.  iv.,  and  vol.  ii.  ch.  vii. 
(see  also  an  interesting  note  on  Anselm's  letters, 
Y  in  appendix).  His  narratives  are  especially 
valuable  for  the  minute  and   exact  references 


Anslay 


31 


which  they  contain  to  oi'iginal  authorities,  and 
for  l)ringing  out  some  points  liardly  noticed 
elsewhere,  especially  the  hearing  on  Anselm's 
appeal  to  Rome  of  the  former  appeal  made  by 
Bishop  William  of  St.  Calais.  10.  Mr.  Martin 
Kale's  '  Life  and  Times  of  St.  Anselm  '  (2  vols, 
demy  octavo,  1883)  contains  a  good  deal  of 
useful  mivtter,  the  fruit  of  long  and  careful 
labour,  but  is  marred  bj-  irrelevant  digressions 
and  a  cumbrous  style.  His  prejudices,  also,  oh 
a  warm  partisan  of  the  papacj',  sometimes  dis- 
tort his  view  of  simple  facts.]      W.  R.  W.  S!" 

ANSLAY,  BRIAN  (/.  1521),  yeoman 
of  the  wino  cellar  to  Henry  VIII,  translated 
the '  Tresor  de  la  Cit6  des  Dames  '  of  Christine 
de  Pise,  under  the  title  of  the  '  Boke  of  the 
Cyte  of  Ladies,'  1521.  In  a  preliminary  copy 
of  verses  the  printer,  Henry  Pepwell,  states 
that  the  translation  v^-as  published  at  the 
instance  of  the  Earl  of  Kent.  The  book 
consists  of  a  number  of  short  stories  about 
famous  women,  much  of  the  material  being 
drawn  from  Boccaccio.  There  ai"e  some  no- 
tices of  Anslay  in  '  Letters  and  Papers  of  the 
lleign  of  Henry  VIII'  (art.  4231, 23,  et  seq.). 
A '  Bryan  Anslye,  Esquier,  late  of  Lee,  in  the 
county  of  Kent  ....  served  Qveene  Eliza- 
beth as  one  of  ye  band  of  Gentlemen  Pen- 
cioners  to  her  Ma*'"  the  space  of  XXX'>'* 
yeares;'  and,  dying  10  July  1604,  was 
buried  in  tlie  church  of  Lee,  Kent,  where  a 
memorial  slab,  still  legible,  gives  an  account 
of  him  and  his  family.  He  was  probably  the 
son  of  Anslay  the  translator. 

[Ellis's  Historical  Sketches,  ii.  20;  Athenisum 
for  2  Sept.  1876,  where  the  inscription  on  the 
younger  Anslay  is  printed  in  full,  by  Mr.  J.  W. 
Hales,  who  has  reprinted  it  in  his  Essays  and 
Notes  on  Shakespeare,  p.  271.]  A.  H.  B. 

ANSON,  GEORGE,  Lokd  Anson  (1697- 
1762),  admiral  of  the  fleet,  was  the  second 
son  of  William  Anson,  of  Shugborough,  in 
the  parish  of  Colwich,  in  Staffordshire,  and 
was  born  there  on  23  April  1697  ;  his  mother 
Isabella,  daughter  of  Charles  Carrier,  of  Wirk- 
worth,  in  Derbyshire,  was  sister  of  Janet,  the 
wife  of  Thomas  Parker,  afterwards  Lord 
Parker  and  Earl  of  Macclesfield,  and  in  1718 
created  lord  chancellor.  On  2  Feb.  1711-12, 
Anson  entered  on  board  the  Ruby,  com- 
manded by  Captain  Peter  Chamberlen,  as  a 
volunteer,  and  on  27  March  followed  Captain 
Chamberlen  to  the  Monmouth,  where  he  re- 
mained till  27  June  1713,  when  he  was  dis- 
charged, as  the  ship  was  about  to  pay  off. 
All  attempts  to  trace  his  service  during  the 
next  three  years  have  been  unsuccessful :  but 
in  May  1716  he  was  serving  as  midshipman 
or  supernumerary  in  the  fleet  bound  for  the 
Baltic  under  Sir  John  Norris,  who  wrote  from 


Anson 

the  Nore  on  17  ;May  that  a  lieutenant  of  the 
Hampshire  had  requested  to  be  put  on  half- 
pay,  and  that  lie  intended  'to commission  Mr. 
George  Anson,  who  is  cousin  to  my  Lord 
Parker.'  In  1716  the  mo.st  brilliant  merit 
conceivable  was  all  the  more  brilliant  in  the 
nephew  of  the  lord  chief  justice. 

He  continued  in  the  Hampshire  till  she 
paid  oft"  in  December  1717,  and  in  March 
1718  was  appointed  second  lieutenant  of  the 
Montagu,  and  was  in  her  in  tlie  action  oft' 
Cape  Passaro  on  31  July  1718.  On  2  Oct. 
1719,  he  was  transfeiTed  to  the  Barfleur,  Sir 
George  Byng's  flagship ;  and  in  June  1722 
was  made  a  commander,  and  appointed  to 
tlie  Weasel  sloop,  which  was  employed  in 
the  North  Sea  against  the  Dutch  smugglers. 
In  Februaiy  1723-4,  he  was  advanced  to  the 
rank  of  captain,  appointed  to  the  Scarborough 
frigate,  and  sent  out  to  South  Carolina,  with 
instructions  to  protect  the  coast  and  the  com- 
merce against  pirates  and  Spanish  cruisers, 
which  were  already  practising  the  system  of 
annoyance  which  ultimately  led  to  the  war  of 
1739.  They  did  not  at  that  time,  however, 
menace  the  Carolina  coast;  and  the  general 
nature  of  Anson's  service  was  to  cruise  to  and 
from  the  Bahamas.  On  one  occasion  he  had 
intelligence  of  a  Spanish  boat  which  liad  been 
molesting  some  of  the  English  traders,  but 
proceeding  to  look  for  her,  he  touched  at 
Providence,  where  he  learned  that  she  had 
been  already  taken  '  by  a  sloop  bound  for 
Jamaica,  who  can-ied  her  there,  where  the 
people  were  condemned  for  pirating  and 
hanged'  (Anson  to  Burchett,  16  Jan.  1724-5). 
A  few  months  later  he  received  orders  to 
act  against  the  Spaniards  wherever  he  met 
them,  but  the  little  war  of  1726  passed  over 
without  any  incident  in  Anson's  career.  In 
July  1728,  on  the  death  of  Captain  Morris 
of  the  Garland,  he  moved  into  that  ship,  and 
sent  home  the  Scarborougli,  which  was  badly 
in  want  of  refitting:  but  he  himself  was 
kept  out  two  years  longer,  and  did  not  return 
to  England  till  July  1730.  His  long  service 
on  the  coast  of  Carolina,  however  useful,  was 
in  no  way  brilliant ;  but  he  would  seem  to 
have  been  popular  with  the  colonists,  who 
still  preserve  his  memoi-y  embalmed  in  the 
name  of  Anson  county;  and  a  Carolina  lady, 
writing  to  her  sister  in  London,  could  say 
nothing  worse  of  him  than  that  it  was 
'  averred '  he  loved  his  bottle,  and  was  far 
from  being  a  woman-hater;  whilst,  on  the 
other  hand,  he  was  handsome,  good-natured, 
polite,  well  bred,  generous,  and  humane; 
passionately  fond  of  music,  and  '  so  old- 
fashioned  as  to  make  some  profession  of  re- 
ligion '  (Barrow's  i?/(°,  14). 

In  1731  he  commanded  the  Diamond  frigate 


Anson 


32 


Anson 


in  the  Channel;  and  in  I'eljruaiy  1731-2, 
being  appointed  to  the  Squirrel,  whs  sent  out 
to  his  old  station  on  the  coast  of  Carolina, 
whence  he  returned  in  June  1735  ;  the 
Squirrel  was  paid  off,  and  Anson,  for  the 
first  time,  was  on  shore  for  two  years  and 
a  half. 

In  December  1737  he  was  appointed  to 
the  Centurion,  of  60  guns,  and  sent  to  the 
west  coast  of  Africa  for  the  protection  of 
the  English  trade  against  the  encroachments 
of  the  French,  after  which  he  crossed  over  to 
the  West  Indies,  and  was  recalled  thence 
in  the  autumn  of  1 739.  It  had  been  deter- 
mined to  give  him  the  command  of  one  of 
two  squadrons  that  were  to  be  sent  to  the 
Pacific  ;  and  when  it  was  found  necessary  to 
ciu"tail  the  plan  and  send  only  one,  that  one 
was  put  under  the  orders  of  Anson  with  the 
nominal  rank  of  commodore.  The  establish- 
ment of  the  navy,  after  many  years  of  peace 
and  decay,  was  at  a  very  low  ebb,  and  the  ex- 
pense of  fittingout  the  fleet  for  the  West  Indies 
and  the  coast  of  Spain  swallowed  up  all  the 
resources  of  the  admiralty.  There  was  thus 
great  difficulty  in  equipping  and  manning 
the  ships  intended  for  the  Pacific ;  whilst 
instead  of  the  regiment  of  soldiers  which 
had  been  told  off"  for  this  service,  a  number 
of  pensioners,  old,  worn-out,  and  crippled, 
were  put  on  board,  together  with  a  number 
of  newly  enlisted  and  wholly  undrilled 
marines.  All  this  caused  great  delay,  and  it 
was  not  till  18  Sept.  1740,  after  eight 
months'  preparation,  that  the  little  squadron 
of  six  ships  put  to  sea  from  St.  Helens. 
Arriving  in  the  neighbourliood  of  Cape  Horn 
in  the  stormy  season,  the  ships  were  severely 
buffeted ;  two  were  driven  back,  and  neAer 
got  round  at  all ;  one,  the  Wager,  was  driven 
ashore  and  totally  lost  [see  Bykox,  John]  ; 
the  Centurion  narrowly  escaped  a  similar 
fate;  and  it  was  not  till  11  June  1741  that 
she  arrived  at  Juan  Fernandez,  with  not 
more  than  thirty  men,  officers  included,  fit 
for  duty.  The  Gloucester,  of  50  guns,  ar- 
rived some  time  after  in  still  worse  plight, 
as  also  the  Trial  brig;  and  after  refitting 
and  resting  till  September,  it  was  found  that 
out  of  the  961  men  who  had  left  England  in 
these  three  ships,  626  liad  died,  leaving  335 
men  and  boys,  a  number  quite  insufficient 
for  even  the  Centurion  alone.  Anson,  how- 
evei*,  determined  to  do  wliat  he  could  to 
effect  the  purpose  of  his  voyage,  and,  with  a 
hollow  pretence  of  strength,  he  managed  to 
destroy  the  Spanish  c(mimerce,  blockade  the 
ports,  and  sack  and  burn  tlie  townof  Paita.  He 
then  hoped  to  intercept  the  yearly  ship  from 
Manila  for  Acapulco;  but  finding  tliat  he 
had  missed  her,  and  that  there  was  no  chance 


of  her  sailing  on  the  return  voyage  while  he 
was  on  the  coast,  he  made  sail  for  China. 
The  Trial  had  long  since  been  condemned: 
the  Gloucester  now  proved  to  be  unsea- 
worthy,  and  was  cleared  out  and  set  on  fire ; 
the  Centuricm  alone  remained,  and  again,  as 
oft'  Cape  Horn,  Avas  visited  by  scurvy  in  its 
worst  foi'ms.  It  was  only  after  refreshing 
and  resting  for  tAvo  months  at  Tinian,  that 
her  men,  sorely  diminished  in  numbers,  Avere 
able  to  take  the  ship  on  to  Macao ;  and,  after 
refitting  thei-e,  they  sailed  to  cruise  off  Ma- 
nila in  quest  of  the  Acapulco  ship.  The 
Centurion  had  noAv  less  than  200  men  left 
of  the  original  961 ;  but  some  Spanish  negroes 
and  Indians,  as  well  as  some  Dutchmen  and 
Lascars,  had  been  picked  up  at  Macao,  and 
she  had  actually  on  board,  of  all  creeds  and 
colours,  227.  With  this  reduced  creAv,  hoA\-- 
eA'er,  she  met  the  great  galeon  on  20  June 
1743,  and  captured  her.  In  size  and  number 
of  men  the  Spaniard  Avas  Aastly  superior  to 
the  Centurion  ;  but  she  was  lumbered  with 
merchandise,  and  of  her  600  men  few  were 
trained  to  arms  or  to  act  together,  whilst 
during  the  last  cruise  Anson  had  taken  very 
great  pains  in  exercising  his  men.  The 
amount  of  treasure  was  enormous ;  and  An- 
son, deciding  that  nothing  more  AA'as  to  be 
done,  resolved  to  return  to  England  round 
the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  Good  fortune  fa- 
voured him  at  the  last,  and  as  he  came  into 
the  Channel  a  thick  fog  hid  him  from  the 
French  fleet  Avhich  Avas  cruising  in  the  Sound- 
ings ;  he  passed  safely  through  it,  and  anchored 
at  Spithead  on  15  June  1744.  The  treasure 
which  he  had  brought  home  amounted  to 
about  500,000/.  This  Avas  landed  at  Ports- 
mouth, sent  up  to  London,  and  paraded  in 
triumph  through  the  city  in  a  procession  of 
thii"ty-two  wagons,  the  ship's  company  march- 
ing Avith  colours  flying  and  band  playing. 

In  ready  acknowledgment  of  Anson's  good 
service  and  good  fortune,  the  admiralty  at 
once  promoted  liim  to  the  rank  of  rear- 
admiral,  but  they  refused  to  confirm  an 
acting  commission  as  captain  of  the  Cen- 
turion, which  Anson,  claiming  to  act  as 
commodore,  hadgiAen  to  his  first  lieiitenant, 
Mr.  Peircy  Brett,  whilst  in  China.  They  did 
indeed  specially  promote  ]Mr.  Brett,  but  An- 
son rejected  the  compromise,  returned  his 
own  commission — AAdiich  AA^as  accordingly 
cancelled — and  went  on  half  pay  as  a  captain. 
As  his  share  of  the  prize  money  had  ren- 
dered him  a  AA-ealthy  man,  quite  independent 
of  the  service,  he  Avould  certainly  not  have 
accepted  any  further  appointment  from  the 
Earl  of  Winchilsea,  but  the  change  of  mi- 
nistry a  feAV  months  later  brought  in  a  neAv 
admiralty,  Avith  the  Didie  of  Bedford  at  its 


Anson 


33 


Anson 


head,  and  Anson  as  one  of  its  members.  Its 
Aerj'  first  act  was  to  reverse  the  decision  of 
the  former  board,  and  to  confirm  the  com- 
mission wliich  Anson  had  given  to  Captain 
Brett  (tlie  patent  of  the  board  is  dated 
28  Dec.  1744;  the  minute  confirming  Brett's 
commission  is  dated  29  Dec),  and  on  20  April 
1 74.'),  Anson  was  re-promoted  to  flag  rank, 
this  time  as  rear-admiral  of  the  white. 

For  a  year  and  a  half  Anson  continued  in 
London,  taking  a  leading  share  in  the  wofk 
of  the  admiralty,  and,  though  a  very  junior 
member  of  the  board,  acting  directly  as  the 
Duke  of  Bedford's  representative  in  all  mat- 
ters of  executive  administration.  Beyond 
the  old  friendship  existing  between  Lord 
Chancellor  Hardwicke  and  the  Macclesfield 
family  (Campbell's  Zzres  of  the  Chancellors, 
V.  lo)  it  is  now  impossible  to  trace  the  par- 
ticular interest  which  Anson  could  have  had; 
that  he  had  some  may  be  considered  certain. 

In  July  1746  Vice-Admiral  Martin  re- 
signed the  command  of  the  Channel  fleet ; 
and  Anson,  now  vice-admiral  of  the  blue, 
undertook  the  duty  and  hoisted  his  flag  on 
board  the  Yarmouth  on  9  Aug.  Tlie  fleet 
was  very  short-handed,  for  in  Martin's  last 
cruise  bad  provisions  and  bad  beer,  scurvy, 
fever,  and  small-pox,  had  caused  the  death 
or  sickness  of  an  enormous  number  of  men 
(Martin  to  Corbett,  3  July  1746;  JoANNis 
TIuXHAMi  Observationes  de  Aere  et  Morbis 
epidemicis  (1773),  p.  341) ;  and  now  Admiral 
Lestock,  fitting  out  for  the  expedition  to  Lo- 
rient,  had  carried  off"  every  seaman  that  he 
could  find  (Anson  to  Bedford,  11  Aug.  1746, 
in  Bedford  Correspondence,  i.  137).  It  was 
tluis  the  end  of  the  month  before  Anson  could 
get  the  fleet  to  sea ;  and  he  then  cruised  to 
the  westward,  oif  Ushant,  hoping  to  intercept 
on  its  return  the  French  fleet,  which  had  gone 
to  Chebucto  (the  present  Halifax)  under  the 
Duke  d'Enville.  The  terrible  fate  of  that 
expedition  was  not  yet  fully  known;  and, 
though  Anson  put  into  Plymouth  at  the  end 
of  October,  it  was  only  for  a  supply  of  water. 
*  My  men,'  he  wrote  to  the  Duke  of  Bedford 
(28  Oct.),  '  begin  to  be  very  sickly,  and  most 
of  the  ships  very  foul,  but  the  hope  of  de- 
stroying some  of  the  enemy's  fleet  will  make 
me  risk  health  and  everything  else.'  On 
4  Nov.  he  wrote  that  he  hoped  to  be  com- 
plete and  at  sea  in  two  or  three  days,  and  to 
have  better  fortune  in  his  next  cruise.  '  I 
am  surprised,'  he  added,  '  that  Mr.  Lestock, 
who  had  such  certain  intelligence,  from  the 
French  sliips  burnt  in  the  bay,  of  the  shat- 
tered condition  of  D'Enville's  ships,  should 
not  cruise  off  Ushant  for  them,  as  his  squa- 
dron was  not  in  want  of  anything '  (Bedford 
Corr.  i.  174). 


Notwithstanding  Anson's  haste  to  get  to 
sea,  the  French  hospital  ship  and  a  sloop  were 
all  that  he  fell  in  with.    It  was  by  this  time 
certainly  known  that  the  PVench  wjuadron 
'  was  in  an  almost  helpless  condition,  and  that 
if  it  could  be  met  with,  it  must  be  captured. 
It  received,  however,  warning  from  a  Dutcli 
I  merchant  ship  of  the  neighbourhood  of  the 
[  English  fleet,  and  by  keeping  to  the  soutlnvard 
got  in-sliore  of  it,  and  so  safely  to  Brest.   The 
:  next  spring  Anson  was  more  fortunate.    The 
P'rench  were  preparing  to  send  out  another 
expedition  to  America,  and  at  the  same  time 
a  squadron  to  the  East  Indies.     On  29  April 
the  two  sailed  together  from  the  roadstead 
I  of  Aix,   under  the   command   of  M.  de  la 
Jonquiere,   whose   energetic  behaviour  and 
,  clever  escape  in  bringing  home  the  shattered 
I  remains  of   the   fleet   the  year  before  had 
pointed  him  out  as  a  capable  and  a  lucky 
officer.      But  Anson   had   early  and  fairly 
exact  knowledge  of  the  projected  expedition, 
and,  in  his  double  capacity  of  lord  of  the  ad- 
miralty and  commander-in-chief  of  the  fleet, 
took  care  to  have  with  him  an  overpowering 
force  and  such  a  number  of  cruisers  that  it 
was  wellnigh  impossible  for  the   enemy  to 
escape  him.     With  his  own  flag  on  board 
the  Prince  George,  of  90  guns,  and  liaving 
with  him  Rear-Admiral  Warren  in  the  Devon- 
shire, Captain  Boscawen  in  the  Namur,  and 
others,  numbering  altogether  fourteen  ships 
of  the  line,  he  stationed  himself  ofi^  Cape 
Finisterre,  and  continued  there  during  the 
greater  part  of  April,  exercising  his  fleet  in 
forming  line  and  in  manceu\Tes  of  battle  till 
then  absolutely  unknown.     On  the  morning 
of  3  May  the  French  fleet  was  sighted,  and  was 
successfully  pursued.     Anson  at  first  made 
the  signal  for  line  of  battle,  but  presently, 
perceiving  that  the  French  were  of  very  in- 
ferior force,  he  made  the  signal  for  a  general 
chase  and  fell  on  them  pell-mell.     La  Jon- 
quiere placed  his  convoy  to  leeward,  in  charge 
of  two  frigates,  and  drew  up  his  squadron  in 
line  to  meet  the  enemy ;  but  including  two 
40-gun  ships,  a  50-gun  ship  with  only  half 
her  guns  on  board,  and  four  Indiamen,  he 
numbered  only  ten  ships  in  all.     The  ships 
of  war  fought  well,  but  were  speedily  over- 
powered ;  the  Indiamen,  with  valuable  car- 
goes on  board,  endeavoured  to  make  oflT,  but 
were  captured  afterwards.  The  defence,  how- 
ever, Avas  sufficient  to  permit  the  greater  part 
of  the  convoy  to  escape  during  the  night. 
Amongst  the  captured  ships  were  the  Gloire, 
of  40  guns,  and  the  Invincible,  of  74.    \Mien 
M.  de  Saint-George,  the  captain  of  the  latter, 
went  on  board  the  Prince  George  to  sur- 
render his  sword  to  Anson,  he  addressed  him 
with,  *  Monsieur,  vous  avez  vaincu  I'lnvin- 

B 


Anson 


34 


Anson 


cible,  et  la  Gloire  vous  suit.'  Saint-George 
returned  to  England  with  Anson,  and  be- 
tween the  two  there  sprang  up  a  friendship 
and  correspondence  which  continued  till 
death  ended  it. 

Anson's  great  superiority  of  force  was  main- 
ly due  to  his  own  care  and  forethought ;  and 
he  made  such  good  use  of  it  as  utterly  to  over- 
whelm the  enemy.  A  French  fleet  had  been 
utterly  defeated,  and  some  300,000/.  in  specie 
had  been  captured  and  carried  through  London 
in  triumph.  '  I  ought  to  be  satisfied,'  wrote 
Anson  to  the  Duke  of  Bedford,  '  but  wish  he 
(La  Jonquiere)had  had  a  little  more  strength, 
though  this  is  the  best  stroke  that  has  been 
made  upon  the  French  since  La  Hogue.'  It 
was  not  only  a  national  but  a  political 
success,  and  the  ministry,  accepting  it  as 
such,  heaped  rewards  on  the  victors.  Anson 
was  raised  to  the  peerage  as  Baron  Anson 
of  Soberton,  in  Hampshire ;  Warren,  the 
second  in  command,  was  made  a  knight  of 
the  Bath ;  and  Boscawen,  the  senior  captain, 
though  of  only  ten  years'  standing,  was 
specially  included  in  the  next  promotion  of 
admirals. 

In  February  1747-8  the  Duke  of  Bedford 
was  appointed  secretary  of  state,  and  Lord 
Sandwich  became  first  lord  of  the  admiralty. 
The  duke  had  virtually  assigned  the  execu- 
tive administration  of  the  navy  to  Anson, 
but  now,  in  the  absence  of  Sandwich  in 
Germany,  Lord  Vere  Beauclerk  took  the  di- 
rection of  affairs.  As  captain,  as  admiral, 
and  in  the  admiralty  patent,  Beauclerk  was 
the  senior  of  the  two,  and  may  naturally  have 
felt  some  annoyance  at  the  preference  previ- 
ously given  to  his  j  unior.  It  was  now  Anson's 
turn  to  feel  aggrieved ;  he  wrote  to  Lord 
Sandwich  on  15  Feb. :  *  In  your  absence  Lord 
Vere  may  make  as  much  a  cipher  of  me  as  he 
pleases,  which  you  will  easily  imagine  must 
be  very  disagreeable  to  me  after  the  share 
the  Duke  of  Bedford  has  allowed  me  in  the 
direction  of  affairs  afloat  and  the  success 
which  has  attended  his  grace's  administra- 
tion of  naval  affairs  in  every  branch  of  the 
department.  Besides,  I  think  the  world  will 
see  me  in  a  very  disadvantageous  light.  .  .  . 
He  has  been  in  my  way  ever  since  I  came 
into  the  world.  Two  years  ago  I  endeavou^red 
to  shove  him  before  me,  but  there  was  no 
moving  him  from  the  earth  to  his  proper 
element,  and  to  continue  now  in  his  rear, 
both  at  land  and  sea,  I  own  I  cannot  well 
endure'  (Barrow,  p.  201).  To  this,  on 
19  March,  Lord  Sandwich  replied  :  *  I  think 
that  so  far  from  Lord  Vere  being  able  to 
make  a  cipher  of  you,  that  you  must  put  liim 
absolutely  in  that  situation  himself.  1  always 
told  you  that  wlienever  I  got  to  the  head  of 


the  admiralty  it  should,  except  in  the  name 
and  show  of  it,  be  the  same  thing  as  if  you 
were  there  yourself.  ...  If  Lord  Vere's  pur- 
poses are  disagreeable  to  you,  it  is  very  easy 
to  prevent  them,  by  desiring  first  to  know 
my  opinion.  ..  .  .  You  may  be  assured  I  will 
do  no  act  whatever  but  directly  through 
your  hands,  which  will  plainly  show  people 
where  the  power  centres,  and  I  think  indis- 
putably fix  you  in  the  entire  management  of 
affairs'^  {ibid.  T^.  204). 

It  was  shortly  afterwards,  25  April  1748, 
that  Anson  was  married  to  Lady  Elizabeth 
Yorke,  daughter  of  the  lord  chancellor.  The 
marriage  brought  wealth  as  well  as  influence. 
'  The  whole  portion,'  wi-ote  Lord  Hardwicke 
to  liis  intended  son-in-law,  a  few  days  before 
the  marriage,  '  shall  be  paid  either  in  bank- 
notes, or  in  my  draft  upon  the  bank,  as  you 
like  best.'  Notwithstanding  the  frequent 
indelicate  jokes  of  Horace  Walpole,  there  is 
no  reason  to  suppose  that  the  marriage  was 
other  than  a  happy  one.  No  cliildren  fol- 
lowed, although  a  letter  from  Lord  Hard- 
wicke, dated  30  Aug.  1748  (Barrow,  p.  208), 
seems  to  imply  that  some  such  result  was 
expected.  If  so,  however,  it  ended  in  dis- 
appointment. 

Anson's  public  life  was  meantime  devoted 
to  reorganising  certain  weak  points  in  the 
navy  wliich  the  war  had  brought  to  light. 
The  marine  regiments  were  to  be  broken,  a 
new  corps  of  marines  under  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  admiralty  was  to  be  formed,  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  dockyards  was  to  be  im- 
proved, and,  most  important  of  all,  a  new 
code  of  articles  of  war  was  to  be  drawn  up 
and  passed  through  parliament.  AVitliin  the 
next  few  years  all  these  things  were  done, 
and  done  effectually.  Dockyard  administra- 
tion no  doubt  remained  for  very  many  years 
exceedingly  corrupt,  though  not,  we  may  be- 
lieve, so  atrociously  bad  as  in  former  years. 
The  building  of  ships,  too,  was  improved, 
and  the  establishment  of  guns  and  all  stores 
put  on  a  more  afttisfactory  footing.  The 
articles  of  war,  as  passed  in  1749,  remained 
the  law  of  the  service  till  1865 ;  and  the 
corps  of  marines,  as  then  planned,  and  de- 
finitely formed  in  1755,  is  the  same  as  at 
the  present  day.  Of  these  several  measures 
the  chief  part  of  the  credit  must  attach  to 
Anson,  wlio,  as  we  have  seen,  was  placed  by 
Lord  Sandwich  at  the  head  of  the  executive, 
and  who  in  June  1751  became  actually,  as 
well  as  virtually,  first  lord  of  the  admiralty. 
This  post  he  filled  until  the  change  of  ministry 
in  November  1756,  and  it  was  thus  during 
his  administration  that  the  fleet  under  Ad- 
miral John  Byng  sailed  for  the  Mediterranean 
in  March,  and  was  defeated  off"  Cape  Mola  on 


Anson 


35 


Anson 


20  May  1756.  Anson's  whole  life  and  career 
are  utterly  opposed  to  the  idea  of  his  having, 
in  this  matter,  erred  through  carelessness. 
We  are  forced,  therefoi'e,  to  the  conclusion 
that  in  not  ordering  a  larger  fleet  to  the 
Mediterranean,  he  was  honestly  mistaken, 
and  that  in  appointing  Admiral  Byng  to  the 
command  he  was  under  some  undiscoverable 
influence.  AVe  know  now  that  the  French, 
in  the  spring  of  1756,  had  no  idea  of  invading 
England  or  Ireland;  but  the  ministiy  ca*- 
tainly  thought  it  necessary  to  keep  an  over- 
whelming force  at  home  or  in  the  Bay  of 
Biscay.  But  the  main  cause  of  the  failure 
was  the  misconduct  of  Byng,  and  Anson  is 
directly  concei*ned  in  the  appointment,  as 
commander-in-chief,  of  a  man  whom  events 
proved  to  be  utterly  unfit  for  the  office.  It 
can  only  be  said  now,  that  this  had  not 
been  proved  in  March  1756,  that  Byng  was 
a  man  of  high-service  rank  who  might  al- 
most claim  the  highest  command,  and  that 
there  was  nothing  whatever  known  against 
him.  That  afterwards,  on  Byng's  failure, 
Anson  should  not  be  inclined  to  show  him 
any  undue  consideration,  or  to  err  on  the 
side  of  lenity,  was  natural  enough.  He  veiy 
probably  regarded  Byng  with  feelings  akin 
to  personal  hatred,  as  the  incarnation  of  the 
one  great  mistake  he  had  made  in  a  pro- 
sperous career,  and  was  quite  willing  that  the 
offender  should  feel  the  full  weight  of  the 
law;  but,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  Anson  had 
nothing  whatever  to  do  with  Byng's  trial 
and  execution,  which  took  place  under  a 
ministry  with  which  he  had  no  connection. 
Having  gone  out  of  office  in  November 

1756,  he  did  not  re-enter  till  the  end  of  June 

1757,  when  he  was  again  appointed  first  lord 
of  the  admiralty  in  the  Newcastle-Pitt  ad- 
ministration. He  was  thus  the  chief  of  the 
navy  when  the  bootless  expedition  against 
Rochefort  was  sent  out  in  the  autumn  of  that 
year;  and  in  1758,  when  the  petty  incursions 
on  the  coast  of  France,  as  at  St.  Malo  or 
Cherbourg,  ended  disastrously  at  St.  Cas. 
In  these  matters  Anson  took  no  part,  except 
in  providing  the  covering  force  of  men-of-war, 
and  in  taking  command  personally  of  the 
main  fleet,  which  meantime  blockaded  Brest, 
in  order  to  allay  some  irritation  felt  by  Sir 
Edward  Hawke.  It  was  his  last  service  at 
sea.  During  the  next  year,  1759,  this  fleet 
was  commanded  by  Hawke,  and  put  an  end 
to  the  necessity  of  blockading  Brest  by  de- 
molishing the  French  fleet  in  Quiberon  Bay. 
Anson's  share  in  this  brilliant  victory  was 
merely  that  of  the  home  administrator  by 
whose  care  the  fleet  was  fitted  out  and  sup- 
ported ;  he  had  also  the  same  share  in  the 
conquest  of  Canada  and  in  many  other  of 


the  events  which  rendered  the  year  1759 
'wonderful,'  not  only  in  Garrick's  celebrated 
song  but  in  the  current  language  of  the  day 
(Walpole's  Letters,  iii.  269,  ed.  Cunning- 
ham, 1861),  and  the  years  immediately  suc- 
ceediiig  memorable  in  Englisli  annals. 

In  June  1761  Anson  was  advanced  to  the 
liigh  rank  of  admiral  of  the  fleet ;  but,  ex- 
cept to  bring  over  the  new  queen.  Princess 
Charlotte  of  Mecklenburg-Strelitz,  he  never 
hoisted  the  distinguishing  flag  of  union  at 
the  main.  He  died  quite  suddenly  on  6  June 
1762  at  his  country  seat  of  Moor  Park  in 
Hertfordshire,  and  was  buried  in  the  family 
vault  at  Colwich.  The  title  died  with  hini. 
His  wife  had  died  two  years  before,  on  1  June 
1760,  and  his  very  large  property  went  to 
his  sister  Janetta,  wife  of  Mr.  Sambi-ooke 
Adams,  whose  son  George  afterwards  in- 
herited also  the  family  estate  of  Shugborough, 
and  took  the  name  of  Anson.  The  son  of 
George  Adams  was  in  1806  created  Viscount 
Anson  an^  Baron  Soberton,  and  his  grandson 
in  1831  was  made  Earl  of  Lichfield. 

Anson  is  undoubtedly  best  known  to  pos- 
terity by  his  voyage  round  the  world,  the 
history  of  which,  as  written,  or  rather  edited, 
by  his  chaplain,  Mr.  Walters,  or  in  different 
abridgments,  has  always  been  a  popular 
book  even  among  schoolboys.  It  is  to  that 
voyage,  and  the  temper,  the  tact,  and  the 
judgment  which  he  displayed  under  very 
trying  circumstances,  that  his  further  ad- 
vancement was  mainly  due.  Anson  may 
have  been  cold  in  his  affections,  studious  of 
his  own  interest,  and  even  selfish;  calm, 
placid,  possibly — as  his  enemies  might  say — 
lish-like  in  his  temperament ;  but  he  was  a 
careful,  painstaking,  thoughtful  man,  of  sin- 
gularly accurate  judgment :  and  much  of  the 
more  important  Avork  which  fell  to  him  was 
work  in  which  a  warmer-hearted,  warmer- 
tempered,  more  loveable  man  might  well 
have  broken  down.  And  one  point  which 
tells  enonnously  in  Anson's  favour  is  the 
fact  that  so  many  young  officers,  trained 
under  him  in  the  Centurion,  were  afterwards 
honourably  known.  In  the  whole  history 
of  our  navy  there  is  not  another  instance  of 
so  many  juniors  from  one  ship  rising  to  dis- 
tinction, men  like  Saunders,  Saumarez,  Peircy 
Brett,  Denis,  Keppel,  Hyde  Parker,  John 
Campbell. 

Sir  John  Barrow  has  expressed  surprise 
*  that  neither  private  aflfection  nor  public 
gi'atitude  has  ever  raised  a  monument  to  one 
who  shed  such  lustre  on  the  name.'  This  is 
not  strictly  correct,  for  there  is  in  Shug- 
borough Park  a  sort  of  triumphal  arch  which 
was  erected  to  his  memory  by  his  elder 
brother  Thomas.   The  colossal  lion,  once  the 

d2 


Anson 


36 


Anspach 


iigiire-head  of  the  Centurion,  after  standing 
for  many  years  in  the  Anson  ward  of  Green- 
wich Hospital  (Baerow,  p.  419),  was  in 
1870  transferred  to  the  playground  of  the 
hospital  school,  and  fell  to  pieces  from  decay 
in  1873.  Copies  of  a  portrait  of  Anson,  by 
Sir  Joshua  Reynolds,  are  in  the  National 
Portrait  Gallery,  and  in  the  Painted  Hall  at 
Greenwich.  The  original,  belonging  to  Lord 
Lichfield,  was  exhibited  at  the  Grosvenor 
Galleiy,  1884. 

[The  Life  of  Anson  by  Sir  John  Barrow  is  by 
no  means  free  from  serious  faults  both  of  omis- 
sion and  commission,  and  is  absolutely  crowded 
with  mistakes  of  sheer  carelessness,  e.g.  the  mis- 
spellings of  names.  The  well-known  'Voyage 
round  the  World '  bears  on  the  title-page  of  the 
1st  edition  (1748)  '  compiled  from  papers  and 
other  materials  of  the  Eight  Honourable  Greorge 
Anson,  and  published  imder  his  direction  by 
Richard  Walter,  M.A.,  chaplain  of  his  Majesty's 
ship  Centurion  in  that  expedition.'  Many  years 
afterwards  a  claim  was  made  that  the  work  was 
written,  not  by  Mr.  Walter,  but  by  Mr.  Ben- 
jamin Eobins  (Eobins's  Mathematical  Tracts 
(1761),  i.,  xxxvi,  xli);  this  has  never  been  sub- 
stantiated except  by  mere  assertion;  and  though 
Eobins  was  certainly  employed  as  sub-editor 
and  assistant  (Peircy  Brett  to  Cleveland,  3  Jan. 
1747-8),  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  the  plain 
statement  on  the  title-page,  which  was  always 
believed  by  Walter's  children  and  grandchildren 
(Notes  and  Queries,  5th  series,  iv.  78,  100) 
and  was  directly  sanctioned  l)y  Anson.  But  in 
any  case,  whether  edited  by  Walter  or  Eobins, 
the  book  was  virtually  written  by  Anson  him- 
self, as  stated  on  the  title-page,  and  as  atfirmed 
by  Anson's  friends  (Barrow,  p.  408).  The 
Journal  of  a  Voyage  to  the  South  Seas,  by  Pas- 
coe  Thomas,  teacher  of  the  mathematicks  on 
board  the  Centurion  (1745),  is  an  independent 
account,  not  always  so  favourable  to  Anson. 
Correspondence  of  tlie  fourth  Duke  of  Bedford, 
edited  by  Lord  John  Eussell  (1842),  vol.  i. ; 
Brit.  Mus.  MSS.  Add.  16955-6-7;  and  Official 
Letters  and  Documents  in  the  Public  Eeeord 
Office.]  J.  K.  L. 

ANSON,  GEORGE  (1797-1857),  gene- 
ral, was  the  second  son  of  the  first  Viscount 
Anson,  and  brother  of  the  first  Earl  of  Lich- 
field. He  entered  the  army  at  an  early  age, 
in  the  3rd  (or  Scots  P^usilier)  Guards,  with 
which  regiment  he  served  at  Waterloo.  In 
1818,  while  still  an  officer  in  the  guards,  he 
was  elected  a  member  of  parliament,  and  sat 
in  the  House  of  Commons  for  many  years, 
holding  in  succession  the  political  offices  of 
principal  storekeeper  of  the  ordnance  and 
clerk  of  the  ordnance.  In  1853,  having  mean- 
while attained  the  rank  of  major-general  in 
the  army,  he  was  appointed  to  command  a 
division  in  Bengal,  and  in  the  following  year 


succeeded  to  the  command  of  the  Madras 
army,  from  which  post  he  was  advanced  to 
that  of  commapder-in-chief  in  India  early  in 
1856.  General  Anson  was  holding  this'im- 
portant  command  .when  the  mutiny  of  the 
Bengal  army  took  place.  Hastening  down 
from  Simla,  whither  he  had  gone  only  a  few 
weeks  previously  to  recruit  his  health,  he  col- 
lected a  force  at  Amballa,  and  marched  with  it 
against  Delhi,  but  being  attacked  by  cholera 
at  Karnal  died  at  that  place  on  27  May  1857. 
General  Anson  was  a  man  of  unquestionable 
talent,  and  although  he  had  never  seen  war 
except  at  Waterloo,  where  he  served  as  a 
mere  youth,  those  who  knew  him  best  had 
very  hi^h  expectations  that  he  would  distin- 
guish himself  in  his  profession  if  an  oppor- 
tunity offered.  It  has  been  alleged  that  he 
showed  vacillation  and  want  of  promptitude 
when  preparing  for  the  march  upon  Delhi ; 
but  the  allegation  has  been  amply  refuted  by 
a  distinguished  officer  (Sir  Henry  Norman) 
who  held  an  important  position  on  the  staff 
of  the  army  at  the  time,  and  had  the  best 
means  of  forming  a  judgment.  Sir  Henry 
says  that, '  suddenly  placed  in  a  more  difficult 
position  than  has  probably  ever  fallen  to  the 
lot  of  a  British  commander,'  General  Anson 
'  met  the  crisis  with  fortitude  and  with  a 
calm  endeavour  to  restore  our  nile  where  it 
had  disappeared,  and  to  maintain  it  where  it 
still  existed.'  General  Anson  married  in  1830 
Isabella,  daughter  of  the  first  Lord  Forester, 
who  survived  him  less  than  two  years. 

[Hart's  Army  List;  Burke's  Peerage  ;  Annual 
Eegister  for  1857 ;  J.  W.  Kaye's  History  of  the 
Sepoy  War;  Fortnightly  Eeview,  April  1883.] 

A.  J.  A. 

ANSPACH,  ELIZABETH,  MAKGKAviifB 

OP  (1750-1828),  dramatist,  was  the  youngest 
daughter  of  Augustus,  fourth  Earl  of  Ber- 
keley, by  his  countess  Elizabeth,  daughter 
of  Henry  Drax,  of  Charborough,  in  the 
county  of  Dorset.  In  1767.  she  man-ied  Mr. 
William  Craven,  aftersvards  the  sixth  Earl 
of  Craven,  and  of  this  union  six  children  were 
born.  Lord  and  Lady  Craven  separated  in 
1780,  and  her  ladyship  left  England  for 
France,  and  travelled  in  Italy,  Austria,  Po- 
land, Russia,  Turkey,  and  Gi'eece.  In  1789 
she  published  in  quarto  her '  Journey  through 
the  Crimea  to  Constantinople,'  related  in  a 
series  of  letters.  Subsequently  she  visited 
Anspach,  and  took  up  her  abode  with  Chris- 
tian Frederick  Charles  Alexander,  Margrave 
of  Brandenburg,  Anspach,  and  Bareith,  Duke 
of  Prussia,  and  Count  of  Sa\-n.  She  wrote 
to  her  husband  that  she  was  to  be  treated 
as  the  Margrave's  sister.  She  WTote  little 
plays  in  French  for  the  Court  theatre — '  La 


Anspach 


37 


Ansted 


Folle  (111  Jour  '  and  *  Abdoul  et  Xouijad ' — 
and,  further  to  entertain  the  Margrave,  trans- 
lated into  French  the  English  comedy  of 
'  She  would  and  she  would  not.'  Lord  Craven 
dying  in  September  1791,  she  was  raamed 
to  the  margi'ave  in  the  following  month.  In 
1792  the  margrave  sold  his  principality  to 
the  King  of  Prussia,  and  settled  in  England, 
having  purchased  Brandenburg  House,  llam- 
mersmith,  and  the  house  and  estate  of  Ben- 
ham,  in  Berkshire,  wliich  had  long  been  pos- 
sessed by  the  Craven  family.  The  margrave 
died  and  was  buried  at  Benham  in  1806. 
Walpole,  who  always  expressed  his  admira- 
tion of  Lady  Craven,  and  even  addressed 
impromptu  stanzas  to  her,  furnished  the  Rev. 
William  Mason  with  a  lively  account  of  the 
production  of  her  comedy,  the  '  Miniature 
Picture,'  at  Drury  Lane,  in  ^lay  1780  :  '  She 
went  to  it  herself  the  second  night  in  form, 
sat  in  the  middle  of  the  front  row  of  the 
stage-box,  much  di'essed  with  a  profusion  of 
white  bugles  and  plumes,  to  receive  the  pub- 
lic homage  due  to  her  sex  and  loveliness.  .  .  . 
It  was  amazing  to  see  so  young  a  woman  en- 
tirely possess  herself;  but  there  is  such  an 
integrity  and  frankness  in  her  consciousness 
of  her  own  beauty  and  talents,  that  she  speaks 
of  them  with  a  naivete  as  if  she  had  no  pro- 
perty in  them,  but  only  wore  them  as  gifts 
of  the  gods.  Lord  Craven,  on  the  contraiy, 
was  quite  agitated  by  his  fondness  for  her 
and  with  impatience  at  the  bad  performance.' 
Nevertheless  it  was  the  year  of  their  separa- 
tion. In  1785  Walpole  wrote  of  Lady  Craven 
to  Sir  Horace  Mann :  '  She  has,  I  fear,  been  in- 
finitaniente  indiscreet,  but  what  is  that  to  you 
or  me  ?  She  is  very  pretty,  has  parts,  and  is 
good-natured  to  the  gi'eatest  degi'ee ;  has  not 
a  gi-ain  of  malice  or  mischief,  almost  always 
the  associates,  in  women,  of  tender  hearts,  and 
never  has  been  an  enemy  but  to  herself.'  Her 
first  comedy,  the  '  Somnambule,'  an  adapta- 
tion from  the  French,  was  printed  at  Wal- 
pole's  private  press  at  Strawbeny  Hill  in 
1778,  and  acted  for  a  charitable  purpose  at 
Newmarket.  In  1779  she  published  '  Mo- 
dem Anecdotes  of  the  Family  of  Kinvervan- 
liotsprakengatchdern,  a  Tale  for  Christmas,' 
a  caricature  of  German  pomposity,  dramatised 
by  W.  P.  Andrews.  Others  of  Lady  Craven's 
plays  are  the 'Silver  Tankard,'a  musical  farce, 
produced  at  the  Hay  market  in  1781 ;  and  the 

*  Princess  of  Georgia,'  presented  on  the  occa- 
sion of  Fawcett's  benefit  at  Covent  Garden 
in  1799.  At  the  private  theatre  attached  to 
Brandenburg  House  the  margravine  pro- 
duced in  1794  a  comedy  called  the  '  York- 
shire Ghost;'   in  1799  a  pantomime  called 

*  Puss  in  Boots ; '  in  1805  a  comedy  called 
^  Love  in  a  Convent,'  and  other  works.     For 


these  plays  the  margravine  composed  the 
music.  As  she  writes  in  her  Memoirs,  pub- 
lished in  1826 :  '  My  taste  for  music  and  poe- 
try and  my  style  of  imagination  in  writing, 
chastened  by  experience,  were  great  sources 
of  delight  to  me.  .  .  .  Our  expenses  were  enor- 
mous.' The  margravine  often  took  part  in 
the  performances  at  Brandenburg  House.  In 
1796  the  comedy  of  the  '  Provoked  Wife '  was 
presented  there,  ^Irs.  Abington  lending  her 
services  as  Lady  Fanciful,  while  the  margra- 
vine appeared  as  Lady  Brute,  Tlie  comedy 
was  recfuced  to  three  acts,  and  great  import- 
ance was  assigned  to  the  character  assumed 
by  the  margravine.  Mrs.  Abington,  how- 
ever, insisted  that  certain  of  the  excisions 
should  be  restored,  so  that  her  part  of  Lady 
Fanciful  should  not  suffer.  The  margi-avine 
died  at  Naples  in  1828. 

[Memoirs  of  the  Margravine  of  Anspach,  1826  ; 
Walpole's  Letters,  1859;  Biographia  Dramatiea, 
1812  ;  Genest's  History  of  the  Stage,  1832.] 

D.  C. 


ANSTED,   DAVID    THOMAS,  F.R.S. 

(1814^1880),  a  geologist  of  considerable  re- 
putation in  his  time,  was  born  in  London  in 
1814,  educated  in  a  London  school  and  at 
Jesus  College,  Cambridge,  where  he  took  his 
degree  in  1836,  being  afterwards  elected  a 
fellow  of  his  college.  The  earlier  part  of  his 
life  was  devoted  to  educational  work.  He  was 
professor  of  geology  at  King's  College,  London, 
and  lecturer  at  Addiscombe  and  at  the  Civil 
Engineering  College  at  Putney.  From  1844 
to  1847  he  acted  as  assistant-secretary  of  the 
Geological  Society,  and  for  many  years  he 
edited  its  quarterly  j  ournal.  In  later  life,  from 
about  1850,  he  turned  to  the  practical  appli- 
cations of  geology  in  connection  with  mining, 
engineering,  water-supply,  and  the  like,  and 
was  constantly  consulted  on  such  matters 
both  in  this  country  and  abroad.  He  was  a 
prolific  author,  and  some  of  his  geological 
vsTitings  for  a  time  kept  their  place  as  stan- 
dard authorities,  while  others  of  a  popular 
character  attained  a  wide  circulation. 
Among  the  former  may  be  mentioned  his 
'  Geology '  (1844),  and  among  the  latter  his 
'Great  Stone  Book  of  Nature'  (1863).  He 
also  wrote  several  books  of  travel,  besides 
contributing  a  great  number  of  papers  to  the 
Geological  Society,  the  British  Association, 
the  Society  of  Arts,  and  other  societies.  His 
death  took  place  at  his  residence  near  Wood- 
bridge,  Suftblk,  in  May  1880. 

[Engineer  Newspaper,  xlix,  393  ;  Geol.  Mag. 
1880,  p.  336,  or  Quart.  Joum.  Geol.  See.  xxxvii. 
43 ;  Joum,  See.  Arts,  xxviii.  637.] 


Anster 


38 


Anstey 


ANSTER,  JOHN  (1793-1867),  regius 
professor  of  civil  law  in  the  university  of 
Dublin,  and  translator  of  Goethe's  *  Faust/ 
was  son  of  John  Anster,  Esq.,  of  Charleville, 
CO.  Cork,  where  he  was  born  in  1793.  He 
entered  Trinity  College,  Dublin,  in  1810,  and 
obtained  a  sholarship  in  1814.  In  1815  he 
printed  in  Dublin  a  collection  of  short  poems, 
but  thought  fit  to  have  it  suppressed  soon 
after  publication.  Four  years  later  he  ob- 
tained a  prize  offered  by  the  authorities  of 
Trinity  College  for  a  poem  on  the  death  of 
the  Princess  Charlotte;  and  in  the  same 
year,  1 819,  appeared  his  volume  of  '  Poems, 
with  some  Translations  from  the  German ' 
(Blackwood,  Edinlnirgh,  pp.  244),  which  in- 
cluded, with  several  pieces  from  the  sup- 
pressed pamphlet,  his  prize  poem,  a  blank 
verse  poem  entitled  '  The  Times '  (wi'itten 
immediately  after  the  battle  of  Waterloo), 
which  shoAVS  the  influence  of  Coleridge, 
'Zamri,'  a  fragment  of  an  Eastern  tale,  in 
Byron's  manner,  and  various  translations, 
the  most  important  of  these  being  a  render- 
ing of  Goethe's  '  Bride  of  Corinth.'  In  1820 
appeared  in  '  Blackwood's  Magazine '  trans- 
lations by  Anster  of  some  passages  from 
Goethe's  'Faust,'  the  first  rendering  into 
English  of  any  part  of  that  poem.  In  Easter 
term,  1824,  Anster  was  called  to  the  Irish 
bar ;  in  the  following  year  he  took  the  degree 
of  doctor  of  laws.  He  was  married  in  1832 
to  Elizabeth,  eldest  daughter  of  W.  Blacker 
Bennett,  Esq.,  of  Castle  Crea,  co.  Limerick. 
The  complete  translation  of  the  first  part  of 
'  Faust,'  with  notes,  appeared  in  1835  ('Faus- 
tus,  a  Dramatic  Mystery,'  Longman,  Rees, 
and  Co.,  pp.  491).  Its  high  merits  were  at  once 
recognised  (see  Edinburgh  Review,  October 
1835).  Occasionally  somcAvhat  lacking  in 
conciseness,  it  is  throughout  the  translation  of 
a  poet  by  a  poet.  Two  years  later  he  published 
*  Xeniola :  Poems,  including  translations  from 
Schiller  and  De  la  Motte  Fouqu§  '  (Dublin, 
Milliken  and  Son,  pp.  174).  It  reprints 
several  of  the  poems  of  the  1815  volume,  the 
principal  addition  being  translated  scenes 
from  rouqu6's  drama,  the  '  Pilgrimage.'  In 
the  same  year,  1837,  Dr.  Anster  was  ap- 
pointed registrar  to  the  high  court  of  admi- 
ralty in  Ireland.  From  1837  to  1856  he  was 
a  frequent  contributor  of  prose  and  verse  to 
the  '  Dublin  University  Magazine.'  Among 
these  articles,  mainly  historical  and  literary, 
may  be  found  a  series  on  Italian  poets.  At 
a  later  date,  from  1847  ouAvard,  he  contributed 
to  the  *  North  British  ReA'iew,'  first  dealing 
AA'ith  Irish  affairs  at  a  critical  moment,  1847- 
49,  then  choosing  literary  topics  ('Life  and 
"Writings  of  Shelley,'  '  SAvift  and  his  Bio- 
graphers,' *  Southey's  Life  and  Correspond- 


ence,' *  Life  and  Letters  of  Campbell,'  'Auto- 
biography of  Leigh  Hunt,'  '  Dante ').  In 
1841  Dr.  Anster  AA^as  granted  a  pension  on 
the  civil  list.  In  1850  he  Avas  elected  regius 
professor  of  cIaII  law  in  the  university  of 
Dublin,  a  position  Avliich  he  held  imtil  his 
death.  His  introductory  lecture,  'On  the 
Study  of  the  Roman  Civil  LaAv,'  has  been 
published  (Dublin,  Hodges  and  Smith,  1851, 
pp.  51).  Many  fragments  of  the  second  part 
of  '  Faust '  haA'ing  been  rendered  into  Averse 
by  Anster,  '  a  member  of  my  family,'  he 
writes,  '  became  interested  in  the  subject, 
and  felt  it  desirable  to  arrange  such  passages 
as  could  be  found  among  papers  disregarded 
and  almost  forgotten  by  me.  This  accident 
led  me  to  complete  the  poem.'  'Faustus, 
the  Second  Part,  from  the  German  of  Goethe,' 
with  copious  notes,  was  published  in  1864 
(London,  Longmans  and  Co.,  pp.  485).  "While 
adhering  more  closely  to  the  original  than 
did  the  translation  of  the  first  part,  it  pos- 
sesses a  like  poetical  quality  (revicAved  in 
Saturday  Review,  1  Oct.  1864).  The  first 
part,  long  out  of  print  in  England,  was  twice 
reprinted  in  Germany  during  Anster's  life. 
For  some  time  before  his  death  he  was  en- 
gaged in  revising  his  translation  for  a  third 
German  edition,  AA'hich  appeared  in  the 
Tauchnitz  series  (Leipzig,  1867)  after  the 
translator's  death.  Dr,  Anster  died  in  Dub- 
lin, 9  June  1867,  aged  73,  leaA'ing  two  sons 
and  three  daughters.  His  social  charm, 
kindly  wit,  and  wide  literary  culture  rendered 
Anster  a  delightful  companion.  A  portrait 
of  him  at  the  age  of  forty-six  will  be  found 
in  the  'Dublin  UniA'ersity  Magazine,'  No- 
vember 1839.  To  Wills's  '  Lives  of  Dlus- 
trious  Irishmen '  Anster  contributed  the  life 
of  Gerald,  sixteenth  Earl  of  Desmond. 

[Gent.  Mag.  August  1867  ;  Dr.  Waller,  in 
Imperial  Diet,  of  Biog. ;  materials  furnished  by 
Miss  Anster.]  E.  D. 

ANSTEY,  CHRISTOPHER  (1724- 
1805),  poet,  was  born  on  31  Oct.  1724.  He 
was  the  only  son  of  the  Rev.  Christopher 
Anstey,  D.D.,  of  Brinkley  in  Cambridgeshire, 
sometime  fellow  of  St.  John's  College,  Cam- 
bridge. He  Avent  to  school  at  Bury  St. 
Edmunds,  and  afterwards  to  Eton  as  an 
oppidan.  In  1742  he  succeeded  to  a  scholar- 
ship at  King's  College,  and  distinguished 
himself  by  the  Tripos  A'erses  he  AATote  for  the 
Cambridge  commencement  in  1745.  In  the 
same  year  he  was  admitted  fellow  of  King's, 
and  in  1746  took  his  bachelor's  degree.  The 
leading  part  which  he  played  in  opposing 
certain  alterations  of  the  college  regulations 
had  the  effect  of  preventing  him  from  ob- 
taining his  master  of  arts  degi'ee.     To  this 


Anstey 


39 


Anstey 


he  refers  in  the  Epilogue  to  the  *  New  Bath 
Guide : ' 

Granta,  sweet  Grauta,  where  studious  of  ease, 
Seven  years  did  I  sleep,  and  then  lost  my  degrees. 

Besides  the  Tripos  verses  above  referred  to, 
he  had  distinguished  himself  at  Cambridge 
by  a  Latin  poem  on  the  peace  of  1748.  He 
continued  to  be  a  fellow  of  King's,  and  oc- 
casionally resided  there  until  1754,  when  his 
mother  died,  and  having  succeeded  to  the 
family  estates,  he  resigned  his  fellowship. 

In  1756  he  married  Ann,  third  daughter 
of  Felix  Calvert,  Esq.,  of  Albury  Hall  in 
Hertfordshire,  and  for  many  years  seems  to 
have  combined  the  cultivation  of  letters  with 
the  pursuits  of  a  country  gentleman.  A 
bilious  fever,  partly  brought  on  by  the  death 
of  his  only  sister — the  Miss  Anstey  of  Mrs. 
Montagu's  letters — led  to  his  visiting  Bath, 
where  later  he  fixed  his  home.  In  1751 
Gray  had  published  his  famous  *  Elegy,'  and, 
in  1762,  in  conjunction  with  Dr.  Roberts  of 
King's,  Anstey  made  the  first  translation  of 
it  into  Latin — a  translation  which  had  the 
advantage  of  Gray's  criticisms  and  the  good 
fortune  to  elicit  an  interesting  letter  from 
the  poet,  part  of  which  is  given  in  Anstey's 

*  Works '  (Introduction,  pp.  xv-xvi,  ed.  1808). 
From  1762  to  1766  Anstey  published  nothing. 
In  1766,  however,  appeared  the  famous  series 
of  letters  in  rhyme  entitled  the  '  New  Bath 
Guide,  or  Memoirs  of  the  B — r — d  [Blunder- 
head] Family,  in  a  series  of  Poetical  Epistles.' 
It  was  composed  at  the  author's  country  seat 
of  Trumpington,  and  printed  in  quarto  at 
Cambridge.  Its  success  was  instantaneous. 
Walpole  enthusiastically  describes  it  thus  : 

*  It  is  a  set  of  letters  in  verse,  in  all  kind  of 
verses,  describing  the  life  at  IBath,  and  inci- 
dentally everything  else ;  but  so  much  wit, 
so  much  humour,  fun,  and  poetry,  so  much 
originality,  never  met  together  before.  Then 
the  man  has  a  better  ear  than  Dryden  or 
Handel.  Apropos  to  Dryden,  he  has  bur- 
lesqued his  St.  Cecilia,  that  you  will  never 
read  it  again  without  laughing.  There  is  a 
description  of  a  milliner's  box  in  all  the  terms 
of  landscape,  painted  lawns  and  chequered 
shades,  a  Moravian  ode,  and  a  Methodist 
ditty,  that  are  incomparable,  and  the  best 
names  that  ever  were  composed '  {Letter  to 
Montagu,  20  June  1766).  Gray,  too,  writes 
to  Wharton  (26  Aug.  1766):  'Have  you 
read  the  "New  Bath  Guide"?  It  is  the 
only  thing  in  fashion,  and  is  a  new  and  ori- 
ginal kind  of  humour.'  The '  new  and  original 
kind  of  humour '  has  by  this  time  grown 
somewhat  ancient  in  the  metres  of  Barham 
and  Moore  and  a  hundred  others,  and  the 
nineteenth   centuiy  reader  would   scarcely 


endorse  Walpole's  view  of  the  'Methodist 
ditty,'  which  even  in  Anstey's  day  was  some- 
times pasted  down  by  the  scrupulous ;  but 
there  can  be  no  doubt  of  the  contemporary 
popularity  of  the  book,  or  its  clever  ridicule 
of  fashion  and  her  freaks.  Dodsley,  who,  after 
the  appearance  of  the  second  edition,  paid 
the  author  200/.  for  the  copyright,  had  made 
so  much  money  by  it  ten  years  later  that  he 
gave  it  back  to  him.  Smollett  was  at  Bath 
in  1766-7,  and  it  is  admitted,  even  by  his 
biographers,  that  he  was   indebted   to  the 

*  New  Bath  Guide '  for  something  of  the 
scheme  of  '  Humphry  Clinker.' 

Anstey  never  repeated  the  success  of  the 

*  New  Bath  Guide.'  His  reputation  as  a 
rhymester  and  humorist  attracted  attention 
to  his  subsequent  performances,  but  they 
have  neither  the  freshness  nor  the  viAacity 
of  his  first  effort.  In  1767  he  published  an 
elegy  upon  the  Marquis  of  Tavistock,  who 
died  by  a  fall  from  his  horse,  and  in  the 
same  year  appeared  '  The  Patriot,'  a  '  Pindaric 
epistle'  on  prize-fighting,  addressed  to  the 
notorious  bruiser  Buckhorse.  In  1770,  in 
order  to  educate  his  children,  he  removed  to 
Bath  permanently,  and  was  one  of  the  first 
residents  in  the  Crescent.  He  continued  to 
write  verse  at  intervals,  producing,  among 
other  pieces,  'An  Election  Ball,'  1776  (in 
the   '  Bath   Guide  '   vein) ;    *  Envy,'   1778 ; 

*  Liberality,  or  the  Decayed  Macaroni ; '  and 
various  occasional  verses.  The  '  Election 
Ball '  was  a  contribution  to  that  egregious 
classic  vase  set  up  by  Mrs.  (afterwards  Lady) 
Miller  at  Batheaston,  of  which,  with  its  at- 
tendant ceremonial,  so  piquant  an  account  is 
given  by  Walpole  {Letter  to  Conway  and 
Lady  Aylesbury,  15  Jan.  1775).  It  was  il- 
lustrated with  six  copper-plates  by  C.  W. 
Bampfylde. 

Anstey  died  in  1805,  aged  81,  and  was 
buried  in  Walcot  Church,  Bath.  A  monu- 
ment was  afterwards  erected  to  him  in  Poets' 
Corner. 

[Poetical  Works  of  the  late  Christopher  An- 
stey, Esq.,  with  some  Account  of  the  Life  and 
Writings  of  the  Author  by  his  Son,  John  Anstey, 
Esq.,  1808.]  A.  D. 

ANSTEY,  JOHN  {d.  1819),  poet,  and 
second  son  of  Christopher  Anstey,  was  a 
ban-ister  of  Lincoln's  Inn  and  a  commis- 
sioner for  auditing  public  accounts.  Under 
the  pseudonym  of  'John  Surrebutter,'  he 
WTOte  '  a  didactic  poem '  in  1796,  entitled 
'  The  Pleader's  -Guide,'  further  described  as 
'  containing  the  conduct  of  a  suit  at  law, 
with  the  arguments  of  Counsellor  Bother'um 
and  Counsellor  Bore'um,  in  an  action  be- 
tween John-a-Gull  and  John-a-Gudgeon  for 


Anstey 


40 


Anstey 


assault  and  battery  at  a  late  contested  elec- 
tion.' It  has  a  gi-eat  deal  of  humour,  though 
cliiefly  of  a  legal  kind.  Porson  is  said  to 
have  known  it  by  heart,  and  Lord  Campbell 
quotes  it  in  his  '  Lives  of  the  Justices.'  John 
Anstey  also  edited  his  father's  works  in 
1808  [see  Anstey,  Christopher]. 

[Notes  and  Queries,  3rd  series,  ii.  475  ;  Gent. 
Mag.  Ixxxix.  part  ii.  669.]  A.  D. 

ANSTEY,      THOMAS      CIIISHOL^M 

(1816-1873),  lawyer  and  politician,  who  took 
a  prominent  part  in  various  political  contro- 
versies, was  the  son  of  one  of  the  earliest 
settlers  in  Van  Diemen's  Land  (Tasmania), 
and  was  born  at  London  in  1816.  He  was 
educated  at  Wellington  College  and  at  Uni- 
versity College,  London,  and  in  Hilary  term 
1839  was  called  to  the  bar  at  the  Middle 
Temple.  Although  he  had  no  personal  re- 
lations with  Oxford,  the  Oxford  movement 
greatly  affected  him,  and  he  was  one  of  the 
earliest  converts  to  Roman  Catholicism  that 
it  produced.  With  the  passionate  enthusiasm 
that  characterised  his  public  life,  he  became 
at  once  an  uncompromising  champion  of  the 
political  interests  of  the  Roman  Catholics  in 
England  and  Ireland.  Shortly  after  his  con- 
version he  was  appointed  professor  of  law  and 
jurisprudence  at  the  Roman  Catholic  College 
of  Prior  Park,  near  Bath,  and  a  series  of  six 
lectures  delivered  there  on  the  laAvs  and  con- 
stitution of  England  was  published  by  him  in 
1845.  He  issued  about  the  same  time  many 
pamphlets  on  the  legal  and  political  position 
of  the  Roman  Catholics,  one  of  which  Avas 
entitled  'A  Guide  to  the  LaAvs  affecting 
Roman  Catholics '  (1842),  and  another  '  The 
Queen's  Supremacy  considered  in  its  rela- 
tion with  tlie  Roman  Catholics  in  England  ' 
(1850).  He  also  contributed  frequently  to 
the  '  Dublin  Magazine,'  then  recently  started 
under  the  joint  superintendence  of  Cardinal 
Newman,  Daniel  O'Connell,  and  Henry  Bag- 
shawe.  On  resigning  his  professorship,  he 
appears  to  have  turned  his  attention  almost 
exclusively  to  politics.  Ireland  mainly  inte- 
rested him,  and  he  was  a  violent  supporter 
of  the  extreme  section  of  O'Connell's  fol- 
lowers. In  1846  he  denounced  the  ille- 
gality of  the  arrest  and  imprisonment  of 
W^.  Smith  O'Brien  by  order  of  the  House  of 
Commons,  for  refusing  to  serve  on  a  parlia- 
mentary committee,  in  a  short  paper  review- 
ing the  legal  aspect  of  the  question ;  and  in 
1847  his  advocacy  of  advanced  views  on 
Irish  questions  was  rewarded  by  his  elec- 
tion as  member  of  parliament  for  Youghal. 
In  the  House  of  Commons  he  rapidly  made 
himself  notorious  by  his  intemperate  attacks 
on  the   government   of   Lord   Palmerston. 


Every  step  taken  by  the  minister  in  foreign 
policy  Avas  decried  by  Anstey,  *  not  mei'ely 
as  mistaken  or  unprincipled  in  itself,  but  as 
part  of  a  deliberate  scheme  for  selling  us  to 
the  despots  of  the  continent,  and  destroying 
the  liberties  of  England  and  Europe.'  In 
his  first  session  he  attacked  Palmerstou's 
negotiations  in  connection  Avith  the  treaty 
of  Adrianople  in  a  speech  of  six  hours'  dura- 
tion. Upon  almost  CAery  subject  that  came 
before  parliament,  and  especially  on  Irish  and 
colonial  affairs,  Anstey  addressed  the  house ; 
but  his  command  of  language  and  unusual 
facility  as  a  speaker  did  not  preAent  him  be- 
coming '  a  malcontent  of  the  highest  bore- 
poAver.'  His  political  progi-amme,  on  his 
entrance  into  parliament,  included  the  repeal 
not  only  of  the  Irish,  but  also  of  the  Scotch 
union,  the  abolition  of  excise  duties,  the  re- 
duction of  the  customs,  and  the  repeal  of 
the  currency  laAvs,  and  he  ncAer  lost  what 
he  imagined  to  be  an  opportunity  to  venti- 
late his  vicAvs  on  these  topics.  In  the  House 
of  Commons  he  found  fcAv  supporters ;  but 
Mr.  David  Urquhart  and  Anstey  frequently 
acted  together  on  questions  of  foreign  policy. 
Ridiculed  repeatedly  in  '  Punch,'  Anstey 
continued  to  press  his  extraA^agant  views  on 
the  parliament  to  which  he  was  returned : 
but  on  its  dissolution  in  1852  he  retired  from 
parliamentary  life. 

Although  his  political  conduct  hardly 
seemed  to  give  him  any  claim  to  goA'erument 
office,  in  1854  Anstey  Avas  nominated  at- 
torney-general of  Hongkong;  but  his  dis- 
trust in  the  value  of  almost  all  existing 
political  institutions  Avas  there  only  con- 
firmed. According  to  his  own  account  he 
found  abuses  imbedded  in  the  whole  govern- 
ment of  the  colony  Avhich  he  resoUed  to  root 
out.  The  police,  he  declared,  connived  at 
Chinese  piracy  and  at  a  large  number  of  other 
irregularities  practised  by  the  Chinese  of  the 
district.  In  pursuit,  therefore,  of  radical  i-e- 
forms  in  the  administration  of  the  colony, 
Anstey  came  into  serious  collision  Avith  Sir 
John  BoAATing,  the  gOAernor,  and  many  of 
his  subordinates;  after  protracted  disputes 
he  Avas  suspended  in  1858  from  his  post  by 
Sir  John,  and  the  suspension  was  confirmed 
by  the  home  goAernment.  On  his  return  to 
lingland  in  1859  Anstey  represented  himself 
as  the  A'ictim  of  a  serious  political  injustice, 
and  the  matter  was  brought  before  parliament 
by  Mr.  Edwin  James.  Anstey  himself  stated 
his  A'ieAV  of  the  case  in  an  elaborate  pamphlet 
containing  a  number  of  letters  addressed  by 
him  to  the  Duke  of  ^Newcastle,  the  colonial 
secretai-y  at  the  time.  But  his  gricAance 
excited  little  interest,  and  Anstey  retired  to 
India,  to  practise  at  the  Bombay  bar.   There 


Anstice 


41 


Anstie 


he  rapidly  achieved  great  success,  and  filled 
a  temporuiy  vacancy  on  the  bench  in  1865. 
His  rapidity  of  decision  pleasurably  asto- 
nished the  suitors  of  the  court ;  but  a  too 
vigorous  denunciation  of  the  alleged  com- 
mercial immorality  of  the  presidency  of 
Bengal  led  him  into  controversies  with  all 
the  superior  officials,  and  he  was  compelled 
to  withdraw  from  liis  judicial  appointment. 
The  year  1866  he  spent  in  England,  and  threw 
himself  with  his  wonted  energy  into  the  agita- 
tion then  proceedingfor  parliamentary  reform. 
In  a  tract  entitled  'A  I*lea  for  the  Unrepre- 
sented for  the  Restitution  of  the  Franchise,' 
he  declared  himself  in  favour  of  manhood  suf- 
frage, and  attempted  to  prove  that  all  limi- 
tations of  the  franchise  were  due  to  class- 
legislation,  and  were  usurj)ations  of  original 
popular  rights.  Lord  Houghton,  although 
he  disagreed  with  its  conclusions,  character- 
ised the  pamphlet  as  'a  valuable  contribution 
to  the  argumentative  and  historical  litera- 
ture of  reform '  (Ussai/s  on  Refonn,  p.  49). 
In  another  tract,  published  in  1867,  Anstey 
severely  criticised  Disraeli's  Reform  Act  of 
1 867 ;  and  during  that  and  the  following  | 
year  he  contributed  three  important  papers  { 
to  the  '  Transactions '  of  the  Juridical  Society 
— one  on  Blackstone's  theory  of  the  omnipo- 
tence of  Parliament  (iii.  305-39),  another  on 
judicial  oaths  as  administered  to  heathen 
witnesses  (iii.  371-401),  in  which  Anstey 
advocated  the  abolition  of  all  oaths ;  and  a 
third  on  the  competence  of  colonial  legisla- 
tures to  enact  laws  in  derogation  of  common 
liability  and  common  right  (iii.  401-57). 
About  the  close  of  1868  Anstey,  who  had 
sought  in  vain  a  practice  at  the  English  bar, 
returned  to  Bombay,  and  reassumed  his  former 
j)rominent  position  at  the  bar  there.  He  died 
in  India  on  12  Aug.  1873,  and  was  deeply 
lamented  by  the  native  population  of  Bombay, 
whether  Parsees,  Hindoos,  or  Mahomedans, 
to  whom  he  had  always  been  ready  to  render 
legal  assistance.  In  spite  of  his  pugnacious 
disposition  and  unseemly  quarrels,  and  in 
spite  of  his  strange  addiction  to  multifarious 
crotchets,  *  a  real  high  honesty  of  purpose  ' 
seems  to  have  lain  at  the  bottom  of  his  ex- 
travagances. His  aims  were  invariably  legi- 
timate enough,  but  he  rarely  took  rational 
measures  to  attain  their  falfilment. 

[Times,  15  Aug.  1873;  Pall  Mall  Gazette, 
3  Sept.  1873;  Times  of  India,  14  Aug.  1873; 
Tablet,  16  Aug.  1873;  Weekly  Register,  16  Aug. 
1873;  Hansard's  Parliamentary  Debates,  1847- 
1852;  Brit.  Mus.  Cat.]  S.  L.  L. 

ANSTICE,  JOSEPH  (1808-1836),  clas- 
sical scholar,  was  bora  in  1808.  He  was 
educated  at  Westminster  School  and  Christ 


Church,  Oxford.  He  took  his  B.  A.  on  3  Feb. 
1831,  and  M.A.  on  2  April  1835.  In'1831 
he  was  appointed  professor  of  classical  litera- 
ture in  Kind's  College,  London,  a  post  which 
he  resigned  in  1835  from  ill-health.  He  died 
on  29  Feb.  1836  at  Torquay.  He  published  : 
1.  'Richard  Coiur  de  Lion'  (prize  poem), 
1828.  2.  'Introductory  Lecture  at  King's 
College,  London,'  1 831.  3.  '  Selections  from 
the  Choric  Poetry  of  the  Greek  Dramatic 
Writers,  translated  into  English  Verse,'  1832. 
4.  '  The  Influence  of  the  Roman  Conquests 
upon  Literature  and  the  Arts  in  Rome '  (in 
Oxford  English  Prize  Essays),  1836.  5.  '  The 
Child's  Christian  Year,'' 1841,  was  partly  his 
work. 

[Gent. Mag.  for  May  1836,  N.S.,  v.  652;  Josiah 
Miller's  Our  Hymns,  1866,  p.  377.]  A.  G. 

ANSTIE,  FRANCIS  EDMUND  (1833- 
1874),  physician,  was  born  at  Devizes,  Wilt- 
shire, 11  Dec.  1833,  the  son  of  Mr.  Paul 
Anstie,  a  manufacturer  belonging  to  a  family 
long  notable  for  their  attachment  to  liberal 
principles.  He  was  educated  at  a  private 
school  till  the  age  of  sixteen,  when  he  was 
apprenticed  to  his  cousin,  Mr.  Thomas  Anstie, 
a  medical  practitioner,  with  whom  he  re- 
mained three  years.  In  1853  he  entered  the 
medical  department  of  King's  College,  Lon- 
don, where  his  teachers  were  Sir  William Fei*- 
gusson,  Mr.  Bowman,  and  especially  Dr.  R.  B. 
Todd,  whose  doctrines  and  practice  produced 
a  pennanent  impression  upon  Anstie's  mind. 
He  became  M.R.C.S.  and  L.S.A.  in  1856, 
was  M.B.  London  in  1857,  M.D.  1859.  He 
was  admitted  a  member  of  the  College  of 
Physicians  in  1859,  fellow  1865.  In  1860  he 
was  elected  assistant  physician  to  the  West- 
minster Hospital,  but  did  not  become  full 
physician  till  1873.  He  was  lecturer  at  that 
school,  fii'st  on  forensic  medicine,  afterwards 
for  many  years  on  materia  medica,  and  for  a 
short  time  on  medicine.  In  1862  Anstie 
married  a  daughter  of  Mr.  AVass  of  Cromford, 
Derbyshire,  whom  he  left  a  widow  with  a 
son  and  two  daughters. 

On  his  first  entrance  into  professional  life 
Anstie  was  occupied  in  administering  chloro- 
form for  the  operations  of  Sir  William  Fer- 
gusson ;  but  he  soon  went  into  practice  as  a 
physician,  and  became  very  fully  occupied  in 
hospital  work  and  in  journalism,  being  for 
some  years  a  member  of  the  editorial  staff  of 
the '  Lancet ; '  while  in  the  last  few  years  of  his 
life  he  was  beginning  to  get  a  good  consulting 
practice.  Dr.  Anstie's  life  was  cut  short 
by  an  illness  contracted  in  the  course  of  a 
sanitary  inspection.  Some  strange  cases  of 
fatal  disease  having  occuiTed  in  the  schools 
of  the  Patriotic  Fund  at  Wandsworth,  Anstie 


Anstie 


42 


Anstie 


was  called  in  to  make  an  inspection  of  the 
buildings  and  investigate  the  causes  of  the 
epidemic.  In  making  a  post-mortem  exami- 
nation he  received  a  slight  wound,  from  the 
effects  of  which  he  died  on  12  Sept.  1874. 
The  sudden  death  of  a  man  so  full  of 
energy  and  promise  by  a  wound  received  in 
the  discharge  of  duty  caused  an  acute  and 
painful  sensation  throughout  his  own  profes- 
sion and  the  public.  Shortly  afterwards  a 
large  number  of  his  personal  friends  and 
others  raised  a  memorial  fund  in  his  honour, 
which  was  applied  for  the  benefit  of  his 
family. 

Dr.  Anstie  was  a  skilful  physician,  an 
eager  investigator,  and  a  vigorous  writer. 
Literary  work  connected  with  medicine,  in 
addition  to  regular  journalism,  occupied 
much  of  his  energy  during  his  whole  profes- 
sional life.  His  activity  was  mainly  directed 
in  three  lines — in  the  advancement  of  thera- 
peutics, in  questions  of  public  health,  and  in 
the  study  of  nervous  diseases.  In  thera- 
peutics he  began  with  investigating  the  action 
of  alcohol  on  the  body  in  health  and  disease ; 
and  in  this  he  was  a  pupil  of  Dr.  R.  B.  Todd, 
one  of  whose  leading  principles  was  the  use 
of  stimulants  in  medicine.  After  writing 
scientific  and  popular  papers  on  the  subject 
(in  the  '  London  Medical  Review,'  1862,  and 
the '  Cornhill  Magazine '  respectively),  Anstie 
brought  out  in  1864  his  important  work  on 
'  Stimulants  and  Narcotics,'  containing  the 
result  of  experiments,  observ^ations,  and  lite- 
rary research,  and  these  subjects  continued 
to  occupy  his  attention  till  the  last  year  of 
his  life. 

In  1868  he  became  joint-editor  (and  in  the 
next  year  sole  editor)  of  the  '  Practitioner,' 
a  new  journal  intended  to  advance  the  scien- 
tific study  of  therapeutics.  The  special  cha- 
racter and  importance  of  this  journal,  which 
has  done  much  to  invigorate  the  study  of 
therapeutics  in  this  country,  were  of  Anstie's 
creation. 

In  questions  of  public  health  Anstie  was 
warmly  interested ;  and  he  took  an  important 
part  in  initiating  two  important  public  reforms. 
In  1864  certain  scandals  connected  with  the 
administration  of  the  poor-law  infirmaries 
attracted  public  attention,  and  induced  the 
proprietors  of  the  '  Lancet '  to  appoint  a  com- 
mission, consisting  of  Dr.  Anstie,  Mr.  Ernest 
Hart,  and  Dr.  Carr,  to  report  on  the  subject. 
Anstie  took  the  largest  part  in  examining 
the  London  infirmaries,  and  wrote  the  re- 
port which  appeared  in  the  *  Lancet '  I  July 
I860.  Others  followed,  and  one  on  the  state 
of  Famham  workhouse,  published  in  1867, 
led  to  an  inquiiy  by  the  Poor  Law  Board, 
which  justified  the  report  of  the  '  Lancet ' 


commissioners.  These  inquiries  may  justly 
be  regarded  as  the  starting-point  of  the  move- 
ment of  reform  which  has  of  late  years  greatly 
improved  the  system  of  poor-law  medical  re- 
lief. In  1874  Anstie  brought  before  the  Col- 
lege of  Physicians  a  motion  that  the  college 
should  petition  the  prime  minister  to  provide 
some  remedy  for  the  injurious  overcrowding 
of  the  poor  in  London,  which  the  introduc- 
tion of  certain  railways  and  improvements 
had  lately  aggravated.  The  petition,  being 
adopted  and  sent  in,  was  largely  influential 
in  inducing  the  then  home  secretary,  Mr. 
Cross,  to  bring  in  a  bill  in  parliament  which 
became  law  as  an  'Act  for  facilitating  the 
Improvement  of  the  Dwellings  of  the  Work- 
ing Classes  in  large  Towns.  In  this  mo- 
mentous question,  the  solution  of  which  has 
not  yet  been  found,  Anstie  deserves  honour- 
able mention  as  a  pioneer. 

On  diseases  of  the  nervous  system  Anstie 
wrote  several  memoirs,  and  finally  a  book 
on  '  Neuralgia  and  the  Diseases  which  re- 
semble it,'  London,  1871,  on  which  his 
friends  would  be  inclined  to  rest  his  reputa- 
tion. He  also  contributed  an  article  on  the 
same  subject  to  Reynolds's '  System  of  Medi- 
cine.' The  views  which  he  expounded  in 
both  works  were  to  a  large  extent  original, 
and  doubtless  open  to  criticism;  but  many 
of  his  observations  are  of  pei*manent  value. 
In  1867  he  gave  two  lectures  at  the  College 
of  Physicians  on  the  sphygmograph. 

There  can  be  no  doubt,  however,  that  the 
completeness  of  his  scientific  work  was  much 
interfered  with  by  his  multifarious  occupa- 
tions and  the  ceaseless  literary  activity  which 
circumstances  imposed  upon  him.  Though 
finding  little  time  for  elaborate  research,  he 
was  a  zealous  advocate  of  new  and  more  ac- 
curate methods,  and  did  much  not  only  to 
make  known  the  results  of  investigation, 
but  to  stimulate  and  sustain  the  scientific 
movement  in  medicine. 

At  the  time  of  his  death  Anstie's  reputa- 
tion was  rapidly  growing,  and  was  as  great  in 
America  as  at  home.  It  is  no  secret  that 
brilliant  offers  were  made  to  induce  him  to 
accept  a  professorship  and  hospital  appoint- 
ment in  that  countiy,  which  family  reasons, 
among  others,  induced  him  to  decline.  In 
1874  he  took  part  in  the  foundation  of  the 
Medical  School  for  Women,  and  acted  with 
great  energy  as  the  first  dean  of  the  school. 

Anstie  was  a  man  of  singularly  attractive 
character.  He  was  warm-hearted  and  gene- 
rous, a  firm  friend  and  an  honourable  oppo- 
nent. Though  as  a  reformer  he  was  often  en- 
gaged in  controversy,  he  gained  the  regard  of 
the  best  among  his  antagonists  ;  one  of  whom 
wrote  after  his  death :  '  It  was  impossible  to 


Anstis 


43 


Anstis 


mistake  the  ardour  of  the  man,  or  to  doubt 
the  complete  and  A'ery  unusual  disinterested- 
ness with  -which  he  threw  himself  into  all 
his  work.' 

Besides  the  works  mentioned  above,  he 
WTote  a  very  large  number  of  papers  and  arti- 
cles, some  signed,  some  anonymous.  Among 
the  fonner  were :  1.  '  Lectures  on  Diseases 
of  the  Nei"vous  System '  (Lancet,  1872-73). 
2.  Articles  in  Eeynolds's  '  Sj'stem  of  Medi- 
cine,' vol.  ii.  1868:  Alcoholism,  Neuralgia, 
and  Hypochondriasis — the  latter  jointly  with 
Sir    William    Gull;    ibid.    vol.    iii.    1871: 

*  Pleurisy,  Pleurodynia,  Hydrothorax,  Pneu- 
mothorax, and  Hepatalgia.'  4.  '  On  the 
Hereditary  Connection  between  certain  Ner- 
vous Diseases'  (Journal  of  Mental  Science, 
Jan.  1872).  5.  '  Notes  on  Epidemics,  for  the 
use  of  the  Public,'  1866.  Several  medical 
papers  in  the  Practitioner. 

[Memoir  by  Dr.  Buzzard  (his  brother-in-law), 
Practitioner,  Jan.  1876  ;  Lancet,  19  Sept.  1874.] 

J.  F.  P. 

ANSTIS,  JOHN,  the  elder  (1669-1745), 
heraldic  writer  and  Garter  king  of  arms,  was 
born  at  St.  Neots,  Cornwall,  28  (or  29)  Sept. 
1669,  entered  Exeter  College,  Oxford,  in  1685, 
and  was  admitted  to  the  Inner  Temple  in  1688. 
Of  a  good  family,  and  possessed  of  consider- 
able fortune,  Anstis  was  chosen  one  of  the 
members  for  St.  Germains  in  1702.  Although 
a  strong  tory,  he  voted  against  the  bill  for 
the  prevention  of  occasional  conformity, 
which  caused  his  name  to  appear  among  the 

*  tackers '  in  the  prints  of  the  time.  In 
1703  Anstis  was  appointed  deputy-general  to 
the  auditors  of  the  imprest  (an  office  which 
he  never  executed),  and  one  of  the  principal 
commissioners  of  prizes.  On  2  April  1714 
he  received  a  reversionary  patent  for  the 
office  of  Garter.  In  a  letter  to  the  lord 
treasurer,  dated  14  March  1711-12,  he  ap- 
pears to  be  refeiTing  to  the  grant :  *  I  have  a 
certain  information  it  would  be  ended  forth- 
with if  the  lord  treasurer  would  honour  me 
by  speaking  to  her  majesty  at  this  time, 
which,  in  behalf  of  the  Duke  of  Norfolk,  I 
most  earnestly  desire,  and  humbly  beg  your 
lordship's  assistance  therein  '  (Nobie's  His- 
tory of  the  College  of  Arms).  From  1711  to 
1713  Anstis  represented  St.  Maw's,  and  in 
the  last  parliament  of  Queen  Anne  was  re- 
turned for  Launceston,  or  Dunheved,  being 
re-elected  at  the  accession  of  George  I.  In 
1715  he  was  suspected  of  intriguing  in  the 
cause  of  the  Pretender,  and  with  other 
gentlemen  was  thrown  into  prison.  A 
pamphleteer  of  the  time  states  that  the  '  go- 
vernment had  intimation  of  their  designs  to 
raise  an  insurrection  in  Cornwall,  the  rather 


because  their  interest  was  very  great  amongst 
the  tinners  there,  of  whom  Mr.  Anstis  was 
hereditary  high-steward  '  {A  full  and  au- 
thentick  Narrative  of  the  intended  horrid 
Conspiracy,  &c.,  1715).  While  Anstis  was 
in  prison  the  office  of  Garter  became  vacant 
by  the  death  of  Sir  Henry  St.  George.  Sir 
John  Vanbrugh,  Clarencieux  king-at-arms, 
was  appointed  to  the  vacancy,  Anstis's  claims 
being  set  aside.  But  Anstis  would  not  sub- 
mit to  this  arrangement.  He  cleared  him- 
self of  the  charge  of  treasonable  practices, 
and  then  proceeded  to  prosecute  his  claims 
with  the  utmost  vigour.  His  opponent  urged 
that  in  a  contest  in  the  time  of  Charles  II 
the  king  had  given  up  the  right  of  nomina- 
tion ;  but  Anstis  contended  that  Charles  had 
merely  waived  the  right.  After  much  delay 
the  controversy  was  at  last  terminated,  on 
20  April  1718,  in  favour  of  Anstis,  who  for 
some  time  previously  had  been  residing  in 
the  college.  In  spite  of  the  prejudice  that 
had  been  raised  against  him,  he  succeeded  in 
gaining  the  respect  and  favour  of  the  govern- 
ment. On  8  June  1727,  shortly  before  the 
death  of  George  I,  he  received  a  patent  under 
the  great  seal  securing  the  office  to  himself  and 
his  eldest  son  and  the  survivor  of  them.  In 
the  following  year  Anstis  had  a  dispute  with 
the  authorities  of  All  Souls  College,  Oxford. 
His  son,  though  of  founder's  kin,  failed  to 
secure  a  fellowship,  the  college  alleging 
that  he  was  incapacitated  for  election  by  his 
possession  of  a  patent  place  and  pension 
under  government.  The  visitor,  to  whom 
Anstis  appealed,  ruled  in  favour  of  the  college. 

Anstis  died  at  Mortlake  on  4  March  1744- 
45,  and  was  buried  at  Dulo,  in  Cornwall. 
He  married  Elizabeth,  daughter  and  heiress 
of  Richard  Cudlipp,  of  Tavistock,  Devon- 
shire, by  whom  he  had  three  sons  and  three 
daughters. 

Anstis  was  a  man  of  the  greatest  learning 
and  industry.  His  published  works  were 
considerable,  but  his  manuscript  collections 
were  still  more  extensive.  In  1706  he  pub- 
lished '  A  Letter  concerning  the  Honour  of 
Earl  Marshal ; '  in  1720  '  The  Form  of  the 
Installation  of  the  Garter;'  in  1724  'The 
Register  of  the  Most  Noble  Order  of  the 
Garter,  from  its  cover  in  black  velvet  usually 
called  the  Black  Book ;  with  Notes  placed 
at  the  bottom  of  the  pages,  and  an  Intro- 
duction prefixed  by  the  Editor,'  a  work  in 
two  folio  volumes,  published  at  the  editor's 
expense ;  in  1725  '  Observations  introductory 
to  an  Historical  Essay  on  the  Knighthood  of 
the  Bath.'  '  Sixty-four  pages,'  says  Noble, 
*  of  his  Latin  Answer  "  to  the  case  of 
Founders'  Kinsmen"  were  printed  in  4to, 
with    many   coats    of    arms ; '    and    Watt 


Anstis 


44 


Anstis 


mentions   among  Anstis's   books   a  quai'to 
published  in  1724,  '  Brook's  Errors  of  Cam- 
den, with  Camden's  Answer  and  Brook's  Re- 
ply.'    In  1702  a  few  sheets  were  published 
of  a  work   entitled  '  Curia   Militaris,  or   a 
Treatise  of  the  Court  of  Chivalry,  in  three 
books.'     Noble  states  that  the  whole  work 
was  printed  privately  in  1702,  but  no  copy  is 
known   to   exist.     In  Gutch's  'Collectanea 
Curiosa,'  ii.  186,  is  a  history  of  visitation 
books,  under  the  title,  '  Nomenclator  Fecia- 
lium  qui  Angli.ie  et  Wallise  comitatus  A'isi- 
tarunt,   quo   anno    et    ubi   autographa   seu 
apographa  reperiuntur,  per  Johannem  Anstis, 
Garter.  Principal.  Regem  Armorum  Anglica- 
norum,'  from  a  manuscript  in  tlie  library  of 
All  Souls  College.     Leland's  '  Collectanea,' 
v.  325,  337,  contains  'An  Account  of  the 
Ceremonial  of  the  Marriage  between  Frede- 
rick, Count  Palatine  of  the  Rhine,  and  the 
Princess  Elizabeth,  eldest  daughter  of  King 
James  I,  in  the  year  1613,'  and  '  Ceremonial 
of  the  Marriage  between  William,  only  son 
of  Frederick-Henry,  Prince  of  Orange,  and 
Mary,  eldest  daugliter  of  King  Charles  I,  the 
2nd  of  May  1641,'  drawn  up  by  Anstis  in  1733 
from  original  manuscripts  in  the  possession 
of  Joseph   Edmondson,   Mowbray   Herald. 
In  the  '  Gentleman's  Magazine,'  Ixix.   194, 
there  appeared  some  extracts  from  a  letter  of 
Anstis,  dated  13  Nov.  1731,  'in  Avliich  he 
answers  queries  that  had  been  proposed  to 
him  as  to  the  pretensions  a  dean  of  West- 
minster might  have  to  bear  the  insignia  of 
the  Bath;  and,  supposing  them  to  be  well 
founded,  in  what  manner  the  sliield  was  to 
be  exhibited  upon  a  sepulchral  monument.' 
Anstis  left    in    manuscript    the   following 
works :  1.  '  Aspilogia,  a  Discourse  upon  Seals 
in  England,'  of  which  an  abstract  was  read 
before  the  Society  of  Antiquaries  in  1735-6. 
2.  Two  folio  volumes  of  drawings  of  sepul- 
chral monuments,  stone  circles,  crosses,  and 
castles  in  the  three  kingdoms,  extracts  from 
which  are  printed  in  the  '  Archseologia,'  xiii. 
208.     3.  A  collection  of  epitaphs  and  other 
inscriptions    in   England   and   Wales   (fac- 
similes).     4.  'Collectanea,  in  sixteen   folio 
volumes,  respecting  almost  every  subject  of 
English  History,  .Jurisprudence,  Chronology, 
Ecclesiastical  and  Military  Affairs.'     o,  '  Si- 
gilla  in  officio  Ducatus  Lancastriae,'  a  cata- 
logue of  ancient  seals,  deeds,  and  charters. 
6.  '  Pedigree  of  the  Anstis  Family.'     7.  A 
treatise  on  the  name,  origin,  and  duties  of  the 
Earl  Marshall.     8.  An  article  on  the  estate 
and  degree  of  a  serjeant-at-law.     9.     A  pe- 
tition relative  to  the  visitatorial  power  of 
All  Souls  College.    These  manuscripts  came 
into  the  possession  of  Thomas  Astle  at  the 
sale  of  Anstis's  libraiy  in  1768,  and  are  now 


in  the  Stowe  collection  (British  Museum). 
Besides  these  were  (10)  five  large  folio 
volumes,  on  the  '  Office,  &c.,  of  Garter  King- 
at-Arms,  of  Heralds  and  Pursuivants,  in  this 
and  other  Kingdoms,  both  Royal,  Princely, 
and  such  as  belonged  to  our  Nobility,'  that 
were  acquired  by  George  Nayler,  York  He- 
rald, who  allowed  the  use  of  them  to  Noble 
for  his  '  History  of  the  College  of  Arms.' 
11.  'Memoirs  of  the  Families  of  Talbot, 
Carew,  Granville,  and  Courtney.'  12.  '  The 
Antiquities  of  Cornwall.'  13.  '  Collections 
relating  to  the  Parish  of  Colliton,  in  Devon- 
shire,' dealing  with  the  question  of  tithes, 
which  had  been  the  subject  of  a  dispute  be- 
tween the  parishioners  and  his  son,  the  Rev. 
George  Anstis,  the  vicar.  14.  'Collections 
relating  to  All  Souls  College,'  purchased  for 
the  college.  15.  '  Heraldic,  Genealogical,  and 
Historical  Collections,'  British  Museum  Add. 
MSS.  12227,  14291,  19818;  collections  for  a 
treatise  '  De  Baroniis,'  24964.  Some  letters 
of  Anstis's  are  printed  in  Nichols's 'Literary 
Anecdotes,'  v.  271. 

Pope  alludes  to  Anstis  in  the  '  Imitations 
of  Horace : ' — 

A  man  of  wealth  is  dubbed  a  man  of  worth, 
Venus  shall  give  him  form,  and  Anstis  birth ; 

and  Prior  mentions  him  in  an  epigram  : — 

But  coronets  we  owe  to  crowns, 
And  favour  to  a  court's  affection. 

By  nature  we  are  Adam's  sons, 
And  sons  of  Anstis  by  election. 

There  is  a  portrait  of  Anstis  at  Oxford 
and  in  the  hall  of  the  College  of  Arms. 

[Noble's  History  of  the  College  of  Arms,  376- 
79  ;  Nichols's  Literary  Anecdotes,  ii.  706-7,  v. 
269-72;  O'Conor's  Bibliotlieea  MS.  Stowensis; 
Full  and  authentic  Narrative  of  the  intended 
horrid  Conspiracy,  171o;  Archaeologia,  i.  xxviii; 
"Watt's  Bibliotheca  Britannica  ;  BuiTOWs's  "Wor- 
thies of  All  Souls,  406-8].  A.  H.  B. 

ANSTIS,  JOHN,  the  younger  (1708- 
1754),  son  of  John  Anstis  the  elder,  was 
born  about  1708,  became  a  gentleman-com- 
moner of  Corpus  Christi  College,  Oxford,  and 
in  1725,  at  the  revival  of  the  order  of  the 
Bath,  was  made  genealogist  and  registrar. 
By  virtue  of  the  grant  passed  in  1727  he  was 
joined  with  his  father  m  the  office  of  Garter. 
He  was  elected  a  fellow  of  the  Society  of  An- 
tiquaries on  21  Julv  1736,  and  was  presented 
with  the  degree  of  LL.D.  on  22  April  1749, 
on  the  occasion  of  the  opening  of  the  Rad- 
clifFe  library.  When  invested  with  the  order 
of  the  Garter,  the  Margrave  of  Anspach  pre- 
sented Anstis  Avith  three  hundred  ducats,  a 
gold-hilted  sword,  and  one  hundred  ducats, 
'in   lieu   of  his  upper  robe,  which  Garter 


Anstruther 


45 


Anstruther 


claimed  as  belonginj^  to  him  by  virtue  of 
his  office.'  He  resided  for  the  most  part 
at  Morthike,  where  he  died  on  5  Dec.  1/54, 
having  shortened  his  days  by  excessive  in- 
dulgence in  wine.  Anstis's  abilities  com- 
manded respect,  but  his  '  violent  vindictive- 
ness '  made  him  many  enemies,  especially 
among  his  colleagues  at  the  Heralds'  Col- 
lege. He  died  a  bachelor,  and  his  bi-other 
George,  vicar  of  Coliton,  Devonshire,  became 
his  heir. 

[Noble's  History  of  the  College  of  Arms,  pp. 
379-80  ;  Nichols's  Anecdotes,  v.  272,  &c.] 

A.  H.  B. 

ANSTRUTHER,    Sir   ALEXAKDER 

(1769-1819),  Anglo-Indian  judge,  was  the 
second  son  of  Sir  Robert  Anstruther,  bart., 
of  Balcaskie,  Fifeshire.  He  was  bom  10  Sept. 
1769;  called  to  the  bar  at  Lincoln's  Inn,  and 
])ublished  '  Reports  of  Cases  argued  and  de- 
termined in  the  Court  of  Exchequer,  from 
Easter  Term  32  George  III  to  Trinity  Term 
37  George  III,  both  inclusive,'  which  were 
published  in  three  volumes  in  1796  and  1797, 
and  were  reprinted  for  a  second  edition  in 
1817.  The  work  is  a  careful  and  accurate 
compilation,  and  was  for  many  years  a  useful 
legal  authority.  Anstruther  went  out  to 
India  in  1798,  and  was  appointed  advocate- 
general  at  Madras  in  1803;  in  March  1812  he 
succeeded  Sir  James  ^Mackintosh  as  recorder 
of  Bombay,  and  Avas  knighted ;  he  died  at 
Mauritius  on  16  July  1819.  "While  on  his 
voyage  out  to  India  he  wrote  a  small  work 
on  '  Light,  Heat,  and  Electricity.' 

[Calcutta  Monthly  Journal,  August  1819; 
Asiatic  Journal.  May  1820;  David  Jardine  in 
Soc.  D.  U.  K.  Diet.]  J.  S.  C. 

ANSTRUTHER,  Sik  JOHN  (1753- 
1811),  politician  and  Anglo-Indian  judge, 
was  the  second  son  of  Sir  John  Anstruther, 
bart.,  of  Elie  House,  Fifeshire.  He  was 
bom  27  March  1753;  educated  at  Glasgow 
University  under  Professor  Millar ;  called 
to  the  bar  at  Lincoln's  Inn  in  1 779  ;  prac- 
tised chiefly  before  the  House  of  Lords  in 
Scotch  appeals :  and  was  M.P.  for  Cocker- 
mouth,  1790-96.  He  was  an  active  supporter 
of  Fox,  and  one  of  the  managers  appointed 
to  conduct  the  impeachment  of  Warren 
Hastings,  his  duty  being  to  sum  up  the 
evidence  on  the  charge  relating  to  Benares, 
and  to  open  the  charge  relating  to  presents. 
In  1797  he  was  appointed  chief  justice  of 
Bengal,  and  created  a  baronet;  in  1806  he 
returned  to  England :  was  immediately  sworn 
on  the  privy  council,  and  re-entered  par- 
liament as  member  for  the  Kilrenny  district 


of  burghs.  In  1808  he  succeeded  to  hia 
father's  baronetcy;  and  died  in  London 
26  Jan.  1811. 

[Gent,  Mag.  Ixxxi.  683,  Ixxxii.  494.] 

J.  S.  C. 

ANSTRUTHER,  ROBERT  (1768-1809), 
general,  Avas  the  eldest  son  of  Sir  Robert 
Anstruther,  Bart.,  M.P.,  and  Lady  Janet 
Erskine,  daughter  of  the  Earl  of  Kellie,  and 
was  born  in  1768.  He  was  educated  at 
Westminster,  but  early  showed  a  taste  for  a 
military  life,  and  in  1788  his  father  purchased 
for  him  an  ensigncy,  and  in  1792  the  rank  of 
lieutenant  and  captain  in  the  3rd  or  Scots 
guards.  He  led  the  usual  life  of  a  young 
officer  in  the  guards,  but  at  the  same  time 
paid  great  attention  to  his  military  duties. 
He  served  with  his  regiment  in  the  cam- 
paigns of  1793  and  1794  in  Flanders,  and 
in  1796  was  for  a  short  time  attached  to  the 
Austrian  head-quarters,  but,  seeing  no  further 
chance  of  active  service  in  the  guards,  he 
purchased,  in  March  1797,  a  majority,  and 
in  August  of  the  same  year  a  lieutenant- 
colonelcy  in  the  68th  regiment,  with  which 
he  served  in  the  West  Indies,  where  he 
attracted  the  attention  of  Sir  Ralph  Aber- 
cromby.  In  August  1799,  hearing  that  the 
guards  were  going  on  active  service,  he  ex- 
changed into  his  old  regiment  as  captain  and 
lieutenant-colonel,  and  served  with  it  in  the 
expedition  to  the  Helder.  In  the  same  year 
he  married  ]Miss  Hamilton,  the  daughter  of 
Colonel  Hamilton,  of  the  guards,  a  nephew 
of  the  Duke  of  Hamilton.  Tlie  next  year, 
though  only  a  lieutenant-colonel,  he  was 
selected  by  Sir  Ralph  Abercromby  to  be 
quartermaster-general  of  his  army  in  the  Me- 
diterranean, at  the  same  time  that  another 
young  Scotchman,  John  Hope,  who  was  also 
to  gain  fame  in  Moore's  retreat,  was  nomi- 
nated adjutant -general.  Sir  Ralph  placed 
the  greatest  confidence  in  Anstrutlier,  and  it 
was  mainly  on  his  report,  after  a  visit  to  the 
Turkish  headquarters,  that  the  Turks  would 
not  be  ready  for  a  long  time,  if  they  could 
be  of  any  use  at  all,  that  Sir  Ralph  left 
Marmorice  Bay  and  determined  to  act  alone. 
Through  the  whole  Egj-ptian  campaioii  he 
served  with  the  greatest  credit,  and  was 
made  one  of  the  first  knights  of  the  Crescent 
when  the  sultan  established  that  order.  On 
his  return  he  was  promoted  colonel,  Avas 
made  first  deputy  quartermaster-general  in 
England,  and  then  adjutant-general  in  Ire- 
land, and  spent  some  yeai's  of  domestic  hap- 
piness at  home.  But  he  failed  in  his  at- 
tempt to  obtain  actiAe employment, imtil, on 
the  return  of  the  tories  to  power  in  1807,  he^ 
was  appointed  brigadier-general,  and  ordered 


Anstruther 


46 


Anstruther 


to  take  comm.and  of  a  brigade  consisting  of 
the  20th  and  52nd  regiments,  and  four  com- 
panies of  the  95th  or  rifle  regiment,  which 
■was  about  to  sail  to  the  assistance  of  Sir 
Arthur  Wellesley  in  Portugal. 

He  embarked  at  Ramsgate  in  August  1808, 
and,  on  reaching  the  mouth  of  the  Douro  in 
company  with  Brigadier-general  Acland, 
found  orders  from  General  Wellesley  to  pro- 
ceed at  once  down  the  coast  to  Maceira  Bay. 
Wellesley  himself  had,  after  his  success  at 
Hori^a,  marched  along  the  coast,  for  he  wished 
to  receive  reinforcements  before  he  either 
attacked  Lisbon  or  engaged  Junot's  whole 
army.  At  Paymayo  and  Maceira  accordingly 
Anstruther  and  Acland  met  Wellesley  and 
disembarked  their  brigades,  though  with 
much  difficulty  and  loss  from  the  heavy 
surf.  When  disembarked,  Wellesley  formed 
his  whole  army  in  a  strong  position  at  Vi- 
meiro,  and  awaited  the  attack  which  Junot 
was  meditating.  At  the  battle  of  Vimeiro, 
the  churchyard  which  formed  the  key  of  the 
English  situation  was  occuped  by  the  bri- 
gades of  Fane  and  Anstruther,  and  on  them 
fell  the  brunt  of  Junot's  attack.  The  French 
were,  however,  repulsed  with  heavy  loss,  and 
Anstruther  proved  his  ability  as  a  brigadier. 
On  the  arrival  of  Moore,  Burrard,  and  Dal- 
rymple,  the  army  was  re-divided,  and  An- 
struther had  the  other  companies  of  the  95th 
given  to  him,  and  was  put  under  the  orders 
of  Edward  Paget,  who  was  to  command  the 
reserve.  On  the  advance  into  Spain,  Paget 
led  his  brigades  by  way  of  Elvas  and  Alcan- 
tara, to  join  Moore  at  Salamanca. 

It  was  in  the  retreat  from  Salamanca,  or 
rather  from  Toro,  that  Anstruther's  most  im- 
portant military  duties  were  performed.  The 
reserve  was  ordered  to  form  the  rear  division, 
and  Anstruther's  brigade  actually  closed  the 
retreat.  The  conduct  of  the  troops  was  now 
severely  tried,  but  the  reserve  stood  the  test 
well.  While  the  leading  divisions  were  per- 
petually in  disorder,  the  reserve,  of  which 
both  officers  and  men  had  been  trained  by 
Sir  John  Moore  himself  at  Shorncliffii,  main- 
tained perfect  discipline,  and  in  Anstruther's 
brigade  served  two  of  the  regiments,  the 
52nd  and  95th,  Avhich  were  to  form  the 
nucleus  of  the  famous  light  division  under 
Wellington.  As  far  as  Lugo,  the  French 
were  never  a  day's  march  behind,  every  day 
saw  sharp  skirmishes,  and  there  were  at  least 
two  smart  engagements  at  Oacabelos  on 
3  June  and  Constantino  on  5  June,  in  which 
the  reserve  and  cavalry  were  alone  con- 
cerned. General  Anstruther  proved  himself  a 
model  officer,  and  Moore  declared  that  to 
the  conduct  of  the  reserve,  and  of  Paget  and 
Anstruther  in  particular,  the  safe  arrival  of 


the  army  at  Corunna  was  due.  But  the  ex- 
ertions of  this  trying  time  were  too  much  for 
General  Anstruther,  and  on  14  June,  the  day 
but  one  after  he  had  led  his  brigade  into 
Corunna,  and  the  day  but  one  before  the 
battle,  he  died  from  fatigue  and  exhaustion. 
He  was  buried  at  Corunna,  and  when  Moore 
was  himself  dying,  he  expressed  a  wish  to 
be  buried  beside  his  gallant  friend  and  com- 
panion, so  that  the  column  erected  by  Mar- 
shal Soult  over  Moore's  remains  marks  also 
the  grave  of  Robert  Anstruther.  He  pre- 
sents a  singular  instance  of  military  devo- 
tion ;  with  wealth,  domestic  happiness,  and 
a  certain  seat  in  parliament,  he  preferred  to 
risk  his  life  and  lose  it  in  the  service  of  his 
country. 

[There  is  a  short  sketch  of  Anstruther's  career 
in  the  Royal  Military  Panorama,  vol.  iv.  For 
his  more  important  services  in  the  Peninsula  see 
Napier,  book  ii.  chap.  5,  and  book  iv.] 

H.  M.  S. 

^ANSTRUTHER,  Sir  WH^LIAM  {d. 
1711),  judge,  of  a  very  ancient  Scottish 
family,  was  the  son  of  Sir  Philip  Anstruther 
of  Anstruther,  a  royalist  who  was  taken 
prisoner  at  the  battle  of  Worcester,  had  his 
estates  sequestered  by  Cromwell  and  restored 
to  him  by  Charles  it,  and  died  in  1702.  Sir 
William  represented  the  county  of  Fife  in 
parliament  m  1681,  and  strongly  opposed  the 
measures  of  James,  Duke  of  York,  then  lord 
high  commissioner  in  Scotland.  He  was 
again  returned  for  that  county  in  1689,  and 
continued  to  represent  it  until  the  union 
(1707).  In  the  revolution  of  1688,  Sir  Wil- 
liam took  the  side  of  the  Prince  of  Orange, 
and  was  rewarded  by  being  appointed  one  of 
the  ordinary  lords  of  session  (22  Oct.  1689), 
and  later  a  member  of  the  privy  council.  In 
1694  he  was  created  baronet  of  Nova  Scotia. 
In  1704  he  was  nominated  one  of  the  lords  of 
justiciary  in  the  room  of  Lord  Aberuchil.  By 
a  charter  under  the  great  seal  dated  20  April 

1704,  and  ratified   by  parliament  14  Sept. 

1705,  the  baronies  of  Anstruther  and  Ardross 
and  the  office  of  bailliary  of  the  lordship  of 
Pittenweem,  with  certain  minor  estates, 
rights,  and  privileges,  and  the  office  of  carver 
and  master  of  the  household  to  her  majesty 
and  her  heirs,  were  granted  to  Sir  William 
Anstruther  and  his  heirs  for  ever.  Sir  Wil- 
liam Anstruther  was  strongly  in  favour  of 
the  union,  and  his  name  appears  frequently 
in  the  division  lists  during  the  period  when 
the  question  was  agitating  the  Scotch  parlia- 
ment. He  was  the  author  of  a  volume  of 
essays,  interspersed  with  verse,  published  in 
1701  under  the  title  of  '  Essays,  Moral  and 
Divine,'   of  which  his  friends   thought   so 


Anthony 


47 


Anthony 


})oorly  that  in  his  own  intei-est  they  begged 
lim  not  to  publish  it ;  and  it  is  said  that 
after  the  death  of  the  judge,  which  happened 
in  1711,  his  son  bought  up  all  purchasable 
copies  and  suppressed  the  work.  The  con- 
tents of  the  volume  were  as  follows  : 
(1)  Against  Atheism  ;  (2)  Of  Providence  ; 
(3)  Of  Ijearning  and  Religion ;  (4)  Of 
Trifling  Studies,  Stage  Plays,  and  Romances; 
(5)  Of  the  Incarnation  of  Jesus  Christ  and 
the  Redemption  of  Mankind.  Sir  William 
was  married  to  Helen  Hamilton,  daughter  of 
John,  fourth  Earl  of  Haddington. 

[Douglas's  Baronage  of  Scot  land,  316;  Brunton 
and  Haig's  Senators  of  the  College  of  Justice  ; 
Acts  of  the  Parliaments  of  Scotland,  VIII,  IX, 
X,  XI,  232,  255-6,  321-422;  Melville  Papers 
(1689-91).  307;  Hume  of  Crossrigg's  Diary 
(1700-1707),  33,  40;  Beatson's  Political  Index, 
iii.  76,  112;  Haydn's  Book  of  Dignities,  413; 
Anderson's  Scottish  Nation.]  J.  M.  E. 

ANTHONY,  FRANCIS  (1550-1623),  a 
noted  empiric  and  chemical  physician,  was 
born  in  London  16  April  1550,  the  son  of  a 
goldsmith,  who  had  a  place  in  the  jewel  office 
under  Queen  Elizabeth.  He  studied  at  Cam- 
bridge and  became  M.A.  1574.  He  is  said 
to  have  been  afterwards  M.D.  in  one  of  our 
universities,  but  in  which  does  not  appear. 
His  knowledge  of  chemistry  was  presumably 
derived  from  his  father.  He  commenced 
medical  practice  in  London  without  a  license 
from  the  College  of  Physicians ;  and  after  six 
months  was  called  before  the  president  and 
censors  of  the  college  (a.d.  1600),  when, 
being  examined  in  medicine  and  found  igno- 
rant, he  was  interdicted  practice.  For  dis- 
regarding this  injunction,  he  was  fined  five 
pounds  and  committed  to  prison,  whence  he 
was  released  by  a  warrant  of  the  lord  chief 
justice.  The  college,  however,  got  him  re- 
committed, and  Anthony  submitted.  Being 
again  prosecuted  for  the  same  offence  and  re- 
fusing to  pay  a  heavy  fine,  he  was  kept  in 
prison  for  eight  months,  till  released  at  the 
petition  of  his  wife,  and  on  the  gi-ound  of 
poverty,  in  1602.  He  continued  to  practise 
in  defiance  of  the  college,  and  further  proceed- 
ings were  threatened,  but  not  carried  out,  pro- 
bably because  Anthony  had  powerful  friends 
at  court.  His  practice  consisted  chiefly,  if 
not  entirely,  in  the  prescription  and  sale  of 
a  secret  remedy  called  aurum  potabile,  from 
which  he  derived  a  considerable  fortune.  He 
died  26  May  1623,  leaving  two  sons :  John, 
who  became  a  physician  in  London  [see  An- 
thony, John]  ;  and  Charles,  who  practised 
at  Bedford.  According  to  the  writer  in  the 
'  Biographia  Britannica '  (1747,  i.  169),  who 
professes  to  have   derived  his  information 


j  from  family  manuscripts,  Anthony  was  a 
man  of  high  character  and  very  liberal  to 
the  poor. 

The  career  of  Anthony  and  his  con  fl  ict  with 
'  the  College  of  Physicians  illustrate  the  con- 
,  ditions  of  the  medical  profession  in  the  seven- 
I  teenth  century.  He  was  obnoxious  to  the 
j  college,  not  only  because  he  practised  with- 
I  out  a  license,  or  because  he  lauded  chemical 
;  renaedies  and  despised  the  traditional  '  Ga- 
■lenical' — i.e.  animal  and  vegetable  drugs — 
'  but  because  he  kept  the  composition  of  his 
remedy  a  secret,  and  put  it  forward  as  a  pa- 
nacea for  all  diseases.  Anthony  was  a  man 
'  of  some  learning,  and  defended  his  panacea 
i  in  several  pamphlets,  in  which  he  quotes  many 
authors,  chiefly  chemists,  as  Raymond  Lully 
and  Arnold  de  Villa  Nova,  in  support  of  his 
contention.  He  refers  to  Paracelsus  with  an 
apology,  but  disclaims  any  special  debt  to  him ; 
and  among  other  authorities  to  Conrad  Gesner, 
who  had  Avi-itten  of  aunim  potabile  {The 
Treasure  of  Uuonyjnu-s, Liondon,  1565,  p.  177). 
Of  these  tracts,  the  two  earlier  {Fr.  Antonii 
Londinensis  Panacea  Aurea,  Hamburg,  1598; 
and  Medicines  Chymiece  et  veri  potabilis  Auri 
assertio,  Cambridge,  1610)  are  probably  very 
rare,  and  the  present  writer  has  not  been  able 
to  find  them  ;  but  the  latter  is  known  from 
the  answer  to  it  published  by  Matthew 
Gwinne  {Awuni  non  Aurum  •  In  Assertore7n 
Chymiece,  sed  vercs  Medicince  desertorem,  Fr. 
Anthonium,  Londini,  1611).  His  later  book 
{Apologia  Veritatis  illucescentis  pro  Auro  Po- 
tabili,  London,  1616 ;  also  in  English  the  Apo- 
loyie  or  Defence,  8j-c.  of  Aurum  Potabile,  same 
date)  is  well  known.  In  these  Anthony  la- 
bours to  show  that  metals  are  excellent  medi- 
cines, gold  most  of  all ;  that  by  his  method  it 
was  dissolved  in  a  potable  form  and  furnished 
a  universal  medicine.  His  adversaries  denied 
the  superiority  of  metallic  to  other  medicines 
and  the  special  efficacy  of  gold,  declared 
that  Anthony's  method  did  not  dissolve  gold, 
and  there  was  no  such  thing  as  a  universal 
medicine.  Anthony  offered  to  demonstrate 
his  process  to  cei'tain  select  witnesses  ;  and 
it  appears  that  a  trial  actually  took  place  at 
the  (College  of  Physicians  in  1609,  in  the  pre- 
sence of '  Baron '  Thomas  Knivet,  the  master 
of  the  mint,  and  other  skilled  persons,  when 
an  ounce  of  gold  was  given  to  Anthony, 
which,  by  his  method,  he  failed  to  dissolve 
(Gwinne,  Aurum  non  Aurum,  p.  169).  The 
process  is  indeed  given  in  the  'Biographia 
Britannica,'  ostensibly  on  the  authority  of  a 
manuscript  of  Anthony's  own ;  and  it  is 
evident  that  as  there  described  the  ultimate 
product  could  not  contain  any  gold.  The 
efficacy  of  the  remedy,  if  any,  as  a  cordial, 
was  possibly  due   to  certain   ethers  which 


Anthony 


48 


Appleton 


would  be  formed  in  the  process  of  distilla- 
tion, and  also  to  the  good  canary  wine  in 
which  it  was  ultimately  dissolved.  In  An- 
thony's last  work  he  relates  the  history  of 
numerous  cures  which  he  says  he  performed 
on  various  distinguished  persons.  This  brought 
upon  liim  a  violent  attack  from  a  Dr.  Cotta, 
one  of  whose  patients  was  spoken  of.  In 
spite  of  these  attacks  the  potable  gold  became 
a  very  popular  remedy. 

The  popular  belief  in  the  virtues  of  gold, 
though  btised  on  fanciful  grounds,  was  too 
deeply  rooted  to  be  shaken,  and  even  Robert 
Boyle,  in  1685,  says  that,  though  prejudiced 
against  '  aurum  potabiles  and  the  like '  (sic), 
he  found  a  certain  tincture  of  gold  which  had 
marvellous  effects  (Botle  on  Specijlck  Me- 
dicines, London,  I680).  It  is  now  known 
that  preparations  of  gold  have  some,  though 
not  very  potent,  medicinal  properties ;  but 
cei'tainly  not  the  marvellous  powers  attri- 
buted to  preparations  which,  after  all,  did 
not  contain  it. 

[Goodall's  Royal  College  of  Physicians,  Lon- 
don, and  an  HistoricHl  Account  cf  the  College's 
Proceedings  against  Empiricks,  &c.,  London, 
1684;  Biogr.  ]3ntannica,  1747  ;  Wood's  Athense 
Oxonienses,  «.  v.  'Gwinne,'  i.  513,  ed.  1721; 
Cotta's  Antiapology,  showing  the  Counterfeits 
ness  of  Dr.  Anthony's  Aurum  Potabile,  Oxford, 
1623.]  J.  F.  P. 


ANTHONY,  JOHN  (1585-165o),  phy- 
sician, was  the  son  of  Francis  Anthony.  He 
was  educated  at  Pembroke  College,  Cam- 
bridge; graduated  M.B.  1613,  M.D.  1619; 
was  admitted  licentiate  of  College  of  Phy- 
sicians, London,  1625.      According  to   the 

*  Biographia  Britannica '  he  gained  a  hand- 
some income  from  the  sale  of  his  father's 

*  Aurimi  Potabile ; '  according  to  Dr.  Munk, 
he  succeeded  to  the  more  reputable  part  of  his 
fatliei''s  practice.  A  John  Anthony  served 
in  the  civil  war,  on  the  parliamentary  side,  as 
surgeon  to  Colonel  Sandys  {Mercurius  Rus- 
ticus,  ed.  1685,  p.  125).  He  was  the  author  of 
a  devotional  work, '  The  Comfort  of  the  Soul, 
laid  down  by  way  of  Meditation  ...  by 
John  Anthony,  Dr.  of  Physiclc,  London,  1654, 
4to.'  The  same  work  in  the  same  impression 
was  afterwai'ds  issued  with  a  new  title-page 
as  '  Lucas  Redivivus,  or  the  Gospell  Phy- 
sitian,  by  J.  A.,  Dr.  of  Physick,  London, 
1656,  4to.'  In  the  British  Museum  (Sloane 
MS.  489)  is  a  small  note-book,  bound  with 
the  arms  of  Charles  I,  entitled  '  Joannis  An- 
tonii  Praxis  Medica,' containing  notes  in  Latin 
on  various  diseases  and  their  treatment.  In 
it  Paracelsus  is  quoted  as  the  authority  for  a 
certain  prescription.    The  notes  are  evidently 


for  private  use,  not  intended  for  publication, 
but  clearly  belong  to  this  John  Anthony. 

[Biog.  Britannica  ;  Munk's  Roll  of  College  of 
Physicians,  2nd  ed.  i.  185.]  J.  F.  P. 

ANTON,  ROBERT  (J?.  1616),  poetical 
writer,  supposed  to  have  been  a  son  of  George 
Anton,  recorder  of  Lincoln,  graduated  B.A. 
of  Magdalene  College,  Cambridge,  in  1609-1 0. 
He  is  the  author  of  a  quarto  volume  of  satires, 
published  in  1616,  under  the  title  of  the 
'  Philosophers  Satyrs.'  A  second  edition  a]>- 
peared  in  the  folloAving  year,  bearing  the  title 
'  Vices  Anatomic  Scourged  and  Corrected  in 
New  Satires.'  There  are  seven  pieces,  each 
being  named  after  one  of  the  seven  planets 
(an  idea  borrowed  from  Ariosto).  The  chief 
interest  of  the  book,  which  is  wT-itten  in 
curiously  strained  language,  lies  in  the  re- 
ferences to  Beaumont,  Spenser,  Jonson, 
Chapman,  and  Daniel.  One  Shakespearian 
allusion  occurs — '  What  Comedies  of  errors 
swell  the  stage,'  tfec.  There  is  preserved  in 
Sir  Charles  Isham's  library  at  Lamport  Hall 
a  unique  prose  tract  of  Anton's,  in  black 
letter,  entitled  *  Moriomachia,  imprinted  at 
London  by  Simon  Stafford,  1613,'  4to. 

[Corser's  Collectanea ;  Hazlitt's  Second  Series 
of  Bibliographical  Collections  ;  Cooper's  New 
Biographical  Dictionary.]  A.  H.  B. 

ANTRIM,  Earl  of.  [See  MacDoxnell.] 

APLIN,  PETER  (1753-1817),  admiral, 
was  midshipman  of  the  Roebuck  on  9  Oct. 
1776,  when  her  first  lieutenant  was  killed  in 
action  with  the  batteries  at  the  mouth  of 
North  River  [see  Pakker,  Hyde  (2)],  and 
was  promoted  to  the  vacancy  caused  by  his 
death.  Aplin's  further  promotion  was  rapid, 
and  on  23  Nov.  1780  he  was  appointed  captain 
of  the  Fowey  frigate  of  24  guns.  He  was 
still  in  her  at  Yorktown  in  the  following  Oc- 
tober, when  she  was  destroyed  by  the  enemy's 
red-hot  shot ;  after  which  he  served,  with  liis 
crew,  on  shore  under  the  oi'ders  of  Lord  Corn- 
wallis.  He  had  no  further  service  at  sea  until, 
in  1797,  he  was  appointed  to  the  Hector  of  74 
guns,  which,  after  the  battle  off  Cape  St.  Vin- 
cent, reinforced  the  fleet  oft"  Cadiz.  He  con- 
tinued in  this  command  for  nearly  tAvo  years, 
when  he  was  promoted  to  flag  rank.  As  an 
admiral,  however,  he  never  served,  although, 
he  passed  through  the  several  gradations  by 
seniority,  and  attained  the  high  rank  of  ad- 
miral of  the  wliite  before  his  death,  which 
occurred  on  17  April  1817. 

[Gent.  Mag.  Ixxxvii.  89.]  J.  K.  L. 

APPLETON,  CHARLES  EDWARD 
CUTTS  BIRCH  (1841-1879),  man  of  letters, 
was  the  second  son  of  the  Rev.  Robert  Apple- 


Appleton 


49 


Appleton 


ton.  He  was  bom  on  16  March  1841,  and 
educated  at  Reading  grammar  school,  of 
Avhich  his  father  was  head  master.  In  1859 
he  was  elected  to  a  scholarship  at  St.  John's 
College,  Oxford,  which  led  in  due  course  to 
a  fellowship.  His  university  honours  were 
a  second  class  at  moderations  and  another 
second  class  in  the  final  examination,  both 
•  in  classics.  He  graduated  as  B.A.  in  1863, 
and,  in  accordance  with  the  custom  of  his  col- 
lege, proceeded  to  the  higher  degree  of  D.C.Lj 
in  1871.  Shortly  after  taking  his  bachelor's 
degree,  he  travelled  on  the  continent,  and 
studied  for  about  two  years  at  more  than 
one  Gennan  university.  In  1867  he  returned 
to  Oxford,  and  was  appointed  lecturer  in 
philosophy  at  St.  John's.  At  this  period  he 
read  much,  but  wrote  little.  During  all  his 
life  he  was  an  enthusiast  for  learning,  rather 
than  a  teacher  or  an  author.  The  meta- 
physics of  Hegel,  considered  from  a  theologi- 
cal (and  almost  an  Anglican)  standpoint, 
was  the  special  branch  of  learning  to  Avhich 
he  was  himself  inclined ;  but  his  sympathies 
were  wide  enough  to  comprise  everything 
that  a  German  includes  under  'Wissen- 
schaft.'  It  was  Appleton's  fate  that  the 
remainder  of  his  life  should  be  devoted  to 
the  encouragement  of  learning  in  England 
by  precept  rather  than  by  example.  The 
bulk  of  his  writings  is  not  large,  nor  can  it 
be  said  that  their  permanent  value  is  very 
great ;  but  he  founded  the  literary  periodical 
called  the  *  Academy,'  and  he  organised  the 
movement  for  the  '  endowment  of  research.' 
The  first  number  of  the '  Academy,  a  Monthly 
Record  of  Literature,  Learning,  Science,  and 
Art,'  appeared  on  9  Oct.  1869 ;  and  Appleton 
remained  editor  until  his  death.  The  dis- 
tinctive characteristic  of  the  paper  was  the 
signature  of  all  the  critiques  by  the  writers' 
names  in  full ;  and  its  early  contributors 
included  men  of  high  eminence  in  literature 
and  science.  If  the '  Academy '  has  not  con- 
sistently carried  out  the  ambitious  programme 
with  which  its  founder  started,  it  has  at  least 
continued  to  live  to  the  present  time  without 
more  vicissitudes  than  are  common  to  news- 
paper enterprise.  On  16  Nov.  1872  the  first 
meeting  was  held  in  London  of  the  '  Asso- 
ciation for  the  Organisation  of  Academical 
Study,'  in  which  Appleton  again  was  the 
prime  mover.  The  association  held  but  one 
more  meeting,  and  then  fell  to  pieces.  Shortly 
after  the  birth  of  the  '  Academy '  Appleton 
finally  left  Oxford  for  London,  and  occupied 
an  old-fashioned  cottage  on  the  edge  of 
Hampstead  Heath,  in  which  he  delighted  to 
play  the  host.  In  the  autumn  of  1875  he 
paid  a  visit  to  America,  and  was  led  to  take 
up  the  question  of  international  copyright 

TOL.   II. 


with  his  wonted  energy.  The  work  that 
Appleton  imposed  on  himself  in  connection 
with  the  '  Academy '  was  by  no  means  en- 
tirely literary.  He  also  undertook  the  busi- 
ness management  of  the  paper,  and  became 
secretary  of  a  company  which  he  formed  to 
foster  it.  In  the  opinion  of  his  friends  the 
labour  and  anxiety  thus  incurred  contributed 
much  to  the  breakdown  of  his  constitution. 
The  winter  of  1877-8  he  was  ordered  to 
spend  in  the  south.  The  excitement  of  travel 
in  Egypt  and  the  Levant  he  enjoyed  tho- 
roughly, but  when  he  came  back  to  England 
he  was  visibly  worse.  Again  he  went  to 
Egypt,  and  died  at  Luxor  on  1  Feb.  1879. 

To  a  volume,  entitled  *  Essays  on  the  En- 
dowment of  Research,  by  Various  Writers ' 
(1876),  Appleton  contributed  two  essays, 
the  one  on  the  Economic  Character  of  Sub- 
sidies to  Education,  and  the  other  on  the 
Endowment  of  Research  as  a  Form  of  Pro- 
ductive Expenditure. 

[A  sketch  of  Appleton's  career,  together  with 
most  of  his  papers  on  philosophical  subjects, 
will  be  found  in  '  Dr.  Appleton :  his  Life  and 
Literary  Relics,'  by  his  brother,  John  H.  Apple- 
ton,  and  A.  H.  Sayee  (1881)].  J.  S.  C. 

APPLETON",  HENRY  (Jl.  1650-1654), 
captain  in  the  navy  and  commodore,  was  a 
townsman  and  presumably  a  native  of  Hull ; 
but  his  name  does  not  appear  in  any  list  of 
naval  officers  during  the  civil  war  or  until 
26  Sept.  1650,  when  an  order  was  sent  by  the 
parliament  to  the  council  of  state  to  appoint 
him  '  as  commander  of  the  sliip  now  to  be 
built  at  Woolwich,  or  any  other  ship  that 
they  think  fit.'  This  is  the  earliest  mention 
of  him  as  yet  known.  That  his  appointment 
was  irregular  and  gave  offence  to  his  subor- 
dinates, officers  of  some  experience  at  sea,  and 
that  he  had  neither  the  knowledge  nor  the 
ability  to  enforce  obedience  to  his  orders,  ap- 
pears throughout  his  whole  correspondence, 
which  gives  an  account  of  his  sailing  in  the 
Leopard  of  50  guns,  of  his  arrival  at  Smyrna 
vsdth  the  convoy,  of  his  sailing  thence  in 
April  1651,  and  of  his  successive  arrivals  at 
Zante,  Messina,  Naples,  and  Genoa.  In  No- 
vember he  went  to  Leghorn,  and  immedi- 
ately off"  that  port  captured,  or  permitted  the 
sliips  with  him  to  capture,  a  French  vessel ; 
thus,  at  the  outset,  giving  offence  to  the 
Grand  Duke  of  Tuscany.  After  staying  a 
month  at  Leghorn  he  left  for  Naples,  and 
with  the  Levant  trade  sailed  again  to  Smyr- 
na, returning  to  Leghorn  in  the  end  of  June 
1652.  The  war  with  Holland  had  just 
broken  out,  and  a  squadron  of  fourteen  Dutch 
ships  of  war  rendered  it  impossible  for  the 
English  to  move  out.     The  force  that  Apple- 


Appleton 


50 


Appold 


ton  had  with  him  was  not  more  than  half 
that  of  the  Dutch,  and  during  the  rest  of  the 
summer  he  attempted  nothing  beyond  des- 
patching the  Constant  Warwick  to  reinforce 
Commodore  Badiley,  who  was  expected 
shortly  on  the  coast  of  Italy.  On  27  Aug. 
the  Dutch  learned  that  Badiley  was  off  the 
island  of  Elba  ;  and  slipping  out  with  their 
squadron,  now  of  ten  ships,  they  brought  him 
to  action,  when,  after  a  fight  which  lasted 
through  that  day  and  into  the  next,  they  suc- 
ceeded in  capturing  the  Phcenix.  Appleton 
made  no  attempt  to  help  Badiley,  pleading 
afterwards  *  that  the  Lord  had  at  that  time 
visited  him  with  a  violent  sickness ; '  to  which 
Badiley  answered  that  no  one  else  knew  of 
it,  and  that  even  if  he  was  sick  he  ought  still 
to  have  sent  his  ships. 

Badiley,  after  his  defeat,  retreated  to  Porto 
Longone,  where  he  was  blockaded  by  part  of 
the  Dutch  squadron,  the  other  part  Avatching 
Appleton  at  Leghorn  and  refitting  the  PhcB- 
nix.  On  2  Nov.  Badiley  came  overland  to 
communicate  with  Appleton,  having  received 
instructions  from  home  to  take  the  entire  com- 
mand. It  seems  to  have  been  then  arranged 
between  them  that,  in  defiance  of  the  neu- 
trality of  the  port,  an  attempt  should  be  made 
to  retake  the  Phoenix,  which  was  successfully 
carried  into  execution  by  Captain  Cox  on 
the  evening  of  20  Nov.,  or,  according  to 
new  style,  30  Nov.,  when  the  Dutch  were 
holding  drunken  revelry  in  honour  of  St.  An- 
drew. The  grand  duke  was  further  incensed 
by  Appleton's  seizure  next  day  of  a  Dutch 
prisoner  who  had  escaped  and  put  himself 
under  the  protection  of  a  Tuscan  sentry. 
The  duke  sent  for  Appleton,  made  him  a  close 
prisoner  under  circumstances  of  much  indig- 
nity, and  two  days  later  sent  him,  still  a 
prisoner,  to  Commodore  Badiley  at  Porto 
Longone,  who,  holding  a  council  of  war,  su- 
perseded him  from  the  command  of  the 
Leopard ;  all  which  was  approved  of  by  the 
government  at  home,  and  orders  were  sent 
out  for  Appleton  to  return  to  England  over- 
land. It  was,  however,  decided  by  Badiley 
to  leave  Appleton  in  command  of  the  Leopard 
whilst  the  two  squadrons  combined  to  force 
their  way  past  the  Dutch,  who  had  prevailed 
on  the  grand  duke  to  give  the  English  a 
peremptory  order  to  restore  the  Phoenix  or 
to  quit  the  port  (Longland  to  Navy  Com- 
mittee, 7  March  1652-3). 

Appleton  was  accordingly  sent  back  to  his 
ship  at  Leghorn,  and  on  1  March  1652-3  Ba- 
diley wrote  to  him  to  be  ready  to  come  out  to 
meet  him  as  soon  as  he  should  appear  off  the 
port.  Badiley's  idea  was  that  the  Dutch  would 
attack  whichever  squadron  happened  to  be  to 
leeward  of  them,  and  that  the  windward  squa- 


dron might  support  it.  They  did  not  do  so  ; 
but  the  wind  being  offshore,  as  soon  as  Apple- 
ton  was  well  clear  of  the  port  on  4  March  they 
fell  on  him,  and  before  Badiley,  who  was  a 
considerable  distance  to  leeward,  could  come 
at  all  near,  had  completely  crushed  him.  Of 
the  six  ships  which  formed  his  squadron  one 
only  escaped.  The  Leopard  defended  herself 
stoutly,  till  at  last  the  ship's  company  refused 
to  fight  any  longer,  and  would  not  permit  the 
poop,  wliich  the  enemy  had  won,  to  be  blown 
up  ;  they  seized  and  disarmed  Appleton,  and 
called  for  quarter.  He  was  held  prisoner  for 
some  months,  but  being  released  on  a  security 
of  5,000  pieces  of  eight,  he  returned  to  Eng- 
land, complaining  bitterly  of  having  been  de- 
serted and  betrayed.  Inquiry  showed  that 
these  complaints  were  unfounded,  and  that 
his  defeat  by  the  Dutch  was  due,  not  to  any 
shyness  on  the  part  of  Badiley,  but  to  his 
own  ill-judged  haste  in  leaving  the  port  be- 
fore Badiley  was  engaged  with  the  Dutch. 
Appleton  was  never  employed  again,  and 
vanished  into  the  darkness  from  which  he 
had  sprung. 

[Calendars  of  State  Papers,  Domestic,  1651- 
1653  ;  A  Remonstrance  of  the  Fight  in  Legorn 
Road  (London,  1653,  fol.),  by  Capt.  Henry  Ap- 
pleton ;  Capt.  Badiley's  Reply  to  Certaine  De- 
clarations, &c.,  also  to  Capt.  Appleton's  Remon- 
strance (London,  1653,  4to).]  J.  K.  L. 

APPLET ARD,  Sie  MATHEW  (1606- 
1669),  military  commander,  was  the  son 
of  Thomas  Appleyard,  the  descendant  of  a 
family  whose  residence  for  several  genera- 
tions was  Burstwick  Hall  Garth,  in  the  East 
Riding  of  Yorkshire,  In  the  civil  war  he  took 
the  side  of  the  royalists,  and  was  knighted 
on  the  field  by  Charles  I.  On  the  tak- 
ing of  Leicester,  the  king  'presently  made 
Sir  Mathew  Appleyard,  a  soldier  of  known 
courage  and  experience,  his  lieutenant  go- 
vernor.' He  married  Frances,  daughter  of 
the  third  Sir  Wm.  Pelliam,  of  Brocklesby, 
Lincolnshire ;  sat  in  the  House  of  Commons 
as  member  for  the  corporation  of  Headon ; 
was  one  of  his  majesty's  customers  for  the 
port  of  Kingston-upon-Hull ;  was  a  firm 
supporter  of  Church  and  State,  and  died  in 
1669  in  the  63rd  year  of  his  age. 

[A  monumental  inscription  on  a  stone  in  the 
chancel  floor  in  All  Saints  Church,  Burstwick  ; 
Poulson's  History  of  Holderness,  vii.  362,  364  ; 
Clarendon's  History  of  the  Grand  Rebellion, 
book  ix.,  33.]  '     A.  S.  B. 

APPOLD,    JOHN    GEORGE,    F.R.S. 

(1800-1865),  an  ingenious  mechanician  and 
an  inventor  of  considerable  capacity,  was 
the  sou  of  a  fur-skin  dyer,  established  in 
Finsbury,     Succeeding  to  his  father's  busi- 


Apsley 


SI 


Apsley 


ness  at  the  age  of  twenty-two,  he  intro- 
duced into  it  so  many  scientific  improve- 
ments that  he  soon  amassed  a  considerable 
fortune  and  Avas  able  to  devote  his  time  and 
attention  to  his  favourite  mechanical  pur- 
suits. His  inventions,  though  numerous 
and  evincing  very  great  ingenuity,  were  not 
of  the  very  highest  class.  Perhaps  the 
most  important  of  them  was  his  centrifugal 
pump.  This  procured  him  a  '  council  medal ' 
at  the  ISol  exhibition,  and  it  is  highly  com- 
mended in  the  report  of  the  juries  on  that 
exhibition.  It  should  be  mentioned  that  the 
medal  Avas  for  the  special  fonn  of  pump,  the 
principle  having  been  known  and  acted  upon 
many  years  before.  Another  invention  of 
considerable  value  was  a  break,  employed  in 
laying  deep-sea  telegraph  cables.  This  ap- 
paratus Avas  used  in  laying  the  first  Atlantic 
cable.  Appold  was  A'ery  liberal  in  com- 
municating his  ideas  to  others.  He  was  on 
terms  of  friendship  with  many  of  the  chief 
engineers  of  his  time,  and  AA'as  consulted  by 
them  frequently  with  ad\'antage.  He  patented 
but  feAV  of  his  ideas,  preferring  generally  to 
give  them  freely  to  the  public.  His  house 
AA-as  a  museum  of  mechanical  contrivances, 
such  as  doors  which  opened  at  a  person's 
approach,  and  shutters  Avhich  closed  at  the 
touch  of  a  spring,  Avhile  the  same  moA'ement 
turned  on  and  lighted  the  gas.  Probably, 
had  he  been  compelled  to  rely  for  his  support 
on  his  mechanical  talents,  his  iuA'entions 
would  have  been  further  developed,  and  haA^e 
been  brought  more  prominently  into  notice 
than  they  Avere.  As  it  Avas,  he  was  a  man 
of  high  reputation  among  his  contemporaries, 
Avho  left  behind  him  but  little  to  keep  his 
name  from  forgetfulness. 

[Full  accounts  of  Appold  and  his  inventions 
■will  be  foimd  in  the  Proceedings  Koy.  Soc.  xv.  i., 
and  in  the  Proceedings  Inst.  C.  E.  xxv.  623.] 

H.  T.  W. 

APSLEY,  Sir  ALLEN  (1569  P-1630), 
lieutenant  of  the  ToAver,  Avas  youngest  son  of 
John  Apsley,  Esq.,  of  Pulborough,  Sussex, 
and  AA'as  born  about  1569.  Coming  up  to  court 
to  seek  his  fortune,  he  lost  his  all  at  play,  and 
sailed  for  Cadiz  Avith  Essex  1596.  Passing, 
on  his  return,  into  Ireland,  he  became  Aic- 
tualler  of  Munster,  married  a  rich  widow,  and 
was  knighted  at  Dublin  5  June  1605  {Carew 
Tapers,  619,  p.  160).  He  next  married  a 
daughter  of  Sir  Peter  Carew,  and  Avas  made 
victualler  to  the  naA-y  about  1610.  Having 
married,  thirdly,  Lucy,  daughter  of  Sir  John 
St.  John  (by  Avhom  he  was  father  of  the  cele- 
brated Mrs.  Hutchinson),  he  obtained  in  ad- 
dition the  lieutenancy  of  the  Tower,  3  March 
1617.  'Here,'  says  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  *  he 
w^as  a  father  to  all  his  prisoners.'      Many 


eminent  prisoners  were  under  his  charge, 
including  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  and  Sir  John 
Eliot,  and  his  wife  is  said  to  have  provided 
Ilaleigh  Avith  the  means  for  continuing  his 
experiments.  But  he  Avas  the  friend  and 
political  ally  of  the  Duke  of  Buckingham 
(Hist.  MSS.  Com.  liep.  iv.  310),  and  Mrs. 
Hutchinson's  statement  must  be  compared 
with  Mr.  Forster's  detailed  description  of  his 
rigorous  treatment  of  Sir  John  Eliot  and 
other  enemies  of  Buckingham  (Forster's  <S^t> 
John  Eliot,  ii.  469-78,  521).  Apsley  Avit- 
nessed  Buckingham's  Avill  draAvn  up  25  June 
1627,  just  before  the  duke  sailed  for  the 
island  of  Rhe  {Wills  (Camden  Soc),  p.  91). 
Apsley  himself  serAed  Avith  that  expedition 
(1628)  and  caught  a  fever,  folloAved  by  a  con- 
sumption, of  AA'hich  he  died  24  May  1630, 
aged  61.  He  AA'as  buried  in  the  ToAver  chapel, 
where  a  tablet  Avas  erected  to  his  memory. 
He  died  deeply  involved  in  debt.  As  vic- 
tiuiller  of  the  naAy  he  set  forth  in  a  petition 
that  he  had  spent  100,000/.,  which  Avas  un- 
paid at  the  date  of  his  death.  The  'State 
Papers'  throughout  the  seventeenth  century 
are  full  of  references  to  this  and  other  of 
Apslej-'s  debts  (cf.  Hist.  MSS.  Com.  Hep. 
viii.  148;  Cal.  Treasury  Papers,  i.  166). 

[Mrs.  Hutchinson's  Intro<luction  to  her  Me- 
moirs of  Colonel  Huteliinson ;  Bell's  Memorials 
of  Persons  buried  in  the  ToAver,  pp.  35-36  ;  Cal. 
State  Papers  (Pom.  1627-8),  p.  499.] 

J.  H.  E, 

APSLEY,  Sir  ALLEN  (1616-1683), 
royalist  leader,  holder  of  minor  offices  of 
state  under  Charles  U,  and  poetical  Avriter, 
was  the  eldest  son  of  Sir  Allen  Apsley,  lieu- 
tenant of  the  ToAver,  by  his  third  Avife  Lucy, 
youngest  daughter  of  Sir  John  St.  John  of 
Lydiard  Tregooz,  Wiltshire,  and  was  bap- 
tised at  the  church  of  All  HalloAvs,  Barking, 
on  6  Sept.  1616.  His  sister,  Lucy,  married, 
in  1638,  John  Hutchinson,  aftem-ards  a  well- 
known  colonel  of  the  parliamentary  army. 
Apsley  was  educated  firstly  at  Merchant 
Taylors'  School,  Avhere  he  and  a  younger 
brother,  AVilliam,  AA'ere  entered  as  pupils  in 
1626  (Robinson's  Merchant  Taylors'  School 
Ser/isfer,  p.  115).  He  afterwards  Avent  to 
Trinity  College,  Oxford,  but  did  not  take  his 
degree  of  M.  A.  till  28  Sept.  1663.  His  father 
had  left  his  affairs  at  his  death  in  the  utmost 
confusion,  and  during  Apsley's  youth  the  re- 
sources of  his  family  seemed  to  haAC  been  A'ery 
precarious.  His  mother  man'ied  again  in  the 
early  years  of  her  widowhood,  against  the 
wishes  of  her  first  husband's  relatiAes,  and 
Apsley  played  a  part  in  the  domestic  quarrel 
that  followed.  Numerous  petitions  concern- 
ing the  financial  position  of  Apsley  and  his 
brothers  and  sisters  Avere  presented  to  the 

e2 


Apsley 


52 


Apsley 


king  and  his  council  between  1 634  and  1637. 
But  before  the  outbreak  of  civil  war  in  1642, 
the  disputes  were  apparently  settled  to  Aps- 
ley's  advantage. 

Throughout  the  king's  preliminary  strug- 
gles with  the  parliament  Apsley  supported 
the  royalists,  and  he  received  the  honour 
of  knightliood.  When  active  hostilities 
began  in  1642,  he  was  placed  in  command 
of  a  company  of  horse  raised  in  Charles's 
behalf,  and  soon  afterwards  proceeded  to 
the  west,  where  he  was  appointed  '  governor 
of  the  fort  of  Exeter.'  He  was  joined  in 
Devonshire  by  the  Prince  of  Wales  in  1645 
(Clarendon's  History,  iv.  49),  but  before 
the  sun-ender  of  Exeter  in  April  1646  he 
became  governor  of  Bai'nstaple.  lie  was, 
however,  unable  to  hold  out  against  the 
parliamentary  army  for  many  days,  and  on 
10  April  1646  he  negotiated  a  capitulation 
( Whitelock's  Monorials,  435 ;  cf.  Spkigge's 
Anglia  Rediviva,  p.  243),  The  articles  of 
surrender  enabled  him  to  retire  to  Notting- 
ham, where  he  took  refuge  with  his  brother- 
in-law.  Colonel  Hutchinson,  tlie  parlia- 
mentarv  governor  of  the  town.  For  several 
years  after  the  king's  death  Apsley  was 
much  harassed  by  the  parliamentary  au- 
thorities ;  they  pressed  him,  contrary,  as  he 
believed,  to  the  terms  originally  made  with 
him,  to  make  large  compensation  for  the 
injuries  sustained  by  parliamentarians  in 
Barnstaple  at  the  hands  of  royalist  soldiers 
under  his  command.  '  One  wicked  woman,' 
Mrs.  Hutchinson  writes  in  her  husband's 
memoirs,  '  for  her  revenge  and  malice  against 
Sir  Allen  Apsley,  which  was  so  venomous  and 
devilish  .  .  .  stuck  not  at  inventing  false 
accusations  and  hiring  witnesses  to  swear 
to  them  ;'  her  object  was  to  obtain  from  him 
'  a  recompence  out  of  his  estate,  treble  and 
more  than  the  value  of  a  house  of  hers  in 
the  garrison  of  Barnstaple,  which  was  pulled 
down  to  fortify  the  town  for  the  king,  before 
he  was  governor  of  the  place.'  But  through 
the  assistance  of  Colonel  Hutchinson,  justice 
was  at  length  obtained  from  the  parliament, 
and  an  order,  dated  17  Aug.  1654,  relieved 
Apsley  of  further  liability  on  account  of  his 
serA'ice  in  the  king's  behalf.  In  1647  he 
was  engaged  with  Sir  John  Berkeley  in  ne- 
gotiations between  the  king  and  the  army 
(Berkeley's  Memoirs  in  Harl.  Miscel.  ix. 
470-1).  He  appears  before  1655  to  have 
paid  434/.  to  the  parliamentary  commissioners 
in  Sussex  for  ]>ermission  to  retain  his  lands 
in  that  county  (Sussex  Archceological  Col- 
lections,  xix.  93). 

It  is  probable  that  during  some  years  of 
the  Commonwealth,  Apsley,  like  other  royal- 
ists, retired  to  Holland.     It  was  his  brother 


James — '  one  Apseley,  a  desperate  cavalier  at 
the  Hague  ' — who  made  in  April  1651  a  ruf- 
fianly attempt  to  murder  St.  John,  the  parlia- 
mentary ambassador  in  Holland,  and  '  the 
States  .  .  .  ordered  Apseley  to  be  appre- 
hended, but  he  fled  away'  (Whitelock's 
Memorials,  491 ;  Mercurius  Politicus,  1651, 
p.  728). 

At  the  Restoration  Apsley  Avas  taken  into 
high  favour  at  court.  In  June  1660  he  was 
appointed  keeper  of  the  king's  hawks,  with 
a  good  salary  and  perquisites.  On  2  Sept. 
1662  he  was  made  keeper  of  the  North  park 
at  Hampton  Court,  and  the  management  of 
the  king's  game-preserves  seems  to  have 
passed  largely  into  his  hands.  Shortly  after- 
wards, James,  Duke  of  York,  conferred  on 
Apsley  the  office  of  treasurer  of  his  house- 
hold, and  when  his  master  became  lord  high 
admiral,  large  sums  of  money  to  be  applied 
to  the  na\y  were  entrusted  to  his  keeping.. 
In  1667  Apsley  was  given  a  colonelcy  in 
the  army  raised  under  the  Duke  of  York  in 
view  of  a  threatened  war  with  the  Dutch.. 
From  1661  to  1678  Apsley  sat  in  parliament 
as  member  for  Thetford,  and  Pepys,  who- 
frequently  met  him  in  society,  notes  that 
on  19  Dec.  1666,  he  caused  much  disturbance 
in  the  house  by  coming  there  in  a  state  of 
drunkenness. 

In  the  days  of  his  prosperity  Apsley's 
conduct  was  not  always  above  suspicion. 
He  contrived  to  make  his  offices  at  court  as 
profitable  to  himself  as  possible,  and  Pepys 
relates  how  he  '  did  make  good  sport '  at  a 
London  dinner  party  in  1667  by  complaining 
of  tlie  reduction  of  his  salary  as  '  Master 
Falconer '  and  by  declaring  that  England 
under  Cromwell  was  hardly  worse  oft'  than 
under  her  present  rulers.  To  all  outward 
appearance  he  endeavoured  at  the  same  time 
to  protect  liis  brother-in-law.  Colonel  Hutch- 
inson, from  the  vengeance  of  the  royalists,  and 
Mrs.  Hutchinson  attributes  to  him  the  pre- 
sen'ation  of  her  husband's  life  and  property 
in  1660.  But  Apsley  did  not  prevent  his 
subsequent  imprisonment  and  cruel  death  in 
1664.  He  certainly  somewhat  alleviated  his 
sister's  misery  during  the  last  years  of  Colonel 
Hutchinson's  life,  by  procuring  her  admission 
to  his  prison  and  other  privileges.  One  of 
Hutchinson's  dying  requests  to  his  brother 
was,  in  fact,  *  to  remember  him  to  Sir  Allen 
Apsley,  and  tell  him  tliat  he  lioped  God 
would  reward  his  labour  of  love  to  him.'  But 
a  letter  among  the  state  papers  of  tlie  time- 
dated  14  Jan.  1663-4,  and  addressed  by 
Apsley  to  one  of  the  king's  secretaries,  proves 
that  he  was  giving  information  to  the  govern- 
ment about  his  sister  and  her  husband  which 
it  is  difficult  to  reconcile  with  their  belief  in 


Aquepontanus 


53 


Aram 


the  sincerity  of  his  regard  for  their  interests 
{Cal.  State  Papers,  1664,  p.  441). 

On  15  Oct.  1683,  Apsley  died  at  his  house 
in  London  in  St.  James's  Square,  and  was 
buried  two  days  later  in  "Westminster  Abbey. 
He  married  Frances,  daughter  of  John  Petre 
of  Bowhay,  in  Devonshire,  wlio  died  in  1698. 
By  her  he  had  several  children,  and  Apsley 
secured  for  his  son  Peter  a  reversion  to  a 
clerkship  of  the  crown  in  June  1667.  Peter 
was  afterwards  knighted,  and  was  frequently 
employed  in  the  foreign  secret  service  by  both 
Charles  II  and  James  II  {Secret  Services  of 
Charles  II  and  James  //(Camden  Soc),  110, 
114,  et  se(j[.).  Sir  Allen's  daughter,  Frances, 
married  Sir  Benjamin  Bathurst,  whose  eldest 
son,  Allen,  was  created  Baron  Bathurst  in 
1712  and  Earl  Bathurst  in  1772.  The  courtesy 
title  of  Baron  Apsley  was  borne  by  Earl 
Bathurst's  heir. 

Sir  Allen  Apsley  published  anonymously 
in  1679  a  long  poem,  which  is  now  rarely 
accessible,  entitled  '  Order  and  Disorder  ;  or 
the  woi'ld  made  and  undone,  being  Medita- 
tions on  the  Creation  and  Fall.  As  it  is  re- 
corded in  the  beginning  of  Genesis,'  London, 
4to.  A  private  letter,  dated  26  April  1669, 
from  Apsley  to  John  Evelyn,  relating  to 
some  business  of  the  Duchess  of  York,  is  pre- 
served at  the  British  Museum  {Addit.  MS. 
15857,  f.  10). 

[WootVs  Fasti  Oxon.  (ed.  Bliss)  ii.  272 ;  Berry's 
Sussex  Genealogies,  p.  150 ;  Stiite  Paper  Calendars 
from  1634-5  to  1667;  Pepys'  Diary  (1849),  ii. 
187,  iii.  364,  iv.  162;  Chester's  Kegisters  of 
Westminster  Abbey  (Harleian  Soc),  pp.  208, 
243 ;  Mrs.  Hutchinson's  Memoirs  of  Colonel 
Hutchinson  (1846),  123, 301,  354, 408-79;  White- 
lock's  Memorials.  Mr.  W.  H.  Blaauw  described, 
in  1851,  in  the  Sussex  Archaeological  Collections 
(iv.  219-30,  V.  29,  et  seq.),  a  collection  of  docu- 
ments (the  property  of  Mrs.  Mabbott),  known  as 
the  Apsley  MSS.,  relating  to  the  civil  war  in 
Sussex,  and  containing  inter  alia  a  series  of  in- 
teresting letters  written  by  Dame  Elizabeth 
Apsley,  wife  of  Sir  Edward  Apsley,  of  Thaken- 
ham,  to  the  Princess  Elizabeth  of  the  Palatinate. 
Sir  Edward  Apsley  was  a  cousin  of  Sir  Allen, 
and  the  Apsley  MSS.  contain  references  to  very 
many  members  of  his  family.]  S.  L.  L. 

AQUEPONTANUS.  [See  Bridge- 
water,  JOHX.] 

ARABELLA  STUART  (1575-1615), 
was  the  daughter  of  Charles  Stuart,  Earl  of 
Lenox,  younger  brother  of  Lord  Darnley. 
This   earl    was,   through    his    mother,   the 

Sandson  of  Margaret,  the  eldest  sister  of 
enry  VIII.,  by  her  second  husband,  Ar- 
chibald Douglas,  Earl  of  Angus.  Arabella 
-Stood  in  the  line  of  succession  to  the  English 
throne  next  to  her  first  cousin  James.  When 
Elizabeth's  age  made  a  speedy  vacancy  pro- 


bable, there  were  some  persons  in  England 
who  argued  that  her  title  was  preferable 
even  to  that  of  James,  as  she  was  bom  on 
English  soil,  whereas  he,  being  an  alien,  and 
therefore  disqualified  for  possessing  land  in 
England,  was  also  disqualified  for  wearing 
the  crown.  A  little  before  Elizabeth's  death 
Arabella  was  arrested  by  the  queen's  orders 
in  consequence  of  a  rumour  that  a  marriage 
was  planned  between  her  and  William  Sey- 
mour, the  grandson  of  Catherine  Grey,  the 
heiress  of  the  Suffolk  line.  .lames,  however, 
succeeded  peaceablv,  and  treated  Arabella 
with  favour  as  a  liinswoman,  disbelieving 
the  idle  rumours  which  accused  her  of  taking 
part  in  the  plots  of  Cobham  and  Raleigh. 
She,  as  we  hear,  was  much  in  want  of  money, 
and  we  hear  of  her  in  1608  and  1609  begging 
for  English  and  Irish  monopolies.  In 
December  1609  she  was  put  in  confinement 
with  her  servants,  on  the  ground  of  her 
being  engaged  in  a  treaty  of  marriage  with 
some  person  whose  name  is  not  given.  She 
regained  the  king's  good  graces  by  pleading 
discontent  on  tne  ground  of  poverty,  and 
James,  besides  valuable  new-year's  gifts, 
granted  her  a  pension  of  1 ,600/.  a  year. 

On  2  Feb.  1610,  Arabella  became  actually 
engaged  to  William  Seymour,  whose  de- 
scent from  the  Suffolk  line  made  him  specially 
an  object  of  jealousy  to  James.  She  and 
Seymour  were  summoned  before  the  Privy 
Council,  and  declared  that  he  would  never 
marry  her  without  the  king's  consent.  On  this 
Arabella  was  again  taken  into  favour,  and 
on  22  March  received  the  grant  of  the  Irish 
monopoly  for  which  she  had  long  been  peti- 
tioning. Early  in  July  the  couple  were  pri- 
vately maiTied.  The  secret  was  not  kept,  and 
on  the  9th  Arabella  was  committed  to  the  cus- 
tody of  Sir  T.  PaiTy,  and  her  husband  to  the 
Tower.  On  13  March  1611,  she  was  put 
under  the  charge  of  the  Bishop  of  Durham, 
to  be  carried  by  him  to  Durham.  She  ap- 
pealed in  vain  for  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus. 
On  16  March  she  was  removed  in  a  condi- 
tion of  physical  prostration,  and  was  allowed 
to  rest  at  Barnet  for  a  month.  When  the 
month  was  over,  she  protested  she  could  not 
travel.  On  4  June  she  escaped  in  man's 
apparel,  got  on  board  a  French  vessel  in  the 
Thames,  and  sailed  for  Calais.  She  was  cap- 
tured in  the  Straits  of  Dover,  brought  back, 
and  lodged  in  the  Tower.  Sevmour  was 
more  successful,  and  landed  safely  at  Ost- 
end.  Arabella  remained  a  prisoner  in  the 
Tower  till  her  death  on  25  Sept.  1615. 

[E.  Cooper,  Life  and  Letters  of  Lady  Ara- 
bella Stuart.]  S.  R.  G. 

ARAM,  EUGENE  (1704-1759),  was  bom 
in  1704,  probably  in  September,  at  Ramsgill, 


Aram 


54 


Aram 


Netherdale,  Yorkshire.  His  father  was  gar- 
dener to  Sir  Edward  Blackett,  of  Newby ; 
and  after  receiving  the  elements  of  education 
at  Ripon,  he  went  to  London  to  be  placed  in 
the  counting-house  of  a  member  of  the  family. 
An  attack  of  small-pox  occasioned  him  to 
lose  his  situation,  lieturning  into  Yorkshire 
he  applied  himself  to  study  with  so  much 
diligence  that  he  was  soon  able  to  open  a 
school  at  his  native  place,  where  he  married, 
very  unfortunately  as  it  would  seem ;  thence 
he  removed  to  Knaresborough  in  1734.  He 
there  continued  to  teach,  occupying  his 
leisure  hours  in  the  study  of  Latin,  Greek, 
and  Hebrew,  until,  in  1745,  he  left  the 
town  under  suspicion  of  being  concerned 
in  a  fraud  practised  by  a  man  named  Daniel 
Clark,  who,  having  borrowed  a  large  quantity 
of  valuable  property  under  various  pretexts, 
suddenly  disappeared,  and  was  not  again 
heard  of  for  many  years.  Aram  now  led  a 
roving  life,  teaching  in  various  schools,  at 
one  time  earning  his  bread  as  copyist  to  a 
law  stationer  in  London,  but  continually 
prosecuting  his  studies,  to  which  botany, 
heraldry,  French,  Arabic,  and  the  Celtic 
tongues  were  added,  and  laying  the  founda- 
tion of  a  comparative  dictionary  of  all  Euro- 
pean languages.  In  August  1758,  while 
usher  at  a  private  school  at  Lynn  Regis,  he 
was  arrested  on  the  charge  of  having  mur- 
dered Clark,  on  the  information  of  an  ac- 
complice named  Houseman.  Houseman  had 
been  long  suspected,  and  the  discovery  of 
a  skeleton  supposed  to  be  Clark's  had 
led  to  his  apprehension.  '  This,'  asseverated 
Houseman,  '  is  no  more  Dan  Clark's  bone 
than  it  is  mine.'  His  peculiar  manner  war- 
ranted the  inference  that  he  at  all  events 
knew  where  Clark's  remains  were,  and  upon 
being  pressed  he  acknowledged  that  Clark 
had  been  murdered  by  Aram  and  buried  in 
St.  Robert's  Cave,  near  Knaresborough; 
where,  upon  search  being  made,  a  skeleton 
was  actually  found.  Aram  was  consequently 
apprehended,  and  tried  at  York  on  3  Aug. 
1759,  Houseman  appearing  as  the  sole  wit- 
ness against  him.  He  defended  himself  with 
extraordinary  ability,  laying  but  little  stress 
on  the  tainted  character  of  Houseman,  who, 
he  probably  tliought  when  he  prepared  his 
speech,  would  not  be  admitted  to  give 
evidence,  but  insisting  on  the  fallibility 
of  circumstantial  testimony,  and  adducing 
numerous  instances  of  the  discovery  of 
human  remains.  His  speech,  however,  does 
not  breathe  the  generous  indignation  of  an 
innocent  man ;  and  though  it  is  said  to 
have  impressed  the  jury,  it  did  not  influence 
the  summing  up  of  the  judge.  Aram  was 
convicted,  and   executed  on  6  Aug.,  after 


having  attempted  suicide  by  opening  hi& 
veins  with  a  razor.  Before  his  death  he 
acknowledged  his  guilt  to  two  clergymen,, 
but  alleged,  no  doubt  truly,  that  Houseman 
had  had  the  principal  hand  in  the  deed,  and 
ascribed  his  own  share  in  it  to  the  desire  of 
avenging  his  wife's  infidelity  with  Clark, 
The  body  was  conveyed  to  Knaresborough 
and  hung  in  chains.  Ghastly  stories  are  told 
of  his  wife,  who  continued  to  live  at  Knares- 
borough, picking  up  the  bones  as  they  dropped 
one  by  one,  and  of  his  children  taking  stran- 
gers to  view  their  father's  gibbet.  The  eldest 
daughter,  Sally,  however,  appears  to  have 
been  a  very  interesting  person,  with  a  strong 
resemblance  to  her  father.  After  several  ad- 
ventures she  married  comfortably  in  London. 
The  last  known  descendants  of  Aram  emi- 
grated to  America. 

Aram  was  undoubtedly  convicted  on  the 
testimony  of  a  gi'eater  criminal  than  himself^ 
and  his  talents  and  misfortunes  excite  so 
much  interest  that  it  would  be  satisfactory 
to  be  able  to  concur  with  Bulwer's  view  that 
he  was  merely  guilty  of  robbery.  Unhappily 
all  external  evidence  tends  to  fix  upon  him 
the  charge  of  participation  in  deliberate  fraud 
and  murder,  and  there  is  little  in  his  general 
conduct  to  rebut  it.  His  indulgence  to  chil- 
dren and  his  kindness  to  animals  are  indeed 
amiable  traits  attested  on  good  authority, 
but  such  as  have  frequently  been  found  com- 
patible with  great  moral  obliquity.  As  a 
self-taught  scholar  he  has  had  many  equals : 
but  his  peculiar  distinction  is  to  have  lighted 
upon  a  truth  of  the  greatest  moment,  unrecog- 
nised in  his  day  by  any  scholar — the  affinity 
of  the  Celtic  to  the  other  European  languages. 
He  had  indeed  been  anticipated  by  Edward 
Lhuyd,  and  to  a  less  extent  by  Davies  and 
Sheringham;  but  their  observations  had 
passed  unregarded.  Aram's  fragment  on  the 
subject,  though  maiTed  by  fanciful  analogies 
between  Celtic  and  Hebrew,  proves  that  he 
had  thoroughly  grasped  it.  lie  had  a  clear 
perception  of  the  importance  of  local  names  in 
etymology,  and  he  was  perhaps  the  only  man. 
in  his  age  who  disputed  the  direct  derivation 
of  Latin  from  Greek.  It  is  hardly  too  much 
to  say  that  had  he  enjoyed  wealth  and  leisure 
he  might  have  advanced  the  study  of  com- 
parative philology  by  fifty  years.  Nothing 
of  any  scientific  value  was  done  to  establish 
the  Indo-European  affinities  of  the  Celtic 
languages  until  the  publication  of  Prichard's- 
'  Eastern  Origin  of  the  Celtic  Nations,'  in  1831. 
Aram's  name  does  not  appear  in  Prichard's 
book. 

[The  most  copious  authority  for  Aram's  life  is 
Norrison  Scatcherd  (Memoirs,  2nd  edition,  1838; 
Gleanings,    1836).     Scatcherd   is    a  writer   of 


Arblay 


55 


Arblay 


grejit  imlustry,  but  littlo  judgment,  whose  ro- 
mantic interest  in  Aram  led  him  to  collect  every- 
thing referring  to  him  in  the  slightest  degree. 
A  contempomry  account,  cai'efully  compiled  by 
W.  Bristow,  and  including  Aram's  defence  and 
most  of  his  other  compositions,  was  printed  at 
Knaresborough  and  in  London  in  1759,  and  often 
since.  The  best  edition  is  that  printed  at  Rich- 
mond in  1832.  See  also  the  Annual  Register  for 
1759,  pp.  360-65.  Aram  is  probably  best  known 
from  the  highly  idealised  portrait  in  Bulwer's 
brilliant  novel.  Bulwer  derived  the  idea  of  this 
work  from  Godwin,  wlio  had  meditiited  a  romance 
on  the  siime  subject,  but  he  departed  from  his 
original.  Bulwer  makes  his  hero,  temporarily 
bewildered  by  sophistry,  a  malefactor  on  utili- 
tarian principles  for  the  general  good  of  mankind. 
Godwin  aimed  at  inculcating  that  '  no  man  shall 
die  respecting  whom  it  can  be  reasonably  con- 
cluded that,  if  his  life  were  spared,  it  would  be 
spent  blamelessly,  honoural)ly,  and  usefully ' 
(Kegan  Paul,  William  Godwin,  ii.  305).  Hood's 
Dream  of  Eugene  Aram  is  known  to  all  readers 
of  poetry.]  R.  G. 

ARBLAY,     FRANCES      (BURNEY), 

Madamk  d'  (1752-1840),  novelist,  was  born 
13  June  1752,  at  King's  Lynn,  where  her 
father,  Dr.  Burney,  was  then  organist.  He 
had  been  mamed  in  1749  to  her  mother, 
Esther  Sleepe,  the  granddaughter  of  a  French 
refugee  named  Dubois.  Frances  was  one  of 
six  children,  of  whom  Esther  (afterwards 
Mrs.  Burney,  of  Bath)  and  James  (after- 
wards Admiral  Burney)  were  older,  Susan- 
nah (Mrs.  Phillips),  Charles  (a  well-known 
Greek  scholar),  and  Charlotte  (Mrs.  Clement 
Francis,  and  afterwards  Mrs.Broome)  younger 
than  herself.  In  1760  Dr.  Burney  moved  to 
London,  where  his  whole  time  was  soon 
absorbed  in  giving  music  lessons  and  in 
social  engagements.  The  death  of  his  wife, 
28  Sept.  1761,  broke  up  his  household,  and 
Dr.  Burney  sent  Esther  and  Susannah  to  a 
school  in  Paris.  Frances  was  detained  at 
home  from  a  fear  lest  her  reverence  for  her 
maternal  grandmother,  then  living  in  France, 
should  cause  her  conversion  to  Catholicism. 
Dr.  Burney  was  married  again  in  1766  to 
Mrs.  Stephen  Allen,  who  seems  to  have  been 
a  kind  stepmother.  A  scheme  of  sending 
Frances  to  follow  her  sisters  was  then  aban- 
doned. Slie  was  thus  entirely  self-educated, 
her  father  having  no  time  to  spare  even  for 
directing  her  studies.  She  was  a  backward 
child,  and  did  not  know  her  letters  when 
eight  years  old.  At  ten  she  began  scribbling 
stories,  farces,  tragedies,  and  epic  poems,  till 
her  conscience  smote  her  for  this  waste  of 
time,  and  on  her  fifteenth  birthday  (preface 
to  Wanderer)  she  burnt  all  her  manuscripts. 
The  heroine  of  the  last  story  consumed  was 
Caroline   Evelyn,   the   mother   of  Evelina. 


The  situation  struck  her  fancy,  and  she  con- 
tinued to  work  out  Evelina's  adventures  in. 
her  head.     The  story  was  not  written  down 
till  it  was  fully  composed,  when   the  first 
two  volumes  were  offered  to  Dodsley  by  her 
brother  Charles.     Dodsley  declined  to  deal 
for  an  anonymous  work.  It  was  then  offered 
to  Lowndes,  who  asked  to  see  the  whole. 
She  now  confided  her  secret  to  her  father, 
who  treated  the  matter  as  a  joke,  made  no 
objection   to  her  plan,   and   *  dropped  the 
subject.'  The  completed  book  was  then  sent 
to  Lowndes,  who  gave  20/.,  to  which  he  sub- 
sequently added  10/.  and  ten  handsomely 
bound    copies.      It   was   published  anony- 
mously in  January  1778,  under  the  title  of 
'  Evelma,  or  a  Young  Lady's  Entrance  into 
the  World.'   It  was  favourably  received  and 
soon  attracted  notice.     Dr.  Burney,  on  read- 
ing it,  recognised  his  daughter's  work.     He 
confided  the  secret  to  Mrs.  Thrale,  to  whose 
daughter  he  had  given  music  lessons.     Mrs. 
Thrale  had  discussed  it  with  Dr.  Johnson, 
who  said  that  he  *  could  not  get  rid  of  the 
rogue,'  and  declared  that  '  there  were  pas- 
sages which  might  do  honour  to  Richardson.' 
He  got  it  almost  by  heart,  and  mimicked 
the  characters  with  roars  of  laughter.     Sir 
Joshua  Reynolds  took  it  up  at  table,  was  so 
absorbed  in  it  that  he  had  to  be  fed  whilst 
reading,  and  both  he  and  Burke  sat  up  over 
it  all  night.     No  story  since  *  Clarissa  Ilar- 
lowe  '  had    succeeded  so  brilliantly.     Miss 
Burney  expressed   her   delight    on  hearing 
some  of  this  news  by  rushing  into  the  garden 
and  dancing  round  a  mulberiy  tree — a  per- 
formance which  in  her  old  age  she  recounted 
to  Sir  W.  Scott  (Scott's 2)za?y  for  November 
1826).  This  was  at  Chessington,  near  Epsom, 
the  retreat  of  an  old  friend  of  her  father's, 
Samuel   Crisp,   who   had   retired  from   the 
world  in  disgust  at  the  failure  of  a  play  and 
some  loss  of  money  {Memoir  of  Dr.  Burnet/, 
i.  179).     Miss  Burney  loved  him,  called  him 
*  daddy,'  and  wrote  to  him  long  and  amusing 
letters.     She  was  now  introduced  to  Mrs. 
Thrale,  and  during  the  next  two  or  three 
weeks  became  almost  domesticated  in  the 
family.  She  spent  many  months  at  Streatham, 
and  was  greatly  caressed  by  Dr.  Johnson, 
whom,  though  he  was  an  old  acquaintance 
of  her  father's,  she  seems  only  to  have  seen 
once  before.  Mrs.  Thrale  pressed  her  to  write 
a   comedy.     Sheridan,  whom  she  met  at  Sir 
Joshua's,  declared  that  he  would  accept  any- 
thing of  hers  unseen  ;    and  the  playwright 
Mui-phy  offered  her  the  benefit  of  his  ex- 
perience.     Thus    prompted,   she  wrote  the 
'  Witlings,'  and  submitted  it  to  the  judgment 
of  Mr.  Crisp  and  her  father.     It  was  sup- 
pressed in  deference  to  '  a  hissing,  groaning, 


^11:^ 


Arblay 


56 


Arblay 


catcalling  epistle '  from  the  two ;  Mr.  Crisp 
thinking  that  it  recalled  too  strongly  to  its 
own  disadvantage  Moliere's  '  P^emmes  S^a- 
vantes/  a  work  which  she  had  never  read. 
Returning  to  her  more  natural  occupation,  she 
composed  with  great  care  her  second  novel, 
'Cecilia,'  which  was  published  in  five  volumes 
in  the  summer  of  1782.  Macaulay  had  heard 
from  contemporaries  that  it  was  expected  as 
impatiently  as  any  of  Scott's  novels ;  and 
the  success  was  unequivocal.  Three  editions 
of  '  Evelina '  had  consisted  of  800,  500,  and 
1,000  copies  ;  and  a  fourth  edition  had  been 
published  in  the  summer  of  1779.  The  first 
edition  of  *  Cecilia '  was  of  2,000  copies, 
which  were  all  sold  in  three  months  {Diary 
and  Letters,  i.  175  and  vi.  66).  She  was  now 
introduced  to  her  admirer,  Burke,  who  had 
praised  her  second  work  with  an  enthusiasm 
all  but  unqualified.  Miss  Burney  had  already 
been  introduced  to  Mrs.  Montagu,  the  female 
Maecenas  of  the  day ;  and  her  acquaintance  was 
now  (January  1783)  sought  by  the  venerable 
Mrs.  Delany.  In  1785  George  III.  assigned 
to  Mrs.  Delany  a  house  at  Windsor  and  a 
pension  of  300^.  a  year.  The  Streatham  house- 
hold had  been  broken  up  after  the  death  of 
Mr.  Thrale  ;  his  widow's  marriage  (1784)  to 
Piozzi  led  to  a  coolness  between  the  friends, 
and  Miss  Burney  attached  herself  to  Mrs. 
Delany.  Though  always  on  good  terms  with 
her  father  and  his  wife,  their  affection  seems 
to  have  been  of  the  kind  which  is  not  cooled 
by  absence  and  therefore,  doubtless,  does  not 
dread  separation.  She  helped  Mrs.  Delany 
to  settle  at  Windsor,  and  there  she  was  seen 
by  the  royal  family,  who  were  constantly 
dropping  in  at  Mrs.  Delany's  house.  She 
soon  received  the  offer  of  an  appointment  to 
be  second  keeper  of  the  robes,  under  Madame 
Schwellenberg.  She  was  to  have  200^.  a 
year,  a  footman,  and  to  dine  at  Madame 
Schwellenberg's  table.  After  many  mis- 
givings she  accepted  the  offer,  partly  in  the 
belief  that  she  would  be  able  to  serve  her 
father.  She  was  assured  that  there  were 
*  thousands  of  candidates  of  high  birth  and 
rank,'  and  her  appointment  was  regarded  as 
matter  for  the  warmest  congratulation  by 
Dr.  Burney,  Mrs.  Delany,  and  her  acquaint- 
ance generally.  She  accordingly  entered  upon 
her  service  17  July  1786.  A  desire  to  com- 
pensate Dr.  Burney  for  his  failure  in  an  ap- 
plication for  the  mastership  of  the  king's  band 
was  probably  one  cause  of  the  appointment. 
Her  misgivings  were  amply  fulfilled.  Her 
duties  were  menial — those,  in  fact,  of  a  lady's 
maid.  She  attended  the  queen's  toilette 
three  times  a  day,  and  spent  much  of  the 
intervening  time  in  looking  after  her  own 
clothes.     She  rose   early  and  went  to   bed 


late.  She  dined  with  Madame  Schwellen- 
berg, whom  she  describes  as  coarse,  tyranni- 
cal, and  ill-tempered.  She  was  rarely  per- 
mitted to  see  her  friends,  and  her  society 
was  that  of  the  backstairs  of  a  court,  a 
*  weary,  lifeless  uniformity,'  relieved  by  petty 
scandal  and  squabbles.  She  always  speaks 
of  the  king,  the  queen,  and  all  the  royal 
family  with  a  fervent  loyalty  which  verges, 
to  say  the  least  of  it,  upon  adulation.  But 
the  queen,  though  kindly  in  intention,  was 
a  rigid  upholder  of  etiquette,  and  Miss 
Burney,  whose  health  was  not  strong,  suf- 
fered under  rules  which  sometimes  kept  her 
for  hours  upon  trembling  legs.  Her  diary, 
during  her  confinement  to  the  court,  is  lively 
and  interesting,  especially  the  descriptions 
of  the  impeachment  of  Warren  Hastings ; 
of  the  scenes  during  the  king's  attack  of 
insanity  in  1788-9 ;  and  of  various  details 
of  the  domestic  life  of  royalty  during  the 
courtly  progresses.  Of  the  fictitious  names 
in  the  diary,  Mr.  Turbulent  means  La  Guif- 
fardiere,  French  reader  to  the  queen  and 
princesses  ;  Miss  P.  is  Miss  Port  (afterwards 
Mrs.  Waddington) ;  Colonel  AVelbred  is 
Colonel  Greville  ;  Colonel  Fairly  is  the 
Hon.  Stephen  Digby,  who  lost  his  first 
wife,  a  daughter  of  Lord  Ilchester,  in  1787, 
and  married  Miss  Gunning,  called  in  the 
diary  Miss  Fuzilier,  in  January  1790.  Colonel 
Digtjy  talked  poetiy  and  religious  sentiment 
to  Miss  Burney,  who  appears  to  have  had  a 
tender  feeling  for  him,  and  to  have  been 
annoyed  at  his  marriage.  Her  health  became 
worse  as  time  went  on ;  her  friends  heard 
rumours  of  her  decline ;  she  confided  at  last 
to  her  father  her  desire  to  resign,  and  he 
seemed  to  admit  the  necessity,  yet  hesitated 
long,  till  there  arose  a  general '  outcry  in  their 
own  little  world '  {Memoirs  of  Dr.  Burney, 
iii.  112).  Windham  declared  that  he  would 
'  set  the  literary  club  '  upon  him  to  hasten 
his  resolution ;  Boswell  swore  that  all  her 
friends  were  growing  *  outrageous  ; '  Rey- 
nolds, 'all  the  Burkes,'  and  even  Horace 
Walpole  protested  against  her  seclusion; 
and  at  last,  at  the  close  of  1790,  she  en- 
treated the  queen's  permission  to  retire  in 
a  humble  memorial  delivered  with  much 
trembling.  After  '  a  scene  almost  horrible ' 
with  Madame  Schwellenberg  and  long  nego- 
tiations, she  was  at  last  permitted  to  retire, 
7  July  1791,  with  a  pension  of  100/.  a  year. 
Miss  Burney  travelled  for  some  tirne  through 
different  parts  of  England,  and  her  health 
improved.  Her  sister  Susanna  (now  Mrs. 
Phillips)  was  living  at  this  time  at  Mickle- 
ham,  close  to  Norbury  Park,  which  belonged 
to  the  Lockes,  old  friends  of  the  Burney 
family.     Some  of  the  French  refugees  had 


Arblay 


57 


settled  in  Juniper  Hall,  in  the  immediate 
neighbourhood.  M.  de  Narbonne  and  Gene- 
ral d'Arblny  lived  there  and  were  visited  by 
Madame  de  Stael  and  Talleyrand.  Miss 
Burney  speedily  became  attached  to  General 
d' Arblay,  who  had  been  a  comrade  of  La- 
fayette's, and  was  with  him  at  the  time  of 
his  arrest  by  the  Prussians.  They  were 
married  31  July  1793,  at  Mickleham,  the  cere- 
mony being  repeated  next  day  at  the  catho- 
lic chapel  of  the  Sardinian  embassy.  Thdr 
whole  fortune  was  Madame  d'Arblay's  pension 
of  100/.  a  year ;  and  Dr.  Burney,  though 
protesting  on  prudential  grounds  and  de- 
clining to  be  present  at  the  marriage,  gave 
&  reluctant  consent.  The  married  pair  settled 
at  the  village  of  Bookham,  within  reach  of 
Norbury,  and  lived  with  great  frugality, 
which  was  more  imperative  on  the  birth  of 
a  son,  Alexander.  Towards  the  end  of  1794 
Madame  d'Arblay  tried  to  improve  her  in- 
come by  bringing  out  a  tragedy,  *  Edwy  and 
Elvina,'the  rough  draught  of  which  had  been 
finished  at  Windsor  August  1790.     It  was 

Performed  at  Drury  Lane  21  March  1795 ; 
ut  in  spite  of  the  acting  of  Mrs.  Siddons 
and  Kemble  it  failed  and  was  withdrawn 
after  the  first  night.  She  also  published  a 
brief  and  stilted  address  to  the  ladies  of 
Great  Britain  in  behalf  of  the  French  emi- 
grant priests,  but  judiciously  declined  to 
edit  a  weekly  anti-Jacobin  paper  to  be  called 
the  '  Breakfast  Table,'  which  had  been  pro- 
jected by  Mrs.  Crewe.  Another  scheme  was 
at  least  more  profitable.  She  published  by 
subscription  the  novel  of  *  Camilla/  in  1796 ; 
and  in  pursuance  of  a  suggestion  once  made 
by  Burke,  the  lists  were  kept  by  ladies 
instead  of  booksellers,  the  dowager  duchess 
of  Leinster,  Mrs.  Boscawen,  Mrs.  Crewe,  and 
Mrs.  Locke.  Three  months  after  the  publi- 
cation, 500  copies  only  remained  of  4,000, 
and  Macaulay  gives  a  rumour  that  she  cleared 
3,000  guineas  by  the  sale.  Burke  sent  her 
a  banknote  for  20/.,  saying  that  he  took  four 
copies  for  himself,  Mrs.  Burke,  and  also  for 
the  brother  and  son  whom  he  had  recently 
lost.  Miss  Austen  was  another  subscriber. 
The  book  was  a  literary  failure,  like  all  her 
•works  after  *  Cecilia ;'  but  it  brought  in 
profit  enough  to  enable  her  to  build  a  cottage, 
called  Camilla  Cottage  from  its  origin,  on  a 
piece  of  land  belonging  to  Mr.  Locke,  at 
West  Humble,  close  to  Mickleham,  whither 
she  removed  in  1797.  A  comedy  called 
*  Love  and  Fashion  '  was  accepted  by  the 
manager  of  Covent  Garden,  but  withdrawn, 
in  deference  to  her  father's  anxieties,  in  1800. 
In  1801  M.  d'Arblay  returned  to  France 
and  endeavoured  to  get  employment.  He 
offered  to  serve  in  the  expedition  to  St. 


Arblay 

Domingo;  but  his  appointment  was  can- 
celled upon  his  attempting  to  make  a  con- 
dition that  he  should  never  be  called  upon 
to  serve  against  England.  He  was  placed 
en  retraite  with  a  pension  of  1,500  francs. 
In  1802  his  wife  and  child  joined  him  in 
Paris,  where,  in  1805,  he  also  obtained  a 
small  civil  employment,  and  they  passed  ten 
years  at  Passy,  during  which  communication 
with  England  was  almost  entirely  inter- 
rupted by  the  war,  and  few  memorials  of 
Madame  d'Arblay  are  preserved.  In  1812 
Madame  d'Arblay  obtamed  permission  to 
return  to  England  with  her  son,  who  was 
now  reaching  the  age  at  which  he  would 
become  liable  to  the  conscription.  She  ar- 
rived, after  much  difficulty  and  some  risks, 
in  August  1812,  to  find  her  father  broken 
down  in  health,  and  attended  him  affection- 
ately till  his  death,  at  the  age  of  86,  in 
April  1814.  At  the  beginning  of  the  same 
year  she  published  her  last  novel,  the  *  Wan- 
derer,' already  begun  in  1802,  for  which  she 
was  to  receive  1,500/.  in  a  year  and  a  half, 
and  3,000/.  on  the  sale  of  8,000  copies.  She 
says  that  3,600  copies  were  sold  at  the  '  ra- 
pacious price'  of  two  guineas.  The  book 
was  apparently  never  read  by  anybody. 
Upon  the  fall  of  Napoleon,  M.  d'Arblay  was 
restored  to  his  old  rank  and  appointed  to  a 
company  in  the  corps  de  garde.  Madame 
d'Arblay  rejoined  him  at  Paris ;  and  upon 
the  return  of  Napoleon  from  Elba  she  retired 
to  Belgium,  and  was  in  Brussels  during  the 
battle  of  Waterloo,  where  her  adventures, 
graphically  described  in  the  diary,  were  per- 
haps turned  to  account  by  Thackeray  in 
the  corresponding  passages  of  *  Vanity  Fair.' 
M.  d'Arblay  had  meanwhile  received  an  ap- 
pointment to  endeavour  to  raise  a  force  of 
refugees  at  Treves.  Here  Madame  d'Arblay 
rejoined  him  after  the  battle  to  find  that  he 
had  been  seriously  injured  by  the  kick  of  a 
horse.  He  recovered,  but  was  incapacitated 
for  active  service  and  was  placed,  contrary 
to  his  own  wishes,  upon  half-pay.  Madame 
d'Arblay  passed  the  rest  of  her  life  in 
England.  Her  journals  give  us  few  inci- 
dents except  a  lively  account  of  her  narrow 
escape  from  drowning  at  Ilfracombe  in  1817. 
Her  husband  died  on  3  May  1818.  Her 
son  was  elected  to  a  Tancred  studentship 
at  Christ's  College,  Cambridge;  was  tenth 
wrangler  in  1818  ;  was  ordained  deacon 
in  1818,  priest  in  1819;  was  nominated 
minister  of  Ely  chapel  in  1836,  and  died  of 
a  rapid  decline  19  Jan.  1837.  Madame  d'Ar- 
blay^s  last  literaiy  employment  was  the 
preparation  for  the  press  of  the  memoirs  of 
her  father,  which  appeared  in  1832.  The 
book  is  disfigured  by  an  elaborate  affectation 


Arblay 


58 


Arbuckle 


of  style  and  is  singularly  vague  in  dates ; 
but  it  contains  much  interesting  matter  and 
many  fragments  of  letters  and  diaries,  full 
of  vivacious  description.  She  had  a  severe 
illness,  with  spectral  illusions,  in  November 

1839,  and  died  at  the  age  of  87  on  6  Jan. 

1840.  Five  volumes  of  her  'Letters  and 
Diaries'  were  published  in  1842,  and  two 
more  in  1846.  Madame  d'Arblay's  '  Me- 
moirs of  Dr.  Bui'ney '  and  her  diary  were 
attacked  with  great  bitterness  by  Croker 
in  the  'Quarterly  Review'  for  April  1833 
and  June  1842.  The  pith  of  the  first  article 
is  an  acciisation  (repeated  in  the  second) 
against  Madame  d'Arblay  (then  80  years 
old)  of  having  intentionally  suppressed  dates 
in  order  to  give  colour  to  a  report  that 
'Evelina'  was  Avritten  at  the  age  of  17. 
Croker  had  taken  the  trouble  to  inspect  the 
register  of  baptisms  at  Lynn,  and  announced 
his  success  with  spiteful  exultation.  Mac- 
aulay  retorted  fiercely  in  the  'Edinburgh 
Review '  for  January  1843  ;  and  the  accusa- 
tion is  examined  at  great  length  by  the  last 
editor  of  '  Evelina.'  It  is  jjetty  enough. 
Miss  Burney  was  25  when  '  Evelina '  ap- 
peared, the  composition  of  which,  from  her 
account,  occupied  a  considerable  period.  Her 
friends  clearly  made  a  great  point  of  her 
youthfulness  at  the  time.  Mrs.  Thrale  and 
Johnson  compared  her  performance  with 
Pope's  '  Windsor  Forest,'  the  first  part  of 
which  (according  to  Pope  himself)  was 
written  at  the  age  of  16,  and  was  finished 
at  25.  Miss  Burney  accepted  this  (amidst 
much  more)  admiration.  The  belief,  if  it 
really  existed,  that  '  Evelina '  was  composed 
at  the  age  of  17  was  probably  due  to  an 
identification  of  the  author  with  the  heroine. 
It  does  not  appear,  however,  that  any  definite 
report  of  the  kind  existed,  or  was  sanctioned 
by  Miss  Burney,  and  if,  at  the  age  of  80, 
she  had  become  vague  about  dates  of  her 
youth,  the  circumstance  is  not  inexplicable. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  charm  of 
*  Evelina '  was  due  in  part  to  the  youthful- 
ness of  the  avithor.  It  represents,  in  fact,  the 
spontaneous  impressions  of  a  girl  of  great 
vivacity  and  powers  of  observation  upon 
entering  the  society  of  which  she  caught 
glimpses  in  the  house  of  her  father.  The 
second  more  elaborate  and  didactic  novel, 
'  Cecilia,'  is  heavier,  and  the  style  generally 
shows  signs  of  deterioration.  There  are 
traces  of  an  imitation  of  Johnson,  which 
gave  rise  to  a  false  report  that  he  had  cor- 
rected it  himself  {Diary,  4  Nov.  1802).  The 
later  novels  are  now  unreadable ;  and  in  the 
'  Memoirs  of  Dr.  Burney  '  she  adopted  a  pe- 
culiar magniloquence  which  may  be  equally 
regarded   as  absurd   or  as   delicious.     The 


earlier  novels  mark  a  distinct  stage  in  our 
literature.  The  form  of  '  Evelina '  is  adapted 
from  Richardson's  plan  of  a  fictitious  corre- 
spondence ;  but  its  best  passages  are  in  the 
vein  of  light  comedy,  and,  unlike  her  prede- 
cessor, she  is  weak  in  proportion  as  she 
attempts  a  deeper  treatment.  She  gave  in 
turn  the  first  impulse  to  the  modern  school 
of  fiction  which  aims  at  a  realistic  portrait 
of  society  and  remains  Avithin  the  limits  of 
feminine  observation  and  feminine  decorum. 
She  was,  in  some  degree,  a  model  to  the 
most  successful  novelists  in  the  next  genera- 
tion, Miss  Edgworth  {b.  1767)  and  Miss 
Austen  (b.  1775),  the  last  of  whom  took  the 
title  of  her  first  novel,  'Pride  and  Preju- 
dice,' from  the  last  pages  of  '  Cecilia,'  and 
speaks  with  admiration  of  Miss  Burney  in  a 
remarkable  passage  in  '  Northanger  Abbey.' 
Madame  d'Arblay's  diary  is  now  more  inte- 
resting than  her  novels.  The  descriptions  of 
Mr.  Thrale  and  Johnson  and  Boswell  him- 
self rival  Boswell's  own  work;  and  the 
author  herself  with  her  insatiable  delight  in 
compliments — certainly  such  as  might  well 
turn  her  head — her  quick  observation  and 
lively  garrulity,  her  effusion  of  sentiment, 
rather  lively  than  deep  but  never  insincere, 
her  vehement  prejudices  corrected  by  flashes 
of  humour,  is  always  amusing ;  nor  to  some 
readers  is  even  the  fine  writing  of  the  '  Me- 
moirs of  Dr.  Burney '  without  its  charm. 

[Memoirs  of  Dr.  Burney,  1832;  Diary  and 
Letters  of  Madame  d'Arblay,  i.-v.  1842,  vi.  vii. 
1846  ;  Mrs.  Delany's  Correspondence,  2nd  series, 
vol.  iii.,  where  are  some  feeble  and  unfriendly 
strictures  upon  her  accuracj' ;  Quarterly  Review 
for  April  1 833  and  June  1842  ;  Macaulay's  Essays  ; 
Boswell's  Johnson ;  Evelina  and  Cecilia,  with 
introduction  by  Annie  Raine  Ellis,  1881  and 
1882.]  L.  S. 

ARBUCKLE,  JAMES  (1700-1734  .P), 
minor  poet  and  essayist,  is  supposed  to  have 
been  a  native  of  Ireland  and  to  have  been 
born  in  1 700.  His  earliest  works  were '  Snuff",' 
a  mock-heroic  poem,  containing  some  curious 
information  respecting  the  snuff'-taking  and 
snuff-boxes  of  the  time,  and  '  An  Epistle  to 
Thomas,  Earl  of  Haddington,  on  the  death 
of  Joseph  Addison,  Esq.,'  both  published  in 
1719.  Arbuckle  contributed  to  the  '  Edin- 
burgh Miscellany '  of  1721,  in  which  appeared 
the  earliest  printed  effusions  of  Thomson  and 
Mallet,  and  in  the  same  year  he  produced  a 
poem,  entitled '  Glotta,'  describing  the  scenery 
about  the  Clyde,  on  the  title-page  of  which 
he  is  described  as  a  '  student  in  the  Univer- 
sity of  Glasgow.'  Here,  as  in  most  of  his 
other  compositions,  the  verse  runs  smoothly, 
and  bears  traces  of  Pope's  influence.  On 
finishing  his  studies  at  Glasgow,  Arbuckle^ 


Arbuthnot 


59 


Arbuthnot 


it  is  supposed,  settled  as  a  schoolmaster  in 
the  north  of  Ireland.  In  the  columns  of  a 
Dublin  newspaper  he  conducted  a  periodical 
miscellany  of  prose  and  verse,  to  which  tlie 

Soet  Pamell,  1<  rancis  Hutcheson,  and  Samuel 
>oyse  occasionally  contributed.  Its  contents 
were  reprinted  in  a  separate  form  as  '  Hiber- 
nicus's  Letters  ;  a  collection  of  Letters  and 
Essays  on  several  subjects,  lately  publislied 
in  the  Dublin  Journal '  (2  vols.  1725-7),  but 
the  work  possesses  little  literary  or  oth«r 
interest.  Arbuckle  was  a  friend  of  Allan 
Ramsay,  to  whom  he  wrote  some  laudatory 
verses,  and  who  addressed  to  him  a  genial 
epistle  in  rhyme  in  1719,  on  his  return  to 
Scotland  from  a  visit  to  Ireland. 

[Arbuckle's  Works  ;  MS.  notice  of  him  prefixed 
to  the  eopy  of  Glotta  in  the  Library  of  the 
British  Museum  ;  Allan  Ramsay's  Poems  (1800), 
i.  173,  and  ii.  359;  Campbell's  Introduction  to 
the  History  of  Poetry  in  Scotland,  p.  183  ;  Cata- 
logue of  the  (Edinburgli)  Advocates'  Library.] 

F.  E. 


ARBUTHNOT,  ALEXANDER  (1538- 
1583),  a  Scotch  divine  and  poet,  second  son 
of  Aiulrew  Arbuthnot,  of  Pitcarles,  was 
born  in  1538.  He  was  educated  at  St. 
Andrews  University,  and  in  1560  was  de- 
clared by  the  general  assembly  to  be  quali- 
fied for  the  ministry.  Before  engaging  in 
ministerial  Avork,  he  spent  five  years  in  study- 
ing civil  law  at  Bourges.  At  his  return  he 
was  licensed  a  minister,  and  on  15  July  1568 
was  appointed  to  the  living  of  Logie  Buchan, 
in  the  diocese  of  Aberdeen.  About  the 
same  time  he  was  directed  by  the  general 
assembly  to  revise  a  book  called'  the  *  Fall 
of  the  Roman  Kirk,'  Avhich  had  been  sup- 
pressed (pending  certain  amendments)  by 
the  ecclesiastical  authorities,  as  containing 
matters  injurious  to  the  interests  of  the  kirk. 
On  3  July  1569  Arbuthnot  Avas  elected  prin- 
cipal of  King's  College,  Aberdeen,  in  place 
of  Alexander  Anderson,  who  had  been  ejected 
for  popery,  and  shortly  afterwards  he  received 
the  living  of  Arbuthnot  in  Kincardineshire. 
By  Anderson's  action  the  finances  of  the 
college  had  been  much  reduced ;  but  under 
Arbuthnot's  vigorous  management  prosperity 
quickly  returned.  In  1572  he  attended  the 
general  assembly  which  met  at  St.  Andrews, 
and  in  the  same  year  he  published  at  Edin- 
burgh his  '  Orationes  de  Origine  et  Dignitate 
Juris,'  4to,  of  which  not  a  single  copy  is  now 
known  to  exist.  He  was  moderator  of  the 
assembly  which  met  at  Edinburgh  in  August 
1573,  and  in  the  following  March  he  was  one 
of  four  appointed  to  summon  the  chapter  of 
Murray   for  giving,   without   due    inquiry, 


letters  testimonial  in  favour  of  George 
Douglas,  bishop  of  the  diocese.  At  the  same 
time  he  was  directed  to  give  assistance  in  draw- 
ing up  apian  of  ecclesiastical  government  for 
the  consideration  of  the  assembly.  In  April 
1577  he  was  again  moderator  of  the  general 
assembly,  and  in  the  following  October  lie  was 
chosen,  with  Andrew  Melville  and  George 
Hay,  to  attend  a  council  (never  held)  which 
was  to  meet  at  Magdeburg  to  establish 
the  Augsburg  confession.  At  Stirling,  on 
11  June  1578,  he  was  among  the  ministers 
named  by  the  assembly  to  discuss  matters  of 
ecclesiastical  government  with  certain  noble- 
men, gentlemen,  and  prelates.  On  24  April 
1583  Arbuthnot  and  two  others  were  desired 
by  the  assembly  to  request  the  king  to  dis- 
miss Manningville,  the  French  ambassador, 
whose  popish  practices  had  excited  much  in- 
dignation ;  and  when,  on  the  same  occasion, 
a  commission  was  appointed  to  inquire  into 
the  financial  condition  and  educational  effi- 
ciency of  St.  Andrews  University,  Arbuthnot 
was  named  one  of  the  commissioners.  He 
was  also  employed  with  two  others  to  lay 
certain  complaints,  on  behalf  of  the  assembly, 
before  the  king.  But  his  activity  in  the 
presbyterian  cause  had  been  watched  with 
little  satisfaction  by  James;  and  in  1583, 
when  he  had  been  chosen  minister  of  St. 
Andrews  by  the  assembly,  he  received  a  royal 
mandate  to  return,  on  pain  of  homing,  to 
his  duties  at  the  King's  College,  Aberdeen. 
(The  statement  that  he  gave  offence  by  edit- 
ing Buchanan's  '  History  of  Scotland '  is  an 
error,  caused  by  the  identity  of  Arbuthnot's 
name  with  that  of  the  printer  of  the  history.) 
The  assembly  remonstrated ;  but  the  king 
replied  that  he  and  his  council  had  good 
reason  for  the  action  they  had  taken.  This 
severity  is  said  to  have  hastened  Arbuthnot's 
death.  He  fell  into  a  decline,  died  10  Oct. 
1583,  and  was  buried  in  the  chapel  of  the 
King's  College.  Andrew  Melville  wrote  his 
epitaph,  in  which  he  is  styled  '  Patriae  lux  ocu- 
lusque '  {Delitice  Poetarum  Scotovum,  ii.  120). 
Arbuthnot  regulated  his  life  so  well  that, 
while  earning  the  devotion  of  his  friends,  he 
secured  the  respect  of  his  adversaries.  His 
'  Orationes  de  Origine  et  Dignitate  Juris '  was 
praised  in  a  copy  of  Latin  verses  {Delitics 
Poetarum  Scotorum)  by  Thomas  Maitland, 
the  Roman  catholic  writer ;  and  Nicol  Bume, 
another  champion  of  Romanism,  in  his  '  Ad- 
monition to  the  Antichristian  Ministers  of 
the  Deformit  Kirk  of  Scotland,'  1581,  ex- 
empts Arbuthnot  from  his  general  anathema. 
Spottiswood  describes  him  as  'pleasant  and 
jocund  in  conversation,  and  in  all  sciences 
expert;  a  good  poet,  mathematician,  philo- 
sopher, theologue,  lawyer,  and  in  medicine 


Arbuthnot 


60 


Arbuthnot 


skilful;    so   as   in   every   subject   he   could 
promptly  discourse  and  to  good  purpose.' 

Three  poetical  pieces  of  Arbuthnot's,  *  On 
Luve,'  'The  Praises  of  Women,'  and  the 
*  Miseries  of  a  Pure  Scholar,'  are  printed  in 
Pinkerton's  '  Ancient  Scottish  Poems.'  He 
left  in  manuscript  an  account  of  the  Arbuth- 
not family,  '  Originis  et  incrementi  Arbuth- 
noticse  familise  descriptio  historica,'  which 
•was  translated  by  George  Morrison,  minister 
of  Benholme,  and  continued  to  the  Restora- 
tion by  Alexander  Arbuthnot,  the  father  of 
the  famous  Dr.  Arbuthnot. 

[Calderwood's  True  History  of  the  Chiu-ch  of 
Scotland,  "Wodrow  Speiety,  vols,  ii.,  iii. ;  Book 
of  the  Universal  Kirk;  Hew  Scott's  Fasti  Ec- 
clesise  Scoticanse;  Anderson's  Scottish  Nation.] 

A.  H.  B. 

ARBUTHNOT,  or  ARBUTHNET, 
ALEXANDER  {d.  1585),  merchant  burgess 
and  printer  of  Edinburgh,  with  Thomas  Bas- 
sandyne,  brought  out  the  first  Bible  issued 
in  Scotland.  In  March  1575  the  two  pre- 
sented a  petition  to  the  general  assembly  re- 
questingpermission  to  print  the  EnglishBible. 
This  was  given,  and  it  was  agreed  that '  every 
bible  which  they  shall  receive  advancement 
for  shall  be  sold  in  albis  [sheets]  for  4  pound 
13  shill.  4  pennies  Scottis  [=  ^^t\x  English 
money],  keeping  the  volume  and  character  of 
the  said  proofs  delivered  to  the  clerk  of  the 
assembly '  (Lee,  Mem.  for  the  Bible  Societies 
of  Scotland,  p.  29).  From  the  '  obligatioun 
for  prenting  of  the  Bybill,'  18  July  1576  {Re- 
gister of  Privy  Council  of  Scotland,  1878, 
ii.  544)  it  appears  that  the  regent  Morton 
caused  the  *  advancement '  spoken  of  to  be 
made  to  the  printers  from  the  contributions 
of  the  parish  kirks,  collected  by  the  bishops, 
superintendents,  and  visitors  of  the  dioceses. 
An  '  authentic  copy '  from  which  to  print  was 
delivered,  and  ceitain  persons  were  appointed 
to  see  that  the  copy,  the  Genevan  edition  of 
1561,  was  duly  followed.  '  Mr.  George  Young, 
servant  to  the  abbot  of  Dunfermline,'  cor- 
rected the  proofs ;  Robert  Pont  compiled  the 
kalendar  and  preliminary  tables.  License 
from  privy  council  was  obtained  30  June  1576, 
giving  Arbuthnot  and  Bassandyne  the  exclu- 
sive right  of  printing  and  selling  for  ten  years 
'  Bibillis  in  the  vulgare  Inglis  toung,  in  haill 
or  in  partis,  with  ane  callindare '  at  the  price 
mentioned  Ijefore  (Lee,  Mem.  Appendix  No. 
■5).  The  name  of  Bassandyne  alone  appears 
on  the  New  Testament,  which  is  dated  1576. 
The  partners  seem  to  have  quarrelled.  Upon 
the  complaint  of  Arbuthnot  to  the  privy 
council,  11  Jan.  1577,  of  the  delay  in  the  pub- 
lication, Bassandyne  was  ordered  '  to  deliver 
to  the  said  Alexander  the  said  werk  of  the 


Bybill  el]  is  prentit,  Avith  the  prenting  hous 
and  necessaris  appertening  thairto  meit  for 
setting  furthwart  of  the  said  werk,  conforme 
to  the  said  contract '  {Register,  ii.  583).  Bas- 
sandyne died  18  Oct.  1577.  On  1  April  1579 
Arbuthnot  received  license  to  print,  sell,  and 
import  psalm  books,  prayers,  and  catechism, 
for  the  space  of  seven  years.  The  publi- 
cation of  the  Bible  was  delayed  until  the 
completion  by  Arbuthnot  in  1579 :  *  The 
Bible  and  Holy  Scriptures  conteined  in  the 
Olde  and  Newe  Testament  .  .  .  Printed  at 
Edinburgh,  be  Alexander  Arbuthnot,  printer 
to  the  King's  Maiestie,  dwelling  at  ye  kirk 
of  feild,  1579,'  2  vols,  folio.  The  British  Mu- 
seum copy  contains  a  facsimile  of  the  eight 
leaves  following  the  title,  reproduced  from  a 
copy,  in  which  variations  occur,  belonging  to 
Mr.  Fry.  In  spite  of  the  large  edition  which 
must  have  been  printed,  the  book  is  now  ex- 
tremely scarce,  especially  in  perfect  condition. 
It  is  a  reprint  of  the  second  folio  edition  of 
the  Genevan  version  (1561),  with  all  the 
notes,  cuts,  and  maps  exactly  reproduced. 
That  no  eftbrt  was  made  to  change  the  spell- 
ing and  style  to  the  Scottish  usage  shows 
that  the  southern  English  was  perfectly  fa- 
miliar in  the  north.  The  publication  Avas  a 
joint  enterprise  on  the  part  of  the  church  and 
the  printers,  of  whom  Arbuthnot  seems  to 
have  been  the  capitalist  and  Bassandyne  the 
practical  mechanic.  The  *  Dedication,'  which 
Avas  Avritten  by  Arbuthnot  and  revised  by  the 
general  assembly,  is  addressed  in  their  name 
to  James  VI,  and  the  impression  is  said  to 
have  been  intended  '  to  the  end  that  in  euerie 
paroch  kirk  there  sulde  be  at  leist  ane  thereof 
kepit,  to  be  callit  the  commoun  buke  of  the 
kirke.'  The  '  Dedication  '  is  dated  10  July 
1579 ;  six  weeks  later  (24  Aug.)  Arbuthnot 
was  made  king's  printer,  with  right  of  print- 
ing ordinaiy  books  and  special  license  to  print 
and  sell  Bibles  '  in  the  A'ulgar  Inglis,  Scottis, 
and  Latein  toungis'  (Lee,  Mem.  App.  No.  7). 
An  act  of  parliament  was  passed  in  1579  to 
compel  every  gentleman  householder  and 
others  with  300  marks  of  yearly  rent,  and 
every  substantial  yeoman  or  burgess  to '  have 
a  bible  and  psalme  buke  in  vulgar  language 
in  thair  hous '  under  penalty  of  10/.  {Act. 
Pari.  Scot.  iii.  139).  Searchers  were  ap- 
pointed to  carry  the  laAV  into  effect,  and 
local  authorities  issued  proclamations  calling 
the  attention  of  the  citizens  to  the  enactment. 
The  demand  for  the  neAv  Bible  seems  to  haA'e 
been  so  great  that  some  delay  occurred  in 
supplying  copies  {Ai'ticles  of  General  As- 
sembly, ap.  Calderavood's  Hist.  iii.  467). 

A  romance  poem,  '  The  Buik  of  the  most 
noble  and  vailzeand  Conquerour  Alexander 
the  Great,'  Avas  printed  by  the  Bannatyne 


I 


Arbuthnot 


6i 


Arbuthnot 


Club  in  18.'5l  from  the  unique  copy  belong^ing 
to  Lord  Panmure.  Two  devices  (pp.  105-6) 
indicate  that  the  book  came  from  the  press 
of  Arbuthnot  about  1580.  In  1582  he  printed 
the  first  edition  of  Buchanan's  '  Rerum  Sco- 
ticarum  Ilistoria,'  folio,  more  remarkable  for 
beauty  than  correctness.  He  also  issued 
the  acts  of  parliament  for  1584.  He  died 
intestate  1  Sept.  1585,  as  appears  from  the 
inventoiy  of  his  effects  '  maid  and  gevin  vp 
be  Agnes  Pennycuicke,  his  relect  spous,  m 
name  and  behalf  of  Alesone,  Agnes,  Thomas, 
George  and  Johne  Arbuthnettis,  their  lauch- 
full  bairnis  '  {Bannatyne  Miscellany,  ii.  207). 
He  left  two  printing  presses  with  fittings. 

[Wodrow's  Collections  (Maitland  Club) ; 
M'Crie's  Life  of  Melville ;  Cotton's  Editions  of 
the  Bible;  Eadie's  English  Bible.]      H.  E.  T. 

ARBUTHNOT,      CHARLES      (1767- 
1850),  diplomatist  and  politician,  one  of  the 
sons  of  J.  Arbuthnot,  by  the  daughter  of  J. 
Stone,  a  London  banker,  Avhose  brother  was 
Archbisliop   Stone,  the  primate  of  Ireland, 
was  born  in  1767.    He  began  his  apprentice- 
ship in  public  life  in  1793,  when  he  accepted 
the  position  of  pr6cis  writer  in  the  Foreign 
Office,  and  entered  upon  his  political  career 
with  his  election  in  March  1795  as  member 
for  East   Looe.     He    served  in   important 
diplomatic  positions  in  Sweden  and  Portu- 
gal, and,  after  holding  for  a  few  months  (Nov. 
1803  to  .Tune  1804)  the  post  of  under-secre- 
tary  for  foreign  affairs,  was  appointed  am- 
bassador  extraordinary   at   Constantinople, 
When  holding  this  appointment  he  was  in- 
structed by  the  cabinet  to  demand  from  the 
Porte  the  dismissal  (amongst  other  things) 
of  the  French   envoy.  General   Sebastiani, 
the  rejection  of  which  led  to  the  forcing  of 
the  Dardanelles  by  our  fleet.     Mr.  Arbuth- 
not, during  this  operation,  was  on  board  the 
admiral's  ship,  and  it  was  mainly  owing  to 
his  firmness  that  whatever  success  attended 
the  operation  was  achieved.     The  late  Sir 
Henry  Blackwood,  in  a  letter  to  Lord  Castle- 
reagh,  described  him  as  having  been  '  not 
only  minister,  but   admiral.'     On  receiving 
his  appointment  at  Constantinople  he  was 
sworn  of  the  privy  council,  and  on  his  return 
to  England  in  1807  a  pension  of  2,000^.  per 
annum  Avas  confeiTed  upon  him.      At   the 
same  time  Mr.  Arbuthnot  abandoned  foreign 
for  home  service.    From  1809  to  1823  he  was 
one  of  the  joint-secretaries  of  the  treasury ; 
from  the  latter  year  until  1827,  and  again  for 
a  few  months  in  1828,  he  presided  over  the 
board  of  woods  and   forests;    and  for  two 
years  (1828-30)  he  held  the  chancellorship 
of  the  duchy  of  Lancaster.     In  April  1809, 
when  he  was  returned  for  Eye  in  Suffolk,  he 


re-entered  parliamentary  life.  At  the  disso- 
lution in  1812  he  became  member  for  Orford 
in  the  same  county ;  from  1818  to  1827  he 
sat  for  St.  Germans,  in  Cornwall,  and  from 
1828  to  1830  he  represented  the  constituency 
of  St.  Ives.  His  first  wife  was  a  daughter  of 
William  Clapcott  Lisle,  and  a  granddaughter 
of  the  Marquis  of  Cholmondeley.  After  her 
death  Mr.  Arbuthnot  married  HaiTiett,  the 
third  daughter  of  the  Hon.  Henry  Fane.  She 
died  in  1834,  and  he  died  at  Apsley  House 
18  Aug.  1850.  The  Duke  of  Wellington 
was  much  attached  to  Mr.  Arbuthnot,  who 
during  the  latter  years  of  his  life  lived  ia 
the  duke's  house  as  his  confidential  friend. 

[Dod's  Peerage;  Gent.  Mag.  xxxiv.  434 
(1850);  Memoirs  and  Correspondence  of  Viscount 
Castlereagh,  vol.  vi. ;  Political  Diary  of  Lord 
Ellenborough,  1828-30.]  W.  P.  C. 

ARBUTHNOT,  GEORGE  (1802-1865), 
a  distinguished  member  of  the  permanent 
civil   service,  was   the  son  of  Lieutenant- 
general  Sir  Robert  Arbuthnot  [see  Aebfth- 
NOT,  Sir  RobertJ.     He  was  appointed  by 
Lord  Liverpool  a  junior  clerk  in  the  treasury 
on  18  July  1820,  and  served  in  that  depart- 
ment until  his  death  on  28  July  1865.     He 
was  then  holding  the  appointment  of  auditor 
of  the  civil  list,  and  was  also  secretary  ta 
the   ecclesiastical   commissioners.      On  Mr. 
Arbuthnot's  death,  the  lords  commissioners 
of  the  treasury,  in  noticing  his  '  singular  and 
eminent  services,'  gave  the  following  account 
of  his  official  life :— '  On  22  March  1850  Sir 
Charles  Wood  made  the  following  communi- 
cation to  the  board  of  treasury  :  "  The  chan- 
cellor of  the  exchequer  avails  himself  of  this 
opportunity  of  bringing  before  the  board  the 
services  of  Mr.  Arbuthnot,  who  has  acted  as 
his  private  secretary  for  nearly  four  years. 
Mr.  Arbuthnot  has  been  thirty  years  in  the 
treasury,  during  nearly  the  whole  of  which 
period  he  has  been  employed  in  situations  of 
great  trust  and  responsibility.     He  acted  as 
private  secretary  to  six  successive  secretaries, 
and  two  assistant  secretaries  of  the  treasury. 
He  was  appointed  in  May  1841  to  perform  the 
duties  of  colonial  clerk  during  the  illness  of 
Mr.  Brande,and  has  since  acted  as  assistant  to 
that  gentleman,  and  has  executed  the  duties 
of  colonial  clerk  during  Mr.  Brande's  annual 
vacation  to  the   entire   satisfaction  of  the 
board.     In  February  1843  he  was  selected 
by  Sir  Robert  Peel  to  be  one  of  his  private 
secretaries,  and  he   has  received  not   only 
from  Sir  Robert  Peel,  but  from  the  secre- 
taries of  the  treasury  to  whom  he  acted  as 
private  secretary  in  former  years,  repeated 
testimonies   of  their  approbation.     On  Sir 
Charles  Wood  becoming  chancellor  of  the 


Arbuthnot 


62 


Arbuthnot 


exchequer  in  July  1846  Mr.  Arbuthnot  was 
appointed  to  his  present  situation  ;  and  Sir 
C.  Wood  considers  it  due  to  him  to  record 
his  obligation  to  him  for  his  constant  and 
zealous  exertions  at  all  times,  and  for  the 
able  assistance  which  he  (Sir  C.  Wood)  has 
received  from  him  in  times  of  great  diffi- 
culty and  on  subjects  of  the  greatest  moment 
and  importance,  and  he  strongly  recommends 
Mr.  Arbuthnot  to  the  board  for  some  dis- 
tinguished mark  of  that  approbation  with 
which  such  public  services  as  he  has  per- 
formed must  be  regarded."  My  lords  have 
only  to  add  to  this  just  tribute  to  Mr.  Ar- 
buthnot's  merits  that  during  the  fifteen  years 
which  have  since  elapsed,  he  has  continued 
his  useful  career  with  the  same  devotion  to 
the  public  service,  and  with  the  still  larger 
opportunities  of  usefulness  which  his  in- 
creased experience  afforded  him.' 

Mr.  Arbuthnot's  work,  as  the  foregoing 
minute  shows,  was  not  confined  to  the  ordi- 
nary business  of  the  treasury.  He  was  con- 
stantly consulted  on  important  questions  of 
currency  and  banking,  upon  both  of  which 
subjects  he  was  regarded  as  a  high  authority. 
As  private  secretary  to  Sir  Robert  Peel  at 
the  time  when  the  latter  passed  through 
parliament  the  Bank  Charter  Act  of  1844, 
Mr.  Arbuthnot  was  intimately  associated 
with  the  great  minister  in  the  framing  of 
that  measure,  and  some  years  afterwards, 
when  the  question  of  a  revision  of  the  act 
was  under  consideration,  he  published  a 
pamphlet  containing  an  able  justification  of 
its  principles  and  provisions.  In  later  years 
he  was  frequently  consulted  on  questions 
connected  with  the  Indian  cuiTency,  when 
it  was  proposed  to  attempt  the  substitution 
of  a  gold  for  a  silver  currency  in  that  coun- 
try ;  and  about  the  same  time  he  submitted 
to  the  lords  of  the  treasury  a  sei'ies  of  valu- 
able reports  upon  the  currency  of  Japan  in 
connection  with  difficulties  which  had  arisen 
from  certain  provisions  of  the  treaty  executed 
between  the  British  and  Japanese  govern- 
ments in  1858. 

Mr.  Ai'buthnot's  paper  on  Civil  Patronage, 
written  in  1854,  with  reference  to  alleged 
defects  in  the  organisation  of  the  permanent 
civil  service,  which  had  been  brought  to 
notice  in  a  report  made  by  Sir  Stafford 
Northcote  and  Sir  Charles  Trevelyan  in  the 
previous  year,  contains  a  veiy  able  defence 
of  the  system  of  appointment  which  then 
prevailed,  and  a  powerful  refutation  of  the 
arguments  advanced  in  the  report  in  question. 
His  style  of  writing  was  singularly  vigorous 
and  clear,  and  the  rapidity  and  energy  with 
which  he  wrote  constituted  not  the  least  of 
liis  many  merits  as  a  public  servant. 


Mr.  Arbuthnot  was  twice  offered  the  ap- 
pointment of  financial  member  of  the  council 
of  the  governor-general  of  India,  first  on  the 
death  of  Mr.  James  Wilson  in  1860,  and 
again  on  the  retirement  of  Sir  Charles  Tre- 
velyan in  1865,  but  on  both  occasions  he 
was  compelled  by  the  state  of  his  health  to 
decline  the  ofter. 

[Records  of  her  Majesty's  Treasury ;  Report 
on  the  Organisation  of  the  Civil  Service,  published 
1854;  Pamphlet,  entitled  'Sir  Robert  Peel's 
Act  of  1844,  regulating  the  issue  of  Bank  Notes, 
vindicated  by  G.  Arbuthnot,'  1857  ;  Arbuthnot's 
Reports  on  the  Japanese  Currency,  1862-3; 
Macmillan's  Magazine,  August  1870  ;  Globe, 
August  1865.]  A.  J.  A. 

ARBUTHNOT,  JOHN  (1667-1735), 
physician  and  Avit,  was  the  son  of  a  Scotch 
episcopal  clergyman  settled  at  Arbuthnot, 
Kincardineshire.  He  is  said  to  have  studied 
at  Aberdeen,  but  he  took  his  doctor's  degree 
in  medicine  at  St.  Andrew's  on  11  Sept.  1696. 
His  father  lost  his  preferment  upon  the  revo- 
lution, and  retired  to  a  small  estate  of  his 
own ;  and  the  sons,  who  shared  his  high- 
church  principles,  found  it  desirable  to  seek 
their  fortunes  abroad.  One  of  them,  Robert, 
became  ultimately  a  banker  in  Paris ;  his 
extraordinary  amiability  is  celebrated  by 
Pope  {Letter  to  BUjby]  1  Sept.  1722);  he 
married  a  rich  widow  of  Suffolk  in  1726 
{Swift  to  Stopford,  20  July  1726);  and  he 
was  suspected  of  Jacobite  tendencies  ( Gent. 
Mag.  ii.  578,  766,  782).  Another  was  in 
the  army  {Journal  to  Stella,  26  Sept.  1711). 
John  Arbuthnot  settled  in  London,  where 
he  first  stayed  at  the  house  of  Mr.  William 
Pate,  a  woollendraper,  and  gave  lessons  in 
mathematics.  In  1697  he  published  'An 
Examination  of  Dr.  Woodward's  Account  of 
the  Deluge,  &c.,'  criticising  a  crude  theory 
suggested  by  Woodward  (1695)  in  an '  Essay 
towards  a  Natural  History  of  the  Earth.' 
Arbuthnot  next  published  an  able  '  Essay 
on  the  Usefulness  of  Mathematical  Learning, 
in  a  letter  from  a  gentleman  in  the  city  to 
his  friend  in  Oxford,'  dated  25  Nov.  1700. 
He  was  elected  a  fellow  of  the  Royal  Society, 
30  Nov.  1704;  and  in  1710  he  contributed 
a  paper  to  its  *  Transactions '  upon  the  slight 
average  excess  of  male  over  female  births ; 
which  he  regards  as  a  providential  arrange- 
ment intended  to  provide  against  the  greater 
risks  of  the  male  sex,  and  as  proving  that 
polygamy  is  contrary  to  the  law  of  nature. 
Arbuthnot  was  meanwhile  rising  in  his  pro- 
fession, and  had  the  good  luck  to  be  at  Epsom 
when  Prince  George  of  Denmark  was  sud- 
denly taken  ill  and  to  prescribe  for  him  suc- 
cessfully. He  was  appointed  physician  extra- 


Arbuthnot 


63 


Arbuthnot 


ordinary  to  Queen  Anne,  30  Oct.  1705  ;  and 
on  the  illness  of  Dr.  Ilannes,  fourth  phy- 
sician in  ordinary,  11  Nov.  1709.  Swift  calls 
him  the  '  queen's  favourite  physician.'     On 
27  April  1710,  he  was  admitted  a  fellow  of 
the     Royal    College    of    Physicians,    was 
■censor  in  1723,   and    pronounced  the  Ilar- 
veian  oration  in  1727.     Arbuthnot's  favour 
at    court    was    strengthened    by   his    inti- 
macy  with   the   leading   statesmen  of  the 
Harley  administration.     He  formed  a  close 
friendship   with   Swift,   and   is    frequently 
mentioned  in  the  'Journal  to  Stella.'     He 
■was  a  member  of  the  famous  '  Brothers  Club,' 
and  took  an  active  share  in  the  literary  war- 
fare against  the  whigs.    He  was  the  author, 
as  Swift  tells  lis  {Journal  to  Stella,  12  Dec. 
1712)  of  the  *  Art  of  Political  Lying,'  one  of 
the  best  specimens  of  the  ironical  wit  of  the 
time.     A  more   celebrated  production  was 
the  well-known  pamphlet  called  ultimately, 
*  Law  is  a  Bottomless  Pit ;  or,  the  History 
of  .John  Bull,'  published  1712.     Both  Swi^t 
and  Pope  ascribe  this  to  Arbuthnot  (Spbnce's 
Anecdotes,  p.  145;  Journal  to  Stella,  12  Dec. 
1712).     It  is  an  ingenious  and  lively  attack 
upon  the  war  policy  of  the  whigs ;  and,  if 
it   wants   the   force   of  Swift's   profounder 
satire,   it    is   an    admirably    effective    and 
still  amusing  party  squib.     It  does  not  seem 
to  be  known  whether  Arbuthnot  originated 
or  only  adopted  the  nickname,  John  Bull. 
During  the  last  years  of  Queen  Anne's  reign 
Swift  and  Arbuthnot  had  become  intimate 
with   the    younger    wits.   Pope,   Gay,   and 
Parnell.    They  called  themselves  the  *  Scrib- 
lerus  Club,'  and  projected  a  kind  of  joint- 
stock   satire    to    be   directed   against   'the 
abuses  of  human  learning  in  every  branch.' 
Lord   Oxford   carried    on    an   exchange   of 
humorous  verses  with  them ;  and,  according 
to  Pope  (Spence's  Anecdotes,  p.  10),  Atter- 
bury,  Congreve,  and  even  Addison,  proposed 
to  join  in  their  scheme.     Arbuthnot  writes 
a  letter  to  Swift  with  various  suggestions 
for  Scriblerus  during  his  friend's  retirement 
at  Letcombe;   and  Swift  in  his  reply  says 
that  Arbuthnot  was  the  only  man  capable  of 
carrying  out  the  plan,  which  had  been  ori- 
ginally suggested   by   Pope.     The    scheme 
dropped  for  a  time  upon  Anne's  death  and 
the  retirement  of  Swift  to  Ireland.     Frag- 
ments,  however,   had    been  executed   and 
formed  part  of  the  '  Miscellanies '  printed  by 
Pope  in  1727.     The  '  Memoirs  of  Martinus 
Scriblerus '  Avere  first  published  in  the  quarto 
edition  of  Pope's  works  in  1741 ;  they  are 
mainly,  if  not  exclusively,  Arbuthnot's,  and 
give  the  best  specimen  of  his  powers.     The 
ridicule  of  metaphysical  pedantry  is  admi- 
rable, though  rather  beyond  popular  apprecia- 


tion. Other  passages  are  directed  against  the 
antiquarians  and  Arbuthnot's  old  opponent, 
Woodward,  and  his  supposed  discovery  of 
an  ancient  shield.  The  account  of  Scrib- 
lerus's  education  clearly  gave  some  hints  to 
Sterne's  'Tristram  Shandy.' 

Arbuthnot  was  in  attendance  upon  Queen 
Anne  in  her  last  illness.  Upon  her  death 
he  retired  for  a  short  time  to  France.  He 
went  there  again  in  1718,  his  chief  business 
being,  as  he  told  Swift  (14  Oct.  1718),  to 
leave  his  two  girls  with  their  uncle.  Such 
visits  might  be  suspicious  in  the  eyes  of 
good  whigs.  Upon  the  accession  of  George  I 
he  lost  his  place  *t  court,  but  he  appears  to 
have  retained  his  practice  among  the  great 
people.  We  find  him  introducmg  Swift  to 
the  Princess  of  Wales — soon  to  become 
Queen  Caroline — in  April  1726.  He  was  the 
friend  and  physician  both  of  Chesterfield  and 
of  Pulteney,  the  last  of  whom  tells  Swift 
that  no  one  but  Arbuthnot  understood  his 
case.  He  attended  ]\Irs.  Howard,  afterwards 
Lady  Suffolk,  and  Congreve.  He  was  the 
trusted  friend  and  adviser  of  all  the  wits. 
He  helped  to  get  up  a  subscription  for  Prior 
when  the  poet  was  in  distress.  He  was  the 
constant  adviser,  medical  and  otherwise,  of 
his  friend  Gay.  Pope  constantly  expressed 
his  gratitude  to  Arbuthnot,  paid  to  him 
some  of  his  finest  poetical  compliments,  and 
dedicated  the  most  perfect  of  his  satires  to 
this 

Friend  to  my  life,  which  did  not  you  prolong, 
The  world  had  wanted  many  an  idle  song. 

Though  his  coi'respondence  with  Swift  was 
often  interrupted,  their  friendship  never 
changed.  Arbuthnot,  who  was  a  musician, 
helped  Swift  to  get  singers  for  his  cathedral, 
and  sent  him  prescriptions  and  medical  advice. 
If  there  were  a  dozen  Arbuthnots  in  the 
world,  said  Swift  {Letter  to  Pope,  29  Sept. 
1725),  he  would  burn  his  '  Travels.'  *  Our 
doctor,'  he  adds,  '  hath  every  quality  in  the 
world  that  can  make  a  man  amiable  and 
useful ;  but,  alas  !  he  hath  a  sort  of  slouch 
in  his  walk.'  Elsewhere  {Letter  to  Gay, 
10  July  1732),  he  calls  Arbuthnot  ♦  the  king 
of  inattention,'  and  Chesterfield  confirms  the 
statement  that  Arbuthnot  was  frequently 
absent-minded  in  company.  'The  doctor,' 
said  Swift  on  another  occasion,  '  has  more 
wit  than  we  all  have,  and  his  humanity  is 
equal  to  his  wit.'  And  this  seems  to  have 
been  the  universal  opinion. 

Arbuthnot  was  singularly  careless  of  his 
literary  reputation.  His  witty  writings  were 
anonymous ;  he  let  his  children  make  kites 
of  his  papers,  allowed  his  friends  to  alter 
them  as  they  pleased,  and  took  no  pains  to 


Arbuthnot 


64 


Arbuthnot 


distinguish  his  share.  After  the  death  of 
Queen  Anne  he  took  part,  with  Pope  and 
Gay,  in  the  sillv  farce  called  '  Three  Hours 
after  Marriage,  in  which  his  old  enemy- 
Woodward  is  once  more  ridiculed,  and 
which,  being  unworthy  of  all  the  three 
authors,  was  deservedly  damned  in  1717. 
Another  trifle,  called  '  A  Brief  Account^  of 
Mr.  John  Ginglicutt's  treatise  concerning 
the  Altercation  or  Scolding  of  the  Ancients,' 
is  identified  as  Arbuthnot's  by  letters  to 
Swift  from  Pulteney  (9  Feb.  1731)  and 
Pope  (1  Dec.  1731) ;  but  Pope's  view  that  it 
is  of 'little  value'  seems  to  be  better  founded 
than  Pulteney's  admiratig;!  of  its  humour. 
Arbuthnot  had  published  about  1707  a  col- 
lection of  *  Tables  of  Grecian,  Roman,  and 
Jewish  Measures,  Weights,  and  Coins  reduced 
to  the  English  Standard,'  and  dedicated  to 
Prince  George  of  Denmark.  He  republished 
these  in  1727,  with  preliminary  dissertations 
and  with  a  dedicatory  poem  to  tlie  king  by 
his  son  Charles,  then  a  student  of  Christ 
Church,  for  whose  benefit,  he  tells  us,  they 
were  again  printed.  The  death  of  this  son 
in  1731  was  a  severe  blow  to  Arbuthnot,  and 
is  mentioned  with  pathetic  resignation  in 
the  father's  letter  to  Swift,  13  Jan.  1732-3. 
Arbuthnot's  health  had  long  been  uncer- 
tain. Swift  notices,  in  the  'Journal  to 
Stella'  (4  Oct.  1711),  that  the  doctor  was 
suffering  from  symptoms  of  stone.  In  1723 
he  tells  Swift  that  he  is  as  cheerful  as 
ever  on  public  affairs,  '  with  a  great  stone 
in  his  right  kidney,  and  a  family  of  men 
and  women  to  provide  for.'  His  charac- 
teristic cheerfulness  seems  to  have  de- 
clined under  illness  and  domestic  trouble, 
and  some  of  his  later  letters  express  some 
sympathy  with  Swift's  misanthropical  views. 
In  his  last  years  he  published  three  medical 
treatises :  '  An  Essay  concerning  the  Nature 
of  Aliments  and  the  Choice  of  them '  (1731)  ; 
'  Practical  Rules  of  Diet  in  the  various  Con- 
stitutions and  Characters  of  Human  Bodies ' 
(1732) ;  and  an  '  Essay  concerning  the  Effects 
of  Air  on  Human  Bodies '  (1733).  He  retired 
for  a  time  to  Hampstead  in  1734,  to  try  the 
effect  of  the  air,  and  there  wrote  touching 
letters  to  Pope  (17  July)  and  to  Swift 
(4  Oct.  1734),  taking  leave  of  them  with 
affectionate  goodwill.  '  A  recovery  in  my 
case  and  in  my  age,' he  wrote, 'is  impossible; 
the  kindest  wish  of  my  friends  is  euthanasia.' 
He  died  peacefully,  though  in  much  suffer- 
ing, 27  Feb.  1734-5. 

Arbuthnot  had  two  sons — Charles,  men- 
tioned above,  and  George,  who  became 
secondary  in  the  Remembrancer's  Office — and 
two  daughters,  who  died  unmarried.  George, 
whose  melancholy  is   contrasted  with  his 


father's  cheerfulness  by  Swift's  friend  Eras- 
mus Lewis,  was  one  of  Pope's  executors ; 
Pope  left  to  him  a  portrait  of  Bolingbroke 
and  a  watch  given  by  the  King  of  Sardinia  to 
Peterborough,  and  by  Peterborough  to  Pope. 
He  also  bequeathed  200^.  to  George  and 
200/.  to  his  sister  Ann  Arbuthnot.  Arbuth- 
not's acknowledged  works  are  given  above. 
Two  volumes,  called  'The  Miscellaneous 
Works  of  the  late  Dr.  Arbuthnot,'  were  pub- 
lished at  Glasgow  in  1751.  George  Arbuth- 
not advertised  that  they  were  not  hi» 
father's  works,  but  '  an  imposition  upon  th& 
public'  They  were  repulDlished  in  1770, 
with  a  few  additional  pieces  and  a  life,  the 
accuracy  of  which  was  admitted  by  George 
Arbuthnot  (see  Biog.  Brit.  1778).  The  col- 
lection has  no  authority,  but  includes  the  fol- 
lowing, which  were  clearly  Arbuthnot's  :  the 
'  Usefulness  of  Mathematical  Learning,'  the 
'Scolding  of  theAncients,'the' Examination 
of  Woodward,'  a  sermon  at  the  Mercat  Cross, 
Edinburgh  (see  Elwin's  Pope,  Letters,  ii. 
489),  and  a  poem  called  Tvwdi  crfavrbv,  first 
printed  by  Dodsley  in  1748,  with  Arbuth- 
not's name.  The  '  Masquerade,'  a  poem,  is 
probably  Fielding's,  with  whose  '  Grub- 
street  Opera'  it  Avas  printed  in  1731,  having 
first  appeared  (it  is  there  said)  in  1728.  The 
letter  to  Dean  Swift  is  attributed  to  Gordon 
of  the  'Independent  Whig'  {Monthly  Re- 
view, iii.  399).  It  is  said  in  Chalmers's '  Biog, 
Diet.'  that  several  of  the  pieces '  were  written 
by  Fielding,  Henry  Carey,  and  other  authors/ 
They  are  for  the  most  part  worthless,  and 
seem  to  have  been  taken  at  random  on  ac- 
count of  the  subjects.  '  Gulliver  deeypher'd' 
is  attributed  to  Arbuthnot  in  the  '  Biog. 
Brit.,'  and  by  a  writer  in  the  '  Retrospective 
Review,'  but  it  is  a  more  than  ostensible 
attack  upon  Swift,  Pope,  and  himself;  it 
deals  with  certain  sore  svibjects  for  all  three 
on  which  Arbuthnot  was  very  unlikely  to 
touch.  The  'third  part  of  John  Bull'' 
seems  to  be  quite  unworthy  of  him.  Be- 
sides these,  he  has  been  credited  with  '  Criti- 
cal Remarks  on  Capt.  Gulliver's  Travels 
by  Dr.  Bantley,' '  Don  Bilioso  de  rEstomac,*" 
'  Notes  and  Memorandums  of  the  six  days 
preceding  the  Life  and  Death  of  a  late  Right 

Rev.    '   (that   is   Bishop  Burnet),  and 

the  '  Essay  upon  an  Apothecary '  in  a  *  Sup- 
plement to  Dean  Sw — t's  Miscellanies,'  all 
in  the  same  collection.  They  are  at  best 
veiy  doubtful.  It  appears,  also,  that  Ar- 
buthnot helped  in  the  notes  to  the  *  Dun- 
ciad '  (Nichols,  Illustrations,  iii.  766,  and 
Anecdotes,  v.  586).  He  may  probably  have 
written  the  *  Virgilius  Restauratus '  ap- 
pended to  the  same  ;  and  he  is  said  to  have 
written  the '  Reasons  offered  by  the  Company 


Arbuthnot 


65 


Arbuthnot 


of  exercising  the  Trade  and  Mystery  of  Up- 
holders against  part  of  the  Bill  for  viewing 
and  examining  Drugs  and  Medicines  ;'  the 

*  Petition  of  the  Colliers,  Cooks,  Blacksmiths, 
&c.,  against  Catoptrical  Victuallers ;'  and  *  It 
canjiot  rain  but  it  pours,  or  London  strewed 
with  rarities,'  generally  printed  in  Swift's 
works.  Tliey  first  appeared  in  the  additional 
volume  of '  Miscellanies  '  published  by  Pope 
in  1732,togetherwith  an 'Essay  of  the  learned 
Martinus  Scriblerus  concerning  the  Origin  of 
Sciences  '  (which  is  traced  to  the  monkeys  of 
Ethiopia)  attributed  to  Arbuthnot  and  Pope 
himself  by  Pope  (Spence,  167).  He  may 
have  contributed  in  some  degree  to  the 
treatise  on  the  Bathos,  which  seems,  how- 
ever, to  have  been  almost  entii'ely  Pope's. 

The  '  History  of  John  Bull '  originally 
appeared  in  1712,  in  successive  parts,  entitled 

*  Law  is  a  Bottomless  Pit,  exemplified  in  the 
case  of  Lord  Strutt,  John  Bull,  Nicholas 
Frog,  and  Lewis  Baboon,  who  spent  all  they 
had  in  a  lawsuit ;'  *  Jolin  Bull  in  his  Senses,' 
being  the  second  pai't  of  the  above ;  *  John 
Bnll  still  in  his  Senses,'  the  third  part; 
'Appendix  to  John  Bull  still  in  his  Senses ;' 
and  '  Lewis  Baboon  turned  honest  and  John 
Ikill  politician,'  being  the  fourth  part.  They 
are  described  on  the  title-page  as  written 
by  the  author  of  the  '  New  Atalantis.'  The 
history  was  reprinted  in  Pope's  'Miscellanies' 
(1727),  rearranged  and  divided  into  two 
parts. 

[Life  in  Miscellaneous  Works,  1770;  Bio- 
graphia  Britannica ;  Works  of  Swift  and  Pope, 
passim ;  Spence's  Anecdotes ;  Chesterfiekl's  Works, 
1845,  ii.  446;  Retrospective  Eeview,  vol.  viii. ; 
Mimk's  College  of  Physicians  (1878),  ii.  27.] 

L.  S. 

ARBUTHNOT,  MARRIOT  (1711  .P- 
1794),  admiral,  was  a  native  of  Weymouth. 
About  his  birth,  parentage,  and  early  years, 
nothing  is  certainly  known.  It  has  been 
supposed  that  he  was  related  to  Dr.  John 
Arbuthnot,  but  apparently  on  no  stronger 
grounds  than  the  similarity  of  name ;  and  the 
fact  that  up  to  1763  he  always  wrote  it  Ar- 
buthnott,  as  the  family  of  Viscount  Arbuth- 
nott  still  does,  may  perhaps  suggest  a  nearer 
connection  with  that  stem.  He  did  not  attain 
the  rank  of  lieutenant  till  1739,  when  he  was 
twenty-eight  years  of  age.  In  1746  he  was 
made  a  commander,  and  in  1747  a  captain. 
In  1759  he  commanded  the  Portland,  one  of 
the  ships  employed  under  Commodore  DuflP 
in  the  blockade  of  Quiberon  Bay,  and  was 
present  at  the  total  defeat  of  the  French  on 
20  Nov.  From  1771  to  1773  he  commanded 
the  guardship  at  Portsmouth,  and  in  1775 
was  appointed  commissioner  of  the  navy  at 
I  [alifax ;  but  he  was  recalled  in  January  1778 

VOL.   II. 


on  his  advancement  to  flag  rank.  He  reached 
home  in  September,  and  in  the  following 
spring,  after  sitting  as  a  member  of  the  court- 
martial  on  Admiral  Kepnel,  lie  was  appointed 
to  the  command  of  the  North  American  sta- 
tion, for  which  he  sailed  in  the  Europe  of  64 
guns  on  1  May.  He  reached  New  York  on 
25  August.  Here  he  remained  through  the 
autumn  and  winter,  for  some  time  expecting 
the  attack  of  the  Count  d'Estaing,whicJi  how- 
ever broke  without  much  harm  on  Savannah. 
Afterwards,  in  concert  with  Sir  Henry  Clin- 
ton, he  undertook  the  expedition  against 
Charlestown,  Avhicli  surrendered  without  fur- 
ther resistance,  when  tlie  passage  into  the 
harbour  had  been  forced  by  the  fleet.  On 
10  July  1780  a  squadron  of  seven  ships  of  the 
line  and  four  heavy  frigates,  with  a  body  of 
6,000  soldiers  newly  arrived  from  France, 
captured  Rhode  Island,  and  Arbuthnot,  rein- 
forced at  the  same  time  and  with  a  squadron 
now  numbering  nine  sliips  of  the  line,  took  up 
his  station  in  Gardiner's  Bay  at  the  north  end 
of  Long  Island,  whence  he  could  keep  watch 
on  the  enemy.  He  was  still  here  at  the  latter 
end  of  September,  when  he  unexpectedly  re- 
ceived a  letter  from  Sir  George  Rodney,  ac- 
Juainting  him  that  he  had  arrived  at  Sandy 
look  and  taken  on  himself  the  command  of 
the  stati(m.  Sir  George  was  at  tliis  time  the 
commander-in-chief  at  the  Leeward  Islands, 
and  having  reason  to  believe  that  the  Count 
de  Guichen,  the  French  admiral,  had  brought 
his  fleet  on  to  the  coast  of  North  America, 
had  also  come  with  ten  ships  of  the  line. 
Arbuthnot  resented  this  supersession,  and  ex- 
pressed himself  upon  it  with  much  temper  and 
insolence.  Rodney  submitted  the  whole  mat- 
ter to  the  admiralty.  The  admiralty  approved 
Rodney's  view,  and  Arbuthnot,  nettled  by 
the  implied  censure,  requested,  on  the  plea  of 
ill-health,  that  he  might  be  relieved  from  the 
command  which  had  again  devolved  on  him, 
since  Rodney  had  gone  back  to  the  West 
Indies  as  soon  as  he  knew  that  Guichen  had 
certainly  returned  to  France. 

Through  the  first  two  months  of  1781  the 
French  and  English  squadrons  lay  opposed  to 
each  other  at  Rhode  Island  and  Gardiner's 
Bay.  It  was  only  with  the  beginning  of 
March  that  M.  Destouches,  the  French  senior 
officer,  was  pereuaded  by  Washington  to  at- 
tempt a  movement  against  the  English  po- 
sitions at  the  mouth  of  the  Chesapeake.  1  he 
time  was  well  chosen,  for  one  of  the  English 
ships  had  been  wrecked  a  few  weeks  before, 
and  another  dismasted  [see  Affleck,  Ed- 
mund]. Arbuthnot,  however,  got  to  sea  very 
shortly  after  Destouches,  and  on  the  morning 
of  16  March,  beingthen  some  forty  miles  to  the 
eastward  of  Cape  Henry,  the  French  squadron 


Arbuthnot 


66 


Arbuthnot 


was  sighted  to  the  north-east.  It  was  now 
to  leeward ;  but  as  Arbuthnot  steered  to- 
wards it  the  wind  gradually  drew  round  from 
west  to  north-east.  Throughout  the  forenoon 
he  endeavoured  to  get  to  windward  of  the 
enemy,  and  about  1.30  p.m.  Destouches,  find- 
ing that  he  was  losing  ground  and  apprehen- 
sive of  having  his  rear  doubled  on,  gave  up 
the  weather-gauge,  and  running  down  to  lee- 
ward formed  his  line  on  the  starboard  tack. 
As  the  English  squadron,  on  the  opposite 
tack,  was  now  nearly  abreast  and  to  wind- 
ward of  the  enemy,  Arbuthnot  began  to  wear 
in  succession ;  and  the  three  leading  ships,  op- 
posed to  the  enemy's  van,  found  themselves 
engaged  by  the  wliole  enemy's  line  before  the 
rest  of  their  squadron  could  support  them. 
In  this  way  these  three  ships  were  dis- 
mantled ;  whilst  the  enemy,  passing  by  them 
and  wearing  in  succession,  reformed  their  line 
on  the  larboard  tack  and  waited  for  a  renewal 
of  the  action.  But  this  was  out  of  the  power 
of  the  English  to  attempt ;  for  of  their  eight 
ships  three  were  disabled,  and  all  that  could 
be  done  was  to  make  for  the  Chesapeake  and, 
anchoring  in  Lynnhaven  Bay,  prevent  any 
operations  the  French  might  have  in  view. 
But  these,  on  their  part,  had  also  suffered  se- 
verely, and  were  unable  to  attempt  anything 
further.  Their  expedition  had  miscarried, 
and  they  returned  to  Rhode  Island,  where 
they  anchored  on  the  30th.  A  fortnight 
later  the  English  took  up  their  old  position 
in  Gardiner's  Bay,  and  Arbuthnot,  having 
received  permission  to  return  home,  surren- 
dered the  command  to  Rear- Admiral  Graves, 
and  sailed  for  England  on  4  July.  He  had 
no  further  employment  at  sea,  but,  advancing 
in  rank  by  seniority,  was,  on  1  Feb.  1793, 
promoted  to  be  admiral  of  the  blue.  He  died 
in  London  on  31  Jan.  1794  at  the  age  of  83. 

Admiral  Arbuthnot  may  be  considered  as, 
in  some  respects,  a  late  survival  of  the  class 
of  officer  described  under  the  name  of  Flip 
or  Trunnion.  That  he  was  ignorant  of  the 
discipline  of  his  profession  was  proved  by  his 
altercation  with  Sir  George  Rodney ;  that  he 
was  destitute  of  even  a  rudimentary  know- 
ledge of  naval  tactics  was  shown  by  his  ab- 
surd conduct  of  the  action  off  Cape  Henry ; 
and  for  the  rest  he  appears  in  contemporary 
stories  (cf.  Morning  Chronicle,  18  May  1781) 
as  a  coarse,  blustering,  foul-mouthed  bully, 
and  in  history  as  a  sample  of  the  extremity  to 
which  the  maladministration  of  Lord  Sand- 
wich had  reduced  the  navy. 

[Charnock's  Biographia  Navalis,  vi.  1  ;  Eidfe's 
Naval  Biography,  i.  129;  Beatson's  Naval  and 
Military  Memoirs  ;  Muiidy's  Life  of  Lord  Eod- 
ney  ;  Official  Letters  and  Documents  in  the  Re- 
cord Office.]  J.  K.  L. 


ARBUTHNOT,  Sir  ROBERT,  K.C.B., 
K.T.S.  (1773-1853),  lieutenant-general,  was 
the  fourth  son  of  John  Arbuthnot,  of  Rock- 
fleet,  county  Mayo,  and  brother  of  the 
Right  Honourable  Charles  Arbuthnot  and 
of  Lieutenant-general  Sir  Thomas  Arbuth- 
not [see  Akbtjthnot,  Charles].  He  entered 
the  army  as  a  cornet  in  the  23rd  light  dra- 
goons on  1  Jan.  1797,  and  was  present  at  the 
battle  of  Ballynamuck  in  the  Irish  rebellion 
on  8  Sept.  of  the  following  year.  He  sub- 
sequently served  with  his  regiment  at  the 
capture  of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  in  1806, 
and  in  South  America  as  aide-de-camp  to 
General  (afterwards  Ijord)  Beresford,  with 
whom  and  the  rest  of  the  troops  under  Gene- 
ral Beresford's  command  he  was  made  a 
prisoner  of  war,  and  remained  a  prisoner  for 
eighteen  months,  until  released  under  the 
convention  made  by  General  Whitelock.  On 
his  return  from  America,  Arbuthnot,  then  a 
captain  in  the  20th  light  dragoons,  resumed 
his  position  on  General  Beresford's  staff  at 
]Madeira,  and  served  with  him  as  aide-de- 
camp, and  afterwards  as  military  secretary, 
throughout  the  greater  part  of  the  Peninsular 
war. 

Few  officers  have  taken  part  in  so  many 
general  actions.  Besides  the  battle  of  Bally- 
namuck, two  at  the  Cape,  and  three  in  South 
America,  Sir  Robert  was  present  at  the  battle 
of  Corunna,  the  passage  of  the  Douro,  the 
battle  of  Busaco,  the  lines  of  Torres  Vedras, 
the  siege  and  reduction  of  Olivenza,  the  first 
siege  of  Badajoz,  the  battle  of  Albuera,  the 
siege  and  storming  of  Ciudad  Rodrigo,  the 
third  siege  and  storming  of  Badajoz,  the 
battles  of  the  Nivelle,  Nive,  passage  of  the 
Adour,  and  the  battles  of  Orthes  and  Tou- 
louse. He  received  the  gold  cross  and  three 
clasps  for  Busaco,  Albuera,  Badajoz,  Nivelle, 
Nive,  Orthes,  and  Toulouse,  and  the  war 
medal  and  two  clasps  for  Corunna  and  Ciu- 
dad Rodrigo.  He  also  received  Portuguese 
and  Spanish  orders,  including  the  special  star 
given  by  the  Portuguese  government  to  all 
English  officers  of  superior  rank  engaged  at 
Albuera.  He  brought  home  the  despatches 
regarding  Albuera,  and  on  that  occasion  was 
appointed  a  brevet  lieutenant-colonel.  He 
was  created  a  knight  of  the  Tower  and  Sword 
by  the  government  of  Portugal,  and  in  1815 
was  appointed  a  K.C.B.  In  1830  he  attained 
the  rank  of  major-general,  and  in  1838  was 
appointed  to  the  command  of  the  troops  in 
Ceylon,  after  which  he  commanded  a  division 
in  Bengal  until  his  promotion  as  lieutenant- 
general  in  1841.  In  1843  he  was  appointed 
colonel  of  the  76th  foot.  He  died  on  6  May 
1863. 

Sir  Robert  Arbuthnot  was  an  officer  of 


Arbuthnot 


67 


Archdall 


conspicuous  gallantry,  and  was  remarkable 
for  liis  quickness  of  eye  and  readiness  of  re- 
source. At  Albuera  he  distinguished  himself 
by  galloping  between  two  regiments,  the 
British  o7th  and  a  Spanish  regiment,  and 
stopping  the  fire  which  by  mistake  they 
were  exchanging — a  feat  which  he  per- 
formed without  receiving  a  single  wound. 
In  the  same  battle,  at  a  critical  moment,  he 
■  was  enabled  by  his  quickness  of  sight  to 
discern  a  retrograde  movement  on  the  part 
of  the  French,  which  Marshal  Beresford  had 
not  perceived,  and  induced  the  latter  to  re- 
call an  order  which  he  had  just  given  for  the 
retirement  of  two  batteries  of  artillery.  At 
an  earlier  period,  in  South  America,  when  he 
and  General  Beresford  were  prisoners  in  the 
hands  of  the  Spanish,  and  when  all  the  officers 
were  about  to  be  searched  for  papers,  he  con- 
trived by  a  clever  stratagem  to  secrete  in  an 
orchard  an  important  document,  viz.  the  con- 
vention which  had  been  executed  between 
General  Beresford  and  the  Spanish  general 
Linieres,  and  of  which  the  Spanish  were 
anxious  to  regain  possession. 

[Hart's  Army  List ;  Annual  Register,  1853 ; 
Maxwell's  Victories  of  the  British  Armies  ; 
Napier's  History  of  the  Peninsular  War ;  Des- 
patches of  the  Duke  of  Wellington.]     A.  J.  A. 

ARBUTHNOT,  Sir  THOMAS  (1776- 
1849),  lieutenant-general,  Avas  the  fifth  son 
of  John  Arbuthnot,  of  Rockfleet,  county 
Mayo  [see  Akbuthnot,  Charles,  and  Sir 
Robert,  lieutenant-general].  He  entered  the 
army  as  an  ensign  in  the  29th  foot  in  1794, 
and  after  serving  in  that  and  other  regiments 
Joined  the  staff  corps  under  Sir  John  Moore 
in  1803.  He  subsequently  served  as  quarter- 
master-general at  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope, 
whence,  in  1808,  he  joined  the  army  in  the 
Peninsula,  and  was  assistant  quartermaster- 
general  to  General  Picton's  division  during 
the  greater  part  of  the  war.  He  was  twice 
wounded,  once  in  the  West  Indies  and  again 
in  one  of  the  latest  actions  in  the  Peninsula. 
He  was  appointed  an  aide-de-camp  to  the 
queen  in  1814,  and  a  K.C.B.  in  1815.  After 
commanding  a  regiment  for  some  years,  he 
was  sent,  in  1826,  to  Portugal  in  command 
of  a  brigade.  He  afterwards  commanded  a 
district  in  Ireland,  and,  having  attained  the 
rank  of  lieutenant-general  in  1838,  was  ap- 
pointed, in  1842,  to  the  command  of  the 
northern  and  midland  districts  in  England, 
which  command  he  retained  until  his  death 
in  1849.  Sir  Thomas  Arbuthnot  had  a  con- 
siderable military  reputation.  Sir  Thomas 
Picton  held  him  in  high  esteem,  and  the  good 
opinion  which  the  Duke  of  Wellington  en- 
tertained of  his  judgment  and  efficiency  was 


proved  by  his  having  selected  him  for  the 

newly  constituted  command  at  Manchester 

I  at  a  time  when  the  chartists  were  causing  a 

I  good  deal  of  anxiety  in  that  part  of  the 

country. 

[Annual  Register,  1849;  Hart's  Army  List; 
I  Horse  Guards  Records.]  A.  J.  A. 

j      ARCHANGEL,  Father.    [See  Fokbbs, 
:  John.] 

I     ARCHDALL,  MERVYN,  M.A.  (1723- 
I  1791),  Irish  antiquary,  was  descended  from 
!  John  Archdall,  of  Norsom  or  Norton  Hall, 
'  in  Norfolk,  wlio  went  to  Ireland  in  the  reign 
''  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  and  settled  at  Castle 
I  Archdall,  co.  Fermanagh.     He  was  born  in 
I  Dublin  22  April  1723.   After  passing  through 
I  the  university  of  Dublin  with  reputation, 
I  his  antiquarian  tastes  introduced  him  to  the 
I  acquaintance    of    Walter    Han-is,    Charles 
[  Smith,  the  topographer,  Thomas  Prior,  and 
Dr.  Pococke,  archdeacon  of  Dublin.     Wlien 
I  the  latter  became  bishop  of  Ossory,  he  ap- 
pointed Archdall    his    domestic    chaplain, 
bestowed   on  him  the  living  of  Attanagh 
(partly  in  Queen's  County  and  partly  in  co. 
Kilkenny),  and  the  prebend  of  Cloneamery 
in  the  cathedral  church  of  Ossory  (1762), 
which  lie  afterwards  exchanged  (1764)  for 
the  prebend  of  Mayne  in  the  same  cathedral. 
Archdall  was  also  chaplain  to  Francis  Pier- 
point,  Lord  Conyngham,  and  a  member  of 
the  Royal  Irish  Academy.     Having  married 
his  only  daughter  to  a  clergyman,  he  resigned 
part  of  his  preferments  in   the   diocese   of 
Ossory  to  his  son-in-law,  and  obtained  the 
rectory  of  Slane  in  the  diocese  of  Meath, 
where  he  died,  6  Aug.  1791. 

His  works  are:  1.  'Monasticum  Hiber- 
nicum ;  or  an  History  of  the  Abbies,  Priories, 
and  other  Religious  Houses  in  Ireland.' 
Dublin,  1786,  4to,  i)p.  820.  This  work  was 
the  result  of  forty  years'  labour.  Tlie  col- 
lections for  it  filled  two  folio  volumes,  but 
the  author  was  obliged  to  abridge  them  con- 
siderably. Compared  with  Dugdale's  '  Mo- 
nasticon  Anglicanum,'  it  is  a  weak  and  feeble 
production,  and  eighty-two  mistakes  in  it 
are  rectified  in  Dr.  Lanigan's  *  Ecclesiastical 
History  of  Ireland.'  An  interleaved  copy, 
with  numerous  manuscript  additions  by  W. 
Monck  Mason,  is  preserved  in  the  Egerton 
collection  in  the  British  Museum  (Nos.  1774, 
1775).  Considerable  portions  of  tlie  work 
appear  to  have  been  contributed  by  Edward 
Ledwich.  The  publication  of  a  new  edition, 
with  notes  by  the  Rev.  Patrick  F.  Moran,  D.D., 
and  other  antiquaries,  was  commenced,  in 
parts,  at  Dublin  in  1871.  2.  An  edition  of 
Lodge's  Peerage  of  Ireland,  *  revised,  enlarged, 

r  2 


Archdekin 


68 


Archdekin 


and  continued  to  the  present  time,'  7  vols. 
1789.  On  this  Avork  Archdall  was  engaged 
only  four  years,  confining  himself  to  genea- 
logical inquiries,  as,  according  to  his  own 
admission,  he  was  almost  totally  ignorant  of 
heraldry.  ^Irs.  Archdall  rendered  valuable 
assistance  to  her  husband  in  the  ])i"eparation 
of  the  work  by  deciphering  the  valuable 
notes  of  additions  and  corrections  left  by 
Lodge  in  shorthand  or  cipher.  3.  'Manu- 
script Collections  relating  to  Ii-ish  Topo- 
graphy,' sold  with  Sir  William  Betham's 
MSS.  for  11.  15s. 

[Anthologia  Hibernica,  iii.  274 ;  Cotton's  Fasti 
Eeclesise  Hil)eruic8e,  pt.  vi.  314, 322 ;  Gent.  Mag. 
Ixi.  780,  N.  S.  xliii.  162;  Taylor's  Hist,  of 
Univ.  of  Duhlin,  422  ;  Nicliols's  lUustrdtions  of 
Lit.  vi.  430,  431,  vii.  714,  775,  848 ;  Scots  Maga- 
zine, liii.  41.5;  Lanigan's  Eccl.  Hist,  of  Ireland; 
Burke's  Limited  Gentry  (1837),  ii.  107;  Notes 
and  Queries,  3rdseries,  viii.  473;  MSS.  Egerton, 
1774,  1775.]  T.  C. 

ARCHDEKIN,  or  ARSDEKIN,  RI- 
CHARD (1618-1693),  an  Irish  Jesuit,  who 
has  adopted  both  forms  of  his  name  on  his 
own  title-pages,  and  is  also  known  as  INIac 
GiOLLA  Cuddy,  was  the  son  of  Nicholas 
Archdekin  and  his  wife  Ann  Sherlock,  and 
was  born  at  Kilkenny  16  March  1618.  He 
Avent  through  a  course  of  classical  studies, 
and  for  two  years  applied  himself  to  philo- 
sophy before  he  entered  the  Jesuit  order ;  and 
he  studied  theology  for  four  years  at  Louvain. 
Entering  the  Society  of  Jesus  at  Mechlin 
28  Sept.  1642,  he  was  in  diie  time  enrolled 
among  the  professed  fathers  of  the  order. 
He  was  teaching  humanities  in  1650 ;  he 
studied  under  the  Jesuits  at  Antwerp  and 
Lille  ;  and  arrived  at  the  Professed  House 
at  Antwei-p  26  March  1653.  For  six  years 
he  taught  humanities,  and  he  was  professor 
of  philosophy,  moral  theology,  and  Holy 
Scripture  for  a  long  period,  chiefly  at  Lou- 
vain and  Antwerp.  His  death  occurred  in 
the  latter  city  31  Aug.  1693. 

Father  Archdekin,  who  was  proficient 
in  the  Latin,  Irish,  English,  and  Flemish 
languages,  composed  the  following  works : — 
1.  *A  Treatise  of  Miracles,  together  with 
New  Miracles,  and  Benefits  obtained  by  the 
sacred  reliques  of  S.  Francis  Xaverius  ex- 
posed in  the  Church  of  the  Society  of  Jesus 
at  Mechlin,'  Louvain,  1667,  8vo,  in  English 
and  Irish.  This  very  scarce  book  is  supposed 
to  be  the  first  ever  printed  in  the  two  languages 
in  conjunction.  2.  *  Precipuse  Controversise 
Fidei  ad  facilem  methodum  redactne ;  ac  Re- 
solutiones  Theologice  ad  omnia  Sacerdotis 
munia,  prtesertim  in  Missionibus,  accommo- 
datse,' Louvain,  1671,  8vo.     At  the  end  of 


this  volume,  which  is  a  summary  of  theology^ 
is  usually  found  :  3.  '  Vitse  et  Miraculorum 
Sancti  Patricii  Hibernioe  Apostoli  I^pitome^ 
cum  brevi  notitia  Hibernife  et  Prophetia  S. 
Malachife  '  (Louvain,  1671,  8vo),  a  life  of  St. 
Patrick,  with  a  short  notice  of  Ireland,  and 
the  prophecy  of  St.  Malachi  respecting  the 
succession  of  the  popes.  The  *  Controversiae 
Fidei '  had  a  wonderful  success.  A  few 
copies  of  the  work  which  found  their  way  ta 
the  university  of  Prague  were  received  with 
such  enthusiasm  that  some  transcripts  of  the 
whole  were  made  for  the  use  of  the  students ; 
and  in  1678  the  book  was  reprinted,  Avithout 
the  knowledge  of  the  author,  at  the  Uni- 
versity Press.  The  third  edition,  which  was 
printed  at  AntAverp  Avith  the  author's  cor- 
rections and  additions,  was  folloAved  by  a 
fourth  and  fifth  at  Cologne  and  Ingolstadt ; 
and  the  sixth,  again  at  Antwerp,  by  a  seAenth 
again  at  Cologne.  These  particulars  are 
gathered  from  the  prefaces  to  the  eighth  edi- 
tion, AA'hich  appeared  at  AntAvei"p  in  1686, 
and  Avhere  the  title,  the  bulk,  and  the  ar- 
rangement of  the  work  are  so  altered  that 
it  would  hardly  be  recognised  as  the  same. 
The  '  Controversiae  Fidei'  of  1671  is  a  small 
octavo  of  500  pages.  In  the  edition  of  1686 
the  title  is  'Theologia  Tripartita  UniA'ersa,'' 
and  the  three  Aolumes  quarto,  of  Avhich  it 
consists,  comprise  in  all  about  1,100  pages- 
closely  printed  in  double  columns,  contain- 
ing about  fiA'e  times  tlie  matter  of  the  '  Con- 
troA'ersise.'  The  work  includes  a  life  of  OliA^er 
Plunket,  the  catholic  archbishop  of  Ar- 
magh, who  Avas  executed  at  London  in  1681, 
and  a  life  of  Peter  Talbot,  the  catholic 
archbishop  of  Dublin,  Avho  died  in  imprison- 
ment at  Dublin  in  1680.  In  addition  to 
these  Archdekin's  Avork  contains  a  number 
of  anecdotes  connected  with  the  history  of 
Ireland,  inti'oduced  as  examples  in  support 
of  his  theological  doctrines.  Archdekin's 
AVork  displays  much  order,  knowledg'e,  and 
precision,  but  some  of  his  decisions  in  cases 
of  conscience  liaA'e  been  controAerted  by 
higher  authority  in  the  catholic  church.  In 
17(X)  it  was  prohibited  until  correction  should 
be  made  by  the  Congregation  of  the  Index. 
The  first  edition  published  Avith  the  neces- 
sary corrections  appears  to  have  been  also 
the  last.  It  appeared  at  Antwerp  in  1718, 
and  was  the  thirteenth  of  the  whole. 

[Foley's  Records,  A'ii.  15;  Oliver's  Collectanea 
S.  J.,  231  ;  O'Reilly's  Irish  Writers,  198  ;  Ware's 
Writers  of  Ireland,  ed.  Harris,  203  ;  Thomas 
Watts,  in  Biog.  Diet.  Soc.  D.  U.  K. ;  Ribade- 
neira,  Bibl.  Scriptoruni  Soc.  Jesu.^ed.  SouthAvell, 
718;  Backer,  Bibliotheque  des  Eerivains  de  la 
Compagnie  de  Jesus  (1869),  267 ;  Foppens,  BibL 
Belgica,  1066.]  T.  C. 


Archer 


69 


Archer 


ARCHER,  EDWARD  (17 18-1789),  phy-  j 
sician,  was  born  in  Soutliwark,  studied  medi-  j 
cine  in  Edinburgh  and  afterwards  in  Leyden,  j 
■where  he  graduated  M.l).  in  1746  with  an 
inaugural  dissertation,  *  I)e  Rheumatismc'  j 
In  1747  he  was   elected   physician   to  the  j 
Small-pox   Hospital,  which   had  just  then  1 
been  founded,  and  for  the  remainder  of  his  ' 
life  devoted  the  greater  part  of  his  thought 
and  activity  to  the  welfare  of  this  institution 
and  to  the  study  and  cure  of  the  small-pox.  j 
This  institution  formed  originally  two  es-  j 
tablishments,    viz.   'The    Hospital   for   the 
Small-pox  '  and  *  The  Hospital  for  Inocula-  j 
tion,'  and  was  founded  chiefly  to  give  the  i 
poor  the  advantages  of  the  practice  of  in- 
oculation,  which   had   been   previously   an  1 
expensive  operation  and  almost  confined  to 
the  rich.     Dr.  Archer  was  a  steady  advo- 
cate and  practiser  of  inoculation,  and  died  | 
some  years  before  the  introduction  of  vacci- 
nation which  was  destined  to  supersede  it. 
He   does   not   appear  to  have  written  any 
separate  work  on  that  or  any  other  subject, 
but  an  account  of  the  Small-pox  Hospital, 
and,  incidentally,  of  Dr.  Ai'cher's  practice 
there,  is  given  in  a  report  by  a  Dr.  Schultz, 
made  to  the  Swedish  government  ('  An  Ac- 
count of  Inoculation,  presented  to  the  Royal 
Commissioners   of    Health   in  Sweden,    by 
David   Schultz,   M.D.,   who    attended    the 
Small-pox  Hospital  in  Ijondon  near  a  twelve- 
month ;  translated  from  the  Swedish,  London, 
1758 '),  to  which  Dr.  Archer  prefixed  a  com- 
mendatory letter.     Dr.  Archer  also  wrote  a 
very  short  note  on  the  subject  in  the  '  Jom-nal 
Britannique '  for  1755  (xviii.'48o.  La  Haye, 
1755).  He  is  described  as  having  been  a  '  hu- 
mane, judicious,  and  learned  physician,  and 
an   accomplished   classical  scholar.'     Being 
possessed  of  a  private  fortune,  and  unam- 
bitious, he  was  never  very  busily  or  profit- 
ably engaged  in  practice.     When  attacked 
by  his  last  and  fatal  illness,  Dr.  Archer  gave 
a  singular  and  almost  unparalleled  proof  of 
his  interest  in  the  Small-pox  Hospital  by 
expressing  a  wish  to  die  within  its  walls, 
whither  he  was  accordingly  removed.     He 
ended  his  life  28  March  1789,  in  the  institu- 
tion which  he  had  sei-ved  so  well  for  forty- 
two  years,  and  the   success  of  which  was 
mainly  attributed   to  his   zeal   and  energy. 
His  portrait,  by  Pine,  is  in  the  board-room 
of  the  hospital. 

[Gent.  Mag.  1789,  part  i.  373;  Mimk's  Koll 
of  College  of  Physicians,  ii.  182.]       J.  F.  P. 

ARCHER,  FREDERICK  SCOTT  (1813- 
1857),  inventor  of  the  collodion  process  in 
photogi-aphy,  was  the  second  son  of  a  butcher 
at  Bishop  Stoxtford,  and  was,  as  a  young  man, 


assistant  to  a  silversmith,  Massey,  in  Leaden- 
hall  Street.  Showing  some  talent  for  sculp- 
ture, he  was  enabled,  by  the  kindness  of 
friends,  to  start  in  business  as  a  sculptor, 
and  it  was  a  desire  to  obtain  reproductions 
of  his  works  that  led  liim  to  take  up  the 
then  recently  discovered  art  of  photograpliy. 
Like  many  other  photogi-aphers  of  the  time, 
he  made  experiments  with  the  view  of  ob- 
taining a  more  suitable  vehicle  for  the  sensi- 
tive silver  salt  than  the  waxed  paper  princi- 
pally employed.  In  1846  Schonbein  dis- 
covered gun-cotton ;  in  1847,  Maynard,  of 
Boston,  prepared  collodion,  an  ethereal  solu- 
tion of  gun-cotton,  for  surgical  purposes.  In 
1850  Archer  successfully  applied  collodion 
to  photogi'aphy  by  adding  an  iodide  to  the 
collodion  and  immersing  the  glass  plate  witli 
the  film  upon  it  while  wet  in  the  solution  of 
nitrate  of  silver.  The  first  account  of  the  pro- 
cess was  published  in  the  '  Chemist,'  March 
1851 .  Archer  does  not  seem  to  have  been  the 
first  to  suggest  this  application  of  collodion, 
but  there  appears  no  doubt  whatever  that  he 
was  the  first  to  carry  it  into  ett'ect.  He  did 
not  patent  the  invention,  possibly  because  he 
did  not  realise  its  value,  though  he  patented 
a  development  of  no  practical  value  in  1855 
(Patent  No.  1914).  The  process  was  at  first 
only  employed  for  produQing  '  positives,'  and 
it  was  not  for  some  time  that  it  was  found 
to  be  even  more  suitable  for  making  '  nega- 
tives'  from  which  any  number  of  positive 
pictures  can  be  obtained.  Archer's  original 
process,  with  certain  improvements  in  the 
method  of  development '  suggested  by  others 
soon  after  its  publication,  remained  until 
quite  recently  without  a  rival,  and  it  is  only 
within  the  last  two  or  three  years  that  it  has 
given  wav  to  the  modern  'gelatine'  process. 
Archer  himself,  soon  after  his  discovery,  left 
his  house  in  Henrietta  Street,  and  went  to 
live  in  Great  Russell  Street,  Bloomsbury, 
where  he  practised,  with  no  gi'eat  success,  as 
a  photographer.  Here  he  produced  several 
other  inventions.  Of  these  the  more  import- 
ant Avere  a  camera,  in  which  the  various  pro- 
cesses for  producing  a  photographic  picture 
could  be  carried  on ;  and  a  '  liquid  lens,'  that 
is  a  lens  with  glass  surfaces  of  suitable  shape, 
and  filled  with  liquid  ;  though  with  regard 
to  this  invention  he  can  make  no  claim  to 
originality,  such  lenses  having  been  patented 
for  telescopes,  as  long  ago  as  1785,  by  a  naval 
officer  named  Robert  Blair.  He  is  also  said 
to  have  been  the  first  to  use  a  *  triplet '  lens, 
a  form  of  lens  vers-  popular  until  it  was  super- 
seded by  recent  improvements.  He  died  in 
May  1857,  and  was  buried  in  Kensal  Green. 
A  subscription  was  started  for  his  widow, 
but  as  she  died  in  the  following  year  the 


Archer 


70 


Archer 


amount  (over  600/.)  was  devoted  to  the 
benefit  of  his  children.  A  pension  of  50/. 
was  also  gi-anted  them  hy  the  crown,  on  the 
ground  that  their  father  had  reaped  no  benefit 
from  an  invention  which  had  been  a  source 
of  large  profits  to  others. 

Descriptions  of  Archer's  invention  in  the  vari- 
ous photographic  text-books,  of  which  the  best 
is  in  the  Report  of  the  Jurors  on  Class  xiv. 
(Photogrfvphy)  of  the  1862  Exhibition;  evidence 
as  to  his  claims  of  priority  in  Notes  and  Queries 
(first  series),  vi.  396,  426,  vii.  218  ;  information 
furnished  by  Dr.  Diamond,  F.S.A.]    H.  T,  W. 

ARCHER,  JAMES  (1551 P-1624?),  Irish 
Jesuit,  Avas  born  at  Kilkenny  in  1549  or 
1551 ;  entered  the  Society  of  Jesus  at  Rome 
in  1581 ;  was  professed  of  the  four  vows  in 
Spain;  and  became  the  first  rector  of  the 
Irish  college  at  Salamanca.  Father  Archer 
was  a  great  promoter  of  education,  and  was 
very  dear  to  Irishmen,with  whom  he  possessed 
unbounded  influence.  He  was  a  famous  mis- 
sioner  in  Ireland  during  the  war  of  Tyrone. 
He  died  in  Spain  between  1617  and  1624. 

[Hogan's  Chronological  Catalogue  of  the  Irish 
Province  S.  J.,  5  ;  Oliver's  Collectanea  S.  J., 
231.]  T.  C. 

ARCHER,  JAMES,  D.D.  {fl.  1822),  was 
a  renowned  catholic  preacher,  of  whose  per- 
sonal history  little  appears  to  be  known. 
We  are  informed  by  Dr.  Husenbeth  {lAfe  of 
Bishop  Milner,  13)  that  '  the  celebrated 
preacher.  Dr.  Archer,  began  his  preaching  at 
a  public-house  near  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields,  at 
which  the  catholics  assembled  on  Sunday 
evenings  to  hear  the  word  of  God  in  a  large 
club-room  in  Turn  Style.'  In  1791  he  was 
chaplain  to  the  Bavarian  minister  in  London. 
Archer  published  '  Sermons  on  various  Moral 
and  Religious  Subjects,  for  some  of  the  Prin- 
cipal Festivals  of  the  Year,'  London,  1 789, 8vo ; 
2nd  edit.  4  vols.  London,  1794,  12mo ;  3rd 
edit.  2  vols.  London,  1817, 8vo;  and  *  Sermons 
on  Matrimonial  Duties,  and  other  Moral  and 
Religious  Subjects,'  London,  1804,  12mo. 
Bishop  Milner,  in  a  pastoral  (1813),  de- 
nounced the  mixture  of  erroneous  and  dan- 
gerous morality  in  Archer's  sermons,  and 
absolutely  forbade  them  to  be  publicly  read  in 
the  chapels  of  his  district.  This  feud  was  of 
old  standing,  as  it  appears,  by  '  A  Letter 
from  the  Rev.  James  Archer  to  the  Right 
Rev.  John  Milner,  Vicar-Apostolic  of  the 
Midland  District,'  London,  1810, 8vo,  that  the 
bishop  had  '  added  to  the  charge  of  irreligiort 
a  charge  of  immorality.'  The  nature  of  the 
latter  charge  may  be  inferred  from  the  follow- 
ing allusion  by  Archer  to  his  conduct  on  a 
certain   occasion   at   the  Clarendon  Hotel : 


I  '  The  smallest  voluntary  aberration  from  the 

I  rules  of  temperance  is  certainly  never  to  be 
justified.  Yet,  in  certain  moments  of  pecu- 
liar interest   or  exultation,  and  Avhen  men 

i  meet  together  to  exhilarate  their  humanity, 
such  a  failing  will,  in  liberal  minds,  meet 

'  with  a  gentle,  mild   disposition  to  give  it 

I  some  degree  of  extenuation.' 

I      Archer  continued  to  preach  to  crowded 

\  audiences,  and  his  pulpit  eloquence  was 
greatly  admired,  though  it  appears  to  have 
been  somewhat  stilted  and  artificial,  accord- 

!  ing  to  the  fashion  set  by  Dr.  Hugh  Blair. 

I  Charles  Butler,  writing  in  1822  of  his  ser- 
mons, remarks :  *  It  has  been  his  aim  to  satisfy 
reason,  whilst  he  pleased,  charmed,  and  in- 
structed her :  to  impress  upon  the  mind  just 
notions  of  the  mysteries  and  truths  of  the 

I  Gospel ;  and  to  show  that  the  ways  of  virtue 
are  the  ways  of  pleasantness,  and  her  paths 
the  paths  of  peace.  Xo  one  has  returned  from 
any  of  his  sermons  Avithout  impressions  fa- 
vourable to  virtue,  or  Avithout  some  practical 

i  lesson  Avhich  through  life,  probably  in  a  few 
days,  perhaps  even  in  a  feAv  hours,  it  would 
be  useful  for  him  to  remember.  When  we 
recollect  that  this  is  the  fortieth  year  of  Mr. 
Archer's  predication,  that  he  has  preached 
oftener  than  fifty-tAvo  times  in  eveiy  year, 
and  that  in  the  present  his  hearers  hang  on 
all  he  says  with  the  same  avidity  as  they  did 
in  the  first,  we  may  think  it  difficult  to  find 
an  individual  to  whose  eloquence  religion 
has  in  our  times  been  so  greatly  indebted.' 

He  was  created  D.D.  by  Pope  Pius  VII 
24  Aug,  1821,  at  the  same  time  as  Dr. 
Lingard. 

[Butlers  Hist.  Memoirs  of  the  English  Catho- 
lics, ed.  1822,  iv.  441,  442;  Husenbeth's  Life  of 
Bishop  Milner,  13,  228  ;  Cat.  of  Printed  Books 
in  Brit.  Mus. ;  Notes  and  Queries,  6th  series,  viii. 
426 ;  Evans's  Cat.  of  Engraved  Portraits,  i.  9.] 

T.  C. 

ARCHER,  JOHN  (1598-1682),  judge, 
son  of  Henry  Archer,  Esq.,  of  Coopersale, 
Theydon  Gernon,  Essex,  by  Anne,  daughter 
of  Simon  Crouch,  of  London,  alderman,  Avas 
educated  at  Queen's  College,  Cambridge, 
Avhere  he  graduated  B.A.  in  1619,  and  M.A. 
in  1622.  Having  entered  Gray's  Inn  as  a 
student  in  1617,  he  was  called  to  the  bar  in 
1620.  He  appears  to  have  risen  Aeiy  sloAvly 
in  his  profession,  as  his  name  is  not  men- 
tioned by  any  of  the  reporters  of  the  time  of 
Charles  I.  Foss  states  that  '  in  1647  he  was 
selected  as  counsel  for  the  corporation  of 
Grantham,'  but  cites  no  authority  ;  and  the 
corporation  of  Grantham  does  not  appear  as 
a  party  to  any  case  reported  in  that  year. 
In  1651  he  Avas  assigned  by  the  court  as 


Archer 


71 


Archer 


one  of  the  counsel  for  Christopher  Love  on 
his  trial  for  hi^h  treason  in  plotting  with 
the  Scots  to  bring  about  the  restoration  of 
the  monarchy ;  but  exception  was  taken  to 
Archer  on  the  ground  that  he  had  not  sub- 
scribed the   engagement  to  be  true   to  the 
commonwealth,  as  required  by  a  resolution 
of  the  House  of  Commons  passed  on  11  Oct. 
1649,  to  be  subscribed  by  public  functionaries 
'  and  by  '  aU  sergeants  at  law,  counsellors,  offi»- 
cers,  ministers,  and  clerks,  and  all  attornies 
and  solicitors.'  As  Archer  had  not  subscribed, 
and  at  the  trial  declined  to  subscribe,  this 
engagement,  he  was  not  allowed  to  plead. 
"WTiether  he  subsequently  did   so  does  not 
appear;  but  in  165(3  he  was  returned  to  par- 
liament, and  his  name  does  not  appear  in  the 
list  of  the  excluded  members.     On  27  Nov. 
1658  he  was  made  a  Serjeant,  the  appoint- 
ment  being  confirmed   by    Charles    II   on 
1  Jime  1660 ;  but  his  elevation  to  the  bench, 
which  had  occurred  in  the  interim  (15  May 
1659),  was  thereby  tacitly  annulled.      On 
4  Nov.  1663  he  was  made  a  justice  of  the 
common  bench  in  succession  to  Sir  Robert 
Hide  (then  raised  to  the  chief  justiceship  of 
the  same  bench),  and  knighted.     As  a  judge 
he  travelled  the  western  circuit  with  Sir  J. 
Kelyng.     His  name  occurs  in  the  list  of  the 
judges  who  attended  the  meeting  of  the  bench 
summoned  in  1666  to  confer  upon  the  proper 
coui'se  to  be  taken  in  view  of  the  impending 
trial   of  Lord  Morley   for  murder  by   the 
House  of  Lords,  a  case  still  cited  as  an  au- 
thority upon  the  distinction  between  murder 
and  manslaughter.     Archer  is  characterised 
by  Roger  North  as  one  '  of  whose  abilities 
time  hath  kept  no  record  unless  in  the  sinister 
way,'  as  uncertain  in  his  law  and  afraid  of  a 
long  and  intricate  cause.     He  appears,  how- 
ever,   to    have     held    decided    and    sound 
opinions  on  the  construction  of  his  own  pa- 
tent ;  for  when  the  king  in  the  winter  of 
1661  attempted  to  remove  him  from  his  office 
he  stood  stoutly  upon  his  right  to  hold  it  on 
the  terms  of  the  patent,  'quamdiu  se  bene 
gesserit,'  and  refused  to  surrender  the  patent 
without  a  writ  of  scire  facias,  the  proper  legal 
mode  of  procedure  to  Annul  a  royal  grant ; 
but  which  was  so  little  to  the  taste  of  the 
king  that  Archer  continued,  until  his  death, 
legallyjustice  of  the  common  bench,  and  in  re- 
ceipt of  his  salary  as  such,  though  relieved  by 
royal  prohibition  from  the  performance  of  the 
duties  of  the  office,  which  were  discharged 
by  Sir  William  Ellis.     He  died  in  1682,  and 
was  buried  in  Theydon  Gernon  churchyard, 
where  a  monument  was  raised  to  his  memory. 
He  married  (1)  Mary,  daughter  of  Sir  George 
Savile,  Bart.,  of  Thornhill,  Yorkshire,   by 
•whom  he  does  not  appear  to  have  had  any 


children  ;  (2)  Eleanor,  daughter  of  Sir  John 
Curson,  Bart.,  of  Kedleston,  Derbyshire,  by 
whom  he  had  one  child,  viz.  John,  who  died 
without  issue,  7  Nov.  1706,  having  by  his 
will  left  the  Theydon  Gernon  estate  to  W. 
Eyre,  Esq.,  of  Gray's  Inn,  on  condition  that 
he  married  Eleanor  Wrottesley  (a  niece  of 
the  testator),  and  assumed  the  name  of  Ar- 
cher, which  happened  in  due  course.  The 
Archers  traced  their  descent  from  one  Simon 
de  Bois,  who  came  to  England  with  the  Con- 
queror, of  whom  a  namesake  and  lineal  de- 
scendant changed  his  name  to  Archer  at  the 
bidding  of  Henry  V  on  the  occasion  of  a 
shooting  match  at  Havering-atte-Bowre,  in 
which  he  displayed  the  same  skill  as  had 
formerly  done  the  king  good  sersice  at  Agin- 
court,  the  king  at  the  same  time  granting 
him  a  pension  of  five  marks  yearly.  There 
are  some  inaccuracies  in  Foss's  account  of 
Archer's  parentage. 

[Morant'a  History  of  Essex;  Ogbome's  His- 
tory of  Essex;  Cobbett's  State  Trials,  ii.  337, 
v.  210,  ^-i.  770;  Pari.  Hist.  iii.  1286, 1334, 1480  ; 
Whitelocke's  Memorials  (ed.  1732),  675,  678; 
Kelyng's  Keports,  53  ;  Siderfin's  Keports,  3,  153  ; 
Sir  T.  Kaymond's  Keports,  217;  Sir  T.Jones's 
Reports,  43;  MercuriusPoliticus,  16  Feb.  1660  ; 
Cal.  State  Papers,  Dom.  series  (1667),  337; 
North's  Life  of  Lord  Keeper  Guildford  (ed.  1 742), 
45;  Wotton's  Baronetage,  i.  162,  ii.  246-7,  346  ; 
Foss's  Lives  of  the  Judges.]  J.  M.  R. 

ARCHER,  JOHN  (/.  1660-1684),  was 
court  physician  in  the  reign  of  Charles  II. 
Of  his  origin  nothing  is  certainly  known ; 
but  he  was  probably  an  Irishman,  as  he 
speaks  of  havmg  been  in  practice  in  Dublin 
in  1660.  He  afterwards  lived  in  London, 
and  was  styled  '  Chymical  Physitian  in  Or- 
dinary to  the  King'  (1671);  afterwards,  on 
his  engraved  portrait,  he  is  called  simply 
'  medicus  in  ordinario  regi '  (1684).  He 
boasts  that,  on  the  favourable  report  of  some 
of  his  patients,  his  majesty  was  pleased  to 
command  him  '  to  help  some  noble  persons 
afflicted  with  a  fistule.'  He  was  never  a 
member  of,  or  in  any  way  licensed  by,  the 
College  of  Physicians.  In  fact  Archer,  al- 
though a  royal  physician,  was  what  would 
be  called  in  these  days  an  advertising  quack. 
His  book,  '  Every  Man  his  own  Doctor,'  pur- 
porting to  be  a  manual  of  health,  but  really 
treating  of  various  diseases,  reputable  and 
disreputable,  especially  the  latter,  was  nothing 
but  an  advertisement.  He  promises  mar- 
vellous cures  by  secret  remedies,  sold  only  by 
himself,  and  able  even  to  insure  immunity  be- 
forehand from  the  possible  consequences  of 
debauchery.  It  is  written  in  a  style  at  once 
prurient  and  hypocritical.    The  British  Mu- 


Archer 


72 


Archer 


seum  copy  of  this  work  has  written  on  the 
fly-leaf,  in  a  contemporary  hand — and  pro- 
bably a  similar  advertisement  was  written 
in  every  copy  before  it  was  sold — the  follow- 
ing notice  :  '  The  author  is  to  be  spoke  with 
at  his  chamber  in  a  sadler's  house  over  against 
the  mewes  gate  next  the  Black  Horse  nigh 
Charing  Cross ;  his  bowers  there  are  from 
eleven  to  five  in  the  evening,  at  other  times 
at  his  house  in  Knightsbridge.' 

His  only  medicines  were  certain  nostrums 
of  his  own  preparation,  '  to  be  had  only  from 
the  author  at  his  house  in  Winchester  Street, 
near  Gresham  College,'  and  at  prices  which 
seem  high.  His  books  were  also  sold  by 
himself.  Archer's  '  Secrets  Disclosed,  of 
Consumption,  &c.'  is  a  book  of  the  same 
stamp,  and  in  part  a  repetition  of  the  former. 
His  '  Herbal '  is  worthless.  He  also  boasts 
of  three  inventions — a  vapour-bath,  a  new 
kind  of  oven,  and  a  chariot  which  enabled 
one  horse  to  do  the  work  of  two. 

The  only  interest  attaching  to  these  dis- 
creditable works  and  their  author  is  the 
singular  fact  that  a  man  who  might  in  the 
present  day  even  be  liable  to  prosecution, 
should  in  the  reign  of  Charles  II  have  en- 
joyed the  status  of  the  king's  physician. 

The  titles  of  his  works,  alluded  to  above, 
are:  1.  'Every  Man  his  own  Doctor,  com- 
pleated  with  an  Herbal,  &c.'  by  John  Archer, 
one  of  his  Majesty's  Physicians  in  Ordinary. 
2nd  edition.  London,  printed  for  the  Author, 
and  are  to  be  sold  at  his  house,  1673 
(1st  edition  1671).  2.  '  Secrets  Disclosed, 
of  Consumption,  showing  how  to  distinguish 
between  Scurvy  and  Venereal  Disease,  &c.' 
by  John  Archer.  London,  printed  for  the 
Author,  1684. 

[Works  by  John  Archer,  referred  to  above.] 

J.  F.  P. 

ARCHER,  JOHN  WYKEHAM  (1808- 
1864),  artist  and  antiquary,  was  the  son  of  a 
prosperous  tradesman  of  Newcastle-upon- 
Tyne,where  he  was  born  in  1808.  At  an  early 
age  he  showed  skill  in  drawing,  and  copied  in 
a  vigorous  manner  some  of  the  designs  of  the 
Bewicks  and  other  artists.  After  he  had 
received  a  good  general  education,  he  was 
apprenticed  to  John  Scott,  who  was  a  fellow- 
townsman,  then  practising  in  Coppice  Row, 
Clerkenwell,  as  an  animal  engraver.  He 
afterwards  returned  to  his  native  place,  and 
in  conjunction  with  William  Collard,  a  local 
engraver,  produced  a  series  of  large  views  of 
Fountains  Abbey,  in  Yorkshire,  from  draw- 
ings by  Mr.  Carmichael.  During  his  visit  to 
Yorkshire,  Archer  also  engraved  several  plates 
for  Mackenzie's  '  History  of  Durham.'  About 
1831  he  returned  to  London,  and  procured  an 


engagement  in  the  engraving  establishment 
of  Messrs.  William  and  Edward  Finden. 
He  was  subsequently  employed  by  other 
publishers ;  and  during  the  next  few  years  he 
engraved  many  plates  for  the '  New  Sporting 
Magazine.'  When  the  introduction  of  litho- 
graphy and  engraving  on  wood  superseded 
almost  entirely  the  old-fashioned  plates  as  a 
means  of  book  illustration,  Archer  turned  his 
attention  to  painting  in  water-colours,  and 
made  numerous  sketches  of  the  relics  of  by- 
gone days  in  the  metropolis.  Some  of  these 
sketches  were  purchased  by  Mr.  W.  Twopeny, 
of  the  Temple,  who  commissioned  Ai'cher  to 
produce  twenty  drawings  each  year  of  the 
relics  of  antiquity  scattered  about  in  the 
highways  and  byways  of  London.  LTp  to 
the  close  of  the  artist's  life  this  work  was 
carried  regularly  forward,  and  the  result  was 
that  Mr.  Twopeny  obtained  a  collection  of 
drawings  of  the  utmost  value  illustrative  of 
the  varied  aspects  of  the  great  city.  This 
collection  was  afterwards  acquired  by  pur- 
chase for  the  nation,  and  is  now  deposited  in 
the  print-room  of  the  British  Museum. 
Archer  was  a  diligent  antiquary,  and  made 
copious  notes  descriptive  of  the  sites  and 
objects  which  he  pictorially  represented. 
After  the  decline  of  steel  engraving  he  began 
to  draw  on  wood,  and  some  specimens  of  his 
work  are  to  be  found  in  Charles  Knight's 
'London,'  the  'Illustrated  London  News,' 
and  Blackie's  '  Comprehensive  History  of 
England.'  Many  of  the  illustrations  in  the 
first  series  of  Dr.  William  Beattie's  '  Castles 
and  Abbeys  of  England'  (1844)  are  from 
drawings  by  Archer.  In  consequence  of  an 
inspection  of  the  drawings  in  Mr.  Twopeny's 
possession,  the  Duke  of  Northumberland 
commissioned  Archer  to  make  sketches,  in 
the  course  of  each  summer,  of  the  interesting 
antiquities  on  his  grace's  extensive  estates. 
Archer  also  executed  several  monumental 
brasses,  particularly  one  which  was  ordered 
for  India  by  Lord  Hardinge  to  the  memory 
of  the  officers  who  fell  in  the  battles  of  the 
Punjab.  He  was  for  many  years  an  associate 
of  the  new  Society  of  Painters  in  Water 
Colours.  His  death  occurred  in  London, 
25  May  1864. 

Archer's  published  works  are :  1.  'Vestiges 
of  Old  London,  a  series  of  Etchings  from 
Original  Drawings  illustrative  of  the  Monu- 
ments and  Architectui'e  of  London  in  the 
first,  fourth,  twelfth,  and  six  •  succeeding 
centuries,  with  Descriptions  and  Historical 
Notices,'  London,  1851,  fol.  It  contains 
37  plates.  The  subjects  are  very  pictoiially 
treated,  with  numerous  figures  well  intro- 
duced. 2.  '  Posthumous  Poems,'  London, 
1873,  8vo.     A  pamphlet  of  22  pages,  pub- 


Archer 


73 


Archer 


lished  by  the  author's  son,  George  R.  Wyke- 
liam  Archer. 


[Pinks's  Clerkenwell.  1865,  pp.  90,  239,  388, 
393,  639-41  ;  The  Builder,  4  June  1864,  p.  409  ; 
Art  Journal,  N.S.  iii.  243;  Gent.  Mag.  ccxvii. 
246 ;  Redgrave's  Diet,  of  Artists.]  T.  C. 


of  Houghton  Conquest  and  Houghton  Gild- 
able,  in  Bedfordshire.  lie  served  as  chaplain 
in  1599  to  Archbishop  Whitgift,  and  in  l(X)o 
was  made  one  of  the  kings  chaplains  in 
ordinary.  In  1623  he  made  a  vault  for  him- 
self in  the  chancel  of  Houghton  Conquest 
Church,  and  five  years  later  added  his  epitaph 
ARCHER,  Sir  SYMON  (1581-1662),  in  English  and  Latin.  He  kept  an  obituary 
an  industrious  and  learned  antiquary,  who  of  all  the  eminent  persons  who  died  in  his 
laid  the  foundation  of  Dugdale's  'History  of  time,  and  also  wrote  an  account  (extracts 
Warwickshire,'  was  born  at  Umberslade,  near  from  which  are  preserved  among  the  Baker 
Tanworth,  in  that  county,  21  Sept.  1581,  MSS.  at  Cambridge)  of  the  parish  and 
being  descended  from  an  old  family  of  that  neighbourhood  of  Houghton  Conquest.  His 
name  seated  there  in  the  time  of  Henry  III.  manuscripts  were  lent  in  1760  by  Dr.  Zachary 
His  life  was  uneventful.  He  was  knighted  on  Grey,  then  rector  of  Houghton  Conquest,  to 
ApaIia*   et>  Cm.^.       •  '     ',    ^'*"'"        '*^e,  the  author  of 'AthenyeCantabrigienses,' 

»  MP      A  ^*',^y"\°f-      '•  545^,  I.  1 6.      Foro  describes  the  collection  as  one  of  much 
iVJ.r.  1040     read     M.P.  for  Tamworth  in*^^^-^^  ^^^  value.     Archer  is  supposed  to 
the  Short  Parh'ament,  1640.'  .edied  about  1630,  as  the  obituary  notices 

antiquaries  wiio  ut;\uicu  i..^x..owv.o  i.^  ..^.o  .  uu  not  go  beyond  that  date.     Cole  mentions 
elucidation  of  the  history  of  their  country  in    also  a  manuscript  diary  of  Archer's,  which 


its  minor  details.  He  was  the  friend  of 
Burton,  Spelman,  Cotton,  Dodsworth,  and 
others.  The  first  letter  of  Hugdale  to  Archer 
in  the  published  correspondence  of  that 
herald  is  dated  16  Nov.  1635 ;  and  the  last 
is  9  Sept.  1657.  Very  early  in  the  letters  a 
history  of  "Warwickshire  was  under  discus- 
sion; it  was  first  intended  to  be  Archer's 
book,  who  had  collected  the  materials:  it 
was  next  arranged  that  the  two  friends  were 
to  be  partners  in  the  undertaking;  but  it 
was  ultimately  published  as  Dugdale's,  who 
said  that  he  had  made  sjiecial  use  of  Archer's 
manuscripts  on  every  page  of  the  book. 

Sir  Symon  amassed  a  large  quantity  of 
choice  manuscripts  and  other  rarities,  which 
he  freely  imparted  to  the  younger  race  of 
antiquaries,  including  Fuller,  the  author  of 
the  *  Church  History,'  and  Webb,  the  editor 
of  *  Vale  Royal.  In  1658  he  was  at  the  ex- 
pense of  engraving  Dean  Nowell's  monu- 
ment for  his  friend's  '  History  of  St.  Paul's.' 
Fuller,  in  the  '  Worthies,'  refers  to  his  great 
age.  He  died  in  June  1662,  and  was  buried 
at  Tamworth  on  the  4th  of  that  month.  He 
had  two  sons  who  had  the  same  affection  for 
antiquarian  pursuits  as  distinguished  himself. 

[Hamper's  Life  of  Dugdale,  1827;  Visitation 
of  Warwickshire,  1619  (Hnrl.  Soc.)  ;  Colvile's 
"Worthies  of  Warwickshire,  1870.]       J.  E.  B. 

ARCHER,  THOMAS  (1554-1630?),  di- 
vine, was  bom  at  Bury  St.  Edmunds  12  Aug. 
1554,  and  educated  at  Trinity  College,  Cam- 
bridge, where  he  was  elected  to  a  fellowship. 
He  took  his  master's  degree  in  1582,  and  in 
November  1584  became  chaplain  to  his  kins- 
man. Dr.  John  May,  bishop  of  Carlisle.  In 
1588  he  was  public  preacher  to  the  univer- 
sity, and  in  May  1589  was  inducted  rector 


contained  some  curious  anecdotes. 

[Cole's  MS.  Athense ;  Catalogue  of  MSS.  in 
the  University  Library,  Cambridge,  v.  421.] 

A.  H.  B. 

ARCHER,  THOMAS  {d.  1743),  architect, ^^^^ 
was  the  son  of  Thomas  Archer,  M.P.  for  War-        ^  ^ 
wick  in  the  time  of  Charles  II.  He  was  a  pupil   ^^^^, 
of  Sir  John  Vanbrugh,  and  had  considerable  •        . 
practice  in  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  bot* 
century.     He  held  the  office  of  '  groom  por-    ^•"' 
ter'   under  Queen    Anne,    George   I,   and 
George   II,    and    he   is   so    styled    in    the 
*  Gentleman's  Magazine,'  where    his    death 
is   recorded   (23  May  1743).     About  1705 
he  built    Heythori)e  Hall,  in    Oxfordshire, 
said    to    have    been    his    first    work ;    St. 
Philip's  Church,  Birmingham,  begun  in  1711 
and  finished  in  1719  ;    St.  John's  Church, 
Westminster,  consecrated  in  1728  ;  Cliefden 
House,  which  was  destroyed  by  fire ;  and 
many  other  buildings,  of  which  there  is  suf- 
ficient record  in  the  *  Dictionary  of  the  Ar- 
chitectural Publication  Society.'     The  date 
of  his  birth  is  not  known ;  but  at  his  death, 
in  1743,  he  must  have  reached  an  advanced 
age.     He  is  said  to  have  left  above  100,000/. 
to  his  youngest  ne])hew,  H.  Archer,  Esq., 
member  for  Warwick. 

[Kedgrave's  Dictionary  of  Artists;  Wal pole's 
Anecdotes  of  Painting ;  Dictionary  of  Architec- 
tural Publication  Society ;  Gent.  Mag.  xiii.  275.] 

E.  K 

ARCHER,  THOMAS  (<Z.1848),  actor  and 
dramatist,  was  the  son  of  a  watchmaker,  and 
acted  at  Bath  and  Birmingham.  lie  made 
his  first  appearance  at  Drury  Lane  in  1823,  as 
the  King  in  the  '  First  Part  of  King  Henry 
the  Fourth.'    In  the  same  season  he  person- 


Arden 


74 


Arden 


ated  Appius  Claudius  in  '  Yirginius/  Polixe- 
nes  in  the  *  M^inter's  Tale,'  Gloster  in  '  Jane 
Shore,'  Bassanio  in  the '  Merchant  of  Venice,' 
and  Claudio  in  '  Measure  for  Measure,'  and 
other  characters ;  and  took  part  in  the  melo- 
dramas of  the  '  Cataract  of  the  Ganges '  and 
*  Kenilworth.'  He  was  the  original  repre- 
sentative of  Opimius  and  Gesler  in  Sheridan 
Knowles'  plays  of  '  Caius  Gracchus '  (1823) 
and  '  William  Tell '  (1825).  He  visited  the 
United  States,  and  was  engaged  in  the  ma- 
nagement of  several  theatres  there.  He  was 
afterwards  a  member  of  the  English  com- 
pany of  actors  performing  in  Paris  with  Miss 
Smithson.  At  a  later  period  he  led  a  company 
to  Belgium  and  Germany,  and  presented  cer- 
tain of  Shakespeare's  plays  at  Brussels,  Ant- 
werp, Cologne,  Aix-la-Chapelle,  Frankfort, 
Hamburg,  &c.  He  was  again  a  member  of 
the  Drury  Lane  company,  under  the  manage- 
ment of  Mr.  Hammond,  in  1839,  and  in  1845 
was  appearing  at  Covent  Garden  Theatre, 
then  under  the  management  of  M.  Laurent, 
as  the  blind  seer  in  the  tragedy  of  'Anti- 
gone.' He  was  the  author  of  many  suc- 
cessful dramas,  adaptations  from  the  French, 
including  the  '  Black  Doctor,'  the  '  Little 
Devil,'  produced  at  the  minor  theatres,  and 
of  one  original  ])lay  of  liistorical  interest,  en- 
titled '  Blood  lloyal,  or  the  Crown  Jewels.' 
Of  this  production  he  was  accustomed  to 
represent  the  hero.  Colonel  Blood. 

[Genest's  History  of  the  Stage,  1832  ;  Thea- 
trical Times,  1847.]  D.  C. 

ARDEN,  EDWARD  (1542  .^-1583),  high 
sherift"  of  Warwickshire  in  1575,  was  a  pro- 
bably innocent  victim  of  the  rigorous  seve- 
rity adopted  by  the  ministers  of  Queen 
Elizabeth  in  order  to  defeat  the  numerous 
Roman  Catholic  conspiracies  in  favour  of 
Mary  Queen  of  Scots  and  against  the  pro- 
testant  sovereign.  He  was  the  head  of  a 
family  that  had  held  land  in  Warwickshire 
for  six  centvu'ies  from  the  days  of  Edward 
the  Confessor  downwards.  His  fathei-,  Wil- 
liam, having  died  in  1545,  Edward  succeeded 
his  grandfather  Thomas  Arden  in  1563.  He 
kept  to  the  old  faith  and  maintained  in  his 
home,ParkHall,  nearWarwick,a  priest  named 
Hall,  in  the  disguise  of  a  gardener.  This 
man,  animated  with  the  fierce  zeal  of  his  oi'der, 
inflamed  the  minds  of  the  Arden  household 
against  the  heretical  queen,  and  especially 
influenced  John  Somerville,  Edward  Arden's 
son-in-law.  This  Aveak-minded  young  man 
had  been  greatly  excited  by  the  woes  of  the 
Scottish  queen,  who  had  given  to  a  friend  of 
his  a  small  present  for  some  service  rendered 
her  when  at  Coventry  in  1569.  He  talked 
of  shooting  the  Queen  of  England,  whom  he 


vituperated  as  a  serpent  and  a  viper,  and  set 
out  for  London  on  this  deadly  errand.  Be- 
traying himself,  however,  by  over-confident 
speech,  he  was  arrested,  put  to  the  rack,  and 
confessed,  implicating  his  father-in-law  in 
his  treason,  and  naming  the  priest  as  the  in- 
stigator of  his  crime.  All  three  were  tried 
and  sentenced  to  death.  Somerville  strangled 
himself  in  his  cell.  Arden  was  hanged  at 
Tyburn  (October  1583),  but  the  priest  was 
spared.  Arden's  head  and  Somerville's  were 
set  on  London  Bridge  beside  the  skull  of  the 
Earl  of  Desmond. 

Dugdale,  Avho  quotes  from  Camden's 
'Annals,'  says  that  Arden  was  prosecuted 
with  much  rigour  and  violence  at  the  in- 
stance of  the  Earl  of  Leicester,  whom  he  had 
irritated,  partly  by  disdaining  to  wear  his 
livery,  but  chiefly  for  galling  him  by  certain 
harsh  expressions  touching  his  private  ac- 
cesses to  the  Countess  of  Essex  before  she 
was  his  wife.  The  language  of  Camden  is 
very  outspoken.  *  The  woful  end  of  this 
gentleman,  who  was  drawn  in  by  the  cun- 
ning of  the  priest  and  cast  by  his  evidence, 
was  generally  imputed  to  Leicester's  malice. 
Certain  it  is  that  he  had  incurred  Leicester's 
heavy  displeasure;  and  not  without  cause, 
for  he  had  rashly  opposed  him  in  all  he 
could,  reproaching  him  as  an  adulterer,  and 
defaming  him  as  a  new  upstart.'  Much  in- 
terest is  attached  to  the  question  of  relation- 
ship between  this  Edward  Arden  and  Mary 
Arden  of  Wilmcote,  the  mother  of  Shake- 
speare, and  second  cousin  of  Edward  Arden's 
father.  Ingenious  -writers  have  not  been 
wanting  who  trace  the  poet's  consummate 
portrayal  of  high-born  dames  to  his  gentle 
blood  and  the  influence  of  the  Arden  ladies, 
his  mother  and  her  six  sisters  who  dwelt  at 
Asbies  in  Wilmcote. 

[Froiide's  England,  vii.  610;  Notes  and 
Queries,  3rd  ser,,  v.  352,  463,  492;  Dugdale's 
Warwickshire,  ii.  931;  Camden's  Annals,  1583  ; 
Calendar  of  State  Papers,  1583;  French's  Genea- 
logica  Shakspeareana.]  K.  H. 

ARDEN,  RICHARD  PEPPER,  Baeon 

Alvanley  (1745-1804),  born  at  Bredbury, 
Cheshire,  in  1745,  was  the  son  of  John  Arden 
of  Stockport,  and  was  educated  at  the  Man- 
chester grammar  school.  His  two  brothers 
received  their  earlier  instruction  at  the  same 
institution.  The  eldest,  John,  became  a 
country  squire,  and  was  resident  at  Harden 
and  Utkinton  Halls  in  Cheshire,  and  at 
Pepper  Hall  in  Yorkshire,  and  was  a  feoffee 
of  the  grammar  school  and  of  the  Chetham 
Hospital  at  Manchester.  The  other,  Crewe 
Arden,  A.M.,  of  Trinity  CoUege,  1776,  be- 
came rector  of  Tarporley,  and  died  there  in 


Arden 


is 


Arderne 


1787.  Richard  Pepper  Arden  entered  the 
Manchester  grammar  school  in  1752,  and  re- 
mained there  until  1703.  Tlie  elder  boys 
acted  the  play  of  *  Cato '  in  1759,  and  it  is 
remarkable  that  of  the  ten  scliohirs  one  be- 
came lord  chief  justice  of  the  common  pleas 
(Arden)j  one  vice-principal  of  Brasenose 
(Rev.  James  Heap),  two  archdeacons  of 
Richmond  (Travis  and  Bower),  one  senior 
wrangler  (William  Arnald),ancl  one  recorder 
of  Chester  (Foster  Bower).  It  is  further 
noteworthy  that  the  prologue  declaimed  by 
Arden  in  1761  dealt  with  the  topic  of  Eng- 
lish elocution,  and  the  career  of  the  lawyer 
and  politician.  Arden  Avas  of  the  Middle 
Temple  in  1762 ;  he  entered  Ti'inity  College, 
Cambridge,  in  October  1763,  and  soon  dis- 
tinguished himself  by  his  command  of  clas- 
sical literature  and  by  the  elegance  of  his 
elocution.  The  year  when  he  came  out  as 
twelfth  wrangler  was  one  remarkable  for  the 
number  of  young  men  of  ability  who  took 
part  in  the  contest.  Arnald,  the  senior 
wrangler,  was  another  *  Manchester  School ' 
boy,  and  the  second  wrangler.  Bishop  Law, 
the  brother  of  Lord  Ellenborough,  is  said  to 
have  remembered  Avith  bitterness  the  defeat 
he  then  sustained  in  the  struggle  for  the 
highest  academical  distinction.  Arden  pro- 
ceeded M.A.  in  1769,  and  soon  after  was 
elected  to  a  fellowship  at  Trinity  College. 
He  was  called  to  the  bar  in  the  same  year. 
His  legal  studies  were  pursued  in  the  Middle 
Temple,  and  when  he  took  chambers  in  Lin- 
coln's Inn  he  lived  on  terms  of  friendly  in- 
timacy with  William  Pitt,  who  was  on  the 
same  staircase.  In  1776  he  was  made  judge 
on  the  South  Wales  circuit,  and  took  silk  in 
1780.  In  1782  he  became  M.P.  for  Newton, 
entering  the  House  of  Commons  a  year  later 
than  his  friend  the  future  prime  minister, 
who  was,  however,  fourteen  years  his  junior. 
He  became  solicitor-general  under  Shel- 
burne's  ministry  in  1782,  and  again  under 
Pitt's  in  1783,  and  in  the  following  year  was 
attorney-general  and  chief  justice  of  Chester. 
He  succeeded  Kenyon  as  master  of  the  rolls 
in  1788,  notwithstanding  Tluirlow'sA'ehement 
opposition,  when  he  was  knighted.  He  sat 
successively  for  Aldborough,  Hastings,  and 
Bath,  and  was  M.P.  for  the  last-named  from 
1794  to  1801,  when  Pitt  resigned.  On  the 
formation  of  the  Addington  administration 
Lord  Eldon  became  chancellor,and  Arden  suc- 
ceeded him  as  lord  chief  justice  of  the  common 
pleas.  He  was  called  to  the  House  of  Lords 
as  Baron  Alvanley,  Cheshire,  the  title  being 
derived  from  his  brother's  estate.  He  was 
not  a  man  of  great  oratorical  powers,  but  pos- 
sessed the  qualities  of  intelligence,  readiness, 
and  wit,  which  are  so  important  to  the  de- 


bater. Mr.  James  Crossley  says  that  Alvan- 
ley's  decisions  show  him  to  have  been  a  better 
equity  judge  than  Thurlow,  much  as  Thurlow 
would  have  been  surprised  at  being  con- 
sidered inferior  to  *  little  Peppy,'  the  man  he 
most  contemned.  Lord  Alvanley's  poetical 
trifles  were  never  collected.  The  best  known 
of  them  is  an  epigram  which  appeared  in  the 
'  Cambridge  Verses '  of  1 763,  and  was  sug- 
gested by  the  circumstance  of  Dr.  Samuel 
Ogden  having  written  three  copies  of  verses, 
one  in  Latin,  one  in  English,  and  one  in 
Arabic,  on  the  accession  of  George  III. 
Another  of  his  slighter  pieces,  the  *  Buxton 
Beggar's  Petition,'  has  been  annotated  by 
Mr.  J,  E.  Bailey,  and  appears  in  the  '  Palatine 
Note  Book,'  iii.  255.  lie  married  Anne  Do- 
rothea, the  daughter  of  Richard  AVilbraham 
Bootle,  M.P.,  and  died  19  March  1804.  He 
is  buried  in  the  Rolls  Chapel.  His  widow 
died  in  1825.  He  left  two  sons,  who  in 
turn  succeeded  to  the  title.  William  Ar- 
den, second  Baron  Alvanley,  who  was  bom 
10  Feb.  1789,  adopted  the  military  pro- 
fession, but  after  reaching  the  grade  of 
lieutenant-colonel  he  retired,  and  died  un- 
married in  1849.  Richard  Pepper  Arden, 
third  Baron  Alvanley,  was  born  8  Dec.  1792, 
and  married  in  1831  Arabella,  the  youngest 
daughter  of  the  first  Duke  of  Cleveland,  but 
died  without  issue  24  June  1857.  He,  like 
his  elder  brother,  had  been  in  the  army,  and 
attained  the  rank  of  lieutenant-colonel.  With 
him  the  peerage  became  extinct. 

The  only  portrait  of  the  first  Lord  Alvan- 
ley is  a  caricature  by  Dighton.  It  Avould  be 
vain  to  claim  any  great  distinction  for  Lord 
Alvanley.  He  was  a  learned  lawyer  and  a 
successful  politician,  who  doubtless  owed 
much  to  the  friendship  of  Pitt,  Avithout  whose 
patronage  his  career  would  liaA'e  been  far 
more  arduous.  He  retained  a  keen  interest 
in  the  fortunes  of  the  school  Avhere  he  had 
received  his  early  training.  If  his  legal  de- 
cisions shoAV  his  learning  and  sound  judg- 
ment, the  few  productions  that  remain  from 
his  pen  evince  refinement,  taste,  and  facility 
of  expression. 

[Smith's Manchester  Grammar  School  Register, 
Chethara  Society,  vol.  lix. ;  Foss's  Lives  of  the 
Judges ;  Ormei-oid's  Cheshire ;  Palatine  Note 
Book,  Nov.  1883;  Brydges's  Peerage;  Burke's 
Peerage ;  Axon's  Cheshire  Gleanings  ;  The  Reli- 
quary, xxiv.  175.]  W.  E.  A.  A. 

ARDERNE,  JAMES,  D.D.  (1636-1691), 
dean  of  Chester,  belonged  to  the  family  of 
Arderne,  which  is  one  of  g^-eat  antiquity  in 
Cheshire,  and  whose  forty-five  quarterings 
are  sufficiently  indicative  of  estate  and  con- 
sideration.    The  seat  of  the  family  was  at 


Arderne 


76 


Arderne 


Harden  Hall,  near  Stoclq)ort,  and  at  that 
mansion,  now  a  ruin,  James,  son  of  Ralph 
Arderne  of  Harden,  was  baptised  12  Oct. 
1636.  He  entered  Christ's  College,  Cam- 
bridge, 9  July  1653,  but  afterwards  removed 
to  St.  John's,  and  took  his  B.A.  in  1656,  and 
afterwards  M.A.  Two  years  later  he  went 
to  Oxford,  and  became  M.A.  in  1658.  He 
Avas  apparently  afterwards  resident  in  Lon- 
don ;  for  he  is  stated  to  have  been  a  member, 
in  1659,  of  a  coterie  that  met  nightly  at  the 
Turk's  Head,  New  Palace  Yard,  Westminster, 
under  the  chairmanship  of  Harrington,  the 
author  of  '  Oceana.'  The  Restoration  brought 
him  within  sight  of  preferment.  In  April 
1666  he  was  curate  of  St.  Botolph,  Alders- 
gate,  and  held  that  j)ost  until  1682.  Another 
of  his  preferments  was  Thornton-le-Moors. 
From  the  double  inducement,  we  are  told,  of 
the  public  library  and  the  society,  he  became 
a  fellow-commoner  of  Brasenose,  and  in  1673 
was  admitted  D.D.  This  degree  he  is  also  said 
to  have  had  from  Cambridge  University.  He 
was  chaplain  to  Charles  II,  and  his  ministra- 
tions to  that  monarch  procured  him  the 
rectory  of  Davenham  in  1681  and  the  deanery 
of  Chester  in  1682.  He  is  said  to  have  had 
the  promise  of  succession  to  the  bishopric  of 
Chester,  but  the  events  of  the  revolution 
prevented  James  II  from  giving  him  any 
further  promotion. 

His  writings  are  the  following:  1.  'Di- 
rections concerning  the  Matter  and  Style  of 
Sermons,  written  to  W.  S.,  a  young  deacon, 
by  J.  A.,  D.p.,'  London,  1671  (B.M.) 
2.  *  True  Christian's  Character  and  Crown,' 
a  sermon,  London,  1671.  3.  '  A  Sermon 
preached  at  the  Visitation  of  John  [Wilkins], 
Loi'd  Bishop  of  Chester,'  London,  1677  (B.M.) 
4.  '  Conjectura  circa  'ETrivofif/v  D.  Clementis 
Romani,  cui  subjiciuntur  Castigationes  in 
Epiphanium  et  Petavium  de  Eucharistica,  de 
Coelibatu  Clericorum  et  de  Orationibus  pro 
vita  functis.  Autore  Jacobo  de  Ardenna.' 
1683  (Bodleian).  5.  'Dean  of  Chester's 
Speech  to  his  Majesty,  August  the  27th  1687,' 
London,  1687,  folio,  one  leaf  (Bodleian). 

Arderne,  if  a  courtier,  was  of  the  better 
type.  His  devotion  to  the  Stuarts  is  said  to 
have  brought  him  affronts  in  his  own  district 
so  vexatious  as  to  have  shortened  his  life. 
He  died  in  1691,  but  the  date  of  his  death  is 
variously  given,  as  18  Aug.,  15  Sept.,  and 
18  Sept.  He  was  bm-ied  in  the  choir  of  his 
cathedral,  with  a  monument,  on  which,  in 
accordance  with  his  will,  was  inscribed : 
'  Here  lies  the  body  of  Dr.  James  Arderne, 
brother  of  Sir  John  Arderne,  awhile  dean 
of  this  church;  avIio,  though  he  bore  a 
more  than  common  affection  to  his  private 
relations,  yet  gave  the  substance  of  his  be- 


queathable  estate  to  this  cathedral,  which 
gift,  his  will  was,  should  be  mentioned, 
that  clergymen  may  consider  whether  it  be 
not  a  sort  of  sacrilege  to  sweep  away  all 
from  the  church  and  charity  into  the  posses- 
sion of  their  lay  kindred  who  are  not  needy.' 
The  particular  intention  of  Arderne  in  this 
bequest  was  the  foundation  of  a  public 
library.  The  property  was  not  then  large, 
but  was  increased  by  the  reversion  to  the 
younger  branch  of  the  Ardenies  of  the  pro- 
perty of  Mrs.  Jane  Done.  Ormerod,  in  print- 
ing the  dean's  Avill,  observes  that  it  is  one 
'  which  the  dean  would  certainly  never  have 
executed  if  he  could  have  imagined  that, 
from  subsequent  contingencies,  it  would  have 
been  the  means  of  wresting  from  his  family 
a  very  large  share  of  one  of  the  most  antient 
estates  in  the  county,  and  have  involved  the 
i-epresentatives  of  two  of  his  brothers  in  a 
series  of  law  expenses,  which  compelled  them 
to  alienate  a  considerable  portion  of  Mrs. 
Jane  Done's  bequest,  the  successive  turns  of 
presentation  to  the  rectory  of  Tai-porley.' 
In  the  will  he  desires  that  the  maps  of  Or- 
telius  should  be  returned  to  Sir  .lolin  Ar- 
derne, Avho  had  only  lent  the  book  for  his 
lifetime.  He  mentions  his  collection  of  the 
fathers  of  the  first  three  hundred  years,  and 
the  common-place  book  which  he  had  made 
from  them  of  controversies.  This  he  desired 
to  be  placed  in  the  chapter-house  for  the  use 
of  the  dean  and  prebendaries.  A  portrait 
of  him  is  preserved  in  the  deanery. 

[Ormerod's  History  of  Cheshire,  ed.  Hilshy ; 
Earwaker'.s  East  Cheshire ;  Wood's  Athenae 
Oxon.  (Bliss),  iii.  1120,  iv.  255,  864,  Fasti,  338; 
Axon's  Cheshire  Gleanings.]  W.  E.  A.  A. 

ARDERNE,  JOHN  {Jl.  1370),  the  first 
Englishman  Avho  displayed  much  skill  in 
surgery,  was  a  layman,  not  a  doctor  of  medi- 
cine, and  practised  in  the  time  of  Edward  III. 
In  the  prologue  to  his  '  Practice,'  or  treatise 
on  the  fistula,  he  says : '  I,  John  Ardeme,  from 
the  first  pestilence,  which  was  in  the  year 
of  our  Lord  1349,  till  the  year  1370,  lived  at 
Newark,  in  the  county  of  Nottingham.'  In 
1370  he  came  to  London,  and  in  the  same 
year  wrote  his  book,  'De  Arte  Medicinse,' 
as  he  tells  us  in  the  preface  to  that  work. 
Arderne  gives  the  names  of  many  patients 
whom  he  cured  :  and  among  them  Avere  per- 
sons of  distinction,  who  had  served  in  the 
French  Avars ;  such  as  Sir  Adam  Evering- 
ham,  Avho  AA'as  in  Gascony  Avith  Henry 
(aft  erAvards  Duke)  of  Lancaster, '  then  named 
Earl  of  Darby.'  His  successful  treatment  of 
Sir  Adam's  case,  and  the  consequent  faA'Our 
of  the  Duke  of  Lancaster,  brought  Arderae, 
as  he  says,  a  large  practice.     He  seems  also 


Arderne 


77 


Arderon 


to  have  been  favoured  with  the  patronage  of 
the  Black  Prince,  Avho  apparently  gave  him 
a  grant  of  land  in  Connauglit  {Collections  of 
John  Guillim,  Bibl.  Bodl.  Col.  Itawlinson, 
B.  102,  No.  4).  He  is  said  to  have  been  pre- 
.sent  at  the  battle  of  Crecy.  Beyond  this  his 
careercannot  be  traced:  but  he  mentions  many 
notable  cures  which  he  eflected  in  London, 
on  citizens,  clergy,  and  other  persons.  Frag- 
mentary as  his  biography  is,  the  works  of 
Arderne  are  of  great  interest,  both  as  show- 
ing his  own  skill  as  a  siu'geon  and  as  throw- 
ing light  on  the  surgery  of  the  time.  They 
still  exist,  chiefly  in  Latin,  as  manuscripts  in 
public  libraries,  a  portion  only  of  one  of  them 
having  been  printed  in  1588,  translated  into 
English  by  John  Read.  The  arrangement  of 
the  manuscripts  is  confused,  but  there  seem 
to  be  two  books,  the  best  known  called 
either  *  Practica  .Tohannis  Arderne,'  or 'Liber 
de  Fistulis,'  containing  forty-four  chapters  in 
some  copies ;  and  the  other  a  treatise  *  l)e  Arte 
Medicinae,'  chiefly  concerned  with  herbs  and 
simples.  Some  copies  are  illustrated  with 
figures  of  plants  and  surgical  instruments, 
and  with  rude  pictures  of  surgical  ailments. 
In  his  treatise  on  fistula,  which  is  the  most 
important  part  of  his  works,  Arderne  ex- 
hibits a  surgical  knowledge  far  in  advance 
of  that  of  his  immediate  English  predeces- 
sors, John  of  Gaddesden  and  Gilbertus  An- 
glicus,  or  Gordon  of  Montpelier  (whom  he 
quotes).  He  may  be  better  compared  with 
his  Fi'ench  contemporary,  Guy  de  Chauliac, 
whose  works  he  does  not  appear  to  have 
known.  His  operation  for  the  fistula,  which 
he  describes  with  great  minuteness,  is  virtu- 
ally the  same  as  that  of  Paulus  ^gineta, 
and  of  his  Arabian  copyists,  but  pronounced 
to  be  impossible  by  most  of  the  mediaeval 
surgeons ;  so  that  from  Avhom  Arderne  de- 
rived it  is  not  clear.  His  chief  authorities 
are  Sahmiitan  and  '  Arabistic  '  writers,  espe- 
cially Constant ine  and  John  of  Damascus  ; 
and  he  quotes  the  one  book  of  Galen  com- 
monly known  in  medipeA'al  times,  the  so-called 
Pantegni  {rexvr}).  But  in  general  Arderne 
quotes  little ;  and  his  surgical  precepts  are 
evidentlj'  mainly  based  on  his  own  experi- 
ence. 

In  the  entire  absence  of  any  parade  of 
second-hand  knowledge,  Ardernes  works 
were  singular  in  an  age  when  most  medical 
writers  were  nothing  more  than  copyists. 
He  was  probably  a  better  surgeon  for  not 
being  a  learned  man ;  though  sufficiently  a 
scholar  to  write  tolei-able  I^atin,  and  quote 
Boetius  and  Cato.  His  descriptions  are  clear 
and  concise ;  his  remarks  practical  and  full 
of  common  sense ;  in  short,  he  anticipates 
in  a  startling  manner  those  qualities  which 


have  been  known  in  later  times  as  charac- 
teristic of  the  English  school  of  surgery. 
The  prologue  to  the  treatise  on  surgery  con- 
tains directions '  for  the  behaviour  or  a  leech/ 
which  curiously  illustrate  the  professional 
life  of  the  time.  They  exhibit  Arderne  as  a 
shrewd  and  worldly-wise  man,  not  at  all 
indifferent  to  the  pursuit  of  wealth.  Ar- 
de»Tie's  reputation  must  have  been  great  in 
his  own  day,  and  for  two  centuries  after- 
wards. Even  in  the  seventeenth  century 
the  celebrated  Sir  Theodore  de  Mayerne  took 
the  trouble  to  copy  out  for  his  own  use  a 
great  portion  of  Arderne's  works.  But  the 
fact  that  only  a  small  portion  of  these  has 
been  printed  is  probably  the  reason  why 
the  first  English  surgeon  has  not  occupied 
a  more  prominent  place  in  the  history  of 
medicine. 

[Pits,  De  Anglise  Scriptoribus,  p.  506 ;  Freind's 
History  of  Physick,  ii.  325  (P]ngl.  Transl.  1726). 
It  is  much  to  be  regretted  tliat  Arderne's  own 
works  iire  not  more  accessible.  The  printed 
portion  is  contained  in  Franciscus  Arceus,  on 
Wounds,  translated  by  John  Read,  London,  1588. 
The  British  Museum  contfiins  eighteen  or  more 
manuscripts,  of  which  may  be  mentioned  Sloane, 
6  (English)  56,  335,  341,  2002,  3844,  1991  (the 
last  copied  by  Mayerne).]  J.  F.  P. 

ARDERON,  WILLIAM  (1703-1767), 
naturalist,  bom  in  1703,  went  from  Yorkshire 
to  Nonvich  in  the  capacity  of  an  officer  of 
excise.  His  scientific  attainments  secured 
for  him  the  friendship  of  several  influential 
gentlemen  in  that  city,  who  obtained  for 
him  the  situation  of  managing  clerk  at  the 
New  Mills.  He  became  veiy  intimate  with 
Henry  Baker,  F.Il.S.,  to  whose  works  on  the 
'  Microscope '  he  largely  contributed.  Arde- 
ron Avas  elected  a  felloAv  of  the  Iloyal  Society 
in  1745.  Notwithstanding  the  disadvantage 
of  a  defective  education,  he  may  be  regarded 
as  the  founder  of  a  school  of  naturalists  and 
men  of  science  in  Norwich.  He  died  25  Nov. 
1767,  and  was  buried  inlleigham  churchyard, 
near  Norwich.  The  last  letter  he  wrote  was 
addressed  to  Henrj'  Baker,  and  is  in  these 
terms :  *  My  dear  friend.  When  you  receive 
this  you  may  be  asured  I  am  no  more.  I 
took  this  interval  to  take  my  last  farewell  of 
you,  which  I  now  do  with  the  utmost  affec- 
tion. A  pluresy  amongst  the  many  diseases 
hath  laid  a  heavy  hand  upon  me  and  is  hard 
to  bear.  I  have  finished  a  life  in  which  I 
laboured  foi-ty  years.  In  which  I  had  some 
pleasure,  but  none  equal  to  your  correspond- 
ence. I  have  acquired  some  fortunes  which 
I  have  left  amongst  my  poor  acquaintance 
without  any  regard  to  any  thing  but  merit.* 
Dawson  Turner,  after  a  careful  perusal   of 


Ardmillan 


78 


Argall 


Arderon's  correspondence,  formed  a  very  high 
opinion  of  his  merits  as  a  naturalist,  and  con- 
sidered him  superior  to  Gilbert  White,  the 
author  of  the  '  Natural  History  of  Selborne.' 
Arderon  is  the  author  of:  1.  Numei'ous 
contributions  to  the  '  Philosophical  Transac- 
tions.' 2.  'Remains,' 1745-60;  afolio volume 
of  351  leaves,  preserved  in  the  British  Mu- 
seum, MS.  Addit.  27966.  The  contents  of 
this  bulky  volume  are  almost  entirely  on  sub- 
jects connected  with  natural  history  and  mi- 
croscopical science.  3.  '  Journals  and  Obser- 
vations on  Nature  and  Art,'  6  vols.  12mo, 
1742-64  ;  manuscript  formerly  in  the  posses- 
sion of  Dawson  Turner.  4.  *  Correspondence 
with  Henry  Baker,  F.R.S.,'  4  vols.  4to,  1744- 
67  ;  manuscript  formerly  in  the  possession  of 
Dawson  Tui'ner. 

[MS.  Addit.  23107  f.  28  ;  Cat.  of  Dawson 
Turner's  MSS.,  i.  pref.  xiii,  4,  6,  10,  11  ;  Gent. 
Mag.  xxxvii.  610;  Chambers's  Norfolk,  1306, 
1307  ;  Index  to  Philosophical  Transactions;  MS. 
Birch  4439,  art.  541 ;  Thomson's  Hist,  of  Royal 
Soc.  Appendix  44.]  T.  C. 

ARDMILLAN,  Lord.  [See  Crawford.] 

ARGALL,  JOHN  (Jl.  1604),  was  ad- 
mitted to  Christ  Church,  Oxford,  in  the  latter 
part  of  Queen  Mary's  reign  ;  took  the  degree 
of  M.A.  in  1565,  and  was  afterwards  pre- 
sented to  the  living  of  Halesworth,  in  Suftblk. 
'  He  was  always  esteemed,'  says  Anthony 
Wood, '  a  noted  disputant  during  his  stay  in 
the  university  ;  was  a  great  actor  in  plays 
at  Christ  Church  (particularly  when  the 
queen  was  entertained  there,  1566),  and, 
when  at  ripe  years,  a  tolerable  theologist 
and  preacher.'    Two  tracts  of  his  are  extant : 

1 .  '  De  vera  Pcenitentia,'  London,  1604, 8vo ; 

2.  *  Introductio  ad  artem  Dialecticam,'  Lon- 
don, 1605,  8vo.  He  died  suddenly  at  table 
on  the  occasion  of  a  feast  at  Cheston,  near 
Halesworth,  and  was  buried  in  Halesworth 
Church  on  8  Oct.  1606. 

[Wood's  Athense  Oxonienses,  ed.  Bliss,  i. 
760-1.]  A.  H.  B. 

ARGALL,  RICHARD  (j^.  1621),  is  a 
very  shadowy  personage.  His  name  is  on 
the  title-page  of  a  unique  volume  of  poems 
(1621,  4to)  in  Mr.  Christie-Miller's  library 
at  Britwell.  The  contents  of  this  volume 
are:  (1)  *  The  Bride's  Ornament,  Poetical 
Essays  upon  a  Divine  Subject ; '  (2)  '  A  Fune- 
ral Elegy  consecrated  to  the  memory  of  his 
ever  honoured  lord,  Jolm  King,  late  Bishop 
of  London  ; '  (3)  *  The  Song  of  Songs  meta- 
phrased in  English  heroicks.'  Anthony  u 
Wood,  nub  '  Jolm  Argall '  {Athen.  Oxon. 
vol.  i.  col.  761,  ed.  Bliss),  writes:  'Now  I 
am  got  into  the  name  of  Argall  I  must  let  the 


reader  know  that  in  my  searches  I  find  one 
Richard  Argall  to  be  noted  in  the  reign  of 
King  James  I  for  an  excellent  divine  poet, 
having  been  much  encouraged  in  his  studies 
by  Dr.  Jo.  King,  bishop  of  London,  but  in 
what  house  educated  in  Oxon,  where  he 
spent  some  time  in  study,  I  cannot  now  tell 
you.'  After  enumerating  the  works  men- 
tioned above,  lie  proceeds :  '  He  also  wrote 
a  book  of  meditations  of  knowledge,  zeal, 
temperance,  bounty,  and  joy.  And  another 
containing  meditations  of  prudence,  obedi- 
ence, meekness,  God's  word,  and  prayer. 
(These  latter  xinpublished.)'  But  it  is  veiy 
doubtful  Avhether  a  poet  of  the  name  of 
Richard  Argall  ever  existed.  In  1654  the 
*  Bride's  Ornament,'  &c.,  and  the  *  Medita- 
tions '  were  included  in  a  collection  of  the 
poems  of  Robert  Aylett,  one  of  the  masters 
of  the  high  court  of  Chancery.  It  is  unlikely 
that  the  name  Richard  Argall  had  been 
adopted  as  a  nom  de  pbime,  and  it  is  equally 
unlikely  that  a  man  in  Aylett's  position 
would  have  had  the  impudence  to  reissue 
another  person's  verses  under  his  own  name. 
From  the  fact  that  only  one  copy  is  known 
of  the  early  edition  it  might  be  suggested 
that  Aylett,  learning  of  the  attempted  fraud, 
succeeded  in  calling  in  the  copies  that  had 
gone  abroad  under  Argall's  name.  (A 
Richard  Argall,  of  Emmanuel  College,  Cam- 
bridge, was  rector  of  Roothing-Aythorp, 
Essex;  he  married  into  the  family  of  the 
Bramstons :  vide  '  Avitobiography  of  Sir  John 
Bramston,'  p.  23,  Camden  Society  Publica- 
tions, 1845.) 

[Wood's  Athense  Oxoniensis,  ed.  Bliss,  i.  761  ; 
Huth  Library  Catalogue,  sub  '  Aylett,  Robert.'] 

A.  H.  B. 

ARGALL,  Sir  SAMUEL  {d.  1626),  ad- 
venturer and  deputy-governor  of  Virginia, 
j  was  descended  from  an  old  Kentish  family  who 
afterwards  settled  at  Walthamstow  in  Essex. 
His  first  appearance  in  history  is  among  the 
j  early  adventurers  to  Virginia,  where  we  find 
j  him  in  July  1609  in  charge  of  a  small  bai-que 
lying  at  anchor  off  Jamestown,  where  he  was 
I  sent  to  trade  on  behalf  of  a  Mr.  Cornelis,  and 
j  to  fish  for  sturgeon.     His  next  task,  after  his 
return  home,  appears  to  have  been  that  of 
conducting  Lord  Delawarre  from  England  to 
Virginia,  where  they  arrived  on  6  June  1610, 
in   time   to  prevent   the    abandonment    of 
I  Jamestown  by  the  colonists,  who,  under  the 
guidance  of  Sir  Thomas  Gates,  the  governor, 
had  already  embarked  on  board  four  vessels 
for  Newfoundland.     For  further  relief  of  the 
colony,    Argall    was  despatched   with   Sir 
George  Somers  to  the  Bermudas  for  hogs  to 
replace  the  stock  wliich  the  colonists  had 


Argall 


79 


Argall 


eaten  up  the  previous  winter ;  he  was,  how- 
ever, separated  by  stress  of  weather  from 
Somers,  and  driven  northward  to  Cape  Cod, 
where  he  found  good  fishing,  afterwards  re- 
turning to  Jamestown  at  the  end  of  August 
(PuRCHAs).-    In  the  early  part  of  1611  he 
appears  to  have  returned  to  England  with 
Lord  Delawarre,  who  was  in  ill  health,  but 
not  before  he  had  established  a  trade  in  corn 
with  the  natives  above  Jamestown.     At  an 
early  period  in  his  history,  Argall  appears  to 
have  distinguished  himself  as  a  skilful  sea- 
ja&n  by  making  rapid  voyages  to  Virginia.  In 
September  1612  we  find  him  again  at  James-  j 
town  after  a  quick  passage  of  fifty-one  days,  I 
his  course,  as  he  tells  us, '  being  fifteen  leagues 
northward  of  the  Azores,'  the  remainder  of 
the  year  until  November  being  employed  in 
the  repair  of  the  ships  and  boats  that  he 
found  fast  going  to  decay  *  for  lacke  of  pitch 
and  tar,'  and  in  pursuing  Indians  for  their 
com  with  Sir  Thomas  Dale,  the  governor, 
who  nearly  lost  his  life.     On  1  Dec.  Argall 
set  out  for  his  first  A'oyage  up  the  Potomac 
in  search  of  corn,  of  which  he  secured  1,100 
bushels  for  the  colony,  after  giving  three 
men  and  two  boys  as  hostages  to  the  king 
of  Pastancy.     It  was  while  on  this  business 
that  he  devised  the  well-known  stratagem 
of    the   abduction   of   Pocahontas.     Argall 
writes :  '  I  was  told  by  certaine  Indians,  my 
friends,  that  the  great  Powhatans  daughter 
Pocahuntis  was  with  the  great  king  Pow- 
towneck,  Avhither  I  presently  repaired,  re- 
solving  to   possesse   myself  of  her  by  any 
stratagem  that  I  could  use,  for  the  ransoming 
of  so  many  Englishmen  as  were  prisoners 
with  Powhatan ;  as  also  to  get  such  armes 
and  tooles  as  he  and  other  Indians  had  got 
by  murther  and  stealing  from  others  of  our 
nation,  with  some  quantitie  of  corn  for  the 
colonies  reliefe.'     With  this  view  he  went 
to  the  king  of  Pastancy,  and  told  him  '  that 
unless  he  delivered  vp  Pocahontas  to  the 
English  wee  would  be  no  longer  brothers  or 
friends  '  (Puechas).  This  threat,  backed  up, 
according  to  another  account,  by  the  promise 
of  a  copper  kettle,  proved  too  much  for  the 
fidelity  of  king  Pastancy,  her  uncle  ;  Poca- 
hontas was  beguiled  on  board  Argall's  ves- 
sel, and  found  herself  a  prisoner.     It  has 
long  been  the  fashion  to  regard  this  as  an 
infamous  act   of  treachery  on  the   part  of 
Argall,  but  the  wisdom  of  the  enterprise  was 
pi'oved  by  the   English  captives   being  re- 
stored and  peace  secured  to  the  colony.   As 
for  Pocahontas,  she  regarded  the  abduction 
as  the  happiest  event  of  her  life,  declaring 
that  '  she  would  dwell  with   the  English, 
who  loved  her  best.'     After  handing  over 
his  fair  captive  to  Sir  T.  Gates,  Argall  pro- 


ceeded to  explore  the  east  shore  of  Chesa- 
peake Bay,  forty  leagues  to  the  noi*thward, 
varied  by  fishing  and  trading  with  the  In- 
dians.    At  this  period  (12  May  1613)  Ar- 
gall's own  narrative  ceases  (Purcuas,  part 
iv.  p.  1765).   Later  in  the  year  he  proceeded 
with  a  vessel  of  fourteen  guns,  under  orders 
to    reduce    the  newly   established    French 
seftlements  of  Mount  Desart,  off  the  coast 
of  Maine,  St.  Croix,  on  an  island  in  the  river 
of  the  same  name,  and  Port  Royal,  six  miles 
below  Annapolis,  Nova  Scotia,  on  the  oppo- 
site shore  of  the  bay  of  Fundy,  settlements 
which  were  regarded  by  the  authorities  in 
Virginia  as  infringements  of  their  charter. 
In  Jime  1614  Argall  left  Virginia  for  Eng- 
land with  his  French  pinsoners,  where,  soon 
after  his  arrival,  he  was  put  upon  his  defence 
for  his  late  proceedings.     His  dignified  and 
judicious  reply,  which  completely  silenced 
his  adversaries,  and  wliich  has  been  strangely 
overlooked,  is  preserved  among  the  Cotton 
MSS.  in  the  British  Museum  {Otko  E.  8,  29). 
Of  his  movements  for  the  next  three  years  we 
have  no  certain  knowledge.     In  May  1617 
he  arrived  once  more  in  "S'irginia  as  deputy- 
governor  and  admiral  of  the  adjacent  seas. 
Few  incidents  in  American  colonial  history 
have  been   more   hotly   debated    than    his 
career  during    these   two    years.      Recent 
writers,  misled  by  the  apparent  but  inju- 
dicious impartiality  of  Stith,  have  hastily 
and  acrimoniously  condemned  Argall  and  all 
his  works,  in  spite  of  contemporary  evidence 
to  the  contrary,  which  has  never  been  gain- 
sayed,of  the  well-known  Captain  John  Smith 
and  several  others.     Argall  always  courted 
the  strictest  investigation,  while  a  suit  got 
up  mainly  by  his  successor,  Sir  G.  Yardley, 
who  was  only  too  anxious  to  succeed  him, 
finally   collapsed    after    running    a    feeble 
course  of  four  years.     On  12  Oct.  1620,  Ar- 
gall served  in  an  expedition  against  Algiers, 
under  the  command  of  Sir  R.  Mansell,  as 
captain  of  a  merchant  vessel  armed  with 
twenty-four    guns.     The   fleet   returned  in 
August  of  the  following  year  without  having 
rendered  any  real  service  to  the  nation.    On 
26  Jime  1622  Argall  received  the  honour  of 
knighthood  from  King  James  I  at  Rochester ; 
he  was  then  described  as  of  Walthamstow 
in  Essex  (Nichols,  Proc/.  James  I,  iv.  770). 
As   admiral  of  a  squadron  of  twenty-four 
English  and  four  Dutch  shij)s,  Sir  Samuel 
left  Plymouth,  6  Sept.  1625,  in  search  of  a 
fleet  of  Dunkirkers  supposed  to  be  sailing 
along  the  coast  of  France  towards  Spain. 
Although  he  failed  to  find  the  fleet,  he  took 
other  prizes,  and  returned  to  Plymouth  after 
a  cruise  of  seven  days.    On  3  Oct.  following, 
this  squadron  joined  the  expedition  against 


Argentine 


80 


Argentine 


Cadiz  under  the  command  of  Lord  Wimble- 
don, Argall  commanding  the  Swiftsure  as 
captain,  having  on  board  llobert,  earl  of 
Essex,  as  vice-admiral  and  colonel-general 
of  the  land  forces.  Argall,  reconnoitring 
the  town,  reported  it  to  be  too  strongly 
fortified  to  be  taken  except  by  a  regular  siege 
for  which  no  provision  had  been  made,  the 
merchant  ships  under  the  command  of  Ar- 
gall having  been  ill  supplied  and  badly  paid ; 
the  masters,  after  waiting  in  vain  in  hopes 
of  relief  from  the  king  (Charles  I),  refused 
to  serve  any  longer  and  returned  to  Ply- 
mouth in  December,  the  expedition  proving 
a  failure.  We  learn  from  a  letter  to  Buck- 
ingham, 28  Jan.  1625-6,  that  the  end  of  Sir 
S.  Argall  was  in  this  wise  :  '  The  master  of 
the  Swiftsure  being  very  backward  and 
very  cross,  as  the  report  was,  to  his  captain 
Sir  Samuel  Argall,  which  broke  his  heart, 
and  four  days  since  he  died.' 

[Doyle's  English  in  America,  1882  ;  Hannay's 
Hist,  of  Acadia,  1880  ;  Massachusetts  Hist.  Soc. 
Coll.  1871,  fourth  series,  vol.  ix. ;  Neill's  English 
Colonization  of  America,  1871;  Nichols's  Prog, 
of  James  I ;  Purohas's  Pilgrims,  1625,  part  4  ; 
Smith's  Hist,  of  Virginia,  1627;  Stith's  Vir- 
ginia, 1747;  Cal.  State  Papers  (Dom.  series), 
1625-6;  Cotton  MS.  Otho  E.  8  (229);  Addit. 
MS.  16279,  429;  Harl.  MiscelL  13,  137.] 

C-v/i+e<J&4*+fitl,|S'10,  ^-  ^-   ^• 

ARGENTINE,  GILES  de  {d.  128.3-4), 
baronial  leader,  was  the  son  of  Richard  de 
Argentine,  a  justiciar  in  Normandy,  whom 
he  succeeded  in  1247.  He  acted  as  justice 
itinerant  in  1253,  and  in  1258  was  named  by 
the  barons,  in  the  Provisions  of  Oxford,  as 
one  of  the  twelve  permanent  representatives 
of  the  commonalty,  and  one  of  the  twenty- 
four  '  a  treter  de  aide  le  rei '  {Ann.  Burt. 
449,  450).  In  1263  he  was  made  constable 
of  Windsor,  and  after  the  battle  of  Lewes 
he  appears  to  have  been  placed  on  the  supreme 
council  of  nine,  and  to  have  been  one  of  its 
three  members  (acting  also  as  cu^todes  sif/illi) 
who  were  in  attendance  on  the  king  and 
Simon  de  Montfort  throughout  the  campaign 
of  Evesham  {Pat.  49  Hen.  III).  His  lands 
were  subsequently  forfeited. 

[Dugdale's  Baronage  of  England  (1675),  i,  614 ; 
Foss's  Judges  (1848),  ii.  208.]  J.  H.  K. 

ARGENTINE,  JOHN,  M.D.  and  D.D. 

{d.  1507-8),  provost  of  King's  College,  Cam- 
bridge, was  born  at  Rottisham,  Cambridge- 
shire, of  an  ancient  and  knightly  family. 
In  1457  he  was  elected  from  Eton  to  King's 
College.  After  taking  the  degree  of  M.D.  he 
was  physician  and  dean  of  the  chapel  to  Ar- 
thur, Prince  of  Whales.  He  also  obtained 
various  ecclesiastical  preferments;  was  ap- 


pointed master  of  the  hospital  of  St.  John 
Baptist  at  Dorchester  in  1499,  and  Avas  elected 
provost  of  King's  College,  Cambridge,  in  1501. 
He  took  the  degree  of  D.D.  in  1504,  and,  dy- 
ing 2  Feb.  1507-8,  was  buried  in  his  chantry 
in  King's  College  chapel.  There  is  extant 
from  his  pen  '  Actus  publico  habitus  in  Acad. 
Cantab,  conti-a  omnes  regentes  Universitatis 
quoad  oppositiones,'  1470,  MS.  in  Corp.  Chr. 
Coll.  Oxon.  This  is  said  to  contain  verses 
on  all  arts  and  faculties. 

[Tanner's  Bibl.  Brit. ;  Le  Neve's  Fasti  Eccl. 
Anglic,  ed.  Hardy ;  Cox's  Cat.  of  Oxford  Coll. 
MSS. ;  Cooper's  Athenae  Cantab,  i.  12.]   T,  C. 

ARGENTINE,  alias  Sexten,  RICH- 
ARD, M.D.  {d.  1568),  physician  and  divine, 
went  to  Ipswich  '  in  a  serving-man's  coat,' 
and  afterwards  was  successively  usher  and 
master  of  the  grammar  school  in  that  town, 
where  he  also  practised  as  a  physician  and 
read  a  lecture  in  divinity.  He  was  created 
M.D.  by  the  university  of  Cambridge  in  1541. 
In  the  reign  of  Edward  VI  he  was  a  protes- 
tant ;  but  in  the  reign  of  Queen  Mary,  having 
lost  his  wife,  he  took  orders  and  made  him- 
self conspicuous  by  his  advocacy  of  catholic 
principles,  and  by  persecuting  the  reformers. 
He  was  instituted  to  the  rectory  of  St.  Helen 
with  St.  Clement,  Ipswich,  in  1556.  Shortly 
before  the  death  of  Queen  Mary  he  removed 
to  London,  and  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  re- 
tained his  rectory  by  again  becoming  a  re- 
former. In  January  1563-4  he  appears  to 
have^been  living  at  Exeter,  but  the  state- 
ment that  he  was  a  prebendary  of  Exeter  and 
W'ells  is  without  foundation.  He  probably 
died  in  1568,  when  his  rectory  at  Ipswich 
became  vacant. 

His  works  are:  1.  '  Certeyne  Preceptes, 
gathered  by  Hulricus  Zuinglius,  declaring 
howe  the  ingenious  youth  ought  to  be  in- 
structed and  brought  unto  Christ,'  Ipswich, 
1548,  8vo ;  a  translation  from  the  Latin. 
2.  *  A  ryght  notable  Sermon  made  by  Doctor 
Martyn  Luther  upon  the  twentieth  chapter 
of  Johan  of  absolution  and  the  true  use  of  the 
keyes,  full  of  great  comforte,'  Ipswich,  1548, 
8vo ;  a  translation.  3.  '  Sermons  of  the  ryght 
famous  and  excellent  clerke  Master  Bemar- 
dine  Ochine,' Ipswich,  1548,  8vo;  a  transla- 
tion. 4.  '  De  Prtestigiis  et  Incantationibus 
Dfemonum  et  Necromanticorum,'  Bale,  1568, 
8vo.  5.  '  Ad  Oxonienses  et  Cantabrigienses 
pro  lingua  Arabica  beneficio  principum  resti- 
tuenda ; '  MS.  in  the  Bodleian  library.  6.  Ob- 
servations about  Rome  and  the  popes. 

[Tanner's  Bibl.  Brit.;  Wodderspoon's  Memo- 
rials of  Ipswich,  391  ;  MS.  Addit.  5862  f.  48 ; 
Cooper's  Athena?  Cantab,  i.  275 ;  British  Bibliogr. 
i.  504  ;  Ames's  Typogr.  Antiq.  ed.  Herbert,  595, 
1456.]  T.  C. 


Argyle 


8i 


Arkwright 


ARGYLE,  or  ARGYLL,  Dukes,  Eakls, 
and  Makquises  ov.    [See  Campbell.] 

ARKISDEN,  THOMAS  (Jl.  1633),  steno- 
graplier,  was  educated  at  Emmanuel  Col- 
lege, Cambridge  (B. A.  1629-30;  M.A.  1633). 
While  at  the  university  he  invented  a  short- 
hand alphabet,  which  has  acquired  a  peculiar 
interest  in  consequence  of  its  similarity  to 
other  early  systems  of  stenography  published 
somewhat  later,  especially  to  those  ot  AVilliam 
Cartwright  and  his  nephew,  Jeremiah  Rich, 
the  latter  of  whom  lays  claim  in  his  '  Art's 
Rarity '  (1654)  to  absolute  originality.  Ed- 
ward Howes,  writing  from  the  Inner  Temple 
23  Nov.  1632  to  Jolm  Winthrop,  jun.,  '  at  the 
Matachussetts  in  New  England,'  says  :  '  As 
for  my  vsuall  characters,  they  are  that  where- 
with I  conceiue  you  have  bin  formerly  ac- 
quainted, viz*,  Mr.  Arkisdens,  whoe  hath  sent 
you  a  letter  here  inclosed  in  John  Samfords. 
I  thought  good  to  send  you  his  character,  for 
feare  you  should  haue  forgotten  it ; '  and  he 
adds  that  '  the  characters  are  approued  of  in 
Cambridge  to  be  the  best  yet  invented,  and 
they  are  not  yet  printed  nor  comon.'  ITie 
alphabet  is  given  in  the  '  Collections  of  the 
Massachusetts  Historical  Society '  (4th  ser. 
vi.  481).  Some  correspondence  with  regard 
to  it  between  Mr.  J.  E.  Bailey  and  Mr.  E. 
Poclmell  appeared  in  the  *  Athenaeum '  in 
September  1880. 

[Collections  of  the  Massachusetts  Hist.  Soc. ; 
MS.  Addit.  5885  f.  84  b ;  Pocknell's  Legible 
Shorthand  (1881),  75-77.]  T.  C. 

ARKWRIGHT,  Sir  RICHARD  (1732- 
1792),  one  of  the  earliest  and  principal  con- 
trivers of  machinery  on  a  large  scale  as  a 
substitute  for  hand  labour  in  textile  manu- 
factures, was  born  at  Preston  23  Dec.  1732. 
His  parents,  if  not  poor,  belonged  to  the 
humbler  ranks  of  life,  and  he  is  said  to 
have  been  the  youngest  of  thirteen  children. 
Baines  {Histoi'y  of  Lancashire,  2nd  ed.  1870, 
ii.  453)  states  that  'there  are  reasons  for 
believing  that  he  was  born  in  a  house  after- 
wards occupied  by  Mr.  Clare,  hosier,  in  Lord 
Street,  pulled  down  about  1854.'  Its  site, 
according  to  Hardwick  (^History  of  Preston, 
1857,  p.  361),  is  now  occupied  by  the  south 
end  of  Stanley  Buildings,  Lancaster  Road. 
Hardwick  conveys  the  impression  that  Ark- 
wright resided  there  while  practising  the 
trade  of  a  barber  (p.  361) ;  but  as  he  else- 
where (p.  650),  on  the  authority  of  Baines, 
mentions  the  house  as  that  in  which  Ark- 
wright was  born,  he  would  seem  to  have 
been  possessed  of  no  independent  information 
on  the  subject.  Arkwright  is  said  to  have 
served  his  apprenticeship  to  one  Nicholson 

VOL.  II. 


of  Preston  (Whittlb,  History  of  Preston, 
1887,  ii.  213),  but  there  is  no  evidence  that 
he  set  up  in  business  in  that  town.  Besides 
his  apprenticeship  to  a  barber,  all  that  is 
known  of  liis  early  life  is  that  his  uncle 
Richard  taught  him  reading,  and  that,  pro- 
bably Avhile  an  apprentice,  he  attended  a 
school  during  the  winter  months  (Whittle, 
p.  213).  By  making  the  most  of  his  oppor- 
tunities he  perhaps  acquired  a  somewhat 
better  education  than  was  then  customary  in 
the  lower  ranks  of  life.  At  the  age  of  fifty 
he  indeed  felt  its  defects  so  much  in  con- 
ducting his  coiTespondence  and  the  manage- 
ment of  his  business,  that  he  encroached 
upon  his  sleep  in  order  to  gain  an  hour  each 
day  to  learn  English  grammar,  and  another 
hour  to  improve  his  writing  and  orthography 
(Baines,  History  of  the  Cotton  Manufacture, 
p.  195),  but  his  perseverance  in  these  tasks 
at  such  an  age  Avould  seem  to  indicate  a  con- 
siderable amount  of  original  training.  Soon 
after  the  close  of  his  apprenticeship  he  is 
supposed  to  have  settled  in  Bolton,  probably 
about  1750  (Clegg,  Chronological  History 
of  Bolton,  p.  15).  In  any  case  his  settle- 
ment there  took  place  before  his  marriage, 
31  March  1755,  in  the  parish  church  of  tlie 
town,  to  '  Patients,  daughter  of  Robert  Holt 
of  Bolton,  schoolmaster.'  Baines  {History  of 
Cotton  Manufacture,  p.  148)  states  that  he 
established  himself  at  Bolton  in  the  year 
1760,  but  this  apparently  is  a  mere  misread- 
ing of  a  statement  of  Guest  {Compendious 
History,-^.  21)  that  Arkwright  was  living  in 
Bolton  as  a  barber  at  that  particular  date. 
There  is  no  information  as  to  when  the  first 
wife  of  Arkwright  died,  but  on  24  March 
1761  he  was  mamed  for  the  second  time  in 
the  parish  church  of  Leigh  to  Margaret  Big- 
gins of  Pennington.  Shortly  before  or  shortly 
after  his  second  marriage,  Arkwright  removed 
from  his  small  shop  in  Churchgate  to  a  better 
one  at  the  end  of  the  passage  leading  up  to 
what  was  then  the  W^hite  Bear  public-house. 
The  small  property,  '  perhaps  of  the  value  of 
400^.,'  possessed  by  his  wife,  though  settled 
on  herself,  was  probably  advantageous  in 
assisting  him  to  develope  his  business;  for 
about  this  time  indications  of  his  entei-prising 
spirit  become  visible  in  his  engaging  as  his 
journeyman  a  workman  from  Leigh  specially 
skilled  in  making  the  strong  country  wigs 
then  in  general  use.  Shortly  aftei-wards  he 
began  to  travel  through  the  country  to  buy 
human  hair,  attending  for  this  purpose  the 
hiring  fairs  frequented  by  young  girls  seeking 
sersice.  He  had  got  possessed  of  a  valuable 
chemical  secret  for  dyeing  it,  and  thus  was 
enabled  to  add  to  his  business  a  new  source  of 
profit,  by  selling  the  hair  dyed  and  prepared 


Arkwright 


82 


Arkwright 


to  the  wigmakers  (Guest,  Compendious  His- 
tory, p.  21).  .      .         .       , 

The  gradual  disuse  of  wigs  is  assigned  by 
some  as  the  reason  why  Arkwright  began  to 
turn  his  attention  to  mechanical  inventions 
as  likely  to  aftbrd  him  a  new  source  of  in- 
come; but,  as  during  his  journeys  he  was 
brought  into  constant  intercourse  with  pei*- 
sons  engaged  in  weaving  and  spinning,  liis 
inquisitive  and  strongly  practical  intelligence 
would  in  any  case  have  been  naturally  led 
to  take  a  keen  interest  in  inventions  which 
were  a  constant  topic  of  conversation  among 
the  manufacturing  population.     The  inven- 
tion of  the  fly  shuttle  by  Kay  of  Bury  had  so 
greatly  increased  the  demand  for  yarn,  that 
it  began  to  be  impossible  to  meet  it  merely  by 
hand  labour.     A  machine  for  carding  cotton 
had  been  introduced  into  Lancashire  about 
1760  (Baines,  History  of  the  Cotton  Manu- 
facture,  p.    175),  but  imtil  1767  spinning 
continued  to  be   executed  wholly  by  the 
old-fashioned  hand  wheel.     It  was  in  that 
year  that  Hargreaves  had  completed  his  in- 
vention of  the  spinning-jenny,  which  he  pa- 
tented in  1770.  The  thread  spun  by  the  jenny 
was,  however,  suitable  only  for  Aveft,  and 
the  roving  process  still  required  to  be  per- 
formed by  hand.    Probably  Arkwright  knew 
nothing  of  the  experiments  of  Hargreaves, 
when,  in  1767,  he  asked  Kay,  a  clockmaker 
then  residing  at  Warrington,  to  '  bend  him 
some  wires  and  turn  him  some  pieces  of 
brass'  (Evidence  of  Kay,  Trial,  June  1785, 
p.  62).     Shortly  afterwards  Arkwright  gave 
up  his  business  at  Bolton,  and  devoted  his 
whole  attention  to  the  perfecting  of  a  contri- 
vance for  spinning  by  rollers.    After  getting 
Kay  to  construct  for  him  certain  wooden 
models,  which  convinced  him  that  the  solu- 
tion of  the  problem  had  been  accomplished, 
he  is  said  to  have  applied  to  a  Mr.  Atherton 
of  Warrington  to  make  the  spinning-machine, 
who,  from  the  poverty  of  Arkwright's  ap- 
pearance, declined  to  undertake  it  (Aikin, 
General  Bioyraphy,  1799,  i.  391).    He,  how- 
ever, agreed  to  lend  Kay  a  smith  and  watch- 
tool  maker  to  do  the  heavier  part  of  the 
engine,  and  Kay  undertook  to  make  the  clock- 
maker's  part  of  it.   ArkwTight  and  Kay  then 
proceeded  to  Preston,  where  with  the  co- 
operation of  a  friend  of  Arkwright,  Mr.  John 
Smalley,  described  as  a  *  liquor  merchant  and 
painter,'  the  machine  was  constructed  and 
set  up  in  the  parlour  of  the  house  belonging 
to  the  Free  Grammar  School.     The  room 
seems  to  have  been  chosen  for  its  secluded 
position,  being  hidden  by  a  garden  filled  with 
gooseberry  trees;   but  the  very  secrecy  of 
their  operations  aroused  suspicion,  and  popu- 
lar superstition  at  once  connected  them  with 


some  kind  of  witchcraft  or  sorcery.  Two 
old  women  who  lived  close  by  averred  that 
they  heard  strange  noises  in  it  of  a  humming 
nature,  as  if  the  devil  wei-e  tuning  his  bag- 
pipes and  Arkwright  and  Jiay  were  dancing 
a  reel ;  and  so  much  consternation  was  pro- 
duced that  many  were  inclined  to  break  open 
the  place  (Whittle,  History  of  Preston,  ii. 
216).  The  building  has  since  been  changed 
into  a  public-house,  which  is  known  as  the 
Arkwright  Arms.  As  a  proof  of  the  straits 
to  which  Arkwi-ight  was  then  reduced  and 
the  degree  to  which  he  had  sacrificed  his 
comfort  in  order  to  obtain  the  means  of  com- 
pleting his  invention,  it  is  stated  that  his 
clothes  were  in  such  a  ragged  state  that  he 
declined,  unless  supplied  with  a  new  suit,  to 
go  to  record  his  vote  at  the  Preston  election 
of  1768,  which  took  place  while  he  was  en- 
gaged in  setting  up  his  machine.  Having 
thoroughly  satisfied  himself  of  the  practical 
value  of  his  invention,  Arkwright  removed 
to  Nottingham,  already  an  important  seat  of 
the  stocking  trade,  whither  Hargreaves,  the 
inventor  of  the  spinning-jenny,  had  the  year 
previously  removed,  after  his  machines  had 
been  destroyed  by  a  mob  at  Blackburn. 
Arkwright  entered  into  partnership  with 
Smalley  from  Preston,  Kay  continuing  with 
him  under  a  bond  as  a  workman ;  and  they 
ei'ected  a  spinning-mill  between  Hockley  and 
Woolpack  Lane,  a  patent  being  taken  out  by 
Arkwright  for  the  machine  3  July  1769. 

The  spinning-frame  of  ArkAvright  (see  the 
drawing  of  the  original  one  in  Baines's  His- 
tory of  the  Cotton  Manufacture,  p.  153,  and 
Urb's  History  of  the  Cotton  Manufacture,  i. 
255 ;  and  of  the  water-frame  in  Ure,  p.  276, 
and  Guest's  Compendious  History,  plate  9) 
was  the  result  of  inventive  power  of  a  higher 
and  rarer  order  than  that  necessary  to  origi- 
nate the  spinning-jenny.  It  was  much  more 
than  a  mere  development  of  the  old  hand- 
wheel.  It  implied  the  application  of  a  new 
principle,  that  of  spinning  by  rollers;  and 
in  the  delicate  adjustment  of  its  various  parts, 
and  the  nice  regulation  of  the  different  me- 
chanical forces  called  into  operation,  so  as  to 
make  them  properly  subordinate  to  the  ac- 
complishment of  one  purpose,  we  have  the 
first  adequate  example  of  those  beautiful  and 
intricate  mechanical  contrivances  which  have 
transformed  the  whole  character  of  the  manu- 
facturing industries.  The  spinning-frame  con- 
sisted of  four  pairs  of  rollers,  acting  by  tooth 
and  pinion.  The  top  roller  was  covered  with 
leather  to  enable  it  to  take  hold  of  the  cotton, 
the  lower  one  fluted  longitudinally  to  let  the 
cotton  pass  through  it.  By  one  pair  of  rollers 
revolving  quicker  than  another  the  rove  was 
drawn  to  the  requisite  fineness  for  twisting, 


Arkwright 


83 


Arkwright 


which  was  accomplished  by  spindles  or  flyers 
placed  in  front  of  each  set  of  rollers.  The 
original  invention  of  Arkwright  has  neither 
been  superseded  nor  substantially  modified, 
although  it  has  of  course  undergone  various 
minor  improvements. 

The  first  spinning-mill  of  Arkwright  was 
driven  by  horses,  but  finding  this  method 
too  expensive,  as  well  as  incapable  of  appli- 
cation on  a  sufficiently  large  scale,  he  re- 
solved to  call  in  the  aid  of  water-power, 
which  had  already  been  successfully  applied 
for  a  similar  purpose,  notably  in  the  silk 
mill  erected  by  Thomas  Lombe  on  the  Der- 
went  at  Derby  in  1717.  In  1771  Arkwright 
therefore  went  into  partnership  with  Mr. 
Reed  of  Nottingham  and  Mr.  Strutt  of  Derby, 
the  possessors  of  patents  for  the  manufacture 
of  ribbed  stockings,  and  erected  his  spinning- 
frame  at  Cromford  in  Derbyshire,  in  a  deep, 
picturesque  valley  near  the  Derwent,  where 
Tie  could  obtain  an  easy  command  of  water- 
power  from  a  never-failing  spring  of  warm 
water,  which  even  during  the  severest  frost 
scarcely  ever  froze.  From  the  fact  that  the 
spinning-frame  was  driven  by  water,  it  came 
to  be  known  as  the  water-frame  ;  since  the 
application  of  steam  it  has  been  known  as 
the  throstle.  As  the  yarn  it  produced  was 
of  a  much  harder  and  firmer  texture  than 
that  spun  by  the  jenny,  it  was  specially 
suited  for  warp,  but  the  Lancashire  manu- 
facturers declined  to  make  use  of  it.  Ark- 
wright and  his  partners,  tlierefore,  wove  it 
&t  first  into  stockings,  which,  on  account  of 
the  smoothness  and  equality  of  tlie  yarn, 
were  gi'eatly  superior  to  those  woven  from 
the  hand-spun  cotton.  In  1773  he  began 
to  use  the  thread  as  warp  for  the  manu- 
facture of  calicoes,  instead  of  the  linen  warp 
formerly  used  together  with  the  cotton  weft, 
and  thus  a  cloth  solely  of  cotton  was  for  the 
first  time  produced  in  England.  It  met  at 
once  with  a  great  demand,  but,  on  account 
of  an  act  passed  in  1736  for  the  protection 
of  the  woollen  manufactures  of  England 
against  the  calicoes  of  India,  it  was  liable  to 
a  double  duty,  which,  at  the  instance  of  the 
Lancashire  manufacturers,  was  speedily  en- 
forced. Notwithstanding  their  strenuous 
opposition,  ArkAvright,  however,  in  1774  ob- 
tained an  act  specially  exempting  from  extra 
•duty  the  '  new  manufacture  of  stuffs  wholly 
made  of  raw  cotton  wool.'  Up  to  this  time 
more  than  12,000/.  had  been  expended  by 
Arkwright  and  his  partners  on  machinery 
with  little  or  no  return,  but  after  the  new 
act  the  cotton  manufacture  created  by  his 
energy  and  genius  developed  with  amazing 
rapidity,  until  it  became  the  leading  industry 
•of  the  north  of  England. 


AVhile  struggling  against  the  mingled  in- 
ertness and  active  opposition  of  the  manu- 
facturers, Arkwright  had  all  the  while  been 
busily  engaged  in  augmenting  the  capability 
and  efficiency  of  his  machinery,  and  m  1775 
he  brought  out  a  patent  for  a  series  of  adap- 
tations and  inventions  by  means  of  which 
the  whole  process  of  yarn  manufacture — 
including  carding,  drawing,  roving,  and 
spinning — was  performed  by  a  beautifully 
arranged  succession  of  operations  on  one 
machine.  With  the  grant  of  this  patent 
every  obstacle  in  the  way  of  a  sufficient 
supply  of  yarn  was  overcome,  and,  whatever 
might  happen  to  Arkwriglit,  the  prosperity 
of  the  cotton  manufacture  was  guaranteed. 
Afterwards  the  invention  was  adapted  for 
the  woollen  and  worsted  trade  with  equal 
success. 

Meanwhile  Arkwright,  besides  building 
several  additional  cotton  mills,  sold  grants 
of  his  patents  to  numerous  cotton  spin- 
ners in  the  northern  and  midland  counties. 
By  1782  he  concluded  that  a  business  had 
in  this  Avay  been  formed  which  employed 
upwards  of  five  thousand  persons  and  a 
capital  on  the  whole  of  not  less  than  200,000/. 
New  difficulties,  however,  began  to  arise  in 
his  path.  In  1779  serious  riots  occurred  in 
Lancashire,  and  a  mill  which  Arkwright 
had  erected  at  Chorley  at  gi-eat  expense  was 
completely  sacked.  Up  to  this  time  the  in- 
competency of  his  workers  and  mechanics 
and  the  slow  sale  of  his  yarn  had  almost 
daunted  his  energy.  The  destruction  of  his 
mill,  happening  when  it  did,  strained  his  re- 
sources, therefore,  to  their  utmost  limits, 
while  the  increasing  infringements  of  his 
patent  threatened  to  extinguish  one  of  his 
most  valuable  sources  of  profit.  For  a  time 
he  was  baffled  in  his  attempts  to  proceed 
against  the  infringers,  on  account  of  the  pre- 
cautions they  made  use  of  to  conceal  their 
operations,  for  they  took  care  that  none  but 
persons  sworn  to  secrecy  should  be  employed 
as  workmen.  At  last  in  1781  he  brought 
an  action  against  nine  firms.  The  first  cause 
selected  for  trial  was  that  against  Colonel 
Mordaunt,  who  at  once  admitted  his  use  of 
Arkwright's  machine,  but  pleaded  insuf- 
ficiency of  specification  in  the  patent,  and 
on  that  ground  Arkwi-ight  was  nonsuited. 
In  the  following  year  Arkwright  dissolved 
his  partnership  with  Reed  and  Strutt,  re- 
taining in  his  own  hands  the  mill  at  Crom- 
ford. Shortly  afterwards  he  drew  up  a 
statement  of  his  '  Case,'  in  which,  after  re- 
cording his  difficulties  and  disappointments, 
he  concluded  by  praying  that  the  'legis- 
lature would  be  pleased  to  confirm,  connect, 
and  consolidate  the  two  letters  patent  so  as 

G  2 


Arkwright 


84 


Arkwright 


to  preserve  to  him  the  full  benefit  of  his  in- 
vention for  the  remainder  of  the  term  yet  to 
come  in  the  last  patent.'  The  one  patent 
■would  expire  in  1783  and  the  other  in 
1789.  Although  the  statement  was  circvi- 
lated  among  members  of  parliament,  no  fui*- 
ther  action  was  taken  by  him  to  influence 
the  legislature  in  the  matter.  In  1785  he, 
however,  made  a  new  effort  to  enforce  the 
validity  of  his  second  patent,  and  in  the 
court  of  Common  Pleas  an  action  against  its 
infringement,  where  the  plea  of  insufficiency 
of  specification  was  set  up,  was  decided  in 
his  favour.  This  verdict  greatly  alarmed 
the  cotton-spinners,  for,  owing  to  the  verdict 
of  1781,  the  unauthorised  use  of  the  patent 
had  grown  so  greatly  that  in  1785  it  was 
calculated  that  thirty  thousand  persons  were 
employed  in  establishments  set  up  in  defi- 
ance of  it,  the  capital  expended  on  buildings 
being  about  300,000/.  Several  of  the  manu- 
facturers, therefore,  combined  in  self-defence, 
and  obtained  from  the  lord  chancellor  a  writ 
of  scire  facias  for  a  new  trial.  The  case  was 
tried  in  the  court  of  King's  Bench  before 
Mr.  Justice  Buller  and  a  special  jury,  25  June 
1785,  when  for  the  first  time  Arkwi-ight's 
claim  to  the  invention  was  disputed.  The 
points  on  which  the  jui-y  had  to  decide  were 
stated  by  the  judge  to  be  three :  '  1.  Is  the 
invention  new  ?  2.  Is  it  invented  by  the  de- 
fendant ?  3.  Was  it  sufficiently  described  in 
the  specification  ? '  To  answer  any  of  these 
questions  in  the  negative  was  of  course  fatal 
to  the  patent.  The  judge  summed  up  un- 
mistakably for  the  crown  against  Arkwright 
on  every  point,  and  the  jury  without  a  mo- 
ment's hesitation  brought  in  their  verdict  for 
the  crown.  On  10  Nov.  Arkwright  moved 
for  a  rule  to  show  cause  why  there  should 
not  be  a  new  trial,  alleging  that  he  had  new 
evidence  to  contradict  that  adduced  against 
the  originality  of  the  invention ;  but  the 
application  was  refused,  the  mere  ability  to 
give  more  evidence  not  being  regarded  as  a 
sufficient  reason  for  the  rule.  On  the  14th 
of  the  same  month  judgment  was  given  to 
cancel  the  letters  patent. 

For  deficiency  in  the  specification  no 
amount  of  neAV  evidence  could  atone,  and 
the  judge  was  persuaded  that  on  this  point 
as  well  as  the  others  Arkwright  *  had  not  a 
leg  to  stand  upon.'  It  was  proved  that  Ark- 
wright had  gi\en  directions  that  the  specifi- 
cation should  *  be  as  obscure  as  the  nature  of 
the  case  would  admit ; '  but  besides  this  he 
had  introduced  into  it  articles  intended  to 
render  it  unintelligible,  and  some  of  which, 
if  put  into  operation,  would  inevitably  have 
spoiled  the  cotton.  The  deficiency  of  speci- 
fication he  had  also  in  his  statement  of  his 


'  Case  '  in  1782  practically  admitted,  though 
asserting  that,  so  far  from  intending  to  per- 
petrate '  a  fraud  upon  his  country/  he  wa& 
'  anxiously  desirous  of  preserving  to  hi& 
native  country  the  full  benefit  of  his  inven- 
tions.' It  is  to  be  presumed,  however,  that 
he  had  more  reason  to  dread  infringements 
of  his  patents  at  home  than  abroad ;  and  as 
this  was  of  itself  sufficient  reason  for  his 
desire  to  make  the  specification  obscure  or 
misleading,  it  is  not  absolutely  necessary  to 
suppose  either  that  he  wished  to  utilise  to 
his  own  special  advantage  improvements- 
which  were  not  his  own  invention,  or  that 
he  designed  to  preserve  to  himself  the  bene- 
fits of  his  patents  beyond  the  legal  period  of 
fourteen  years. 

In  regard  to  the  originality  of  the  inven- 
tion the  opponents  of  Arkwright  sought  tO' 
prove  that  the  whole  series  of  machines  in- 
cluded in  the  patent  were  stolen  by  Ark- 
wright from  others,  his  sole  title  to  origi- 
nality being  the  combination  of  them  into 
one  machine.  This  implied  the  denial  of 
his  right  to  the  spinning  patent  of  1769, 
which  had  expired  in  1783,  but  was  practi- 
cally continued  to  him  by  the  patent  of  1775. 
In  support  of  their  allegation  in  reference  to 
this  patent  the  opponents  of  Arkwright  relied 
chiefly  on  two  witnesses,  Kay,  the  watch- 
maker, who  had  made  the  models  for  Ark- 
wright, and  Thomas  Highs  or  Hayes,  a 
reedmaker  at  Leigh,  Avhom  Kay  asseited  to- 
be  the  original  inventor  of  the  models.  The 
evidence  of  Kay  was  tainted  by  the  fact  that 
he  was  confessedly  guilty  of  a  fraud  in  re- 
vealing to  Arkwright  the  secret  of  Highs, 
that  he  had  fled  from  Arkwright  when  threa- 
tened with  a  charge  of  felony,  and  that  he 
had  in  conversation  represented  himself  to  b& 
the  author  of  the  invention.  Further,  it  does 
not  appear  that  he  was  ever  treated  by  Ark- 
wright otherwise  than  as  a  mere  workman, 
which  may  of  course  have  been  owing  to  the 
superior  astuteness  and  force  of  character  of 
the  latter,  although  it  is  scarcely  compatible 
with  the  supposition  that  he  was  indebted 
to  Kay  for  the  whole  secret  of  the  invention. 
The  evidence  of  Kay  was  confirmed  by  that 
of  his  wife  in  so  far  as  concerned  the  asser- 
tion that  he  had  made  models  for  Highs. 
Kay  had  undoubtedly  been  employed  by 
Highs  to  make  models,  but  this  does  not 
render  it  impossible  that  Arkwright,  having 
some  previous  acquaintance  -with  Kay  at 
Leigh,  employed  him  at  Warrington  simply 
on  the  ground  of  this  acquaintance,  and  oe- 
cause,  wishing  to  carry  on  his  experiments 
secretly,  it  was  easier  to  do  so  at  a  distance 
from  Bolton.  The  evidence  of  Highs  was  on 
several  important  points  both  obscure  and' 


Arkwright 


85 


Arkwright 


contradictoiy.  He  asserted  that  he  had 
made  rollers  for  spinning  in  1767  on  the 
principle  of  the  one  set  going  faster  than 
the  other,  but  confessedly  they  must  have 
been  incapable  of  performing  the  operation 
of  spinning,  for  he  admitted  that  it  was  not 
till  1769 — that  is  the  year  after  Arkwright 
removed  to  Nottingham — that  he  had  hit  on 
the  contrivance  of  having  the  one  roller 
fluted  and  the  other  covered  with  leather,  a 
contrivance  without  which  it  was  impossible 
that  a  machine  constructed  on  Arkwright's 
principles  could  work.  Further,  none  of  the 
machines  by  which  Highs  asserted  that  he 
had  spun  cotton  as  an  experiment  were  ever 
produced,  and  on  this  ground  alone  Ark- 
^vi'ight — if  it  be  merely  a  question  between 
his  word  and  that  of  Highs— must  be  held 
to  possess  the  preferable  claim  to  the  inven- 
tion. That  AiTiwright  was  not  over-scrupu- 
lous in  his  business  dealings  appears  suffi- 
ciently probable  from  the  fact  that  he  applied 
for  his  first  patent  as  Ilichard  Arkwright, 
clockmaker,  although  he  may  have  done  so 
merely  on  account  of  the  awkwardness  of  ap- 
plying for  it  in  the  character  of  a  barber.  A 
punctilious  regard  for  the  rights  of  inventors 
was,  moreover,  not  a  characteristic  trait  of 
those  among  whom  Ark\%Tight  lived,  and  he 
may  not  have  considered  himself  very  blame- 
worthy in  utilising  the  ideas  of  Highs,  which, 
in  the  words  of  Higlis,  had  not  then  *  been 
brought  to  bear.'  At  the  same  time,  even  if 
he  were  indebted  to  Highs  at  all,  it  may  have 
been  for  nothingmore  than  a  knowledge  of  the 
inventions  of  Paul,  who  had  obtained  patents 
for  spinning  by  rollers  in  1738  and  1758. 
So  radically  different,  however,  were  the 
machines  of  Paul  from  that  of  Ark^Tight 
that  probably  when  the  latter  constructed  it, 
he  possessed  no  accurate  knowledge  of  what 
had  been  done  by  Paul.  Not  only  did  Paul 
fail  to  solve  satisfactorily  the  problem  of 
spinning  by  rollei's,  but  probably  it  never 
could  have  been  solved  by  one  following  the 
lines  which  he  had  adopted.  (See  drawing 
of  Lewis  Paul's  spinning  machine,  patent 
1758,  in  'Rh.iyiY^^^CottonManufacture,-^.  139.) 
The  machine  of  Arkwright  was  adapted 
for  roving  by  means  of  a  revolving  can  which 
a  witness  asserted  he  had  used  in  1774, 
although,  as  it  happened,  the  can  had  been 
made  for  him  by  two  men  in  Arkwi'ight's 
employment.  For  the  process  of  carding 
additions  and  improvements  of  gi'eat  in- 
genuity were  affixed  to  the  carding  cylinder 
patented  by  Paul  in  1748,  transforming  it 
into  an  entirely  new  machine.  The  most  im- 
portant of  these  were  the  crank  and  comb,  said 
to  have  been  used  by  Hargreaves,  but  which 
it  is  now  known  that  Hargreaves  stole  from 


ArkwTight  (see  Baines,  Cotton  Manufacture, 
p.  178) ;  the  pei-petual  revolving  cloth  called 
the  feeder,  said  to  have  been  used  by  John 
Lees,  a  quaker  of  Manchester,  in  1772,  but 
which  Arkwright  had  undoubtedly  used  pre- 
viously at  Cromford ;  and  filleted  cards  on 
the  second  cylinder  which  also  must  have 
been  used  by  Arkwright  in  1772,  although  a 
manufacturer  named  Wood  claimed  to  have 
first  used  them  in  1774  (see  Ure,  Cotton 
Manufacture,  ii.  24).  Indeed  the  whole  of 
the  complicated  self-acting  machinery  which 
without  the  intervention  of  hand  labour  per- 
formed the  different  processes  necessary  to 
change  raw  cotton  into  thread  suitable  for 
warp,  was  substantially  the  invention  of 
Arkwright ;  and  while  each  separate  macliine 
was  in  itself  a  remarkable  triumph  of  in- 
ventive skill,  the  construction  of  the  whole 
series,  and  the  adaptation  of  each  to  its  in- 
dividual function  in  the  continuous  succes- 
sion of  operations,  must  be  regarded  as  an 
almost  unique  achievement  in  the  history  of 
invention. 

It  is  from  the  construction  of  the  mills  of 
Arkwright  that  we  may  properly  date  the 
origin  of  the  factory  system,  with  its  mi- 
nute division  of  labour  and  the  regular  un- 
interrupted co-operation  of  numerous  indivi- 
duals in  the  different  processes  of  machinery. 
In  overcoming  the  prejudices  of  workers,  in 
accustoming  them  to  unremitting  diligence 
during  the  stated  hours  of  labour,  in  train- 
ing them  for  their  particular  tasks  and  in- 
ducing them  to  conform  to  the  regular 
celerity  of  the  machinery,  Arkwright  dis- 
played an  energy  and  perseverance  perhaps 
of  a  higher  kind,  if  less  rare,  than  that  which 
enabled  him  to  originate  his  inventions.  His 
whole  arrangements  were  framed  with  the 
utmost  forethought  and  care,  and  from  the 
beginning  he  enforced  scrupulous  cleanliness 
and  the  most  systematic  order.  So  admirable 
were  his  plans  of  management  that  they 
cannot  be  said  to  have  yet  been  in  any  degree 
superseded,  and  their  general  adoption  doubt- 
less rendered  the  introduction  of  the  factory 
system  much  smoother  and  easier  than  it 
would  othenvise  have  been. 

The  prosperity  of  Arkwright  suffered  no 
serious  check  from  the  cancelling  of  his 
patents.  His  experience  and  extraordinary 
business  capacity,  and  the  start  he  had  ob- 
tained, enabled  him  to  retain  an  advantage 
over  other  manufacturers.  *  For  several  years 
he  fixed  the  price  of  cotton  twist,  all  other 
spinners  conforming  to  his  prices  '  (Baines, 
Cotton  Manufacture,  p.  193).  About  1784 
Arkwright  had  visited  Scotland,  and  assisted 
David  Dale  in  planning  the  erection  of  the 
New   Lanark   mills,   aftenvards  associated 


Arkwright 


86 


with  the  socialistic  experiments  of  Robert 
Owen ;  but  if  he  entered  into  partnership 
with  Dale  this  was  dissolved  after  the  ad- 
verse decision  in  reference  to  the  patent. 
Several  additional  mills  were,  however, 
erected  by  him  botli  in  Derbyshire  and  Lan- 
cashire, and,  notwithstanding  a  distressing 
asthmatic  affection,  he  continued  to  the  last 
actively  interested  in  their  management  and 
the  introduction  of  improvements.  In  1790 
he  erected  Boulton  and  Watt's  steam  engine 
in  his  mill  at  Nottingham.  In  1786  Ark- 
Avright  received  the  honour  of  knighthood 
from  George  III  on  the  occasion  of  present- 
ing him  with  a  congratulatory  address  from 
the  wapentake  of  Wirksworth  on  his  escape 
from  assassination  by  ^Margaret  Nicholson, 
In  the  following  year  Arkwright  was  chosen 
high  sheriff  of  Derbyshire.  He  purchased 
tlie  manor  of  Cromford  in  1789,  and  shortly 
afterwards  obtained  the  grant  of  a  market 
for  the  town.  He  had  begun  the  erection 
of  a  church,  and  also  of  Willersley  Castle 
for  his  own  residence,  when  a  complication  of 
disorders  resulted  in  his  death  3  Aug.  1792. 

Carlyle,  forming  his  opinion  from  the 
well-known  portrait  of  Arkwright,  describes 
him  as  '  a  plain,  almost  gi'oss,  bag-cheeked, 
pot-bellied  Lancashire  man,  with  an  air  of 
painful  reflection,  yet  also  of  copious  free 
digestion.'  Arkwright  possessed  an  energy 
which  would  scarcely  allow  him  a  moment's 
rest.  He  generally  laboured  *  in  his  multi- 
farious concerns  from  five  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing till  nine  at  night,'  and  utilised  all  his 
time  to  the  best  possible  advantage.  Bad  or 
careless  work  roused  his  stern  wrath.  For 
the  success  of  his  schemes  he  was  ready  to 
endure  any  personal  inconvenience  and  suffer 
the  severest  sacrifices.  From  the  beginning 
he  was  so  sanguine  of  the  vast  results  that 
would  follow  his  inventions  '  that  he  Avould 
make  light  of  discussions  on  taxation  and 
would  say  that  he  would  pay  the  national 
debt '  (Baines,  Cotton  Manufacture,  p.  196). 

[Case  of  Eiehard  Arkwright  and  Company  in 
1782;  Eeports  of  Trials,  17  Feb.  1785  and 
25  June  1785  ;  Guest's  Compendious  History  of 
the  Cotton  Manufacture  (1823),  and  British 
Cotton  Manufacture  (1828) ;  Baines's  History  of 
Lancashire,  and  History  of  Cotton  Manufacture  ; 
lire's  Cotton  Manufacture  of  Great  Britain,  and 
Philosophy  of  Cotton  Manufacture  ;  Edinburgh 
Review,  vol.  xlvi. ;  Quarterly  RevicAV,  vol.  cvii. ; 
Aikin's  General  Biography,  i.  389-92 ;  Beauties  of 
England  and  Wales,  iii.  512-24,  and  ix.  278-82 ; 
Kennedy's  Rise  and  Progress  of  the  Cotton  Trade, 
in  Memoirs  of  Literary  and  Philosophical  Society 
of  Manchester,  1819;  Histories  of  Preston,  by 
Whittle,  vol.  ii.  (1837),  and  by  Hardwick 
(1857);  Sniiles'sSelf-Help;  Espinasse's  Lancashire 
AVorthies,  vol.  i.  (1874).]  T.  F.  H. 


Armin 

ARKWRIGHT,  RICHARD  (1755- 
1843),  only  son  of  Sir  Richard  Arkwright 
by  his  first  Avife,  Patience  Holt,  was  born  at 
Bolton,  19  Dec.  1755.  He  was  brought  up 
to  his  father's  business,  and  received  from 
him  a  mill  at  Bakewell.  On  his  father's 
death  he  removed  to  Willersley.  Possessing 
good  business  talents  and  habits  of  gi-eat 
punctuality,  he  cari-ied  on  the  extensive  con- 
cerns which  he  inherited,  with  thorough  suc- 
cess, and  at  his  death  was  probably  the  richest 
commoner  in  England.  He  was  specially 
careful  of  the  health  of  his  workpeople,  and 
introduced  into  his  mills  improA'ed  methods  of 
warming  and  ventilating.  From  the  Horti- 
cultural Society  he  received  a  medal  for  a 
new  method  of  cultivating  grapes.  In  1780 
he  married  Mary,  daughter  of  Adam  Simpson 
of  Bonsall,  by  whom  he  had  six  sons  and 
five  daughters.  He  died  at  AVillersley  on 
23  April  1843. 

[Gent.  Mag.  new  series,  xix.  655-7 ;  Annual 
Register,  Ixxxv.  252-3.]  T.  F.  H. 

ARLINGTON,  Eakl  of.   [See  Bennet.] 

ARMIN,  ROBERT  {Jl.  1610),  actor  and 
dramatist,  was  living  in  1610.  From  a  cliapter 
in  '  Tarlton's  Jests  and  News  out  of  Purga- 
tory,' 161 1,  headed '  How  Tarlton  made  Armin 
his  adopted  son  to  succeed  him,'  we  learn  that 
Armin  Avas  apprenticed  to  a  goldsmith  in 
Lombard  Street ;  that  he  became  acquainted 
with  Richard  Tarlton,  the  famous  performer 
of  clowns  and  jesters  in  Queen  Elizabeth's 
time;  that  Tarlton  prophesied  that  Armin 
should  be  his  successor  in  clown's  parts ;  and 
that  Armin,  from  his  regard  for  Tarlton,  fre- 
quented the  plays  in  Avhich  he  acted  and 
perhaps  acquired  something  of  his  humour. 
AfterAvards  Armin  was  able  to  display  his 
own  abilities  as  an  actor  at  the  Globe  Theatre 
on  the  Bankside.  Tarlton  died  in  1588.  If 
his  pupil  Armin  Avas  then  seventeen  or  so,  he 
was  born  about  1570,  and  must  have  been  an 
actor  of  some  position  when,  in  1603,  James  I. 
granted  his  patent  to  the  players,  wherein  the 
name  of  Armin  comes  last  but  one.  He  is 
supposed  to  be  the  Robert  Armin  Avho  was 
the  author  of 'A  Brief  Resolution  of  the  Right 
Religion,'  printed  in  1590,  and  of  other  pub- 
lications, and  who  Avas  described  in  '  Pierce's 
Supererogation,'  1593,  as  one  of  'the  common 
pamphleteers  of  London.'  The  name  of  Robert 
Armin  is  also  attached  to  a  publication  in 
1604,  entitled  'A  True  Discourse  of  the 
practices  of  Elizabeth  CaldAvell  and  others 
to  poison  her  husband.'  Armin  was  probably 
a  member  of  the  company  of  actors  perform- 
ing under  the  patronage  of  Lord  Chandos. 
He  is  believed  to  have  joined  the  Lord  Cham- 


Armine 


87 


Armine 


berlain's  players  in  1698,  and  to  have  accom- 
panied tnem.  to  Scotland  in  the  following 
year.  In  1608  he  published  a  work  called 
'A  Nest  of  Ninnies'  (reprinted  by  the 
Shakspeare  Society),  and  in  1609,  styling 
himself  *  servant  to  the  King's  most  excel- 
lent Majesty,'  he  printed  a  play :  *  The  Two 
Maids  of  More  Clacke,  with  the  Life  and 
simple  manner  of  John  in  the  Hospital,'  as 
it  was  acted  by  '  the  children  of  the  King's 
Majesty's  Revels.'  Armin  is  enumerated  as 
one  of  the  original  representatives  of  Ben 
Jonson's  '  Alchemist '  in  1610.  From  a  pas- 
sage in  Armin's  next  tract,  *  The  Italian 
Tailor  and  his  Boy,'  1609,  it  has  been  con- 
cluded that  Armin  had  played  the  part  of 
Dogberry,  succeeding  to  that  duty  upon  the 
death  or  the  departure  from  the  Lorcf  Cham- 
berlain's players  of  William  Kemp,  the  ori- 
ginal Dogberry.  About  1611  John  Davies 
of  Hereford  published  his  *  Scourge  of  Folly,' 
in  which  a  long  *  epigram '  was  devoted  to 
*  honest  gamesome  Robin  Armin,'  and  testi- 
mony was  borne  to  the  worth  of  his  private 
character,  and  the  excellence  of  his  public 
performances.  In  1615  was  published  a  play, 
the  '  Valiant  Welshman,'  purporting  to  have 
been  written  by  R.  A. :  the  publisher  may 
have  wished  the  public  to  infer  that  Robert 
Armin  was  the  author.  The  date  of  his 
death  is  not  known.  The  London  parish 
registers  have  been  vainly  searched  for  evi- 
dence of  his  burial.  Apparently  he  left  no 
will,  nor  were  there  issued  any  letters  of  ad- 
ministration of  his  estate. 

[Memoirs  of  the  Principal  Actors  in  the  Plays 
of  Shakespeare,  by  J.  Payne  Collier,  1846  ;  Lang- 
baine's  Account  of  the  English  Dramatic  Poets, 
1691.]  D.  C. 

ARMINE  or  ARMYNE,  Lady  MARY 

{d.  1675-6),  remarkable  for  her  learning, 
piety,  and  benevolence,  was  the  daughter  of 
Henry  Talbot,  fourth  son  of  George,  sixth 
Earl  of  Shrewsbury,  and  second  wife  of  Sir 
William  Armyno,  baronet,  of  Osgodby,  Lin- 
colnshire [q.  V.].  Her  first  husband  was 
Thomas  Holcroft,  Esq.  Lady  Mary's  ac- 
complishments included  a  good  knowledge 
of  J^rench  and  Latin,  and  wide  reading  in 
divinity  and  history.  Her  business  capacity 
is  applauded  at  length  by  her  biographer,  and 
her  personal  beauty  and  activity,  which  cha- 
racterised her  old  age  no  less  remarkably 
than  her  youth,  were  frequently  commented 
on  by  her  contemporaries.  She  devoted  her 
wealth  to  many  charitable  objects.  At  the 
time  of  the  '  ejection  of  the  two  thousand ' 
ministers  '  on  the  fatal  Bartholomew  day 
[1662]  she  gave  500/.  to  Mr.  Edm.  Calamy, 
to  be  distributed  among  the  most  indigent 


and  necessitous  families  of  them,'  and  the 

*  godly  ministers '  seldom  appealed  to  her  in 
vain  for  assistance  in  pecuniary  difficulties. 
She  took  a  similarly  practical  interest  in 
the  missionaries  engaged  in  converting  the 
Indians  of  North  America.  At  home,  she 
founded  three  hospitals,  one  at  Barton 
Oi-ange,  in  Yorkshire,  and  by  her  will  left 
40/.  per  annum  to  be  applied  to  charitable 
purposes  for  ninety-nine  years.  She  died 
6  March  1675-6,  over  eighty  years  of  age. 
Her  portrait  was  painted  by  Cornelius 
Jansen,  and  is  now  at  Welbeck.     An  elegy 

*  upon  the  much-lamented  death  of  the  truly 
honourable,  very  aged,  and  singularly  pious 
lady,  the  Lady  Mary  Armine '  was  written  by 
John  Sheffield,  afterwards  Duke  of  Bucking- 
hamshire. 

[Samuel  Clarke's  Lives  of  sundry  Eminent 
Persons  in  this  Late  Age  (1683);  Wilford's 
Lives  of  Eminent  Persons ;  Granger's  Biographi- 
cal History,  iv.  175.]  S.  L.  L. 

ARMINE,  RICHARD  de.     [See  Ayrb- 

MINNE,  RiCHAKD   DE.] 

ARMINE,  WILLIAM  de.  [See  Aykb- 
MiNNE,  William  de.] 

ARMINE,  or  ARMYNE,  Sik  WIL- 
LIAM (1593-1651), parliamentarian,  was  the 
son  of  Sir  William  Armine  of  Osgodby,  Lin- 
colnshire, where  he  was  born  11  Dec.  1593. 
The  family  was  of  Yorkshire  origin,  and  has 
been  traced  to  one  Sewal  de  Armyne,  stated 
to  be  the  grandfather  of  Richard  and  William 
de  Ayreminne  [q.  v.],  the  well-known  eccle- 
siastics of  the  fourteenth  century.  The  father 
of  our  Sir  William  was  M.P.  for  Grantham 
in  1588-89,  was  sheriiF  of  Lincolnshire  in 
1603,  when  he  was  knighted  (23  April)  by 
James  I,  and  died  at  the  age  of  sixty  on 
22  Jan.  1620-21.  The  son  was  created  a 
baronet  on  28  Nov.  1619  on  payment  of 
1,095/.,  married  a  fortnight  afterwards  Eliza- 
beth, daughter  of  Sir  Michael  Hicks,  Knight, 
and  was  in  1620  holding  the  office  of  sheriff 
of  Huntingdonshire.  He  was  returned  as 
M.P.  for  Boston  in  1621  and  1024,  as  M.P. 
for  Grantham  in  1625,  and  as  M.P.  for  the 
county  of  Lincoln  in  1626,  1628,  and  1641. 
In  May  1626  he  was  one  of  the  assistants 
to  the  managers  of  Buckingham's  impeach- 
ment. In  March  1626-7  he  was  appointed 
a  commissioner  for  the  collection  of  the 
arbitrary  loan  in  Lincolnshire,  and  on  his 
refusal  to  lend  or  enter  into  bond  for  his 
appearance  before  the  council  was  committed 
to  prison  in  the  Gatehouse,  Westminster ; 
he  was  released,  at  the  same  time  as  John 
Hampden,  early  in  the  following  year  (^Cal. 
Bom.  State  Papers,  1627-8,  p.  81 ;  NuGBira'a 


Armine 


88 


Armitage 


Memorials  of  Hampden,  1860,  p.  369).  In 
1630  he  became  sheriff  of  Lincolnshire,  and 
in  1639  sheriff  of  Huntingdonshire.  In  the 
latter  capacity  in  February  and  March  1639- 
40  he  endeavoured  to  collect  ship-money,  but 
declared  himself  unable  to  secure  one  penny 
of  it.  He  was  an  intimate  friend  and  sup- 
porter of  Sir  John  Eliot,  with  Avhom  he  cor- 
responded frequently  until  the  latter's  death 
in  1632.  Many  of  his  letters,  in  one  of 
which  he  urged  Eliot  (20  Dec.  1631)  to 
publish  the  *  Monarchy  of  Man,'  are  among 
the  manuscripts  at  Port  Eliot.  In  1641  he 
was  one  of  the  four  members  of  the  House  of 
Commons  ordered  to  accompany  Charles  I  to 
Scotland.  In  1643  he  was  sent  to  Oxford  by 
the  parliament  to  discuss  terms  with  the  king, 
and  on  the  failure  of  his  mission  proceeded  to 
Scotland  to  urge  the  advance  of  a  Scottish 
army  into  the  north  of  England.  On  12  July 
1645  he  was  nominated  a  member  of  a  com- 
mission to  revisit  Scotland  to  treat  of 
*  matters  concerning  the  good  of  both  king- 
doms'  (Commons'  Journal,  iv.  206).  Two 
days  later  the  House  of  Commons  voted  its 
thanks  to  Sir  William  for  his  '  many  and 
great  services  to  parliament.'  On  14  Feb. 
1648-9  Armine  was  appointed  by  resolution 
of  the  commons  a  member  of  the  council  of 
state,  and  was  reappointed  to  the  office  12  Feb. 
1649-50  and  7  Feb.  1650-1.  He  was  a  fairly 
regular  attendant  at  the  meetings  of  the  coun- 
cil till  the  end  of  March  1651,  and  during 
that  time  served  on  innumerable  committees, 
especially  on  those  that  dealt  with  finance. 
He  died  in  April  1651.  On  Thursday,  1  May, 
it  was  resolved  by  parliament,  to  show  its 
high  sense  of  Armine's  services,  that  the  coun- 
cil of  state  and  the  parliamentary  committees 
should  *  forbear  to  sit '  on  the  following  Mon- 
day afternoon,  when  Sir  William's  body  was 
to  be  '  carried  out  of  town.'  On  3  May  the 
council  of  state  ordered  every  one  of  its  mem- 
bers to  attend  the  funeral,  and  on  5  May  an 
order  was  issued,  that  while  the  body  was 
being  cairied  for  interment  from  Westminster 
to  Osgodby  it  should  be  treated '  according  to 
the  civilities  due  to  a  person  of  his  condition.' 
After  the  death  of  his  first  wife,  Elizabeth 
Hicks,  Armine  maiTied  for  the  second  time 
Mary  Talbot,  widow  of  Thomas  Holcroft  [see 
Akmine,  Lady  Mary].  By  his  first  wife  he 
had  several  sons.  The  eldest,  William,  who 
succeeded  to  the  baronetcy,  was  born  14  July 
1622,  entered  Gray's  Inn  18  Nov.  1639,  and 
died  2  Jan.  1657-8.  He  has  been  identified 
with  the  William  Ermyn  who  was  returned 
to  the  Long  parliament  in  1646  as  M.P.  for 
Cumberland.  His  wife  Anne  and  two 
daughters,  Anne  and  Susan,  survived  him. 
The   widow  married   for  the   second   time 


Baron  Belasyse  [see  Belasyse,  John].  Su- 
san, the  younger  daughter,  married  Sir  Henry 
Belasyse,  Baron  Belasyse's  son  and  heir.  She 
ultimately  shared  with  her  sister  Anne  all 
her  father's  estates  at  Osgodby,  and,  in  1674, 
after  the  death  of  her  husband,  who  died  in 
the  lifetime  of  his  father,  was  created  Ba- 
roness Belasyse  of  Osgodby ;  she  died  6  March 
1712-13.  Her  only  son,  Henry,  succeeded 
his  grandfather  as  second  Baron  Belasyse  in 
1689,  and  on  his  death  in  1694  that  title 
became  extinct.  The  first  husband  of  Anne 
Armine,  the  elder  daughter  of  the  second 
baronet,  was  Thomas,  eldest  son  of  Sir  Na- 
thaniel Barnardiston  [q.  v.]. 

Armine's  second  son,  Theophilus,  born 
25  June  1623,  entered  Gray's  Inn  18  Nov.1639, 
became  a  parliamentary  colonel  in  the  civil 
wars,  and  was  killed  at  Pontefract  in  1644. 
Michael,  the  third  son,  born  21  Sept.  1625, 
succeeded  his  eldest  brother  in  the  baronetcy, 
and  died  in  1 668,  when  the  baronetcy  became 
extinct. 

[Blore's  Rutlandshire,  p.  1 76  ;  Clarendon's  His- 
tory (1849),  i.  395,  ii.  641,  573,  iii.  117;  Cai. 
Dom.  State  Papers,  1639-40,  1649-51 ;  Forster's 
Life  of  iSir  John  Eliot ;  Foster's  Admissions  to 
Gray's  Inn,  p.  17.]  S.  L.  L. 

ARMITAGE,  TIMOTHY  {d.  1655),  was 
in  the  year  1647  *  chosen  pastor  of  the  first 
independent  [or  congregational]  church  in  the 
city  of  Norwich.'  This  was  a  kind  of  offshoot  or 
migration  from  that  of  the  venerable  William 
Bridge's  church  at  Yarmouth.  It  was  erected 
into  a '  separate  congregation '  on  10  June  1644, 
'  in  the  presence  of  several  of  their  brethren 
from  Yarmouth,  who  signified  their  approba- 
tion by  expressions  of  the  most  tender  and  en- 
deared affection.'  The  members  of  both  congre- 
gations had  been  exiles  in  Holland  and  else- 
where. They  returned  home  on  the  outbreak 
of  the  great  civil  war.  Armitage  laboured 
most  unweariedly  until  his  nonconformist 
congregation  was  larger  than  any  in  the  city. 
He  was  superintendent  (in  connection  with 
Bridge)  of  numerous  nonconformist  congre- 
gations in  Norfolk  and  Suffolk.  The  follow- 
ing is  the  title-page  of  an  unusually  scarce 
book  by  him :  '  A  Tryall  of  Faith,  or  the 
W^omaii  of  Canaan  on  ilatthew  xv.  21-24. 
Together  with  the  Souls  Sure  Anchor-hold  on 
Hebrews  vi.  19,  with  the  Wisedome  of  timely 
remembring  our  Creator  on  Eccles.  xii.  1.  In 
severall  Sermons  by  Timothy  Armitage,  Late 
Minister  of  the  Gospel  in  Norwitch '  (1661), 
pp.  vi,  479.     He  died  in  December  1655. 

[Brook's  Lives  of  the  Puritans,  iii.  254-5 ; 
Browne's  Engl.  Ch.  of  Norfolk  and  Suffolk.] 

A.  B.  G. 


Armstrong 


89 


Armstrong 


ARMSTRONG,  ARCHIBALD  {d.  1 672), 
jester  at  the  courts  of  James  I  and  Charles  I, 
commonly  called  Akchie,  was  born  of  Scotch 
parents  either  at  Arthuret  in  Cumberland 
(Lysons,  Magna  Britannia,  iv.  13)  or  at 
Langholm  in  Roxburghshire  (Stakk,  Bio- 
yraphia  Scotica).  After  gaining  a  widespread 
reputation,  according  to  a  well-known  tra- 
dition, as  a  dexterous  sheep-stealer  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Eskdale  {Minstrelsy  of  the 
iScottish  Border,  iii.  479),  he  was  attached  at 
an  early  age  to  the  household  of  James  VI 
of  Scotland.  On  his  accession  to  the  English 
throne,  Armstrong  accompanied  the  king, 
and,  dui'ing  the  first  yeai's  of  his  reign  in  Eng- 
land, he  took  a  regular  part  in  the  '  fooleries ' 
which  the  master  of  the  revels  prepared  each 
evening  for  James's  amusement,  but  the  per- 
formances recorded  of  him  consisted  mainly 
of  the  roughest  horseplay  (Weldon,  Cou?'t 
of  King  James,  p.  92).  The  king,  however, 
evinced  a  strong  attachment  for  Armstrong, 
who  was  characteristically  Scotch,  and,  mak- 
ing him  his  official  court  jester,  gave  him  a 
permanent  place  among  his  personal  attend- 
ants. 

Armstrong  rapidly  took  advantage  of  the 
influence  he  acquired  at  the  Englisli  court  to 
treat  his  I'oyal  master  and  the  noblemen  in 
his  service  with  the  utmost  freedom  and  fa- 
miliarity, and  he  was  repeatedly  the  cause  of 
petty  imbroglios.  The  story  is  told  that  on 
one  occasion  before  1612,  when  the  king  was 
staying  with  a  large  company  at  Newmarket, 
Armstrong  raised  a  childish  quarrel  between 
James  and  his  eldest  son,  Henry,  by  ascribing 
to  the  prince  a  greater  popularity  than  his 
father  commanded  in  the  country,  and  the 
prince's  friends  revenged  themselves  upon  the 
fool's  impudent  officiousness  by  tossing  him 
'  every  night  they  could  meet  him  in  a  blanket 
like  a  dog.'  Sir  Henry  Wotton  describes  an 
elaborate  contest  'at  tilt,  torny,  and  on  foot,' 
that  took  place  in  London  in  1613  '  before 
«<^ieir  Maiesties,'  between  *  Archy  and  a 
famous  knight  called  Sir  Thomas  Persons,' 
whom  the  fool  had  insulted  (Iteliquiee  Wot- 
toniance,  ed.  1685,  p.  406).  On  another  oc- 
casion (9  April  1616)  Armstrong  addressed 
a  boldly  familiar  letter  to  the  Earl  of  Cum- 
berland, lord  lieutenant  of  several  northern 
counties,  peremptorily  demanding  a  vacant 
office  for  '  my  cozen,  .tohn  Woollsen '  {Dart- 
mouth MSS.,  Hist.  MSS.  Com.  Rep.  ii.  19«). 
Similarly,  in  September  1619,  when  the 
king  was  being  meanly  entertained  by  the 
Earl  of  Northampton,  avIio  had  recently  been 
promoted  in  the  peerage,  Armstrong  openly 
called  James's  attention  to  the  small  account 
the  earl  <  made  of  him '  now  that '  he  had  got 
what  he  wanted.'     But  in  spite  of  his  un- 


ruly speeches,  the  king  treated  Archie  with 
increasiuj^  favour,  and  he  not  only  gained 
^reat  social  distinction,  but  amassed  a  large 
fortune.  On  16  May  1611  he  was  panted  a 
pension  of  two  shillings  a  day  during  plea- 
sure, which  a  month  later  was  re-granted 
for  life,  and  almost  every  year  James  pre- 
sented him  with  an  elaborate  uniform.  On 
20  Aug.  1618  a  patent  for  making  tobacco- 
pipes  was  secured  to  him,  and  rich  presents 
were  frequently  made  him  by  the  king's 
friends  and  suitors.  In  May  1617,  when 
James  was  hunting  near  Aberdeen,  he  was 
admitted,  with  other  royal  attendants,  to 
the  freedom  of  the  city,  and  was  given  '  one 
Portugall  ducat '  {Keith-Mmray  MSS.,  Hist. 
MSS.  Com.  Rep.  iii.  409),  and  the  boroughs 
of  Coventry  and  Nottingham  honoured  him 
with  gifts  of  apparel  and  money  when  he 
was  visiting  those  towns  in  attendance  on 
the  king  (Nichols's  Progresses  of  Jam^  I, 
iii.  430-1,  711).  The  important  place  that 
Armstrong  held  in  court  society  at  the  time 
is  further  attested  by  John  Taylor,  the  water 
poet,  who  dedicated,  in  1021,  his  'Praise, 
Antiquity,  and  Commodity  of  Beggary,'  to 
'  the  bright  eye-dazeling  mirrour  of  mirth, 
adelantado  of  alacrity,  the  ])ump  of  pastime, 
spout  of  sport,  and  regent  of  ridiculous  con- 
fabulations, Archibald  Armestrong,  alias  the 
court  Archy.'  The  dedicatory  epistle  speaks 
in  no  complimentary  terms  of  Armstrong's 
avarice  and  of  his  nimbleness  of  tongue, 
which  makes '  other  men's  money  rimne  into 
your  purse  ; '  it  is,  therefore,  significant  that 
in  the  collected  edition  of  Taylor's  poems, 
published  in  1630,  the  epistle  was  suppressed 
(Hazlitt,  Prefaces,  Dedications,  Epistles, 
selected  from  Early  English  Books,  1874). 

In  1623  Armstrong  reached  the  zenith  of 
his  public  career.  Although  he  condemned 
the  Spanish  match  with  his  customary  di- 
rectness of  speech  (Neal,  Hist,  of  Puritans, 
ii.  122),  he  Avas  included  at  his  own  desire  in 
the  retinue  of  Prince  Charles  and  Buckingham 
on  their  famous  visit  to  Spain.  An  '  extra- 
ordinarie  rich  coate '  for  Archie  holds  an  im- 
portant place  in  the  wardrobe  accounts  of  the 
expedition  {Denbigh  MSS.,  Hist.  MSS.  Com. 
Rep.  vii.  2246),  and  just  before  setting  out 
he  created  much  consternation  among  'the 
privy-chamber  gentlemen,'  who  complained 
bitterly  of  the  favours  bestowed  on  him,  by 
asking  permission  to  take  a  servant  to  wait 
upon  him.  While  in  Spain,  Armstrong  be- 
haved Avitli  un])recedented  arrogance.  He 
soon  ingi-atiated  himself  with  the  royal  family 
at  Madrid,  and  in  a  letter  to  James  I,  dated 
28  April  1623,  he  wrote  that  the  King  of  Spain 
received  him  in  audience  when  neither  'men 
of  your  own  nor  your  son's  men  can  come 


Armstrong 


90 


Armstrong 


nere  of  him'  {Addit.  MSS.  19402,  f.  79). 
According  to  his  own  account  Philip  IV 
granted  him  a  pension  of  which  he  received 
in  1631  '  the  arrearages  amounting  to  1,500^.' 
{Authentic  Documents  of  time  of  Charles  I, 
ii.  104),  and  we  know  that  Olivarez,  the  prime 
minister,  gaA^e  him  a  'rich  suit.'  James 
Howell  {Letters,  p.  136),  Avriting  from  Madrid 
(10  July  162.3),  says  that  '  our  cousin  Archie 
hath  more  privilege  tlian  any,'  and  that 
he  was  often  invited  to  amuse  the  Infanta  in 
her  private  chamber,  and  one  day  twitted  her 
with  the  defeat  of  the  Armada.  To  his  Eng- 
lish companions  he  made  himself  rejjeatedly 
obnoxious.  Sir  Tobie  MattheAv,  one  of  Prince 
Charles's  attendants,  unable  to  endure  his 
blunt  taunts,  quaiTelled  openly  with  him 
one  day  at  a  public  dinner,  and  before  the 
embassy  left  Madrid  he  came  to  very  liigh 
words  with  Buckingham.  He '  dared  to  speak 
his  opinion  to  the  duke,'  says  Fray  Francisco, 
the  author  of  '  the  Narrative  of  the  Spanish 
Marriage'  (published  for  Camden  Soc.  p.  252), 
*  with  all  the  force  of  truth,  blaming  severely 
the  manner  in  which  the  whole  negotiation 
had  been  carried  on  without  consistency  or 
truthfulness.'  Buckingham,  unable  to  silence 
Armstrong,  threatened  to  have  him  hanged, 
and  '  the  fool  replied  in  a  way  worthy  of  one 
of  better  sense :  "  No  one  has  ever  heard  of  a 
fool  being  threatened  for  talking,  but  many 
dukes  have  been  beheaded  for  their  inso- 
lence," '  On  his  return  to  England,  Arm- 
strong's continued  attacks  upon  the  Spanish 
match  and  upon  Buckingham  rendered  him 
highly  popular.  Ben  Jonson  made  more  or 
less  complimentary  references  to  'the  princi- 
pal fool  of  state '  in  a  masque  prepared  for  the 
court  revels  on  Twelfth  Night  1623-4,  in  the 
'Staple  of  News  '  (iii.  1),  written  in  1625, 
and  in  his  '  Discoveries '  (vii.  80),  and  Bishop 
Corbet  in  his  '  Poems '  (p.  68)  spoke  of  the 
clamorous  applause  and  laughter  provoked 
by  '  salt  Archy.' 

On  the  accession  of  Charles  I  Armstrong 
retained  his  office,  and,  being  permitted  as 
much  license  as  before,  wielded  for  a  time 
no  little  political  power.  A  petition  fi-om 
William  Beloe,  a  Danish  pensioner  of  the 
king's  mother,  shows  how  jealously  he  was 
regarded  by  the  other  attendants  at  court. 
Beloe  states,  that  the  king  had  given  so  special 
a  direction  for  the  payment  of  Archie's  enter- 
tainment, that  he  was  better  off  than  in  the 
late  king's  time;  andanother  petition  of  a  later 
date  tells  us  that  Charles  I  gave  Armstrong 
an  estate  of  1,000  acres  in  Ireland.  In  a 
letter  of  much  political  interest  addressed  at 
the  end  of  the  year  1628  to  the  Earl  of  Carlisle, 
Archie  boldly  writes  in  reference  to  the  murder 
of  Buckingham,  that  '  the  greatest  enemy  of 


three  kings  is  gone  ; '  from  the  same  source 
Ave  learn  that  Armstrong  Avas  married,  and 
that  a  son  had  just  been  born  to  him  whom 
he  named  Philip  for  the '  King  of  Spain's  sake,' 
and  Avhose  godparents  comprised  five  of  the 
highest  officials  and  peeresses  in  the  state.  But 
Armstrong's  fall  was  not  far  distant.  With 
Archbishop  Laud  he  was,  as  Avith  Bucking- 
ham, ncAcr  on  good  terms.  The  fool  openly 
ridiculed  his  religious  and  political  principles, 
and  a  quarrel  betAveen  them  lingered  on  for 
many  years.  On  one  occasion  Armstrong, 
having  obtained  permission  to  say  grace  at 
Whitehall  in  Laud's  presence,  blurted  out 
'  Great  praise  be  given  to  God,  and  little  laud 
to  the  devil.'  The  archbishop  was  at  first  un- 
able to  obtain  any  redress ;  his  enemies  rallied 
round  Armstrong,  and  the  fool  continued  with 
impunity  to  '  belch  in  his  face  such  miscar- 
riages as  he  Avas  really  guilty  of.'  But  on 
the  Marquis  of  Hamilton's  return  from  Scot- 
land in  1637  AA'ith  the  news  of  the  rebellion 
at  Stirling  in  opposition  to  Laud's  neAV 
litiu-gy,  the  fool,  after  many  expressions  of 
disapproA'al  of  the  Scotch  policy,  Avent  a  step 
too  far.  Meeting  the  archbishop  as  he  was 
entering  the  council  chamber  at  Whitehall 
on  11  March  1636-7,  he  shouted  out, '  Whoe's 
feule  now  ?  Does  not  your  grace  hear  the 
news  from  StriAeling? '  Laud  at  once  brought 
the  matter  before  the  council,  at  which  the 
king  and  many  noblemen  Avere  present,  and 
Armstrong  was  condemned  '  to  haAC  his  coat 
pulled  OAer  his  head  and  be  dischai'ged  the 
king's  serA'ice  and  banished  the  king's  court.' 
Armstrong  pleaded  in  vain  the  privilege  of 
his  office ;  the  order  Avas  summarily  exe- 
cuted, and  the  post  of  court-jester  aa^is  imme- 
diately filled  up.  According  to  some  ac- 
counts Laud  endeavoured  to  bring  the  fool 
before  the  Star  Chamber,  and  the  mediation 
of  the  queen  alone  preA^ented  the  success  of 
this  attempt. 

For  some  years  after  his  disgrace  Arm- 
strong remained  in  London.  He  Avas  seen 
on  one  occasion  walking  disconsolately  about 
AVestminster  Abbey,  dressed  in  black  like  a 
priest,  a  disguise  in  which,  he  said,  he  could 
speak  Avith  impunity  whatever  scandal  he 
pleased.  But  his  AA'ealth  had  enabled  him  to 
become  a  large  creditor,  and  he  spent  much 
of  his  time  in  mercilessly  distraining  on  his 
debtors.  Many  petitions  to  the  priAy  council 
and  the  House  of  Lords  complain  of  the  sharj) 
practices  he  employed  to  obtain  the  repayment 
of  his  loans,  and  from  1638  to  1642  a  law- 
suit Avas  pending  betAveen  him  and  the  Dean 
of  York  Avith  regard  to  200/.  alleged  to  be 
due  to  him  from  tlie  latter,  and  Ijaud  inter- 
A'ened  in  the  clergyman's  behalf.  One  at- 
tempt Armsti'ong  made  to  rcA'enge  himself 


Armstrong 


91 


Armstrong 


on  the  archbishop.  In  1641,  on  Laud's  arrest 
by  the  order  of  the  commons,  lie  published  a 
small  pamphlet  entitled  'Archy's  Dreams, 
sometimes  Jester  to  his  Majestie;  but  exiled 
the  Court  by  Canterburies  malice.  With  a 
relation  for  whom  an  odde  chaire  stood  wide 
in  Hell.'  JNIany  instances  of  Laud's  tyran- 
nical cruelty  are  here  adduced,  and  Ann- 
strong  confidently  consigns  him  to  hell,  to  j  oin 
*  blind  Bonner  and  AVoolsey,'  whom  he  intro- 
duces '  dancing  a  galliard.'  Almost  imme- 
diately afterwards  Armstrong  apparently  re- 
tired to  Arthuret  in  Cumberland,  where, 
according  to  a  reference  to  him  in  a  poem 
on  a  local  topic  published  in  165(j,  he  became 
a  considerable  landowner  (Fatal  Nuptials,  or 
the  Mournful  Marriage ;  London  Magazine,  x. 
287, 408).  In  the  parish  register  of  Arthuret 
there  are  entries  of  the  baptism  of  '  a  base 
son'  of  Archibald  Armstrong  on  17  Dec. 
1643 ;  of  his  marriage,  probably  for  the  second 
time,  with  Sybella  Bell  on  4  June  1646; 
and  of  his  burial  1  April  1672 ;  but  no  me- 
morial of  him  in  the  churchyard  survives. 

Besides  the  pamphlet  asci'ibed  to  him 
above,  he  is  credited  with  the  authorship  of 
'  A  Banquet  of  lests :  a  Change  of  Cheare. 
Being  a  collection  of  modern  lests,  Witty 
leeres,  Pleasaunt  Taunts,  Merry  Tales,'  the 
first  edition  of  which  was  published  in  1630. 
A  portrait  of  Armstrong  forms  the  fronti- 
spiece, with  the  verses  inscribed  beloAv : 

Archee,  by  kings  and  princes  graced  of  late, 
Jested  himself  into  a  fair  estate. 

After  the  book  had  passed  through  three 
editions,  a  second  part  was  added  in  1633, 
and  a  fifth  edition  of  the  whole  work  ap- 
peared in  1639.  Only  a  few  of  the  jokes 
have  any  claim  to  originality ;  the  majority 
are  to  be  found  in  previous  collections.  In 
1660  there  was  published  in  London,  *  A 
choice  Banquet  of  Witty  Jests,  Rare  Fan- 
cies, and  Pleasant  Novels.  Fitted  for  all  the 
Lovers  of  Wit,  Mirth,  and  Eloquence.  Being 
an  addition  to  Arcliee's  Jests,  taken  out  of 
his  Closet ;  but  never  published  in  his  Life- 
time.' But  the  appearance  of  Armstrong's 
name  on  the  title-page  was  probably  a  book- 
seller's device;  the  fact  that  he  was  still 
alive  in  Cumberland  is  a  certain  proof  that 
he  was  in  no  way  connected  with  the  publi- 
cation of  the  work. 

[Lysons's  Magna  Britannia,  iv.  13;  Calendars 
of  State  Papers  from  1611  to  1639;  Strafford 
Papers,  ii.  133 ;  Osborne,  Memorialls  of  King 
James  in  his  Works  (1682),  p.  474  ;  Rushworth, 
Historical  Collections,  part  2,  vol.  i.  pp.  470-1 ; 
House  of  Lords  Journal,  v.  372  h,  433  a ;  Doran's 
History  of  Court  Fools,  pp.  196  et  seq.  (with  the 
supplementary  chapter  in  Chambers's  Book  of 


Days,  i.  pp.  181-5);  Gent.  Mag.  xci.  part  ii., 
ciii.  part  ii. ;  Thoms's  Anecdotes  and  Traditions 
(Camden  Soc.),  p.  67;  Nares's  Glos.siry  (ed. 
Halliwell  and  Wright),  i.  31.]  S.  L.  L. 

ARMSTRONG,     COSMO     (Jl.     1800- 
1836),  line-engraver,  was  a  pupil  of  Thomas 
Milton,  the  landscape-engraver.     He  w^as  a 
I  governor  of  the  Society  of  Engravers,  and 
\  he  exhibited  with  the  Associated  Engi-avers 
I  in    1821.     He    engraved    some    plates    for 
I  Cooke's  edition  of  the  British  Poets,  Sharpe's 
!  edition  of  the   British   Classics,   Kearsley's 
I  edition  of  Shakespeare,  Suttaby's  edition  of 
the  British  Classics,  Allason's  '  Picturesque 
Views  of  the  Antiquities  of  Pola,'  1819,  and 
the '  Ancient  Marbles  in  the  British  Museum.' 
Among  his   other  works    may  be   noticed 
' Camaralzaman     and    Badoura'   and   'The 
Sleeper  awakened,'  after  Robert  Smirke,  for 
Miller's  edition  of  the  '  Arabian  Nights,' pub- 
lished in  1802  ;  '  Don  Quixote's  Combat  with 
the  Giant  Malumbruno,'  also  after  Smirke,  for 
Cadell's  edition  of  '  Don  Quixote,'  issued  in 
1818 ;  and  small  portraits  of  Michelangelo, 
Shakespeare,  Charles  I.,  after  Van  Dyck,  Lord 
Byron,  after  Thomas  Phillips,  and  George  IV, 
after  Sir  Thomas  Lawrence.     Cosmo  Arm- 
strong possessed  much  power  of  execution, 
but  was  too  irregular  in  his  application  and 
too  eccentric  in  character  to  take  the  rank  in 
his  profession  that  he  might  otherwise  have 
done.     He  was  still  living  in  1836. 

[Raimbach's  Memoirs  and  Recollections,  1843, 
p.  36 ;  Redgrave's  Dictionary  of  Artists  of  the 
English  School,  1878.]  R,  E.  G-. 

ARMSTRONG,  EDMUND  JOHN  (1841 
-1865),  a  poet  who  died  in  early  manhood, 
was  born  in  Dublin  23  July  1841.  As  a  boy 
he  was  distinguished  by  his  adventurous 
spirit,  romantic  temper  united  with  humour 
and  love  of  frolic,  and  his  passionate  delight  in 
music  and  literature.  Long  rambles  among 
the  Dublin  and  W^icklow  mountains  gave  in- 
spiration and  colour  to  his  verse.  At  the  age  of 
17-18  his  religious  faith  yielded  before  turbu- 
lent moods  of  scepticism  ;  a  disappointment 
in  love  added  to  the  gloom  of  this  period. 
In  1859  he  entered  Trinity  College,  Dublin, 
distinguishing  himself  highly  by  his  compo- 
sitions in  Greek  and  Latin  verse.  Immode- 
rate work  and  intellectual  excitement  in  the 
spring  of  1860  were  followed  by  severe  ill- 
ness ;  a  blood-vessel  in  the  lung  was  burst, 
and  the  lung  seriously  injured.  A  summer 
of  convalescence  was  passed  in  Wicklow, 
and  then  he  found  it  possible  to  trace  back 
his  way  towards  christian  beliefs.  He  win- 
tered, 1860-61,  in  Jersey — a  joyous  and  fruit- 
ful season  for  him,  during  which  much  was 


Armstrong 


92 


Armstrong 


seen,  felt,  and  thought.  Here  began  a  long 
correspondence  on  religious  questions  with  a 
friend  as  yet  unseen,  Mr.  G.  A.  Chadwick. 
Having  returned  from  a  delightful  visit  to 
Brittany,  he  left  Jersey  reluctantly  in  mid- 
summer 1861,  and  spent  the  warmer  months 
of  the  year  in  Ireland.  On  the  approach  of  ] 
winter  he  again  resorted  to  Jersey,  now  ' 
accompanied  by  a  younger  brother,  G.  F.  i 
Armstrong  (since  professor  of  English  lite- 
rature. Queen's  College,  Cork).  In  April  1862  , 
the  brothers  started  for  Xormandy,  thence  I 
visited  Paris,  and  once  more  returned  to 
Jersey,  to  bid  it  a  final  farewell.  Armstrong 
had  now  sufficiently  recovered  to  accept  a 
tutorship  in  the  north  of  Ireland.  During  his 
vacation  (summer  of  1862)  he  walked  much 
among  the  Wicklow  mountains,  and  was  en- 
gaged in  writing  his  poems,  '  The  Dargle  ' 
and  '  Glandalough.'  In  October  1862,  now 
looking  forward  to  the  clerical  profession,  he 
continued  his  college  course.  In  April  1863 
he  read  before  the  Undergraduate  Philoso- 
phical Society  an  essay  on  Shelley,  designed 
partly  as  a  recantation  of  his  earlier  anti- 
christian  opinions.  In  May  of  the  same 
year  he  was  rapidly  producing  his  longest 
poem, '  The  Prisoner  of  Mount  Saint  Michael,' 
a  romantic  tale  of  passion  and  crime  in 
blank  verse,  the  landscape  and  local  colour 
having  been  furnished  by  Armstrong's  wan- 
derings in  France.  This  was  followed  by  the 
idyllic  poem '  Ovoca,'  partly  dramatic,  partly 
narrative  in  form.  In  October  1863  he  came 
into  residence  at  Trinity  College,  Dublin, 
and  attracted  much  attention  by  speeches 
delivered  before  the  Historical  Society,  and 
essays  read  before  the  Undergraduate  Philo- 
sophical Society.  Of  this  latter  society  he 
was  elected  president,  and  in  October  1864 
delivered  his  opening  address,  *  On  Essajdsts 
and  Essay-wi'iting.'  In  the  winter  his  liealth 
broke  down,  and  he  went  to  reside  at  Kings- 
town, where,  after  an  illness  of  several  weeks, 
he  died,  24  Feb.  1865.  He  was  buried  at 
Monkstown,  co.  Dublin.  As  a  memorial  of 
his  genius,  his  college  and  other  friends  pub- 
lished the  volume  '  Poems  by  the  late  Ed- 
mund J.  Armstrong '  (Moxon,  1865).  It  in- 
cludes the  two  longer  poems  named  above, 
with  many  lyrical  pieces  which  show  much 
ardour  of  imagination  and  mastery  of  verse. 
A  short  memoir  by  Mr.  Chadwick  is  pre- 
fixed. His  poems  appeared  in  a  new  edition, 
with  many  added  pieces,  edited  by  G.  F. 
Armstrong,  in  1877  {'  The  Poetical  Works  of 
Edmund  J.  Armstrong,'  Longmans,  Green, 
and  Co.)  At  the  same  time,  and  by  the 
same  publishers,  were  issued  a  volume  of  his 
prose  ('  Essays  and  Sketches  by  Edmund  J. 
Armstrong,  edited  by  G.  F.  Armstrong '),  in- 


cluding essays  on  Coleridge,  Shelley,  Goethe's 
Mephistopheles,  E.  A.  Poe,  Essayists  and 
Essay-writing,  <fcc.  In  the  *  Life  and  Letters 
of  Edmund  J.  Armstrong,  edited  by  G.  F. 
Armstrong '  (1877),  a  portrait  is  given.  An 
article  on  Armstrong,  by  Sir  Henry  Taylor, 
appeared  in  the  '  Edinburgh  Review,'  July 
1878. 

[Memoir  as  above ;  personal  knowledge.] 

E.  D. 

ARMSTRONG,  GEORGE,  M.D.  {Jl. 
1767),  brother  of  John  Armstrong,  the  poet, 
after  practising  pharmacy  at  Hampstead, 
qualified  himself  as  a  physician,  removed  to 
London,  and  established  in  1769  a  dispen- 
sary, supported  by  contributions,  for  the  re- 
lief of  poor  children.  This  beneficent  in- 
stitution continued  to  exist  for  more  than 
twelve  years,  and  it  was  calculated  that 
not  less  than  35,000  children  were  relieved 
during  that  time.  But  it  met  with  small 
pecuniary  support,  and  in  December  1781  its 
career  of  usefulness  was  closed.  In  1767  he 
published  an  '  Essay  on  the  Diseases  most 
fatal  to  Infants  ;'  a  second  edition  appeared 
in  1771,  and  a  third  edition,  dedicated  to 
Queen  Charlotte,  in  1777.  An  enlarged 
edition  appeared  in  1808,  edited  by  A.  P. 
Buchan,  M.D.  To  the  third  edition  was  ap- 
pended '  A  General  Account  of  the  Dispen- 
sary for  the  Infant  Poor,'  which  had  been 
printed,  in  a  shorter  form,  in  1772.  Arm- 
strong claimed  that  *  no  charitable  institu- 
tion was  ever  established  whereby  so  much 
good  has  been  done,  or  so  many  lives  saved 
at  so  small  an  expense,'  as  by  the  dispensary 
he  had  founded.  He  dwells  with  emphasis 
on  the  fact  that  it  was  the  only  institution 
where  children  were  received  '  Avithout  any 
letters  of  admission,  provided  the  parents 
are  really  indigent,  the  case  dangerous,  and 
requiring  speedy  relief.'  The  date  of  his 
death  is  unknown.  In  '  Rees's  Cyclopaedia ' 
he  is  said  to  have  died  '  in  obscurity.'  He 
left  three  daughters  (to  whom  their  imcle 
had  bequeathed  his  property)  and  a  widow. 

[Kees's  Cyclopaedia;  Works.]  A.  H.  B. 

ARMSTRONG,  JAMES,  D.D.  (1780- 
1839),  Irish  unitarian  minister,  born  in  1780 
at  Ballynahinch,  county  Down,  was  the  son 
of  John  Armstrong,  who  married  a  daughter 
of  Rev.  John  Strong,  for  thirty-six  years 
(1744-1780)  presbyterian  minister  of  Bally- 
nahinch. He  was  a  descendant  of  John 
Tjivingstone,  of  Killinchy,  one  of  the  foun- 
ders of  Ii'ish  presbyterianism  [see  Living- 
stone, John].  He  was  first  trained  at  the 
Rademon  Academy,  under  Moses  Neilson, 
D.D.,  after  which  he  became  classical  assist- 


Armstrong 


93 


Armstrong 


ant  to  William  Bruce,  D.D.,  in  the  Belfast 
Academy,  and  conducted  a  special  class  of 
sacred   history.     lie   graduated   at  Trinity 
College,  ])ublin,  and  studied  philosophy  in 
Edinburgh  under  Dugald  Stewart.     He  was 
licensed  11  May  180(i  by  Antrim  Pi-esbyteiy 
(non-subscribing).      The  same  year  he  re- 
ceived calls  to  Clonmel  and  Strand  Street, 
Dublin   (2    Oct.) ;    choosing   the  latter,  he 
was  ordained  25  Dec.  1806  by  Dublin  Pres- 
bytery (non-subscribing)  as  colleague  to  John 
Moody,  D.D.  (/,.  11  Dec.  1742,  d.  15  July 
1813)^  after  whose  death  William  Hamilton 
Drummond,  D.D.  [see  Drummond,  W.  HJ, 
became  (25  Dec.  1815)  his  colleague.     He 
was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Irish  Unita- 
rian Society  (1830)  and  of  the  Association 
of  Irish  NonsubscribingPresbyterians  (1835), 
and  he  represented  the  latter  body  at  the 
celebration  of  the  tercentenary  of  the  re- 
formation at  Geneva  in  August  1835.     In 
the  previous  year  he  had  received  the  degree 
of  D.D.  from  the  university  of  Geneva.    He 
was  a  member  of  the  Koyal  Irish  Academy. 
He  died  very  suddenly  at  Stonehouse  on  Wed- 
nesday, 4  Dec.  1839,  having  preached  on  the 
previous  Sunday,  and  man-ied  a  coiiple  that 
very  morning.     He  married  Mary  Allman, 
and  left  two  sons  (John  Strong  Armstrong, 
A.B.,  president  of  the  Dublin  Historical  So- 
ciety, and  Eev.  George  Allman  Armstrong, 
A.B.,  originally  a  barrister,  who  succeeded 
him   in   1841    at   Strand   Street)   and  four 
daughters.     A  petition  from  his  widow  is 
])rinted  in  Pari.  Debates  on  the  Dissenters' 
Chapels  Bill,  1844.     He  published:  1. 'A 
Discourse  on  Presbyterian  Ordination,'  and 
an  *  Appendix,  containing  some  account  of 
the  Presbyterian  Churches  in  Dublin,'  both 
included   in   the   '  Ordination   Sei'vice '  for 
James  Martineau,  Lond.  1829  (this  appen- 
dix is  one  of  the  most  valuable  contributions 
yet  made  to  Irish  presbyterian  biography, 
being  the  fruit  of  most  accurate  and  exten- 
sive research).    2.  '  The  Sin  against  the  Holy 
Ghost,' Lond.  1836  (sermon  before  the  British 
and  Foreign  Unitarian  Association).     3.  *A 
Sermon  vindicating  the  Principles  of  Unita- 
rian Christianity,'  Dublin,  1838  (a  discourse 
originating  in  local  controversy). 

[Appendix  (as  above),  p.  77 ;  Bible  Christian, 
1839,  p.  426  ;  Drummond's  Memoir  and  Funeral 
Sermon,  1840.]  A.  G. 

ARMSTRONG,  JOHN,  or  JOHXIE,  of 
Gilnockie  {d.  1528),  a  famous  freebooter  of 
the  border-country,  lived  at  the  Hollows,  a 
stronghold  near  Ijangholm,  whence  he  was 
accustomed  to  ride  abroad  with  twenty-four 
able  gentlemen  well  horsed.  He  never  mo- 
lested any  Scot,  but   from  the  borders  to 


Newcastle  he  was  a  name  of  terror.  On 
28  March  1528  James  V  held  a  parliament 
at  Edinburgh  in  which  he  consulted  with 
his  lords  and  barons  as  to  what  measures 
should  be  taken  to  'stanch  all  theft  and 
reving  within  his  realm ; '  and  proclamation 
was  made  that  all  lords,  barons,  and  gentle- 
men should  appear  at  Edinburgh,  with  a 
month's  victual,  to  accompany  the  king  on 
an  expedition  against  the  freebooters  of 
Teviotdale,  Annandale,  and  Liddisdale. 
Hoping  to  gain  favour  by  submission,  Arm- 
strong, with  tliirty-six  followers,  came  into 
the  king's  presence.  But  the  king  'bade 
take  the  tjTant  out  of  his  sight,'  saying, 
'  What  wants  this  knave  that  a  king  should 
have  ? '  Armstrong  oftered  to  maintain  him- 
self and  forty  followers  always  ready  at  the 
king's  sei'vice,  without  doing  injury  to  any 
Scot,  and  imdertook  to  bring  any  English 
subject,  duke,  earl,  or  baron,  before  the  king 
within  a  fixed  number  of  days.  Seeing  that 
his  offers  were  vain,  he  exclaimed  proudly, 
'  It  is  folly  to  seek  grace  at  a  graceless  face. 
But  had  I  known  this,  I  should  have  lived  in 
the  borders  in  despite  of  King  Harry  and 
you  both ;  for  I  know  that  Ilany  would 
downweigh  my  best  horse  with  gold  to  know 
that  I  were  condemned  to  die  this  day.*^ 
Then  he  and  his  followers  were  hanged  on 
trees  at  Carlani-igg  Chapel,  on  the  high  road 
to  Langholm.  Such  is  the  account  given  in 
Pitscottie's  'History  of  Scotland,'  p.  145. 
According  to  the  old  Scotch  ballad,  the  king 
wrote  to  Armstrong  '  to  cum  and  speik  with 
him  speidily ; '  whereupon  the  Eliots  and 
Armstrongs  gathered  a  '  gallant  company  *■ 
and  rode  out  to  bring  the  king  on  his  way 
to  Gilnockie.  At  their  approach  the  king 
turned  fiercely  on  Armstrong — 

Away,  away,  thou  traytor  Strang, 
Out  of  my  sicht  thou  mayst  sune  be. 

I  grantit  never  a  traytor's  lyfe, 
And  now  I'll  not  begin  -n-ith  thee. 

He  makes  large  promises  to  the  king,  but  all 
to  no  purpose ;  and  so 

John  murdred  was  at  Calinrigg, 

And  all  his  galant  companie  ; 
But  Scotland's  heart  was  never  sae  wae 

To  see  so  many  brave  men  die. 
Because  they  saved  their  country  deir 

Frae  iinglishmen  ;  nane  were  sae  bauld, 
Quhyle  Johnie  lived  on  the  border^syde 

Nane  of  them  durst  cum  neir  his  hald. 

Buchanan  represents  Armstrong  to  have  been 
dreaded  alike  by  Scots  and  English,  and  says 
that,  being  enticed  to  seek  the  king,  he  rode 
out  with  fifty  unarmed  knights,  fell  into  an 
ambush,  and  was  brought  a  prisoner  before 
the  king.  Bishop  Leslie  adds  that  his  brother^ 


Armstrong 


94 


Armstrong 


George  Armstrong,  saved  his  life  by  turning 
informer, 

Armstrong  is  also  the  hero  of  an  English 
ballad  and  chap-book.  These  make  him  to 
have  lived  at  Giltnock  Hall,  in  Westmore- 
land, where  he  entertained  eight  score  fol- 
lowers. After  the  battle  of  Bannockburn 
the  king  summoned  him  to  Edinburgh  under 
the  pretence  of  conferring  honour  upon  him. 
Coming,  bravely  attended,  into  the  king's 
presence,  he  Avas  denounced  as  a  traitor.  A 
desperate  fight  ensued,  in  which  the  streets 
of  the  city  ran  with  blood ;  but  at  length 
Armstrong  and  his  men  were  slain  by  the 
king's  guards,  a  page  alone  escaping  to  take 
the  news  to  the  widow.  The  chap-book 
prefaces  the  narrative  by  an  account  of  Arm- 
.strong's  youthful  adventures  in  the  Holy 
Land. 

The  Scotch  ballad  was  first  published  by 
.Allan  Ramsay  in  his  '  Evergreen,'  who  says 
he  took  it  down  from  the  mouth  of  a  gentle- 
man called  Armstrong,  of  the  sixth  genera- 
tion from  John.  It  bears  every  mark  of  a 
high  antiquity.  The  English  ballad,  which 
no  doubt  belongs  to  the  middle  of  the  seven- 
teenth century,  is  preserved  among  the '  Bag- 
ford  '  and  '  Roxburghe  Ballads,'  and  has  been 
published  by  Ritson  and  others.  Thei-e  are 
several  editions  of  the  chap-book,  which 
seems  to  have  been  composed  early  in  the 
last  century, 

[Ritson's  Scottish  Songs  and  Ballads;  Scott's 
Minstrelsy  of  the  Scottish  Border ;  Ritson's  Se- 
lect Collection  of  English  Songs  ;  The  History 
of  Johnny  Armstrong  of  "Westmoreland,  n.  d. 
(chap-book)  ;  Burton's  History  of  Scotland,  iii. 
144-6,  second  edition.]  A.  H.  B. 

ARMSTRONG,  JOHN,  F.R.S.  (1673- 
1742),  became  major-general  and  quarter- 
master-general of  the  forces,  colonel  of  the 
royal  regiment  of  foot  in  Ireland,  surveyor- 
general  of  the  ordnance  and  his  majesty's 
chief  engineer,  and  was  elected  fellow  of  the 
Royal  Society  on  2  May  1723.  He  appears 
to  be  the  person  who,  as  '  Colonel  John  Arm- 
strong, Chief  Engineer  of  England,'  was  the 
author  of  part  of  a  work  entitled  a  '  Report 
with  Proposals  for  draining  the  Fens  and 
amending  the  Port  of  King's  Lynn  and  of 
Cambridge  and  the  rest  of  the  trading  towns 
in  those  parts  and  the  navigable  rivers  that 
have  their  course  through  the  gi'eat  level  of 
the  Fens  called  Bedford  Level.'  In  '  Watt's 
Bibliotheca  Britannica '  the  authorship  of  the 
whole  work  is  ascribed  to  Colonel  John  Arm- 
strong, but  it  is  evident  that  the  compiler 
of  the  '  Proposals  for  draining  the  Fens '  was 
Thomas  Badesdale,  and  that  Colonel  Arm- 
strong was  only  the  author  of  the  '  Report.' 


[Musgrave's  MS.  Biogra]5hieal  Advert  iser,  5718, 
and  Obituary  5727  in  British  Museum;  Gent. 
Mag.  xii.  p.  219;  London  Mag.  1742,  p.  205; 
Thompson's  History  of  the  Royal  Society,  Ap- 
pendix, p.  35 ;  Badesdale's  History  of  the  Ancient 
and  Present  State  of  the  Navigation  of  the  Port 
of  King's  Lynn,  &c.]  A.  S.  B. 

^ARMSTRONG,  JOHN,  M.D.  (1709- 
1779),  poet,  physician,  and  essayist,  Avas  born 
in  the  parish  of  Castleton,  Roxburghshire, 
about  the  year  1709.  His  father  Avas  a  clergy- 
man. He  studied  at  Edinburgh  University, 
and  took  his  degree  of  M.D.  on  4  Feb.  1732, 
composing  for  the  occ/ision  a  '  Dissertatio  de 
Tabe  Purulenta,'  which  he  published  at  Edin- 
burgh in  the  same  year,  with  a  dedication  to 
Sir  Hans  Sloane.  A  Latin  letter  which  the 
author  sent  to  Sir  Hans  Sloane  with  a  copy 
of  .the  thesis  is  preserved  in  the  British  Mu- 
seum {MS.  Sloane,  4036).  Before  1735  Arm- 
strong was  practising  medicine  in  London. 

At  an  early  age  Armstrong  began  to  cul- 
tivate poetry.  He  tells  us  that  the  verses 
entitled  '  Winter  '  (an  '  imitation  of  Shake- 
speare'), first  published  in  1770,  were  written 
in  1725.  Thomson,  Mallet,  Aaron  Hill,  and 
Young  received  manuscript  copies  of  the 
verses  from  the  youthful  writer,  and  ex- 
pressed to  him  their  congratulations.  Mallet 
promised  to  print  the  piece,  but  afterwards 
changed  his  mind. 

In  1734  Armstrong  published,  in  a'oI.  ii. 
of  the  '  Edinburgh  Medical  Essays,'  an  essay 
on  '  Penetrating  Topic  Medicines ; '  and  in 
the  same  year  he  wrote  a  paper  (read  before 
the  Royal  Society  on  30  Jan.  1735,  and  pre- 
served among  the  Sloane  MSS.,  i\o.  4433) 
on  the  'Alcalesceut  Disposition  of  Animal 
Fluids.'  His  next  production  was  a  satirical 
pamphlet  entitled  '  Essay  for  abridging  the 
Study  of  Physick,'  1735,  8vo.  In  the  fol- 
loAving  year  he  made  his  first  appearance  as 
a  poet.  The  '  fficonomy  of  Love,  1 736, 8vo, 
was  published  anonymously;  and  it  is  indeed 
a  production  which  not  many  men  would 
care  to  claim.  A  more  nauseous  piece  of 
work  could  not  easily  be  found.  When  the 
author  reissued  the  poem  in  1768,  he  had 
the  good  sense  to  cancel  some  of  the  Avorst 
passages.  It  vA^as  followed  by  a  '  Synopsis  of 
the  Ilistoiy  and  Cure  of  Venereal  Diseases,' 
In  1741  Armstrong  solicited  Dr,  Birch's  re- 
commendation to  Dr,  Mead  for  the  appoint- 
ment of  physician  to  the  troops  going  to  the 
West  Indies  (Sloane  MS.  4300).    . 

Writing  many  years  afterwards,  in  1773, 
he  ascribes  his  limited  success  in  his  profes- 
sion to  the  fact  that  *  he  could  neither  tell  a 
heap  of  lies  in  his  own  praise  AA-hereA'er  he 
Avent;  nor  intrigue  with  nurses;  nor  as- 
sociate,   much    less    assimilate,    with    the 


Armstrong 


95 


Armstrong 


various  knots  of  pert  insipid,  lively  stupid, 
well-bred  impertinent,  good-liuinoured  mali- 
cious, obliging  deceitful,  waspy  drivelling 
gossips ;  nor  enter  into  juntos  with  people 
who  were  not  to  his  liking'  {Medical Essays). 
Habitual  inert  lu'ss  and  a  splenetic  tempera- 
ment were  probably  the  real  drawbacks  to 
his  advancement.  Br.  Beattie,  in  a  letter  to 
Sir  William  Forbes,  writes :  *  I  know  not 
Avhat  is  the  matter  with  Armstrong,  but  he 
seems  to  have  conceived  a  rooted  aversion 
against  the  Avhole  human  race,  except  a  few 
friends,  Avhich  it  seems  are  dead.'  In  Thom- 
son's '  Castle  of  Indolence '  there  is  a  stanza 
which  is  supposed  to  refer  to  Armstrong : — 

With  him  was  sometimes  join'd,  in  silent  walk 

(Profounclly  silent,  for  they  never  spoke), 
One  shyer  still,  who  quite  detested  talk  : 

Oft,  stung  by  spleen,  at  once  away  he  broke 
To  groves  of  pine  and  broad  o'ershadowing  oak ; 

There,  inly  thrill'd,  he  wandered  all  alone 
And  on  himself  his  pensive  fury  wroke, 

Nor  ever  iitter'd  word,  save  when  first  shone 
The   glittering   star   of   eve — '  Thank  Heaven ! 
the  day  is  done.' 

In  1744  appeared  the  '  Art  of  preserving 
Health,'  a  didactic  poem  in  four  books,  which 
sprang  at  once  into  popularity,  and  has  passed 
through  several  editions  down  to  our  own 
day.  In  the  class  of  poetry  to  which  it 
belongs,  the  'Art  of  preserving  Health' 
holds  a  disting^xished  place.  No  wTiter  of 
the  eighteenth  century  had  so  masterful  a 
grasp  of  blank  verse  as  is  shown  in  parts  of 
this  poem.  The  powerful  passage  descrip- 
tive of  the  plague  (book  iii.)  has  been  highly 
praised.  As  in  all  didactic  poetry,  the  prac- 
t  ical  directions  are  of  little  interest ;  but 
those  who  value  austere  imagination  and 
weighty  diction  cannot  afford  to  neglect 
Armstrong's  masterpiece. 

He  Avas  appointed,  in  February  1746,  a 
physician  to  the  Hospital  for  Lame,  Maimed, 
and  Sick  Soldiers  in  London.  Five  years 
later  (17ol)  he  published  '  Benevolence,  an 
Epistle,'  which  added  little  to  his  fame ;  and 
in  1753  'Taste,  an  Epistle  to  a  young  Critic,' 
readable  but  acrimonious.  At  this  time  Dr. 
Theobald  addressed  to  him  two  complimen- 
tary Latin  odes.  Armstrong's  next  venture 
was  a  tragedy, '  Tlie  Forced  Marriage,'  written 
in  1754,  but  not  published  until  1770.  Much 
more  interesting  are  the  '  Sketches  or  Essays 
on  various  subjects,  in  two  parts,'  published 
in  1758  under  the  pseudonym  of  Launcelot 
Temple.  It  has  been  suggested — without 
evidence — that  he  was  assisted  in  the  com- 
position of  these  essays  by  Wilkes,  with  whom 
ne  was  nearly  acquainted  for  many  years. 
Always  terse,  often  original,  and  sometimes 


brilliant,  Armstrong's  prose  is  undeserving  of 
the  neglect  into  which  it  has  fallen. 

In  1760  he  received  the  post  of  physician 
to  the  army  in  Germany.  Writing  to  Wilkes 
on  3  Nov.  of  that  year,  he  enclosed  a  poetical 
epistle  entitled  '  Day,'  wliich  was  published 
in  the  following  year.  A  letter  in  the  '  Public 
Ad>ertiser '  of  23  March  1773  accused 
W^ilkes  of  having  published  it  against  the 
author's  wish.  In  the  following  number  ap- 
peared a  reply,  signed  '  Truth,'  denying  the 
charge ;  and  this  was  followed,  on  1  April, 
by  a  letter,  signed  '  Nox,'  wherein  the  vin-iter 
declared  that  the  verses  were  published  at 
Armstrong's  repeated  requests  and  against 
Wilkes's  advice.  Several  years  aftei-wards 
there  appeared  in  the '  Gentleman's  Magazine ' 
(January  1792)  the  notes  of  a  conversation 
between  Wilkes  and  Ai-mstrong  on  the  8ul> 
ject  of  the  correspondence  in  the  '  Public 
Advertiser.'  According  to  this  report  Arm- 
strong accused  AVilkes  of  having  written  the 
three  letters  in  question,  AVilkes  denying  the 
charge  with  caustic  pleasantry.  W^hether  the 
letters  were  written  by  Wilkes,  or  whether 
any  such  conversation  ever  occurred,  is  ex- 
tremely doubtful ;  but  as  to  the  publication 
of  *  Day '  we  are  able  to  refer  to  Armstrong's 
unpublished  lettei-s  in  tlie  valuable  '  AVilkes 
Correspondence  '  acquired  a  few  vears  ago  by 
the  British  Museum  {Add.  .¥aS.'30867).  On 
3  Nov.  1760,  when  sending  the  epistle  to 
W^ilkes,  he  writes  : — '  I  .  .  .  send  you  letters 
by  the  brace.  If  you  approve  of  that  in 
rhyme,  I  Avish  all  the  people  in  Britain  and 
Ireland  would  read  it,  that  I  might  be  in- 
dulged in  the  vanity  of  being  knoAvn  for  your 
friend.  But  if  you  think  it  worthy  of  Mr. 
BoAvyer's  press,  don't  submit  it  to  that  severe 
operation  till  eveiything  you  find  wrong  in 
it  is  altered.'  W'ilkes  ruthlessly  excised 
whatever  he  thought  to  be  inferior,  and 
exposed  a  tattered  version  to  the  public, 
indicating  the  cancelled  passages  by  stars. 
Moreover,  after  sending  the  epistle  to  press, 
he  seems  not  to  haAe  troubled  himself  to 
make  any  communication  on  the  subject 
Avith  the  author ;  for  on  29  Oct.  1762,  un- 
aAvare  that  the  epistle  was  already  in  print, 
Armstrong  wrote  from  abroad  to  ask  W  ilkes 
to  hand  over  to  Millar,  the  bookseller,  '  one 
strayed  ode — item  one  elegy — item  one  epistle 
entitled  a  "  Day,"  Avhich  I  shall  be  glad  to 
clear  of  a  few  clouds.  You  must  knoAv  I 
kept  only  the  first  copy,  which  is  mislaid,  or 
more  probably  lost.'  'The  next  letter  broke 
ofi',  once  for  all,  the  connection  between  the 
friends.  AVe  print  it,  for  the  first  time,  from 
Add.  MS.  30867,  p.  216 :— '  London,  17  Sept. 
1763.  Sir, — I  tliank  you  for  the  honour  of 
a  letter,  and  continue  sensible  of  every  mark 


Armstrong 


96 


Armstrong 


of  friendship  I  liave  received  from  you,  which 
makes  me  regi-et  it  the  more  that  you  have 
for  ever  deprived  me  of  the  pleasure  of  your 
couA'ersation.  For  I  cannot  with  honour 
or  decency  associate  myself  with  one  who 
has  distinguished  himself  by  abusing  my 
country.  I  am  with  all  due  sincerity,  Sir, 
your  most  humble  servant,  John  Armstrong.' 
Had  it  not  been  for  the  publication  of  the 
unfortunate  '  Day,'  he  Avould  probably  have 
continued  on  familiar  terms  with  Wilkes, 
who  (it  is  supposed)  had  procured  him  the 
post  of  physician  to  the  army,  and  to  Avhom 
he  was  certainly  indebted  for  much  pecu- 
niary help.  In  some  very  vigorous  lines  of 
Churchill's  posthumous  satire,  '  A  Journey,' 
published  in  1764,  Armstrong  is  held  up  to 
unsparing  ridicule : — 

Let  them  with  Armstrong,  taking  leave  of  sense, 
Eead  nnisty  lectures  on  Benevolence, 
Or  con  the  pages  of  his  gaping  Day, 
Where  all  his  former  fame  was  thrown  away, 
Where  all  but  barren  lal)oiir  was  forgot 
And  the  vain  stiffness  of  a  letter'd  Scot. 
One  writer  after  another  has  asserted  that 
Churchill's  attack  Avas  provoked  by  some  re- 
flections on  himself  in  '  Day,'  but  the  reader 
must   be   extraordinarily  lynx-eyed  to  dis- 
cover any  allusion  to  Churchill  in  Armstrong's 
epistle.     It  is  far  more  probable   that  the 
lines  were   written   at    the    suggestion   of 
Wilkes,  who  was  on  terms  of  close  intimacy 
with  the  satirist. 

At  the  recall  of  the  troops  from  Germany 
Armstrong  returned  to  London,  receiving 
half-pay  for  the  rest  of  his  life.  In  1770  he 
published,  in  two  volumes  of  '  Miscellanies,' 
such  works  in  verse  and  prose  as  he  wished 
to  preserve.  He  took  this  opportunity  of 
printing  in  his  own  name  the  four  concluding 
stanzas  of  the  first  canto  of  the  *  Castle  of 
Indolence.'  Accompanied  by  Fuseli,  he 
started  in  the  same  year  for  a  tour  in  France 
and  Italy.  At  Leghorn  he  visited  Smollett, 
who  Avas  fast  sinking  into  his  gi-ave.  Under 
the  title  of  '  A  Short  Ramble  through  France 
and  Italy,'  1771,  he  published  some  desultory 
notes  taken  on  the  journey.  In  1773  he 
published  his  last  work,  '  Medical  Essays,'  in 
which  he  coarsely  charges  his  professional 
brethren  Avith  incompetency  and  servility. 

Armstrong  died  at  his  house  in  Russell 
Street,  CoAent  Garden,  on  7  Sept.  1779, 
from  the  effects  of  a  fall.  He  had  been 
staying  in  Lincolnshire,  and  as  he  Avas  pre- 
paring to  return  home  his  foot  slipped  Avhen 
he  was  stepping  into  his  carriage.  To  the 
sui-prise  of  cAerybody  he  left  the  sum  of 
3,000^.  As  his  pension  and  his  very  small 
practice  Avere  his  sole  means  of  support,  he 
must  have  liA'ed  someAvhat  parsimoniously. 


There  is  a  mezzotint  portrait  of  him,  from 
a  painting  by  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds,  inscribed 
'  John  Armstrong,  M.D.  The  suffrage  of  the 
Avise,  the  praise  that's  worth  competition  is* 
attained  by  sense  alone  and  dignity  of  mind.' 
One  who  kneAV  him  Avell,  Dr.  Cuming,  of 
Dorchester,  has  set  doAvn  his  character  briefly 
as  follows  : — '  He  alAAays  appeared  to  me 
(and  I  Avas  confirmed  in  this  opinion  by 
that  of  his  most  intimate  friends)  a  man  of 
learning  and  genius,  of  considerable  abilities 
in  his  profession,  of  great  benevolence  and 
goodness  of  heart,  fond  of  associating  with 
men  of  pai'ts  and  genius,  but  indolent  and 
inactiAe,  and  therefore  totally  unqualified  to 
employ  the  means  that  usually  lead  to  medi- 
cal employment,  or  to  elbow  his  way  through 
a  crowd  of  competitors.' 

[The  original  editions  of  his  works  ;  Nichols's 
Literary  Anecdotes,  ii.  275,  &c.;  Public  AdA-ertiser, 
23  and  24  March  and  1  April  1773  ;  Gentleman's 
Magazine,  January  1792;  Add.  MSS.  30867 
and  30875.]  A.  H.  B. 

ARMSTRONG,  JOHN  (1771-1797), 
journalist  and  writer  of  A^erses,  AA'as  born  of 
humble  parents,  at  Leith,  in  June  1771. 
After  attending  the  Grammar  School  of  that 
town  and  the  High  School  of  Edinburgh,  he 
entered  Edinburgh UniAersity,  where  he gi"a- 
duated  M.A.  In  1789  he  published  '  Juvenile 
Poems,  Avith  remarks  on  Poetry,  and  a  Dis- 
sertation on  the  best  means  of  punishing 
and  preA'enting  Crimes.'  These  poems,  if 
stilted  in  style  and  hackneyed  in  sentiment, 
are  characterised  by  general  good  taste  and 
some  artistic  finish.  Their  publication  6\y- 
tained  for  him  the  honour  of  being  iuA'ited 
to  compose  the  AA'ords  of  the  songs  used  in 
connection  Avith  the  ceremony  of  laying  the 
foundation-stone  of  the  Edinburgh  UniAer- 
sity buildings.  W^hile  tutor  in  a  family  in 
Edinburgh,  Armstrong  pursued  the  theolo- 
gical studies  necessary  to  qualify  him  to  be- 
come a  preacher  in  the  church  of  Scotland, 
but  in  1790  he  removed  to  London,  where  he 
obtained  employment  on  one  of  the  daily 
papers  at  a  small  weekly  salary.  In  1791  he 
published  a  collection  of  poems,  under  the 
title  *  Sonnets  from  Shakspeare.'  His  lite- 
rary prospects  continued  gradually  to  im- 
prove, and  he  Avas  in  receipt  of  a  considerable 
income,  when  his  health  began  suddenly  to 
giAe  way.  He  retired  to  Leith,  Avhere  he 
died  of  a  rapid  decline,  July  21,  1797. 

[Memoir  in  Edinburgh  Magazine,  new  series, 
vol.  X.  pp.  254-5,  which  contains  some  addi- 
tional details  to  those  given  in  Monthly  Maga- 
zine, vol.  iv.  pp.  153-4,  and  Gentleman's  Maga- 
zine, vol.  Ixvii.  part  2,  pp.  731-2.]      T.  F.  H.^ 


Armstrong 


97 


Armstrong 


ARMSTKONG,  JOHN,  senior  (1784- | 
1829),  physician,  Avas  born,  8  May  1784,  at 
Ayres  Quay,  near  Bishop  Wearmouth,  county  j 
Durham,  where  his  father,  George  Armstrong, 
a  man  of  humble  birth,  was  a  superintendent 
of  glass  works.  He  was  educated  at  first 
privately  and  afterwards  studied  medicine 
<it  the  university  of  Edinburgh,  where  he 
graduated  M.D,  in  1807  with  a  disserta- 
tion, '  De  Causis  Morborum  Hydropicorum.' 
lie  practised  at  his  native  place  and  in 
the  adjoining  town  of  Sunderland,  and  was 
physician  to  the  Sunderland  Infirmary.  In 
1811  he  married  Sarah,  daughter  of  Mr. 
Charles  Spearman,  by  whom  he  left  a  family, 
including  a  son  John,  who  became  bishop 
of  Grahamstown  [q.  v.].  While  at  Sunder- 
land he  published,  besides  several  memoirs 
in  the  '  Edinburgh  Medical  Journal,'  two 
works,  'Facts  and  Observations  relative  to 
the  Fever  commonly  called  Puerperal '  (Lon- 
don, 1814),  and  *  Practical  Illustrations  of 
Typhus  and  other  Febrile  Diseases'  (Lon- 
don, 1816),  by  which  he  became  favourably 
known  to  the  medical  profession.  In  1818 
he  removed  to  London  and  published  '  Prac- 
tical Illustrations  of  the  Scarlet  Fever, 
Measles,  Pulmonary  Consumption '  (London, 
1818),  which  added  to  his  reputation.  In 
the  next  year  he  was  appointed  physician  to 
the  London  Fever  Institution  (now  called 
Hospital),  an  office  which  he  resigned  in 
1824,  and  in  1820  became  licentiate  of  the 
College  of  Physicians. 

Dr.  Armstrong  rapidly  acquired  a  large 
practice  and  also  became  a  very  successful 
and  popular  teacher  of  medicine.  In  1821 
lie  joined  Mr.  Grainger,  an  eminent  teacher 
of  anatomy,  as  lecturer  on  medicine  at  the 
school  at  that  time  being  founded  by  the 
latter  in  Webb  Street,  which,  before  the  com- 
plete development  of  the  great  hospital  schools, 
was  one  of  the  most  important  in  London. 
In  1826  he  joined  Mr.  Bennett  in  founding 
another  school  in  Little  Dean  Street,  Soho, 
and  for  some  time  lectured  on  medicine  in 
both  institutions.  In  1828  failing  health 
compelled  him  to  give  up  teaching,  and  he 
died  of  consumption  on  12  Dec.  1829,  at  the 
early  age  of  45. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  of  Dr.  Armstrong's 
great  energy  and  brilliant  talents,  though 
the  rapidity  of  his  success  and  the  fact  of 
his  being  unconnected  with  any  of  the  greater 
medical  schools  caused  his  career  to  be 
watched  with  much  surprise  and  possibly  a 
little  jealousy.  His  opinion  was,  however, 
highly  valued  by  his  professional  brethren. 

Dr.  Armstrong's  works  on  fevers  became 
extremely  popular  in  this  country  and  Ame- 
rica, and  they  have  the  merit  of  being  founded 

VOL.   II. 


entirely  on  his  own  observations.  Their  im- 
portance has,  however,  been  greatly  dimi- 
nished by  later  discoveries,  and  especially  by 
the  discrimination  of  several  kinds  of  fever 
which  were  at  that  time  confounded  to- 
gether. The  latter  consideration  probably 
explains  the  changes  that  Armstrong's  own 
views  underwent  in  relation  to  typhus,  which 
he  in  his  earlier  works  asserted  to  be  conta- 
gious, but  in  his  later  memoirs  {Lancet, 
1825)  attributed  to  a  malarial  origin.  In 
treatment  Armstrong  was  an  ardent  advo- 
cate of  the  antiphlogistic  system,  and  made 
a  copious  use  of  bleeding. 

His  controversy  with  the  College  of  Sur- 
geons arose  out  of  an  attempt  on  the  part  of 
that  body  to  discourage  private  medical  teach- 
ing by  refusing  to  accept  certificates  except 
from  the  recognised  hospitals  and  their  medi- 
cal schools.  With  the  College  of  Physicians 
he  was  equally  displeased  on  account  of  his 
having  been  rejected  when  he  first  presented 
himself  as  a  candidate  for  the  licentiateship, 
an  accident  which  may  often  happen  when 
a  physician  established  in  practice  has  to  un- 
dergo examination  on  subjects  with  which  he 
was  familiar  as  a  student.  Dr.  Armstrong  is 
described  by  his  friend  Dr.  Boott  as  a  man 
of  high  integrity,  absorbed  in  his  profession, 
of  gentle  and  reserved  character,  with  much 
power  of  sympathy.  He  appears  to  have  had 
few  intellectual  interests  outside  of  his  daily 
work,  and  spoke  with  some  contempt  of 
'  learned  physicians.' 

Besides  the  above.  Dr.  Armstrong  was 
author  of:  1.  '  An  Address  to  the  Members 
of  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons  on  the  in- 
jurious conduct  and  defective  state  of  that 
Corporation  with  reference  to  Professional 
Rights,  Medical  Science,  and  the  Public 
Health,'  London,  1825.  2.  'The  Morbid 
Anatomy  of  the  Stomach,  Bowels,  and  Liver, 
illustrated  by  a  series  of  plates  with  expla- 
natory lettei-press,  and  a  summary  of  the 
symptoms  of  the  acute  and  chronic  afFection& 
of  the  above-named  organs,'  4to,  London, 
1828  (unfinished).  3.  '  Lectures  on  the  Moiv 
bid  Anatomy,  Nature,  and  Treatment  of  Acute 
and  Chronic  Diseases,'  edited  by  Joseph  Rix 
(after  the  author's  death),  London,  1834. 

[Boott's  Memoir  of  the  Life  and  Medical 
Opinions  of  John  Armstrong,  in  2  vols.,  1833  ; 
Munk's  KoU  of  College  of  Physicians  (1878).  iii. 
216.]  J.F.  P. 

ARMSTRONG,  JOHN,  junior  (1818- 
1856),  bishop  of  Grahamstown,  was  the  son 
of  Dr.  John  Armstrong,  the  physician  [q.  v.]. 
He  was  educated  at  a  preparatorv  school  at 
Hanwell,  and  at  Charterhouse.  In  1832  he 
was  elected  to  a  Crewe  exhibition  at  Lincoln 


Armstrong 


98 


Armstrong 


College,  Oxford,  and  having  graduated  in 
classical  honours  (third  class)  in  1836,  he  re- 
ceived holy  orders  in  1837.  He  was  curate 
for  a  very  short  time,  first  at  Alford  in  Somer- 
setshire, and  then  at  Walton-Fitzpaine  in 
Dorsetshire ;  but  within  a  year  of  his  ordi- 
nation he  took  a  curacy  at  Clifton,  where  he 
remained  about  three  years.  In  1841  he  be- 
came a  priest-vicar  of  the  cathedral  at  Exeter, 
and  in  1843  rector  also  of  St.  Paul's,  Exeter. 
In  the  same  year  he  man-ied  Miss  Frances 
Whitmore.  About  this  time  his  convictions 
became  strengthened  and  his  spirituality 
deepened,  chiefly  through  the  influence  of  the 
earlier  '  Tracts  for  the  Times ; '  and  it  is  an 
instance  of  his  peculiar  attractiveness  that 
views  and  practices  then  very  unpopular 
made  him  no  enemies  and  raised  very  little 
opposition.  The  'surplice  riots,'  e.g.,  were 
raging  at  Exeter,  but  they  were  little  felt  at 
St.  Paul's.  In  1845  he  exchanged  posts  with 
Mr.  Burr,  vicar  of  Tidenham,  in  Gloucester- 
shire, He  found  Tidenham  in  a  ferment, 
owing  to  the  introduction  of  usages  which 
are  now  all  but  universal ;  but  Mr.  Armstrong 
soon  lived  the  opposition  down,  and  carried 
his  points  with  all  but  universal  approbation. 
Both  at  Exeter  and  Tidenham  he  almost  en- 
tirely gave  up  what  is  called  society,  and 
devoted  himself  exclusively  to  the  labours  of 
a  hard-working  parish  priest.  But  he  was 
thoroughly  happy  in  his  domestic  life ;  he 
had  a  truly  like-minded  wife  and  children, 
whom  he  loved  to  have  about  him  even  in 
his  busiest  hours.  *  There  was,  I  believe,' 
writes  an  eye-witness  to  the  present  writer, 

*  no  separate  study  in  the  vicarage,  so  that 
much  of  his  work  was  done  in  the  midst 
of  his  family.  I  found  him  one  morning 
writing  a  sermon  with  three  of  his  children 
climbing  over  and  playing  with  him ;  and  so 
far  from  rebuking  them,  from  time  to  time 
the  pen  was  laid  aside,  and  he  joined  in  their 
frolics,  returning  again  to  his  graver  thoughts 
and  wi'iting  ;  and  on  my  admiring  that  he 
could  so  work,  he  replied  simply,  "  I  would 
give  but  little  for  a  man  that  could  not." ' 
Mr.  Armstrong  made  his  mark  as  a  preacher 
far  beyond  the  limits  of  his  country  parish. 

*  He  was,'  writes  a  clergyman  still  living, '  the 
best  all  round  country  congregation  preacher 
I  ever  knew.'  A  volume  of '  Sermons  on  the 
Festivals,'  preached  at  Exeter  Cathedral,  was 
published  in  1845 ;  another  volume  of  *  Pa- 
rochial Sermons '  in  1854  ;  and  the  series  of 
'Sermons  for  the  Christian  Seasons,' from  Ad- 
vent 1852  to  Advent  1853,  were  all  of  them 
edited,  and  several  of  them  written,  by  him. 
In  some  interesting  sketches  of  '  successful 
preachers,'  one  of  *  Bishop  John  Armstrong ' 
will  be  found  in  the  '  Guardian '  of  20  Dec. 


1882.  He  was  also  a  successful  tract- writer. 
He  wrote  many  of,  and  was  the  responsible 
editor  of  all,  the  '  Tracts  for  the  Christian 
Seasons,'  the  first  series  of  which  came  out 
monthly  from  Advent  1848  to  Advent  1849, 
and  the  second  from  Advent  1849  to  Advent 
1850 ;  and  these  were  followed  in  1852-8  by 
'  Tracts  for  Parochial  Use.'  Mr.  Armstrong's 
strong  common  sense  and  genial  humour  are 
conspicuous  in  these  tracts,  and  their  popu- 
larity has  been  very  gi-eat.  Mr.  Armstrong 
had  always  taken  the  deepest  interest  in 
what  are  called  *  social  questions.'  He  now 
threw  himself  with  characteristic  energy  into 
a  scheme  of  which  he  was  unquestionably  the 
chief  originator.  The  scheme  was,  to  establish 
a  system  of  penitentiaries,  in  which  the  chief 
agents  should  be  self-devoted  and  unpaid 
ladies,  working  on  sound  church  principles 
and  under  the  direct  superintendence  of 
clergymen.  Mr.  Armstrong  advocated  this 
scheme  in  articles  on  '  Female  Penitentia- 
ries '  in  the  '  Quarterly  Review '  in  the  au- 
tumn of  1848 ;  in  the  '  Christian  Remem- 
brancer'in  January  1849;  in  the  '  English 
Review '  in  March  1849 ;  and  in  a  stirring 
tract,  entitled  'Appeal  for  a  Church  Peni- 
tentiary,' also  in  1849.  The  interest  of  the 
public  was  awakened.  Mr.  Armstrong  was 
as  indefatigable  in  his  private  correspondence 
on  the  subject  as  in  his  articles  for  the  press. 
'  I  have  acres  of  his  letters,'  writes  a  friend 
to  the  present  wi'iter,  '  all  on  one  subject — a 
House  of  Mercy  for  Gloucestershire.'  The 
first  church  penitentiary  was  founded  in  Mr. 
Carter's  parish  of  Clewer ;  in  the  same  year 
(1849)  another  house  of  mercy  was  founded 
at  Wantage  ;  and  shortly  afterwards  another 
at  Bussage,  in  Mr.  Armstrong's  own  diocese. 
In  1852  the  Church  Penitentiary  Associa- 
tion was  formed,  and  Mr.  Armstrong's  day- 
dream was  in  a  fair  way  of  being  realised. 
Among  the  rest  of  Mr.  Armstrong's  writings 
may  be  noticed  his  'Pastor  in  the  Closet,' 
published  in  1847 ;  a  singularly  vigorous  ar- 
ticle in  the  '  Christian  Remembrancer '  on 
the  '  History  and  Modern  State  of  Freema- 
sonry' from  the  christian  point  of  view, 
which  can  hardly  have  been  acceptable  to 
freemasons ;  and  articles  in  the  '  National 
Miscellany,'  a  monthly  religious  periodical 
which  he  founded  a  little  while  before  he  left 
England. 

In  1853  he  was  ofi*ei"ed  the  new  bishopric 
of  Grahamsto-\vn,  chiefly  through  the  influ- 
ence of  Bishop  Gray,  of  Capetown.  His 
penitentiary  scheme  was  well  afloat,  and 
after  having  consulted  some  tried  friends  he 
accepted  the  post,  and  was  consecrated  at 
Lambeth  on  St.  Andrew's  day  ;  after  a  few 
months'  delay,  during  which,  in  spite  of  bad 


Armstrong 


99 


Armstrong 


liealth,  he  pleaded  the  cause  of  Africa  m  va-  him  to  Africa.  He  set  himself  to  combat  the 
nous  parts  of  the  country,  he  set  sail  for  |  besetting  sin  of  the  colonists,  drunkenness^ 
Grahamstown  One  of  the  most  interesting  but  he  was  called  to  his  rest  before  he  could 
presents  which  he  took  with  him  was  a  set  effect  much  in  this  direction.  He  was  buried 
of  episcopal  robes  worked  by  the  Bussage    in  the  cemeteiy  at   Grahamstown  in  the 


penitents.  He  regarded  his  position  as  that 
of  a  missionary  as  well  as  a  colonial  bishop. 
*  Do  you  think,'  he  said  at  a  public  meeting, '  I 
go  forth  thinking  the  diocese  of  Grahamstown 
is  to  be  the  bound  and  limit  of  Cliristian 
entei-prise  ?  God  forbid!  Africa  is  given 
to  us  if  we  will  first  do  our  part.'  The  dio- 
cese of  Grahamstown,  however,  was  in  itself 
no  trifling  charge ;  it  was  almost  as  large  as 
England,  and,  owing  to  bad  roads  and  other 
hindrances,  twenty  miles  a  day  was  the  ave- 
rage of  travelling.  His  first  work  was  to 
make  a  visitation  tour  of  his  diocese.  He  won 
golden  opinions  wherever  he  went ;  and  he 
found  or  made  many  able  coadjutors.  There 
is  little  doubt  that  if  his  life  had  been  spared 


rochet  made  for  him  by  the  Bussage  peni- 
tents ;  and  after  the  lapse  of  more  than  a 
quarter  of  a  century  his  memory  still  remains 
fresh  in  the  hearts  of  his  many  friends. 
Few  men,  in  the  course  of  a  comparatively 
short  life,  have  had  more  and  truer.  There 
is  a  striking  heartiness  and  unanimity  in  the 
testimony  which  numerous  correspondents 
have  kindly  given  to  the  present  writer,  to 
what  one  of  them  calls  his  'superlative 
worth ; '  and  few  men,  without  possessing 
any  commanding  genius  or  incurring  any 
unpopularity,  have  done  more  thoroughly 
useful  work  for  the  chiu-ch  and  for  society  at 
large. 


he  would  have  been  eminently  successful;    foiJjlf  ff^A'^lf  ^''^??  "i™'^*""^.'  "'" 
1.:     V  J-  i  !-•       ii       i-  -1  •  ^  lormation  irom  Archdeacon  Hardie    Mrs   Ami- 

his  buoyant  temper,  his  attractiveness,  his  strong,  H.  Woodyer,  Esq.!  Rev  T'xeb b  r™ 
ardent  piety,  his  defimteness  of  aim  and  con-  --  ^-  —  -  ^  j,.  .  ^  .  ■'^  *•  J--  -rveme,  ite\. 
viction,  his  readiness  to  recognise  good 
wherever  he  found  it,  these  and  other  quali- 
ties found  a  larger  sphere  for  development 
abroad  than  at  home.  No  one  can  read 
Bishop  Armstrong's  letters  home,  or  his 
*  Notes  on  Africa,'  a  journal  published  by  the 
Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel, 
without  deep  interest.     In  1856  he  began  a 


Erskine  Knollys;    Bishop  Armstrong's  "Works 
P<'>^«sjm.]  J.  H.  0. 

ARMSTRONG,  ROBERT  ARCHI- 
BALD, LL.D.  (1788-1867),  Gaelic  lexico- 
gi-apher,  was  the  eldest  son  of  Mr.  Robert 
Armstrong,  of  Kenmore,  Perthshire,  by  his 
wife,  Mary  McKercher.  He  was  born  at 
Kenmore  in  1788,  and  educated  partly  by 


second  visitation  tour ;  but  it  was  too  much  I  Jus  father,  and  aftei-wards  at  Edinburgh  and 
for  him.  His  health,  which  had  decidedly  ;  at  St.  Andrew's  University,  where  he  gra- 
improved  after  he  left  England,  failed  him;  ■  duated.  Coming  to  London  from  St.  Andrew's 
and  he  died  somewhat  suddenly  in  Whitsun  I  with  high  commendations  for  his  Greek  and 
week,  in  the  presence  of  his  faithful  friend  j  Latin  acquirements,  he  engaged  in  tuition, 
and  chaplain,  archdeacon  Hardie.     His  last    and  kept  several  high-class  schools  in  siic- 


public  utterance  was  an  opening  lecture  on  the 
*  Character  and  Poetry  of  Oliver  Goldsmith ' 
at  the  Literary  Institute  at  Grahamstown, 
which,  after  some  opposition,  he  had  succeeded 
in  establishing  on  a  general  basis,  and  not  in 
connection  with  any  one  religious  body.  He 
regarded  literature  and  the  natural  sciences 
as  '  common  ground  on  which  churchmen, 
without  resigning  one  iota  of  catholic  truth, 
might  meet  dissenters  as  brethren  and  hold 
kindly  intercourse  with  them.'  And  even  in 
religion,  uncompromising  churchman  as  he 
was,  he  was  ever  ready  to  acknowledge  good 
christian  work  done  by  other  bodies.  '  The 
exertions  of  the  Wesleyan  body  have  been 
very  great,' '  The  Wesleyan  body  have  been 
the  honoured  instrument  of  converting  him ' 
— such  like  remarks  are  not  infrequent  in  his 
letters.  But  none  the  less  does  he  deeply  re- 
gret, over  and  over  again,  that  the  church  had 


cession  in  different  parts  of  the  metropolis 
He  devoted  his  leisure  to  the  cultivation  of 
literature  and  science.  Of  his  humorous 
articles  '  The  Three  Florists,'  in  '  Eraser '  for 
January  1838,  and  'The  Dream  of  Tom 
Finiarty,  the  Cab-driver,' in  the  'Athenaeum,' 
are  notable  examples.  His  scientific  papers 
appeared  chiefly  in  the  '  Arcana  of  Science 
and  Art '  (1837  et  seq.),  and  relate  to  meteoro- 
logical matters.  But  his  gi-eat  work  was 
'  A  Gaelic  Dictionary,  in  two  parts — I.  Gaelic 
and  English,  II.  English  and  Gaelic — in 
which  the  words,  in  their  different  accepta- 
tions, are  illustrated  by  quotations  from  the 
best  Gaelic  writers.'  London,  1825,  4to. 
This  was  the  fii-st  Gaelic  dictionary  pub- 
lished, as  there  previously  existed  only  voca- 
bularies of  the  language  like  those  of  Shaw 
and  others.  It  is  a  most  meritorious  work, 
the  afiinities  of  the  Celtic  words  being  traced 


not  been  the  first  in  the  field  ;  for  he  held  that  in  most  of  the  languages  of  ancient  and 
to  be  *  the  more  excellent  way.'  His  desire  modern  times.  To  it  is  prefixed  a  Gaelic 
to  deal  with  social  questions  accompanied    grammar,  and  there  is  a  short  historical 

'  H  2 


Armstrong 


lOO 


Armstrong 


appendix  of  ancient  names,  deduced  from  the 
authority  of  Ossian  and  other  poets.  Arm- 
strong's dictionary  will  always  be  prized  by 
Gaelic  scholars,  but  it  was  partially  eclipsed, 
three  years  after  its  appearance,  by  the  publi- 
cation of  the  still  more  comprehensive  *  Dic- 
tionarium  Scoto-Celticum,'  compiled  under 
the  direction  of  the  Highland  Society  of 
.  Scotland  (2  vols.  4to,  1828).  Mr.  Armstrong 
sank  his  small  fortune  in  the  publication  of 
his  three-guinea  quarto,  and  in  a  pecuniary 
sense  he  Avas  a  considerable  loser  by  its 
publication.  For  about  twenty-two  years 
he  maintained  his  family  by  establishing  the 
South  Lambeth  Grammar  School,  and  on  his 
retirement  from  the  head-mastership  to  Rich- 
mond in  1852  a  representation  of  his  neces- 
sitous condition  was  sent  toLordPalmerston, 
who  obtained  for  him  acivillist  pension  of  60/. 
This  opportune  assistance  and  a  grant  from 
tlie  Literary  Fund  enabled  him  to  recommence 
his  scholastic  business,  which,  though  now  of 
small  proportions  on  account  of  his  great 
age,  he  continued  till  he  Avas  struck  down 
by  paralysis  about  a  week  before  he  died.  In 
1826  he  had  been  appointed  Gaelic  lexico- 
grapher in  ordinary  to  the  king,  but  the  ap- 
pointment was  honorary  and  no  salary  was 
attached  to  it.  He  died  in  Choumert  Road, 
Peckham  Rye,  Surrey,  25  May  1867.  Lord 
Derby  advised  her  majesty  to  cheer  the  last 
days  of  the  veteran  scholar  by  a  grant  of 
100/.  from  the  Royal  Bounty  Fund ;  and  in 
1869  the  queen,  on  the  recommendation  of 
Mr.  Gladstone,  granted  an  annual  pension 
of  50/.  to  his  widow.  Dr.  Armstrong  married, 
in  1842,  Emma,  daughter  of  Mr.  Stephen 
Dungate,  by  whom  he  left  issue  three 
daughters. 

[Private   information ;    Gent.    Mag.   ccxxiii. 
113.]  T.  C. 

T"      ARMSTRONG,  Sir  THOMAS  (1624  ?- 

Tl .      1684),  royalist,  and  concerned  in  the  Rye 

"^  '^/**J?  House  Plot,  was  the  son  of  an  English  soldier 

pO  tltCT  gerv'ing  in  one  of  James's  Low  Country  expe- 

Jk  *^      ditions,  and  was  born  at  Nimeguen,  where  his 

v^e  father  was  quartered,  about  1624.     He  was 

brought  to  England  young,  and  served  under 

Charles  I ;  he  joined  Ormond  in  Ireland  in 

1649,  and  declared  for  Charles  II  (Heath's 

Chronicle  of  Ciiil  Wars,  part  i.  p.  240),  for 

which  and  similar  royalist  services  he  was 

imprisoned  in  Lambeth  House  by  Cromwell. 

There  he  endured  many  privations,  owing 

to  the  inability  of  his  party  to  provide  him 

with   money  or    help;    but    he  contrived, 

after  a  year's  imprisonment,  to  get  released. 

About  1665  he  was  sent  out  of  England,  by 

the  Earl  of  Oxford  and  other  cavaliers,  to 

Charles,  with  a  considerable  sum  of  money 


for  the  use  of  the  exiled  prince.  He  delivered 
the  gift  into  the  prince's  own  hands,  and 
returning  to  England  was,  on  the  sixth  day^ 
imprisoned  by  Cromwell  in  the  Gatehouse. 
In  1658,  after  another  interval  of  liberty  and 
of  fidelity  to  the  royal  cause,  Armstrong 
suffered  a  third  imprisonment  in  the  Tower ; 
but  on  the  death  of  the  Protector,  on  3  Sept. 
of  that  yeai",  was  released,  and  married 
Katharine,  a  niece  of  Clarendon's  (Old- 
Mixox's  Hist,  of  the  Stuarts,  vol.  i.  p.  687). 
He  was  one  of  the  signatories  to  the  Royalists' 
Declaration  to  Monk,  April  1660  (Kennet'& 
Chronicle,  p.  122) ;  and  on  the  Restoration, 
in  the  following  month,  he  was  knighted  by 
the  king  for  his  services,  made  lieutenant  of 
the  first  troop  of  guards,  and  subsequently 
gentleman,  or  captain,  of  the  horse.  Shortly 
afterwards  Armstrong  became  intimate  with 
the  Duke  of  Monmouth;  and,  according  to  the 
testimonies  of  unfriendly  authorities,  he  'led 
a  very  vitious  life '  (Burnet's  Hist,  of  Ovm 
Times,  vol.  i.  p.  577).  Sprat  says  that  he 
'  became  a  debauch'd  Atheistical  Bravo ' 
(Sprat's  True  Account  of  the  Horrid  Con- 
spiracy, p.  29) ;  he  fell,  at  any  rate,  into  dis- 
favour at  court,  whence  he  was  dismissed ; 
and  having  *  distinguish'd  himself  by  murder- 
ing Mr.  Scroop,  a  considerable  Gentleman,  in 
the  Play-house '  (Eaciiard's  Hist,  of  Em/land, 
p.  1027),  he  left  England  in  1679  with  the 
Duke  of  Monmouth  for  Flanders,  to  join  some 
English  regiments  there. 

In  1682,  Armstrong,  who  was '  Parliament 
man '  for  Stafford  {State  Trials,  vol.  x.),  being 
back  again  in  England,  was  fi-equently  a  visi- 
tor at  the  house  of  the  disaffected  Earl  of 
Shaftesbury  in  Aldersgate  Street  {Copies  of 
the  Informations,  1685,  p.  196),  and  was 
gradually  embroiled  in  the  Rye  House  plot. 
He  was  frequently  at  Colonel  Romsey's  house 
in  King's  Square,  Soho  Fields  {Copies  of  In- 
formations, p.  28),  desiring  interviews  with 
Ferguson  early  in  the  morning,  before  Romsey 
was  dressed  ;  he  was  at  West's  chambers  in 
the  Temple,  offering  to  get  admittance  to  the 
Duke  of  York,  under  the  pretence  of  discover- 
ing some  plot  against  him,  and  then  to  kill 
him  {Copies,  p.  61).  He  was  a  visitor  at  all 
those  taverns  where  the  conspirators  met,  viz. 
the  Fortune  at  Wapping,  the  Horse  Shoe  on 
Tower  Hill,  the  King's  Head  in  Atheist  Alley, 
the  Young  De^il  Tavern  between  the  two 
Temple  gates  (for  full  list  see  Sprat's  True 
Account,  p.  52)  ;  he  was  at  Sheppard's  house 
in  Abchurch  Lane  with  Lord  William  Rus- 
sell and  the  rest,  going  thence,  with  the 
Duke  of  Monmouth  and  Lord  Grey,  to  look 
into  the  condition  of  the  king's  guards,  to 
see  if  it  were  possible  to  break  through  them 
to  carry  the  king  away,  and  returning  with 


Armstrong 


lOI 


Armstrong 


the  report  that  the  guards  wei*e  certainly 
remiss,  and  the  thing  quite  feasible  {ibid. 
p.  150).  Evidence  was  forthcoming  also 
that,  on  the  failure  of  the  Rye  House  plot, 
Armstrong  offered  still  to  intercept  the  king 
and  the  duke  on  their  homeward  journey, 
provided  money  and  men  could  be  immedi- 
ately procured.  The  king  himself  declared 
that  when  Armstrong  had  come  to  him 
4ibroad,  nearly  thirty  years  before,  with  the 
gift  of  money,  he  had  confessed  that  he  had 
come,  employed  by  Cromwell,  to  kill  him ; 
and  on  28  June  1683,  a  proclamation  was 
issued  for  his  apprehension.  Armstrong, 
being  greatly  depressed  at  this  tiu*n  of  events, 
went  to  Romsey  {Copies,  p.  109)  one  night, 
in  fear  for  him  as  well  as  for  himself, 'and 
<lid  importune  me  to  be  gone  with  the  first, 
and  in  the  meantime  to  keep  close,  for  that 
I  was  mightily  hunted  after.'  He  himself, 
assuming  the  name  of  Mr.  Henry  Lawrence, 
succeeded  in  escaping  and  hiding  himself  in 
Leyden.  But  the  reward  to  seize  him  was 
heavy,  'equal  to  the  greatest'  (Eachaed's 
Hist.  p.  1043),  and  out  of  it  Chudleigh,  the 
king's  envoy,  offered  5,000  guilders.  In  May 
1684  a  spy  at  Leyden  gave  the  desired  informa- 
tion, the  States  issued  the  necessary  order  of 
acquiescence,  and  Armstrong  (too  much  sur- 
prised to  plead  his  Dutch  birth)  was  carried 
to  Rotterdam,  loaded  with  irons,  and  placed 
on  board  the  yacht  Catherine.  The  Catherine 
anchored  at  Greenwich  10  June  1684  (LuT- 
teell's  MS.,  Brief  Historical  Relations,  All 
Souls,  Oxford) ;  Sydney  Godolphin  signed  a 
warrant  the  same  day  to  Captain  Richardson, 
keeper  of  Newgate,  to  receive  the  prisoner ; 
and  tliither,  still  in  irons,  he  was  conveyed 
on  the  moiTow,  11  June.  He  was  stripped 
of  anything  lie  had  of  value ;  he  was  searched ; 
a  bill  of  exchange  was  found  in  his  pocket 
between  one  Hayes,  a  merchant  at  London, 
and  another  merchant  at  Leyden,  and  Hayes 
was  at  once  committed  to  Newgate  for  com- 
plicity with  a  traitor.  Armstrong  was  not 
allowed  to  see  his  family  and  friends  except 
in  the  presence  of  his  gaolers ;  and,  all  money 
having  been  taken  fi-om  him,  he  was  unable 
to  obtain  the  assistance  of  counsel  {State 
Trials  for  High  Treason,  35  Charles  H).  In 
three  days,  14  June,  he  was  taken  to  King's 
Bench,  Guildhall,  attended  by  his  daughter, 
Jane  Mathews,  another  being  repulsed. 
Titus  Gates  was  one  of  his  accusers  ;  Jeffries 
was  his  judge.  His  claim  was  for  a  pi'oper 
trial,  under  the  statute  5  and  6  Edward  VI, 
c.  11.  Jeffries  denied  his  right  to  be  heard 
on  the  ground  that  he  was  an  outlaw  and  a 
traitor,  and  sentenced  him  to  death  in  spite 
of  his  protests  and  his  daughter's  shrieks. 
On  the  18th  his  Avife  and  daughters  applied 


in  vain  for  a  writ  of  eiTor  to  Lord  Keep«!r 
North,  Jeffries  himself,  and  other  oJHcialH. 
Armstrong  was  executed  on  Friday,  20  June 
1684.  Huggons  {Remarks  on  Burnet's  Hist. 
p.  269)  relates : '  I  saw  that  unhappy  man  go 
to  die ;  ...  he  threw  about  his  arms  as  lar 
as  the  rope  that  tied  him  would  permit  .  .  . 
he  ttirned  about  his  head,  shrugged  up  his 
shoulders,  with  convulsions  and  distortions 
of  his  countenance.'  At  the  scaffold  he  be- 
came so  resigned  as  to  astonish  those  who 
knew  his  hot  temper.  He  was  met  by  Teni- 
son,  who  took  charge  -of  a  written  paper  h«! 
gave  him  protesting  his  innocence. 

His  body  was  quartered ;  his  head  was 
fixed  at  Westminster  Hall,  between  the 
heads  of  BradshaAV  and  Cromwell  (Eachaeu, 
p.  1043).  On  1  July  Armstrong's  protest  was 
given  to  the  world  ;  a  general  feeling  pre- 
vailed, fortified  by  the  legal  opinion  of  Sir 
John  Ilawles,  Solicitor-General,  that  a  gi-eat 
injustice  had  been  done,  since  no  outlawed 
person  ever  was  denied  his  trial  before 
(Oldjiixon,  Hist,  of  Stuarts,  p.  686)  ;  and 
in  1689,  after  examination  of  Dame  Katharine 
Armstrong,  tlie  widow,  and  her  daughters, 
a  sum  of  5,000/.  was  ordered  to  be  paid  to 
them,  and  the  attainder  was  reversed.  Five 
years  elapsed  before  this  was  carried  out  by 
William  and  3Iary  in  1694. 

[True  Accoiuit  and  Declaration  of  the  Horrid 
Coiijspiracy,  published  by  command  of  James  11 , 
1685  ;Biograpliia  Britannica,  where  the  Scaffold 
Paper  is  in  e.vtc7iso ;  Russeirs  Life  of  Lord 
Russell,  p.  257 ;  Clarendon's  Hist. ;  Kennet's 
Chronicle.]  J.  H. 

ARMSTRONG,  WILLIAM  {Jl.  1596), 
a  famous  border  mosstrooper,  was  generally 
known  as  Kinmont  Willie,  from  his  castle 
of  Morton  Tower  or  Kinmont,  afterwards 
called  Sark,  on  the  Sark  water,  in  the  parish 
of  Canonbie,  Dumfriesshire.  He  is  said  to 
have  been  a  near  relation  of  the  equally  fa- 
mous John  Armstrong,  of  Gilnockie,  and  in 
the  '  Register  of  the  Privy  Council  of  Scot- 
land '  (iv.  796y  he  is  mentioned  as  one  of  the 
principals  of  the  clan  Armstrong.  The  earliest 
notice  of  him  is  under  date  22  Oct.  1569  as 
entering  a  pledge  for  himself  and  kin  (ii.  44), 
and  he  again  appears,  5  March,  1570,  as 
making  submission  in  respect  of  feuds  be- 
tween him  and  the  TumbuUs  (iii.  169).  Will 
is  said  to  have  been  of  great  size  and  strength 
— '  the  starkest  man  in  Teviotdale ' — and  he 
and  his  sons  brought  together  as  many  as 
three  hundred  men,  who  were  the  dread  of 
the  English  border.  With  liis  followers  he 
accompanied  the  Earl  of  Angus  to  Stirling 
in  1585  to  displace  the  Earl  of  Arran,  when 
it  is  repoi-ted  that,  not  satisfied  with  emptying 


Armstrong 


I02 


Armstrong 


the  stables  and  pillaging  the  town,  they  tore 
oft"  the  iron  gratings  from  the  windows  and 
carried  them  away.  In  1587  his  capture  and 
that  of  Robert  Maxwell,  natural  brother  to 
Lord  Maxwell,  formed  the  object  of  a  royal 
expedition  to  Dumfries  ;  but  the  freebooters 
succeeded  in  escaping  at  Tarras  Moss.  The 
conjecture  of  Sir  Walter  Scott  that  Arm- 
strong originally  held  some  connection  with 
the  Maxwells,  the  hereditary  enemies  of  the 
Scotts  of  Buccleugh,  is  fully  corroborated  by 
the  '  Register  of  the  Privy  Council,'  which 
shows  that  in  1569  Lord  Maxwell  was  his 
surety  (ii.  44),  while  in  1590  he  is  mentioned 
as  his  landlord  (iv.  796).  On  14  Aug.  of  the 
same  year,  in  a  proclamation  for  the  peace  of 
the  borders,  it  is  declared  that  lands  debate- 
able  within  the  West  Marches  shall  be  '  sett 
heritablie  or  in  long  takkis  or  rentale '  to  cer- 
tain persons  ;  Willie  Armstrong  among  the 
number  (iv.  799).  The  effect  of  this  arrange- 
ment was  only  temporary.  Armstrong,  by 
his  continued  depredations,  so  tantalised  the 
English  borderers,  that  his  capture  came  to 
be  regarded  as  of  prime  importance.  Ac- 
cordingly, while  returning  in  1596  from  a 
warden  court  held  by  the  English  and  Scotch 
deputy  wardens,  he  was  pursued  by  200 
English  borderers,  brought  before  the  English 
warden,  and  by  him  imprisoned  in  Carlisle 
Castle.  Scott  of  Buccleugh,  the  Scotch  war- 
den, demanded  his  release  of  Lord  Scrope,  on 
the  ground  that  the  capture  was  made  during 
a  truce,  and,  receiving  no  satisfactoiy  reply, 
arrived  on  a  dark  tempestuous  night  with  two 
himdred  men  before  the  castle,  and,  under- 
mining a  postern  gate,  carried  him  off  unper- 
ceived  by  the  guards.  Notwithstanding  the 
bloodless  character  of  the  daring  exploit,  it 
almost  led  to  a  rupture  between  the  two 
kingdoms,  and  was  the  subject  of  a  conside- 
rable amount  of  correspondence,  Avhich  is 
given  in  the  State  Papers.  On  account  of  it 
Buccleugli  had  for  a  time  to  go  into  ward  in 
England  [see  Scott,  Waltek,  first  Lord  of 
Buccleugh].  The  ultimate  fate  of  Annstrong 
is  not  known.  The  only  fui-ther  notice  of 
him  is  in  the  list  of  border  clans  in  1597  as, 
along  with  Krystie  Armstrong  and  John 
Shynbank,  leader  of  a  band  of  Armstrongs 
called  '  Sandie's  Bairns.'  The  tombstone  of  a 
William  Armstrong,  discovered  in  an  old 
churchyard  at  Sark,  is  stated  by  W.  Scott, 
•^ho  gives  an  engraving  of  it  in  '  Border  Ex- 
ploits '  (1832),  p.  329,  to  be  that  of  Kinmont 
Willie.  The  tombstone  was  presented  to  the 
Society  of  Antiquaries  of  Scotland,  but,  as  is 
pointed  out  in  their '  Proceedings '  (new  series, 
viii.  234),  the  Armstrong  to  whom  it  refers, 
having  died  in  1658  at  the  age  of  56,  must 
be  a  different  person  from  this  noted  border 


mosstrooper.  The  rescue  of  Armstrong  from 
Carlisle  Castle  is  the  subject  of  the  ballad  of 
'  Kinmont  Willie,'  first  printed  by  Sir  Walter 
Scott  in  liis  '  Scottish  Minstrelsy,'  who  states 
that  it  was  preserved  by  tradition,  but  has 
been  much  mangled  by  reciters.  It  is  also 
included  in  Ayton's  '  Ballads  of  Scotland.' 

[Scott,  Minstrelsy  of  the  Scottish  Border ;  Scot 
of  Satchells,  a  true  history  of  several  honourable 
families  of  the  name  of  Scot  (1776) ;  Scott,  Bor- 
der Exploits,  p.  325-329  ;  Spottiswoode,  History 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  iii.  1-5 ;  Tytler's 
History  of  Scotland  ;  Fraser,  The  Scotts  of  Buc- 
cleugh (1878),  i.  Ixvi,  169,  180-202,  206,  209, 
222  ;  Eegister  of  the  Privy  Council  of  Scotland, 
ii.  44,  iii.  169,  iv.  796,  799,  804,  805,  v.  290^ 
298-9,  300,  323-4,  361,  423,  761.]      T.  F.  H. 

AHMSTRONG,  AYILLIAM  (1602?- 
1658  ?),  known  as  Cheistie's  Will,  a  border- 
freebooter,  was  the  son  or  grandson  of  the 
Christie  Armstrong  referred  to  in  the  ballad 
of  'Johnnie  Armstrong'  as  '  Kristy  my  son,' 
and  inherited  Gilnockie  Tower.  Having 
been  imprisoned  in  the  Tolbooth,  Jedburgh, 
for  stealing  two  colts  during  a  marauding 
expedition,  he  received  his  release  through 
the  interposition  of  the  Earl  of  Traquair, 
lord  high  treasurer,  and  henceforth  became 
devoted  heart  and  soul  to  the  earl's  in- 
terests. Some  time  afterwards  a  lawsuit, 
in  which  the  Earl  of  Traquair  was  a  party, 
was  on  for  trial  in  the  Court  of  Session, 
Edinburgh.  The  decision,  it  was  supposed, 
would  turn  on  the  opinion  of  the  presid- 
ing judge,  Lord  Durie,  who  was  known  to 
be  unfavourable  to  Lord  Traquair.  Arm- 
strong, therefore,  kidnapped  the  judge  at 
Leith  Sands,  where  he  was  taking  his  usual 
exercise  on  horseback,  and  conveyed  him 
blindfold  to  an  old  castle,  the  tower  of  Gra- 
ham, on  the  Dryfe  water,  near  Moffat.  The 
judge's  fi-iends  mourned  for  him  as  dead,  the 
belief  being  that  his  horse  had  thrown  him 
into  the  sea ;  but  after  the  case  was  settled 
he  was  again  conveyed  blindfold  to  Leith 
Sands,  whence  he  made  his  way  home  three 
months  later  than  his  horse.  As  Lord  Durie 
was  twice  chosen  president  of  the  court, 
namely,  for  the  summer  session  of  1642,  and 
for  the  winter  session  of  1643,  his  capture 
must  have  taken  place  in  one  of  these  years. 
Armstrong  is  said  also  to  have  been  ern- 
ployed  by  Traquair,  during  the  civil  war,  in 
conveying  a  packet  to  the  king,-  and  on  his 
I'eturn  to  have  made  his  escape  at  Carlisle 
from  the  pursuit  of  Cromwell  s  soldiers  by 
springing  his  horse  over  the  parapet  of  the 
bridge  that  crosses  the  Eden,  which  was  then 
in  flood.  It  is  not  impossible  that  the  tomb- 
stone discovered  in  the  churchyard  of  Sark;, 


Arnald 


103 


Arne 


supposed  at  one  time  to  be  that  of  *  Kjnmont 
Willie,'  may  really  commemorate  *  Christie's 
Will.'  The  William  Armstrong  to  whom  it 
refers  died  in  1658  at  the  age  of  56.  The 
bdlad  of  '  Christie's  Will,'  published  by  Sir 
Walter  Scott  in  *  Minstrelsy  of  the  Scottish 
Border,'  is,  according  to  Sir  Walter,  not  to 
be  regarded  as  of  genuine  and  unmixed 
antiquity. 

[Scott's  Minstrelsy  of  the  Scottish  Border.] 

T.  1«\  H. 

ARNALD,   IlICIIARD  (1700-1756),  a 
distinguished  divine,  was  born  in  1700.     He 
Avas  a  native  of  London,  and  received  his 
- ,  education  at  Bishop  Stortford  School,  whence 
I  he  proceeded  in  1714  to  Corpus  Christi  Col- 
/  lege,  Cambridge.     After  graduating  B. A.,  he 
'•  removed  to  Emmanuel  College,  where   he 
I  v  was  elected  to  a  fellowship  on  24  June,  1720, 
^  and  took  the  degreeV)f  M.  A .    While  resident 
at   Emmanuel    he    printed   two   copies    of 
Sapphics  on  the  death  of  George  I,  and  a 
sermon  (on  Col.  ii.  8)  preached  at  Bishop 
Stortford  school-feast  on  3  Aug.  1726.     In 
1733  he  was  presented  to  the  living  of  Thur- 
caston  in  Leicestershire,  and  was  afterwards 
made  prebendary  of  Lincoln.     He  published 
in  1746  a  sermon  on  2  Kings  xiv.  8:  'The 
Parable  of  the  Cedar  and  the  Thistle  exem- 
plified in  the  g^-eat  Victory  at  Culloden;'  and 
in  1760,  a  '  Sermon  on  Deuteronomy  xxxiii. 
8.'    The  work  by  which  he  is  remembered  is 
his  critical  commentary  on  the  Apocryphal 
books.      This   learned   and  judicious  work 
was  published  as  a  continuation  of  Patrick 
and  Lowth's  commentaries.     It  embraces  a 
commentary  on  the  Book  of  Wisdom,  1744 ; 
on  Ecclesiasticus,  1748 ;  on  Tobit,  Judith, 
Baruch,  History  of  Susannah,  and  Bel  and 
the  Dragon,  with  dissertations  on  the  two 
books  of  Esdras  and  Maccabees,  with  a  trans- 
lation of  Calmet's  treatise  on  the  Daemon 
Asmodeus,  1752.     An  edition  was  published 
in  1822  under  the  care  of  M.  Pitman.  Arnald 
died  on  4  Sept.  1756,  and  was  buried  in  Thur- 
caston  church.     His  widow  died  in  1782. 

William  Arnald,  his  son,  was  fellow  of 
St.  John's  College,  Cambridge,  in  1767,  and 
head-tutor  in  1768.  He  became  chaplain  to 
Bishop  Hurd  in  1775,  and  precentor  of  Lich- 
field Cathedral.  By  Kurd's  influence  he  was 
appointed  in  1776  preceptor  to  the  Prince 
of  Wales  and  the  Duke  of  York,  and  was 
made  canon  of  Windsor.  In  January  1782 
signs  of  insanity  appeared,  and  he  continued 
insane  till  his  death  on  5  Aug.  1802.  It  was, 
indeed,  an  unfortunate  family.  '  One  of  his 
brothers,'  says  Cole,  *  was  drowned,  and  his 
sisters  ill  married  or  worse.'  By  the  direc- 
tions  in  his   will,  a  sermon   that  he  had 


preached  before  the  university  (in  1781)  was 
published  in  the  year  after  his  death. 

[Nichols's  Leicestershire,  iii.  pt.  ii.  pp.  1059, 
1071 ;  History  of  Corpus  Christi  College,  Cam- 
bridge, 1831,  p.  456;  Cole's  MS.  Athenae.] 

A.  H.  B. 

ARNALL,  WILLIAM  (1715P-1741  .P), 
political  writer,  was  bred  as  an  attorney,  but 
took  to  political  writing  before  he  was  twenty. 
He  was  one  of  the  authors  in  Walpole's  pay 
who  replied  to  the  ' Craftsman'  and  the  va- 
rious attacks  of  Bolingbroke  and  Pulteney. 
He  wrote  the  *  Free  Briton  '  under  the  sig- 
nature of  Francis  Walsingham,  and  succeeded 
Concanen  in  the  '  British  Journal.'  One  of 
his  tracts,  in  which  he  disputes  certain 
claims  of  the  clergy  in  regard  to  tithes,  is 
reprinted  in  '  The  Pillars  of  Priestcraft  and 
Orthodoxy  shaken.'  '  A  letter  to  Dr.  Codex 
[Dr.  Gibson]  on  his  modest  instructions  to 
the  Crown,'  and  '  Opposition  no  proof  of  Pa- 
triotism,' upon  Bundle's  appointment  to  the 
see  of  Londonderry,  are  attributed  to  him. 
The  report  of  the  committee  of  inquiry  into 
Walpole's  conduct  states  that  in  the  years 
1731-41  a  sum  of  50,077/.  18s.  was  paid  to 
the  authors  of  newspapers  from  the  secret 
service  money,  and  from  a  schedule  appended 
it  seems  that  Arnall  received  in  four  years 
10,997/.  6*.  8d.  of  this  sum.  It  does  not 
appear  whether  he  received  any  part  of  this 
on  behalf  of  others  or  for  printing  expenses. 
Arnall  is  also  said  to  have  received  a  pension 
of  400/.  a  year.  He  is  said  to  have  died  at 
the  age  of  twenty-six  in  1741,  though  'other 
accounts  '  say  1736.  Pope  attacked  him  in 
the '  Dunciad '  (Bk.  ii.  315),  where  his  name 
was  substituted  for  Welsted's  in  1735,  and 
in  the  epilogue  to  the  '  Satires '  (Dialogue  ii. 
129) :  '  Spirit  of  Arnall,  aid  me  whilst  I  lie ! ' 

[Chalmers's    Biog.    Diet. ;    Pope's    Dunciad ; 
Maty's  Miscellaneous  Works  of  Chesterfield,  p.  5.] 

ARNE,  CECILIA  (1711-1789),  the  eldest 
daughter  of  Charles  Young,  organist  of  All- 
hallows,  Barking,  was  a  pupil  of  Geminiani. 
Her  first  appearance  at  Drury  Lane  took 
place  in  1730,  and  in  1736  she  married  Dr. 
Arne.  She  took  the  part  of  Sabrina  at  the 
first  performance  of  her  husband's  setting  of 
*  Comus'  at  Drury  Lane,  4  March  1738,  and 
she  also  sang  at  Clieveden  1  Aug.  1740, 
when  *  Alfred  '  and  the  '  Judgment  of  Paris ' 
were  produced  before  the  Prince  and  Prin- 
cess of  Wales.  In  1742  Mrs.  Arne  accom- 
panied her  husband  to  Dublin,  where  she  sang 
with  great  success  both  in  operas  and  concerts. 
On  her  return,  *  Alfred '  was  performed 
for  her  benefit  at  Dniry  Lane,  20  March 
1745.     In  the  same  year  she  was  engaged  at 


Arne 


ip4 


Arne 


Vauxhall  Gardens,  where  she  increased  her 
reputation  by  her  admirable  singing  of  her 
husband's  songs  and  ballads.  Soon  after  this 
she  seems  to  have  given  up  singing  in  public, 
as  her  place  was  taken  by  Dr.  Arne's  pupils, 
of  whom  Miss  Brent  was  the  most  distin- 
guished. She  survived  her  husband,  by  whom 
she  was  left  badly  off,  and  died  at  the  house 
of  Barthelemon  at  Vauxhall,  6  Oct.  1789. 
In  the  judgment  of  her  contemporaries, 
Cecilia  Arne  was  one  of  the  most  pleasing 
of  the  English  singers  of  her  day.  She  was 
often  called  '  the  nightingale  of  the  stage,' 
and  her  voice  was  said  to  be  '  unequalled  for 
melody,  fulness,  and  flexibility.' 

[Grove's  Dictionary,  i.  84;  Dibdin's  Musical 
Tour,  1778;  Daviess  Memoirs  of  Garrick, 
ii.  p.  171,  1808;  Gentleman's  Magazine,  1789; 
Genest's  History  of  the  Stage,  1832.]    W.  B.  S. 


ARNE,  MICHAEL  (1741  ?-17l 


sician,  the  son  of  Dr.  Arne,  Avas  born  either  in 
1740  or  1741.    Ilis  father  wished  to  make  him 
a  singer,  and  his  aunt,  Mrs.  Cibber,  brought 
him  on  the  stage  when  very  young,  in  the 
part  of  the  page  in  Otway's  tragedy,  '  The 
Orphan,'  but  giving  evidence  of  more  talent 
as   an   instrumentalist  than   a  vocalist  he 
henceforth  came  before  the  public  principally 
as  a  performer  on  the  harpsicliord,  in  which 
capacity  he  played  at  a  concert  when  he  was 
only  eleven.     Ilis  performance  of  Scarlatti's 
Lessons  and  his  facility  in  executing  double  \ 
shakes  are  noted  by  his  contemporaries.  His 
first  published  composition  was  a  volume  of  ! 
English  songs,  '  by  Master  Arne,'  and  after  j 
producing  several  similar  collections,  in  1763 
he  wrote  music  for  '  The  Fairy  Tale '  and 
*  Hymen  '  (performed  at  Drury  Lane).     In  ] 
the  following  year  Michael  Arne,  in  collabo- 
ration with  Jonathan  Battishill,  set  the  opera 
of  *  Almena,'  which  was  produced  at  Drury 
Lane  6  Nov.  1764,  and  was  played  six  times. 
At  this  time  he  was  living  at  14  Crown 
Court,  Russell  Street,  Covent  Garden.     On 
20  March  1765  he  was  elected  a  member  of 
the  Madrigal  Society,  but  in  the  following 
year  his  membership  ceased.      He  was  re- 
elected on  16  Dec.  1767  (Records  of  Madnyal 
Soc).      On  5  Nov.  1766,  he   married  Miss 
Elizabeth  Wright,  who  sang  in  her  husband's 
next  work,  '  Cymon,'  a  spectacular  drama, 
written  by  Garrick,  which  was  successfully 
produced  at  Drury  Lane  2  Jan.  1767.     He 
was  now  living  '  at  Mr.  O'KeefFe's,  at  the 
Golden  Unicorn,  near  Hanover  Street,  Long 
Acre,'   but  about   this   time,   according  to 
some  accounts  during  a  visit  to  Dublin,  he 
became  engrossed  in  the  pursuit  of  alchemy, 
and  built  a  laboratory  at  Chelsea  in  order 
to    caiTy  on  his  attempts   to   discover   the 


philosopher's  stone.  Ruined  and  bankrupt, 
he  was  before  long  forced  to  return  to  music. 
In  1770  he  was  living '  at  Mr.  Doron's,  facing 
the  Vine,  near  Vauxhall.'  He  published 
several  volumes  of  songs,  which  were  sung 
at  Vauxhall  Gardens,  Avliere  his  first  wife 
supported  him  by  singing  until  her  death 
(which  occurred  before  1775),  and  he  also 
supplied  music  for  several  dramas.  In  1779 
he  obtained  an  engagement  at  Dublin,  but 
in  1784  he  was  once  more  in  London,  and 
died  at  South  Lambeth,  14  Jan.  1786,  leaving 
his  second  wife  in  a  state  of  gTeat  destitu- 
tion. Burney  (in  '  Rees's  Cyclopaedia ')  says 
of  Michael  Arne  that  'he  was  always  in  debt, 
and  often  in  prison  ;  he  sung  his  first  wife  to 
death,  and  starved  the  second,  leaving  her  in 
absolute  beggary.' 

[Grove's  Dictionary,  i.  83  ;  Rees's  Cyclopaedia, 

vol.  ii.,  1819;  British  Museum  Catalogue;  Dili- 

,  mu-  I  din's  Musical  Tour,  1788;  European  Magazine, 


vols.  vi.  and  ix. ;   Garrick's  Correspondence 
Forster  Bequest  at  South  Kensington  Museum  ; 
Kelly's  Reminiscences,  1826.]  W.  B.  S. 

ARNE,  THOMAS  AUGUSTINE  (1710- 
1778),  musical  composer,  was   the   son   of 
Thomas  Arne,  an  upholsterer,  who  lived  in 
King  Street,  Covent  Garden,  where  his  shop 
was  known  as  the  '  Crown  and  Cushion,'  or, 
according  to  some  authorities,  as  the  '  Two 
Crowns  and  Cushion.'     Thomas  Arne  is  said 
to  have  been  the  upholsterer  Avith  whom  the 
'  Indian  kings '  lodged,  as  chronicled  in  the 
'  Spectator,'  No.  50,  and  the  '  Tatler,'  No.  171 , 
and  some  biographers  luave   identified  liim 
with  one  Edward  Arne,  who  was  the  original 
of  the  political  upholsterer  of  Nos.  155,  160, 
and  178  of  the '  Tatler,'  although  it  is  suffici- 
ently obvious  that  the  latter  do  not  refer  to 
the  same  individual  as  is  mentioned  in  the 
earlier  numbers.     Thomas  Arne  was  twice 
married ;  by  his  second  wife,  Anne  Wheeler, 
to  whom   he  was  mamed  at  the  Mercers' 
Chapel  in  April  1707,  he  had  Thomas  Augus- 
tine, who  was  born  12  March  1710,  Susanna 
Maria  (afterwards  celebrated  as  Mrs.  Cibber), 
and  other  children.    Thomas  Augustine  was 
educated  at  Eton,  where  he  does  not  seem 
to  have  distinguished  himself  otherwise  than 
as  a  performer  on  the  flute,  and  on  leaving 
school  Avas  placed  by  his  father  in  a  lawyer's 
office.     During  this  pei'iod   of  his  life,  the 
love  of  music  Avhich  had  characterised  his 
Eton   career  speedily  dcA-elopedj   although 
his  passion   had   to   be  concealed  from  his 
father.     He  privately  took  lessons  on  the 
violin  from  Michael  Testing,  and  practised 
the  spinet  at  night  on  an  instrument  he  had 
secretly  conveyed  to  his  room,  the  strings 
of  which  he   muffled   with  handkerchiefs. 


Arne 


»o5 


Arne 


He   also   devoted   himself  to   the   study  of 
haruiony  iiiid  composition,  and,  disguised  in 
u   borrowed   livery,    used   to   frequent   the 
opera-house  galleries  to  which  servants  had 
free  admittance.     His  musical  progress  was 
so  marked  that  he  was  soon  able  to  l«;ad  a 
chamber  band  of  amateurs,  and  it  was  when 
so  engaged  that  young  Arne  Avas  one  day 
found  by  his  astonished  father.      The  dis- 
covery of  his  son's  musical  talents  was  at 
first   met   with   a   considerable    display   of 
wrath  on   the   part  of  Thomas   Arne,  but 
<iventually  he  had  the  good  sense  to  recog- 
nise  that   the   boy   was  more   fitted   for  a 
musician  than  a  lawyer,  and  after  some  hesi- 
tation to  allow  him  to  cultivate  the  talents 
Avhich  he  so  decidedly  displayed.     Not  con- 
tent with  cultivating  his  own  abilities,  Anie 
henceforward   turned   his  attention   to  the 
dormant  faculties  of  his  sister  and  brother, 
to  the  former  of  whom  he  gave  such  instruc- 
tion in  singing  as  to  lead  to  her  appearance 
on  the   operatic   stage    in    Lampe's   opera 
'  Amelia '  in  March  1 732.     Encouraged  by 
the  success  she  achieved,  he  wrote  new  music 
for  Addison's  opera  *  Rosamond,'  which  was 
produced  at  the  Lincoln's  Inn  P'ields  theatre, 
on  7  March  1733,  with  Mrs.  Barbier,  INIiss 
Arne,  Mrs.  Jones,  Miss  Chambers,  Leveridge, 
Corfe,  and  the  composer's  younger  brother 
in  the  principal  parts,  and  was  played  for 
ten   nights    successively.      His   next  work 
was  a  version  of  P^ielding's  '  Tom  Thumb,' 
altered  into  '  The  Opera  of  Operas,'  a  mu- 
sical burlesque,  which  was  produced  at  the 
llaymarket,  31   May  1733,  and  was  acted 
eleven  times.     In  the  same  year  he  produced 
(19  Dec.)   at   the  same  theatre   a  masque, 
*  Dido  and  yEneas,'  in  which  both  his  brother 
and  sister  sang.    Early  in  the  following  year 
the   Arne   family  were   engaged   at  Drury 
Lane,  Miss  Arne  and  '  young  Master  Arne ' 
as  singers,  and  the  composer  in  some  capacity 
which  is  not  recorded,  though,  from  the  fact 
of  his  haying  benefits  on  29  April  and  3  June, 
he  must  have  already  had  some  recognised 
post.     In  April  1734  Susanna  Arne  married 
Theophilus  Gibber  [see  Cibbkr,  Mrs.],  and 
in  1736  Arne  wrote  music  for  the  play  of 
'  Zara,'  in  which  she  for  the  first  time  ap- 
peared  as   an   actress.     In   the   same  year 
Arne  married  the  singer  Cecilia  Young  [see 
Arne,  Cecilia].    On  4  March  1738  Milton's 
'  Comus,'  with  additions  and  alterations  by 
Dr.  Dal  ton,  was  produced  at  Drury  Lane, 
tlie  principal  parts  being  perfonned  by  Quin, 
-Milward,  Cibber  jun.,   Mills,   Beard,   Mrs. 
(Jibber,  Mrs.  Clive,  and  Mrs.  Arne.  For  this 
performance  Arne  wrote  his  well-known  and 
charming  music,  which  still  retains  the  fresh- 
ness and  delicacy  of  its  melody.     In  this 


work  Ame  already  shows  himself  a  master 
of  the  peculiarly  English  style  which  is  the 
gi'eat  cliarm  of  his  music;  he  entered  tho- 
roughly into  the  spirit  of  Milton's  masque, 
his  setting  of  the  words  of  some  of  the 
songs  showing  a  degree  of  poetical  and 
musical  insight  which  is  surprising  at  the 
period  at  which  he  wrote.  Considering  the 
beauty  of  the  music  and  the  strength  of  the 
cast,  it  is  suqirising  to  find  that  *  Comus ' 
was  played  only  about  eleven  times,  though 
it  was  subsequently  frequently  revived  at 
both  houses,  and  has  kept  the  stage  almost 
until  the  present  day.  Arne's  next  works 
were  settings  of  two  masques,  Congreve's 
*  Judgment  of  Paris,'  and  Thomson  and 
Mallet's  *  Alfred.'  Both  of  these  were  per- 
formed on  Friday  and  Satui'day,  1  and  2  Aug. 
1740,  on  a  stage  erected  in  the  gardens  of  the 
house  of  Frederick,  Prince  of  Wales,  at  Clive- 
den, Bucks,  at  a  fete  given  in  commemoration 
of  the  accession  of  George  I  and  in  honour  of 
the  birth  of  the  Princess  Augusta.  The  pro- 
gramme also  included  *  several  scenes  out 
of  Mr.  Rich's  pantomime  entertainments' 
{Gejif.  Mat/.  1740,  p.  411).  This  perform- 
ance is  memorable  in  the  annals  of  English 
music,  for  it  was  for  *  Alfred '  that  Ame 
composed  '  Rule  Britannia,'  perhaps  the 
finest  national  song  possessed  by  any  nation, 
and  for  which  alone,  even  if  he  had  pi*o- 
duced  nothing  else,  Arne  would  deser\'e  a 
prominent  place  amongst  musicians  of  all 
countries.  Shortly  after  this  performance, 
'  The  Judgment  of  Paris '  was  given  at  Drury 
Lane,  though  '  Alfred '  was  not  produced  in 
London  until  30  March  1745,  when  it  was 
performed  at  Drury  Lane  for  Mrs.  Ame's 
benefit.  In  about  1740  or  1741  Arne  (who  was 
then  living  at  Craven  Buildings,  near  Drury 
Lane)  obtained  a  royal  grant  assuring  to  him 
the  copyright  of  his  compositions  for  four- 
teen years.  After  producing  several  minor 
pieces  at  Drury  Lane — amongst  which  is 
the  beautiful  music  to  '  As  You  Like  It ' 
and  '  Twelfth  Night ' — Arne  and  his  wife, 
towards  the  end  of  1742,  went  to  Dublin, 
where  they  remained  until  the  end  of  1744, 
both  husband  and  wife  winning  fresh  laurels 
as  musician  and  singer.  On  their  return 
from  Ireland,  Mrs.  Ame  was  re-engaged  at 
Drury  Lane,  and  Ame  was  appointed  com- 
poser to  the  same  theatre,  a  post  there  is 
reason  to  believe  he  had  occupied  before; 
somewhat  later  he  was  appointed  leader  of 
the  band  of  the  theatre.  At  this  time  Arne 
was  living  '  next  door  to  the  Crown '  in 
Great  Queen  Street,  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields, 
but  he  seems  soon  to  have  removed,  first 
to  Charles  Street,  and  eventually  to  the 
house  in  the  Piazza,  Covent  Garden,  which 


Arne 


io6 


Arne 


he  occupied  until  his  death.  In  1745  Mrs. 
Arne  was  engaged  at  Vauxhall  Gardens, 
while  Arne  was  also  commissioned  to  write 
songs  for  the  concerts  held  at  the  same 
place.  For  Vauxhall,  Marylebone,  and 
Itanelagh  he  for  many  years  wrote  an  im- 
mense number  of  detached  songs  and  duets, 
many  of  which,  though  now  forgotten,  are 
well  worth  revival.  In  1746  he  wrote  songs 
for  a  performance  of  '  The  Tempest '  at 
Drury  Lane,  amongst  which  is  the  charming 
setting  of  '  Where  the  Bee  sucks,'  which, 
after  '  Rule  Britannia,'  is  probably  now  the 
best  remembered  of  his  compositions.  Two 
years  later,  on  the  death  of  Thomson, 
Mallet  determined  to  remodel  *  Alfred  ; '  in 
its  altered  form  it  was  prod\iced  at  Drury 
Lane  in  Feb.  1751,  on  which  occasion  three 
additional  stanzas  wei'e  added  to  'Rule 
Britannia ;'  these  extra  verses  were  said  to 
have  been  written  by  Bolingbroke  a  few 
days  before  his  death  (Davies,  Memoirs  of 
Garrick,  London,  1808).  About  this  time 
INIrs.  Arne  left  oft"  singing  in  public,  her 
place  being  henceforth  taken  by  the  numerous 
pupils  whom  Arne  brought  before  the  public. 
As  a  teacher  he  enjoyed  a  great  and  deserved 
reputation,  one  secret  of  his  success  being 
the  great  importance  he  attached  to  the 
clear  enunciation  of  the  words  in  singing. 
His  most  distinguished  pupil  was  Miss 
Brent,  for  whom  he  composed  a  number  of 
bravura  airs,  which,  being  generally  written 
for  the  display  of  her  remarkable  powers 
of  execution,  are  of  less  value  than  the  re- 
fined and  delicate  songs  he  wrote  at  an 
earlier  period  for  his  wife.  For  these  occa- 
sional songs  and  airs  he  received  twenty 
guineas  for  every  collection  of  eight  or  nine 
compositions  {Add.  MS.  28959).  On  12  March 
1755,  he  produced  his  first  oratorio,  'Abel ;' 
but  neither  this  nor  a  svibsequent  work, 
'Judith'  (produced  at  the  chapel  of  the 
Lock  Hospital,  Pimlico,  on  29  Feb.  1764) 
achieved  any  success,  mainly,  it  is  said, 
owing  to  the  inadequacy  of  the  forces  at  his 
disposal  for  the  performances.     On  6  July 

1759,  the  university  of  Oxford  conferred 
upon  Arne  the  degree  of  doctor  of  music. 
The  relations  of  Arne  with  Garrick  at  this 
period  seem  to  have  become  rather  strained. 
Garrick  was  no  musician,  and  Arne,  whose 
talent  was  beginning  to  suffer  from  over- 
production, had  written  one  or  two  works  for 
Drury  Lane  (then  under  Garrick's  manage- 
ment) which  had  been  decided  failures.  It  is 
therefore  not  sui-prising  to  find  that  in  1760 
Arne  transfeiTed  his  services  to  the  rival 
house  of  Covent  Garden,  where,  on  28  Nov. 

1760,  his  'Thomas  and  Sally'  was  played 
with  Beard,  Mattocks,  and  Miss  Brent  in  the 


chief  parts.  Arne's  next  venture  was  a  bold 
one,  but,  as  the  result  proved,  perfectly  suc- 
cessful. Determined  to  give  Miss  Brent  an 
exceptional  opportunity  for  the  display  of 
her  powers,  he  translated  the  Abbate  Meta- 
stasio's  '  Artaserse,'  setting  it  to  music  in  the- 
florid  and  artificial  style  of  the  Italian  opera 
of  the  day.  The  opera  was  produced  at 
Covent  Garden  on  2  Feb.  1762,  the  parts  of 
Mandane,  Arbaces,  Artabanes,  Aitaxerxes,. 
Rimenes  and  Semira  being  respectively  filled 
by  Miss  Brent,  Tenducci,  Beard,  Peretti, 
Mattocks,  and  Miss  Thomas.  The  Avork  was 
immediately  successful,  and  long  kept  the- 
stage,  yet  Arne,  when  it  was  printed,  only 
received  from  the  publisher  the  trifling  sum 
of  sixty  guineas  for  the  copyright.  '  Ar- 
taxerxes '  was  followed  by  several  works  of 
no  great  importance,  the  chief  of  which  were 
'  Love  in  a  Village,'  a  successful  pasticcio 
produced  in  1762 ;  and  a  setting,  to  the  origi- 
nal Italian  words,  of  Metastasio's  '  Olimpiade,' 
a  work  which  was  produced  at  the  Haymarket 
in  1764,  but  was  only  performed  twice.  In 
1765  Arne  was  for  a  short  time  a  member 
of  the  Madrigal  Society  {Records  of  the 
Madrigal  Soc).  In  1769  Gan-ick,  with 
whom  Arne,  though  never  on  very  good 
terms,  seems  to  have  always  kept  up  some 
sort  of  intercourse,  commissioned  the  com- 
poser to  write  music  for.  the  ode  performed 
at  the  Shakespeare  jubilee  at  Stratfctrd-on- 
Avon.  For  this  setting  of  Garrick's  verses 
Arne  received  63^.,  and  in  addition  to  this 
a  performance  of  his  oratorio  '  Judith '  at 
the  parish  church  was  somewhat  incongi-u- 
ously  included  in  the  programme  of  the  fes- 
tivities in  honour  of  Shakespeare.  Am& 
now  remained  on  tolerably  good  terms  with 
the  managers  of  both  houses,  and  the  record 
of  the  rest  of  his  life  consists  of  little  more 
than  a  chronicle  of  the  production  of  nu- 
merous light  operas  and  incidental  music 
written  for  difterent  plays.  During  these 
years  (from  1769  until  1778)  he  composed 
and  wrote  music  for  the  following  works  : 
'The  Ladies'  Frolic,'  'The  Cooper,'  'May 
Day,'  '  The  Rose  '  (said  to  have  been  written 
by  '  an  Oxford  student,'  but  genei-ally  attri- 
buted to  Arne),  '  The  Fairy  Princej'  '  The 
Contest  of  Beauty  and  Virtue,'  '  Phcebe  at 
Court,'  '  The  Trip  to  Portsmouth,'  and  Ma- 
son's tragedies  of  '  Elfrida '  and  '  Carac- 
tacus.'  The  latter  work  was  published  in 
1775,  with  a  preface  and  introduction  in  which 
Arne  shows  a  curious  insight  into  the  rela- 
tionship between  dramatic  poetry  and  music. 
He  expresses  opinions  on  the  subject,  the  truth 
of  which,  though  couched  in  the  stilted  lan- 
guage of  the  period,  is  only  beginning  to  be 
recognised  at  the  present  day.    The  overture 


Arne 


107 


Arnold 


to  the  same  work  is  a  singular  attempt  at 
programme  music,  and  the  minute  directions 
as  to  the  constitution  of  the  orchestra  and 
uuinner  of  performance  almost  forestall  the 
similar  annotations  to  be  found  in  the  works 
of  Hector  Berlioz.  During  the  latter  years 
of  Arne's  life  he  achieved  but  few  successes. 
He  was  fond  of  writing  his  own  libretti, 
which  were,  luifortunately,  anything  but 
good,  and  the  failure  of  his  pupils  at  one 
opera-house — particularly  if  another  pupil 
had  been  successful  at  the  rival  house — 
caused  little  bickerings  which  jarred  upon  his 
sensitive  nature.  In  August  1775  he  wrote 
to  Garrick,  complaining  of  the  latter's  neglect : 

*  These  unkind  prejudices  the  Doctor  can  no 
other  wise  account  for  than  as  arising  from 
an  irresistable  Apathy,'  a  statement  to  which 
Garrick  replied  a  few  days  later :  '  How  can 
you  imagine  that  I  have  an  irresistable 
Apathy  to  you  ?  I  suppose  you  mean  An- 
tipathy, my  dear  Doctor,  by  the  construc- 
tion and  general  turn  of  your  letter — be 
assur'd  as  my  nature  is  very  little  inclin'd 
to  Apathy,  so  it  is  as  far  from  conceiving  an 
Antipathy  to  you  or  any  genivis  in  tliis  or 
any  other  country,'  in  spite  of  which  polite 
assurance  Garrick  wrote  in  the  same  year  : 

*  I  have  read  your  play  and  rode  your  horse, 
and  do  not  approve  of  either ;'  endorsing  the 
pithy  note,  '  Designed  for  Dr.  Arne,  who 
sold  rc^e  a  horse,  a  very  dull  one ;  and  sent 
me  a  comic  opera,  ditto  '  (Gakkick's  Corre- 
spondence, Forster  Collection).  These  few 
glimpses  of  Arne's  personal  characteristics 
hardly  carry  out  the  statement  of  a  con- 
temporary that  '  his  cheerful  and  even  tem- 
per made  him  endure  a  precarious  pittance ' 
(^DiBDiN,  Musical  Tour,  letter  Ixv.) ;  yet  after 
his  death  it  seems  generally  to  have  been 
considered  that  during  his  lifetime  his  genius 
was  never  sufficiently  appreciated,  and  that 
as  a  musical  hack,  expected  to  supply  music 
for  the  ephemeral  plays  produced  at  both 
Coveut  Garden  and  Drury  Lane,  he  frittered 
away  the  talents  which  ought  to  have  been 
devoted  to  better  work.  His  death  took 
place  on  5  March  1778.  According  to  the 
account  of  an  eye-witness  (Joseph  Vernon, 
the  singer)  he  died  of  a  spasmodic  complaint 
( Gent.  May.  vol.  xlviii.)  in  the  middle  of  a 
conversation  on  some  musical  matter,  with 
his  last  breath  trying  to  sing  a  passage  the 
meaning  of  which  he  was  too  exhausted  to 
»\plain.  He  was  buried  in  St.  Paul's,  Covent 
(iarden.  The  best  portrait  extant  of  Arne 
is  an  oil  painting  by  Zofl'any,  now  in  the 
possession  of  Henry  Littleton,  Esq.,  but 
there  is  also  an  engraving  of  him  after 
Dunkarton,  and  another  (published  10  May 
1782)  after  an  original  sketch  by  Bartolozzi. 


A  caricature  of  Rowlandson's,  entitled  *  A 
Musical  Doctor  and  his  Pupils,'  is  also  pro- 
bably meant  for  Arne.  Mauuscripts  of  his 
music  are  now  rarely  found,  most  of  them 
having  been  destroyed  when  Covent  Garden 
theatre  was  burnt  in  1808,  but  the  full 
autograph  score  of  'Judith'  is  preserved  in 
the  British  Museum  {Add.MSS.  11515-17). 

[Grove's  Dictionary  of  Music,  i.  84  ;  Barney's 
Life  of  Arne,  in  Rees's  Cyclopaediu,  vol.  ii.,  1819, 
Genest,  vols.  iii.  and  iv. ;  Busby's  Concert-room 
Anecdotes,  1825;  Busby's  History  of  Music, 
1819,  vol.  ii. ;  Registers  of  Westminster  Abbey  ; 
Victor's  History  of  the  London  Theatres,  1761- 
1771;  Parke's  Musical  Memoirs,  vol.  i.,  1830; 
the  Harmonicon  for  1825;  ISotes  and  Queries 
(2nd  series),  iv.  415,  v.  91,  316,  319;  and  the 
authorities  quoted  above.]  W.  B.  S. 

ARNISTON,  Lords.    [See  Duxdas.] 

ARNOLD,  BENEDICT  (1741-1801), 
American  and  afterwards  English  general, 
was  born  at  Norwich,  Connecticut,  14  Jan. 
1740-1.  (The  date  usuaUy  given  of  1740 
seems  to  have  originated  from  a  confusion 
between  the  new  and  old  styles.)  His 
family,  of  respectable  station  in  England, 
had  emigrated  from  Dorsetshire ;  his  great 
gi'andfather  had  been  go^'ernor  of  Rhode  Is- 
land ;  his  father,  a  cooper,  owned  several 
vessels  in  the  "West  Indian  trade.  From  his 
infancy  he  manifested  a  mischievous  and  un- 
governable disposition,  of  which  several  cha- 
racteristic traits  are  recorded.  On  attaining 
man's  estate  he  entered  into  business  as  a 
bookseller  and  druggist  at  Ncav  Haven,  Con- 
necticut, married,  adventured  like  his  father 
in  the  West  Indian  trade,  and  acquired  con- 
siderable property,  partly,  there  is  reason  to 
suspect,  by  smuggling.  Upon  the  outbreak 
of  the  dissensions  between  the  colonies  and 
the  mother  country  he  took  a  leading  part 
upon  the  side  of  the  patriots,  and  immedi- 
ately on  receiving  the  news  of  the  battle  of 
Lexington  (19  April  1775)  put  himself  at  the 
head  of  a  company  of  volunteers,  seized  the 
arsenal  at  New  Haven,  and  marched  to  Cam- 
bridge, Massachusetts,  where,  with  true 
military  instinct,  he  proposed  to  the  commit- 
tee of  public  safety  an  expedition  to  capture 
Ticonderoga,  on  Lake  George,  and  Crown 
Point,  on  Lake  Champlain,  the  keys  to  the 
communications  between  Canada  and  New 
York.  The  plan  was  approved,  and  Arnold 
was  despatched  to  "Western  Massachusetts 
to  raise  troops.  While  thus  engaged  he 
learned  that  another  expedition,  under  the 
direction  of  Ethan  Allen,  was  proceeding 
from  Vermont  with  the  same  design.  He 
hurried  to  join  it,  and  claimed  the  command, 
which  was  refused  him,  and  he  had  to  be 


Arnold 


1 08 


Arnold 


content  with  accompanying  it  as  a  volunteer. 
He  took  part  in  the  successful  surprise  of 
Ticonderoga,  11  May,  and  a  few  days  later, 
having  obtained  some  troops  of  his  own,  an- 
ticipated Allen  in  surprising  and  captui'ing 
St.  John's,  also  on  Lake  George.  Difterences 
with  the  Massachusetts  committee  occasioned 
him  to  resign  his  command ;  but  shortly 
afterwards  Washington  adopted  a  plan  pro- 
posed by  him  for  an  expedition  against  Que- 
bec by  way  of  the  river  Kennebec  and  the 
mountains  of  Maine,  to  co-operate  with 
another  expedition  under  Schuyler  proceed- 
ing by  way  of  the  northern  lakes.  After 
enduring  extreme  hardships,  aggravated  by 
the  desertion  of  one  of  his  officers  who 
marched  back  with  a  part  of  the  commissa- 
riat, Arnold  brought  his  troops  successfully 
under  the  walls  of  Quebec,  but  was  too 
weak  to  attack  the  city  until  the  arrival  of 
Schuyler's  column,  now  commanded  by  Mont- 
gomery. On  31  Dec.  1775  the  two  leaders 
assaulted  Quebec,  but  were  disastrously  re- 
pulsed, Montgomery  being  killed  and  Arnold 
severely  wounded.  He  nevertheless  main- 
tained the  blockade  of  Quebec,  *  with  sucli  a 
handful  of  men,'  wrote  his  successor,  '  that 
the  story  when  told  hereafter  will  scarcely 
be  believed.'  lie  subsequently  commanded 
at  Montreal,  and  when  at  last  want  of  sup- 
plies, discontent  among  the  troops,  and  in- 
feriority of  force,  compelled  the  Americans 
to  evacuate  Canada,  he  was  literally  the  last 
man  to  leave  the  country.  His  next  ap- 
pointment was  to  the  command  of  a  flotilla 
on  Lake  Champlain,  where,  after  two  despe- 
rate actions  and  one  dexterous  escape,  he  was 
compelled  to  run  his  vessels  ashore,  but  saved 
himself  and  the  men  under  his  command. 
Shortly  afterwards  he  was,  as  he  conceived, 
vmjustly  treated  by  Congress,  which  pro- 
moted live  brigadiers  to  the  rank  of  major- 
general  over  his  head.  This  conduct  Avas 
probably  occasioned  by  charges  then  pending 
against  him  with  reference  to  the  seizure  of 
property  at  Montreal ;  and  when  he  was 
ultimately  acquitted.  Congress,  though  con- 
senting to  his  promotion,  refused  to  restore 
his  seniority.  The  disgust  thus  occasioned 
was  probably  the  first  motive  to  his  subse- 
quent treacheiy.  He  fought,  however,  at 
Ridgefield,  where  he  escaped  death  as  though 
by  miracle ;  relieved  Fort  Stanwix,  blockaded 
by  Indians ;  and,  placed  nominally  under 
Gates's  orders,  but  in  reality  the  life  and  soul 
of  the  American  army,  took  the  most  con- 
spicuous part  in  the  two  battles  at  Saratoga 
which  occasioned  the  surrender  of  Burgoyne 
(October  1777).  Congress  now  restored  him 
to  his  precedence ;  but  this  was  the  term  of 
his  good  fortune.   A  severe  wound  recei\  ed  at 


Saratoga  disabled  him  from  active  ser\dce,  and 
he  was  appointed  governor  of  Philadelphia. 
While  filling  this  post  he  exposed  himself  to 
charges  of  extortion  and  peculation,  the  truth 
of  which  it  is  difficult  to  ascertain.  He  re- 
signed his  command,  and  claimed  an  inves- 
tigation. After  vexatious  delays  he  obtained 
a  partial  acquittal,  but  incuiTed  a  reprimand 
which  Washington,  who  had  always  pro- 
tected him,  administered  with  evident  re- 
luctance (January  1780).  Arnold  was  now 
thoroughly  disgusted ;  liis  fortunes  were  des- 
perate. The  second  wife  he  had  recently 
married  had  strong  loyalist  sympathies ; 
the  sentiment  of  military  honour,  apart  from 
military  glory,  had  probably  never  been  a 
very  strong  one  with  him,  and  he  easily  al- 
lowed himself  to  be  persuaded  by  British 
agents  that  he  would  serve  his  country  by 
an  act  of  treachery  putting  an  end  to  the 
war.  A  paper  published  by  Barbe-Marbois, 
purjjorting  to  be  addressed  to  Arnold  by 
Colonel  Beverley  Robinson,  is  of  doubtful 
authenticity,  but  probably  represents  the 
nature  of  the  arguments  to  which,  rather 
than  to  pecuniary  temptation,  his  fidelity  suc- 
cumbed. In  August  1780  he  solicited  and 
obtained  the  command  of  West  Point,  the 
key  of  communication  between  the  northern 
and  southern  states,  and  the  depositoiy  of  tlie 
American  stores  of  gunpowder,  with  the  de- 
liberate intention,  it  cannot  be  doubted,  of 
betraying  it  to  the  enemj\  Negotiations 
were  immediately  entered  into  with  the 
British  commander  Clinton,  being  conducted 
on  the  latter's  part  by  his  adjutant,  the  gal- 
lant and  unfortunate  Major  Andre.  On 
Sept.  21  Arnold  and  Andr6  had  an  interview 
at  Avhich  the  surrender  of  West  Point  was 
arranged,  and  the  latter  departed,  carrying 
with  him  particulai's  of  the  defences  and 
other  compromising  documents.  The  cir- 
cumstances of  his  arrest  have  been  related 
under  his  name.  The  news  reached  Arnold 
on  the  morning  of  25  Sept.,  only  one  hour 
before  the  arrival  of  Washington.  After  a 
hasty  interview  with  his  wife,  who  fell  sense- 
less at  his  feet,  he  mounted  his  horse,  gal- 
loped down  to  the  riverside,  called  a  boat, 
and  found  safety  on  board  of  the  British 
sloop  Vulture,  which  had  brought  Andr6  on 
his  fatal  errand. 

On  joining  the  British,  Arnold  received 
the  rank  of  brigadier-general.  His  first  act 
was  to  publish  a  vindication  of  his  conduct 
and  an  appeal  to  the  American  army  to 
imitate  his  example ;  but  these  documents, 
though  ably  composed,  failed  to  produce  the 
slightest  effect.  He  subsequently  com- 
manded expeditions  against  Richmond  in 
Virginia  and  New  London  in  Connecticut ; 


Arnold 


109 


Arnold 


both  succeeded^  but  were  mere  marauding 
forays,  without  influence  on  the  general 
course  of  operations.  In  1782  he  proceeded 
to  England,  where  he  was  consulted  hy  the 
king  on  the  conduct  of  the  war,  and  drew  up 
a  Aery  able  memorandum,  but  the  sugges- 
tions it  contained  obviously  came  too  late. 
He  also  obtained  upwards  of  6,000/. .as  com- 
pensation for  his  losses,  and  a  pension  of 
500/.  for  his  wife.  Though  much  caressed 
at  court,  he  found  it  impossible  to  prociu-e  ' 
active  employment  in  the  British  army,  and  ! 
Avas  even  obliged  to  vindicate  his  honour  by 
fighting  a  duel  Avith  Loi'd  Ijauderdale.  lie 
again  entered  into  business,  first  in  New 
Brunswick  and  afterwards  in  the  West 
Indies.  Though  not  in  actual  service,  he  so 
distinguished  himself  at  Guadaloupe  as  to  be 
rewai'ded  by  a  large  grant  of  land  in  Canada ; 
ho  also  eA'inced  political  prescience  in  framing  , 
n  plan  for  the  conquest  of  the  Spanish  West  ' 
Indies,  by  exciting  insurrection  among  the 
Creoles.  His  commercial  enterprises  proA^ed 
unfortunate,  and  his  latter  days  were  em- 
bittered not  only  by  self-reproach  for  his 
treason,  but  by  pecuniary  embarrassments 
and  the  dread  of  want.  He  died  in  London 
on  14  June  1801.  The  threatened  ruin  Avas 
aA'erted  by  the  exertions  and  business  ability  1 
of  his  deA'oted  wife.  All  his  four  sons  by 
her  entei'ed  the  British  service,  and  one,  j 
James  Robertson  Arnold,  an  officer  of  en-  ; 
gineers,  rose  to  the  rank  of  lieutenant-gene- 
ral. Descendants  of  his  third  son  George 
still  exist  in  England.  He  had  had  three 
sons  by  his  first  marriage,  whose  posterity 
survive  in  Canada  and  the  United  States. 

'It  should  excite  but  little  surjirise  that 
an  ambitious,  extraAagant  man,  Avith  fiery 
passions  and  very  little  balance  of  moral 
principle,  should  betray  his  friends  and 
plunge  desperately  into  treason.'  This  re- 
mark of  the  historian  of  Arnold's  native 
toAvn  leaves  little  further  to  be  said  on  the 
cai'dinal  e\-ent  of  his  life.  Under  provoca- 
tion and  temptation  he  acted  infamously, 
but  his  character  does  not  deserve  the  excep- 
tional infamy  with  Avhich  it  has  been  not 
unnaturally  loaded  in  America.  A  civilian 
soldier,  he  had  imperfectly  imbibed  the  tra- 
ditions of  military  honour ;  and,  Avith  his 
loyalist  connections,  his  desertion  may  have 
seemed  to  him  rather  a  change  of  party  than 
the  betrayal  of  his  country.  He  was  emi- 
nent for  courage  and  the  strength  of  domes- 
tic afiection,  and  his  memoirs  contain  in- 
stances of  generosity  and  humanity  which 
better  men  might  envy.  With  all  these  re- 
deeming qualities  he  was  still  essentially  a  bad 
citizen,  turbulent,  mercenary,  and  unscrupu- 
i^.,o.     Washington's  exclamation  on  hearmg 


lous. 


of  his  defection  showed  that  he  had  no  belief 
in  his  probity,  though  he  had  tolerated  his 
vices  in  consideration  of  his  military  quali- 
ties. These  were  indeed  eminent.  Arnold's 
intrepidity,  ingenuity,  promptitude,  sagacity, 
and  i-esource  are  even  more  conspicuous  in 
hi§  miscarriages  than  in  his  successes.  When 
his  almost  total  Avant  of  military  instruction 
is  considered,  he  deser\'es  to  be  ranked  high 
upon  the  list  of  those  who  have  shown  an 
innate  genius  for  Avar. 

[The  principal  authorities  for  Arnold's  life  are 
the  dry  l)ut  clear  narrative  of  Jared  Sparks  in  the 
Libi'ary  of  American  Biography,  vol.  iii.,  Boston, 
1835;  and  the  more  copious  Biography  by 
Isaac  N.  Arnold  (Chicago,  1880).  The  latter 
extenuates  everything,  the  former  sets  doAvn  not 
a  few  things  in  malice,  but  between  the  two  it  is 
easy  to  arrive  at  a  just  estimate  of  Arnold's 
character  and  actions.  See  also  Miss  F.  M. 
Caulkin's  History  of  Norwich,  Conn.,  pp.  409^ 
415  ;  IrA'ing's  and  Marshall's  Lives  of  AYa-shing- 
ton  ;  Sargent's  Life  of  Andr6 ;  and  the  his- 
torians of  the  American  war  of  independence  in 
general.]  E.  Gr. 

ARNOLD,  CORNELIUS  (1711-1757?), 
poetical  writer,  was  bom  13  March  1711,  and 
enteredMerchantTaylors'Schoolin  1723.  The 
statement  that  he  became  one  of  the  ushers  in 
theschool  is  incorrect.  In  the  latterpart  of  his 
life  he  was  beadle  to  the  Distillers'  Company. 
His  works  are :  1.  '  Distress,  a  poetical  essay,' 
dedicated  to  John,  Earl  of  Radnor,  London 
[1750?],  4to.  2.  'Commerce,  a  poem,' 2nd 
edit.  London,  1751, 4to.  3.  '  The  Mirror.  A 
Poetical  Essay  in  the  manner  of  Spenser,*^ 
dedicated  to  David  Garrick,  London,  1755, 
4to.  4.  '  Osman,'  a  tragedy.  In  a  volume 
of  poems  published  in  1757. 

[Robinson's  Register  of  Merchant  Taylors' 
School,  ii.  61 ;  Baker's  Biog.  Dram. ;  Cat.  of 
Printed  Books  in  Brit.  Mus. ;  Watt's  Bibl.  Brit.] 

T.  C. 

ARNOLD,  JOHN  (1736?-1799),  an  emi- 
nent mechanician  and  one  of  the  first  makers 
of  chronometers  in  this  country,  was  born  at 
Bodmin  in  1736,  and  not  in  1744,  as  is  gene- 
rally given;  his  tombstone  in  Chislehurst 
churchyard  positively  states  that  he  died 
in  1799,  ffitat.  63.  He  was  apprenticed 
to  his  father,  a  Avatchmaker  in  Bodmin, 
but  a  quarrel  with  him  led  to  his  going  to 
Holland.  In  that  country  he  is  said  not 
only  to  have  acquired  most  of  his  knowledge 
of  watchmaking,  but  to  have  learned  German, 
a  language  which  Avas  aftei-A\'ards  of  much  use 
to  him  at  court.  Leaving  the  Hague,  he 
came  to  England,  and  appears  to  have  made 
a  scanty  living  as  an  itinerant  mechanic. 
By  the  help  of  a  gentleman  Avho  was  struck 


Arnold 


Arnold 


witli  his  mechanical  powers,  he  was  enabled 
to  set  xxp  in  business  in  Devereiix  Court, 
Strand,  whence  he  afterwards  removed  to 
the  Adelphi.  He  was  introduced  at  court, 
and  received  assistance  from  King  George  III 
towards  the  cost  of  his  experiment.  After- 
wards he  presented  the  king  with  a  very 
curious  and  very  small  watch,  set  in  a  ring. 
A  full  account  of  this  ingenious  toy  is  given 
in  Wood's '  Curiosities  of  Clocks  and  Watches,' 
p.  327.  The  chronometer  of  Harrison  had 
not  long  before  Arnold's  establishment  in 
London  been  perfected,  and  had  received  the 
reward  offered  by  parliament  for  a  method 
of  ascertaining  the  longitude  at  sea ;  Arnold 
took  up  the  manufacture  of  chronometers 
(first  so  named  by  him),  and,  besides  intro- 
ducing certain  improvements  in  them,  he  so 
systematised  the  arrangements  for  their  pro- 
duction that  he  was  able  to  reduce  very  con- 
siderably their  originally  high  price.  He 
made  chronometers  not  only  for  the  govern- 
ment, but  also  for  the  East  India  Company, 
then  a  still  better  customer  than  the  govern- 
ment. Without  going  into  technicalities,  it 
would  be  impossible  to  describe  Arnold's  im- 
provements in  the  chronometer;  they  are, 
however,  set  out  very  fully  in  the  article  on 
the  chronometer  in  Rees's  '  Encyclopaedia.' 
The  chief  improvements  with  which  he 
is  credited  are  the  expansion  balance,  the 
detached  escapement,  and  the  cylindrical 
balance  spring.  All  these,  however,  have 
been  claimed  for  Earushaw,  and  how  much 
of  the  credit  is  due  to  each  of  the  two  rivals 
cannot  be  said.  After  Arnold's  death  the  Board 
of  Longitude,  which  had  granted  various 
sums  to  him  during  his  life,  awarded  to  his 
son,  J.  R.  Arnold,  and  to  Earnshaw  amounts 
which,  with  the  former  grants,  made  up 
3,000Z.  apiece  to  each  inventor. 

[There  is  a  very  full  account  of  Arnold  in  the 
Biographical  Dictionary  commenced  by  theUseful 
Knowledge  Society ;  a  short  account  of  him,  with 
a  full  list  of  authorities.,  is  given  in  Boase  and 
Coui'tney's  Bibliotheca  Cornubiensis,  iii.  1034; 
for  his  improvements  in  the  chronometer  see 
Bees's  Cyclopfedia,  s.  v. ;  Frodsham  on  the  Marine 
Chronometer  ;  also  Arnold's  own  Works  and  his 
two  Patent  Specifications  (No.  1113,  a.d.  1775, 
and  No.  1328,  A.n.  1782).]  H.  T.  W. 

ARNOLD,  JOSEPH,  M.D.  (1782-1818), 
naturalist,  was  bom  28  Dec.  1782  at  Beccles, 
was  apprenticed  to  a  local  surgeon  named 
Crowfoot,  and  graduated  M.D.  Edin.  1807. 
In  his  youth  he  had  directed  much  attention 
to  botany,  and  made  some  communications 
to  the  '  Gentleman's  Magazine.'  He  entered 
the  British  navy  as  surgeon  in  1808,  and, 
the  navy  being  reduced  after  the  war,  in 
January  1815  we  find  him  in  medical  charge 


of  the  Northampton,  bound  with  female  con- 
victs to  Botany  Bay.  Returning  by  way  of 
Batavia  in  the  Indefatigable,  of  Boston,  the 
ship  was  burnt  by  carelessness  on  22  Oct. 
1815,  destroying  many  of  his  journals,  and  his 
collection  of  insects  from  South  America, 
New  Holland,  and  the  Straits  of  Sunda. 
After  some  excursions  in  Java  with  Sir  Stam- 
ford Raffles,  of  which  interesting  accounts 
are  preserved  in  the  memoir  by  Mr.  Dawson 
Turner,  he  returned  home  in  1816,  but, 
longing  for  further  opportunities  of  research 
in  travel,  he  obtained  employment  as  na- 
tui'alist  with  Sir  Stamford  Raffles  when  he 
was  appointed  governor  of  Sumatra.  He 
prepared  himself  for  research  on  an  extensiAe 
scale  by  study  in  London.  Arriving  at  Ben- 
coolen  22  March  1818,  his  second  excursion 
to  Passumah  produced  the  discovery  of  tlie 
remarkable  plant  without  stem  or  leaves 
named,  after  the  governor  and  himself,  Raf- 
flesia  Amoldi,  which  is  parasitic  upon  a 
species  of  wild  vine,  and  has  a  huge  flower 
three  feet  in  diameter,  and  weighing  151bs. 
This  was  described  by  Robert  Brown  in 
Trans.  Linn.  Soc.  xiii.  He  made  a  rich  col- 
lection of  shells  and  fossils,  but  was  cut  off 
by  fever  at  Padang.  Sumatra,  on  one  of  the 
last  days  of  July  1818.  Sir  T.  S.  Raffles,  in 
recording  his  death,  says :  *  It  is  impossible  I 
can  do  justice  to  his  memory  by  any  feeble 
encomiums  I  may  pass  upon  his  character. 
He  was  in  every  respect  what  he  should  have 
been  ;  devoted  to  science  and  the  acquisition 
of  knowledge,  and  aiming  only  at  iisefulness.' 
He  was  elected  F.L.S.  1815,  and  bequeathed 
his  collection  of  shells  and  fossils  to  the 
Linnean  Society. 

[Memoir  by  Dawson  Turner,  Ipswich,  1 849  ; 
Memoir  of  Sir  T.  S.  Raffles,  London,  1830; 
Trans.  Linn.  Soc.  xiii.  201.]  G.  T.  B. 

ARNOLD,  RICHARD  (d.  1521  ?),  an- 
tiquary and  chronicler,  was  a  citizen  of  Lou- 
don, dwelling  in  the  parish  of  St.  Magnus, 
London  Bridge.  It  would  appear  from  his 
own  book  that  he  was  a  merchant  trading 
with  Flanders.  He  was  an  executor  of  the 
will  of  .John  Amell  the  elder,  citizen  and 
cutler  of  London,  which  was  drawn  up  in 
1473,  and  he  is  there  described  as  a  haber- 
dasher. He  was  in  the  habit,  for  purposes  of 
business,  of  paying  visits  to  Flanders,  and 
was  in  1488  confined  in  the  castle  of  Sluvs 
on  suspicion  of  being  a  spy.  He  was  a])- 
parently  hard  pressed  by  creditors  at  one 
period  of  his  life,  and  sought  shelter  in  the 
sanctuary  at  Westminster.  He  had  a  wife 
named  Alice  and  a  son  Nicholas.  The  date 
of  his  death  is  uncertain.  Douce,  who  fully 
investigated  the  matter,  concluded  that  he 


Arnold 


III 


Arnold 


<lied  shortly  after  the  publication  of  the  last 
edition  of  his  book,  in  1520-1. 

Arnold's  work  is  merely  a  commonplace 
book  dealing  with  London  antiquities.  It 
-contains  the  chief  charters  granted  to  the 
<jity,  accounts  of  its  customs,  and  notes  on  a 
variety  of  topics  chiefly  but  not  entirely 
connected  with  commerce.  Hearne  called  it 
a  chronicle ;  but  its  only  claim  to  that  title 
rests  on  its  opening  section,  which  gives, 
with  occasional  historical  notes,  a  list  of  the 
names  of  the  'Balyfs,  Gustos,  Mayers,  and 
Sherefs '  of  London  between  1189  and  1502. 
The  greater  part  of  this  list  was  evidently 
borrowed  direct  from  a  manuscript  now  in  the 
■Cottonian  Libraiy  at  the  British  Museum. 
Arnold  himself  gives  the  book  no  name ; 
Douce,  its  latest  editor,  christens  it  the 
■*  Customs  of  London.'  Its  most  interesting 
feature  is  its  introduction  of  the  *  Ballade  of 
y*  Nottebrowne  Mayde,'  which  occiirs,  with- 
out any  explanation,  between  an  account  of 
the  tolls  payable  by  English  merchants  send- 
ing merchandise  to  Antwei-p,  and  a  state- 
ment of  the  differences  between  English 
And  Flemish  currencies.  No  earlier  version 
of  the  ballad  is  known,  and  according  to 
Capel,  Warton,  Douce,  and  Collier,  it  is 
probable  that  it  had  been  composed  only  a 
few  years  before  Arnold  transcribed  and 
printed  it.  Hearne,  however,  assigns  it  to 
the  time  of  Henry  V,  and  Bishop  Percy  to 
the  early  part  of  Henry  VII's  reign.  Its 
authorship  is  unknown  ;  but  Douce  assumes, 
on  very  just  grounds,  that  it  was  translated 
from  an  old  German  ballad  by  some  English- 
man whom  Arnold  met  at  Antwerp.  It  was 
frequently  reprinted  separately  in  the  six- 
teenth century,  and  enjoyed  very  great 
popularity  for  many  years ;  interest  in  it  was 
revived  by  its  republication  in  the  *  Muse's 
Mercury'  for  June  1707,  where  it  was  first 
seen  by  Prior,  who  paraphrased  it  in  his 
*  Henry  and  Emma '  about  1718. 

From  typographical  evidence  it  is  clear 
that  Arnold's  book  was  first  published  at 
Antwerp  in  1502  by  John  Doesborowe,  who 
published  other  English  books.  This  edition 
IS  without  date,  place,  or  printer's  name.  A 
second  edition,  in  which  the  list  of  the 
mayors  and  sheriffs  is  brought  down  to  1520 — 
doubtless  the  date  of  publication — is  ascribed 
by  tvpographical  experts  to  Peter  Treveris, 
the  first  printer  who  set  up  a  press  at  South- 
wark.  It  is  also  without  date,  place,  or 
printer's  name.  A  third  edition,  with  intro- 
duction by  Francis  Douce,  appeared  in  1811. 
Copies  of  the  two  original  editions,  which 
are  now  of  excessive  rarity,  are  in  the  Bri- 
tish Museum.  Stowe  and  Holinshed  both 
mention  Arnold's  compilation  among  their 


authorities ;  Bale  and  Pits  pay  it  exaggerated 
respect  as  an  original  historical  work.  But 
its  want  of  arrangement  and  heterogeneous 
contents,  in  most  cases  borrowed  from  readily 
accessible  sources,  give  it  little  value  for  the 
modem  historical  writer. 

[Douce's  edition  of  Arnold's  Customs  of  Lon- 
don ;  Corser's  Collectanea  Anglo-Poetica,  i.  54 ; 
Collier's  Early  English  Literature,  i.  30;  Ames's 
TypoR.  Antiq.,  ed.  Herbert  and  Dibdin,  iii.  34 ; 
I'ercy's  Folio  MS.,  ed.  Hales  and  Furnivall,  ii. 
174;  Percy's  Reliques,  ed.  Wheatley,  1876,  ii. 
31-47.]  S.  L.  L. 

ARNOLD,  SAMUEL  (1740-1802),  mu- 
sical composer,  the  son  of  Thomas  Arnold, 
was  born  on  10  Aug.  1740.  Through  the  pa- 
tronage of  the  Princesses  Amelia  and  Sopnia 
he  was  admitted  to  the  Chapel  Royal,  where 
he  was  educated  under  Gates  and  Nares ;  he 
is  said  also  as  a  boy  to  have  been  noticed  and 
advised  by  Handel.  Before  1763  he  was  en- 
gaged by  Beard  as  composer  to  Co  vent  Garden, 
where  in  1765  he  brought  out  his  opera,  the 
'  Maid  of  the  ]\Iill,'  the  first  of  the  long  series 
of  compilations  from  the  works  of  other  com- 
posers, which,  by  a  judicious  combination 
with  a  small  amount  of  original  work,  suf- 
ficed to  win  him  a  considerable  reputation 
as  an  operatic  composer.  Arnold  became  a 
member  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Musicians 
4  March  1764  (Records  of  Roy.  Soe.  of  Musi- 
cians). In  1767  he  set  Browne's  ode,  the  'Cure 
of  Saul,'  as  an  oratorio.  This  work  achieved 
some  success,  and  was  followed  by  *  Abime- 
lech,'  the  *  Resurrection,'  and  the  '  Prodigal 
Son,'  which  were  perfonned  during  Lent  in 
1768,  1773,  and  1777  at  Covent  Garden  and 
the  Haymarket.  In  1769  he  took  a  lease  of 
Marylebone  Gardens,where  he  produced  many 
operas  and  burlettas,  amongst  others  Chat- 
terton's  '  Revenge  ; '  but,  owing  to  the  dis- 
honesty of  one  of  his  subordinates,  during 
the  three  years  of  his  tenancy  he  lost  by 
the  speculation  a  sum  of  nearly  10,000/.  In 
1773  the  university  of  Oxford  asked  Arnold's 
permission  to  perform  his  oratorio,  the '  Prodi- 
gal Son,'  at  the  installation  of  Lord  North  as 
chancellor,  and  on  the  request  being  gi'anted 
the  honorary  degree  of  Mus.  Doc.  was  offered 
the  composer.  This  was  declined  by  Arnold, 
who  preferred  to  take  the  degree  in  the  ordi- 
nary manner,  and  accordingly  composed  as 
an  exercise  Hughes's  ode  on  the  Power  of 
Music.  On  tendering  this  composition  to 
the  Oxford  professor.  Dr.  Hayes,  the  latter 
returned  it  to  Arnold  unopened,  with  the 
remark  that  it  was  unnecessary  to  scrutinise 
an  exercise  composed  by  the  composer  of  the 
*  Prodigal  Son.^  The  accumulated  degrees 
were  conferred  on  him  on  5  July  1773.    In 


Arnold 


Arnold 


1783  Arnold  succeeded  Nares  as  organist  and  i 
composer  to  the  Chapels  Royal,  and  in  the  | 
following  year  he  was  one  of  the  sub-directors  ; 
of  the  Handel  commemoration.     In  1786,  at  | 
the  request  of  George  III,  he  undertook  the 
editing  of  an  issue  of  Handel's  Avorks,  an  edi-  | 
tion  which,  though  both  incomplete  and  in-  I 
accurate,  was  for  long  the  only  one  accessible  ; 
to  musicians.     He  was  appointed  conductor  ! 
of  the  Academy  of  Ancient  Music  in  1789,  I 
and  on  the  death  of  Stanley  joined  Linley  in 
carrying  on  the   oratorios   at  Drury  Lane  ! 
Theatre.     On  24  Nov.  1790  '  the  Graduates'  j 
Meeting,  a  society  of  musical  professors  esta-  | 
blished  in  London,'  was  founded  at  a  meeting  j 
at  Dr.  Arnold's  house,  480,  Strand.     In  the 
same  year  he  published  his  valuable  collec- 
tion of  cathedral  music,  the  work  by  which 
he  is  now  best   remembered.     Three  years 
later  he  succeeded  Dr.  Cooke  as  organist  to 
Westminster  Abbey.     A   few  years   after- 
wards he  fell  from  his  library  steps,  breaking 
a  tendon  of  his  leg  and  sustaining  internal 
injuries  which   eventually  resulted   in   his 
death,  which  took  place  on  Friday,  22  Oct. 
1802,  at  his  house,  22,  Duke  Street,  West- 
minster.    He  was  buried   in  Westminster 
Abbey  on  29  Oct.    His  grave  is  in  the  north 
aisle,  next  to  that  of  Purcell,  whose  leaden 
coffin  was  exposed  to  view  at  the  time  of  the 
funeral.      Arnold   married    in    1771   Mary 
Anne,  the  daughter  of  Dr.  Archibald  Na- 
pier, who  survived  him,  and  by  whom  he 
had  a  son  and  two  daughters.     The  son  was 
afterwards  well  known  as  the  manager  of 
the  Lyceum  Theatre.     The  eldest  daughter, 
Caroline  Mary,  died  on  13  Dec.  1795,  and 
was  buried    in  Westminster  Abbey  ;    the 
youngest,   Marianne,   was    married  to   Mr. 
William  Ayrton,  second  son  of  Dr.  Ayrton. 
Dr.   Arnold,   besides  being  an   industrious 
musician,  wrote  several  political  squibs  in 
the  tory  papers.     His  generosity  and  good- 
fellowship  rendered  him  very  popular  in  his 
day,  but  as  a  composer  his  merits  were  in- 
ferior to  many  of  his  contemporaries,  and 
little,  if  any,  of  his  music  has  survived. 

[The  Harmonicon  for  1830;  Busby's  Concert- 
room  Anecdotes,  1825 ;  Parke's  Musical  Me- 
moirs, 1830  ;  Chester's  Registers  ofWestminster 
Abbey,  1876  ;  Add.  MS.  27693.]         W,  B.  S. 

ARNOLD,  SAMUEL  JAMES  (1774- 
1852),  dramatist,  son  of  Samuel  Arnold,  Mus. 
Doc,  was  educated  for  an  artist.  He  produced, 
however,  at  the  Haymarket,  in  1794,  '  Auld 
Robin  Gray,'  a  musical  play  in  two  acts; 
and  this  was  followed  by  other  works  of  the 
same  class:  *  Who  pays  the  Reckoning .P'  pro- 
duced at  the  Haymarket  in  1795 ;  the  '  Ship- 
wreck,' produced  at  Drury  Lane  in  1796; 


the  'Irish  Legacy,'  produced  at  the  Hay- 
market in  1797;  and  the  'Veteran  Tar,' pro- 
duced at  Drury  Lane  in  1801.  '  Foul  Deeds 
will  rise,'  first  played  at  the  Haymarket  in 
1804,  is  described  by  Genest  as  '  an  unnatural 
mixture  of  tragedy  and  farce.'  The  '  Prior 
Claim,'  produced  at  Drury  Lane  in  1805,  was 
a  comedy  written  in  conjunction  with  Henry 
James  Pye,  the  poet  laureate,  whose  daughter 
Arnold  had  married  in  1803.  '  Man  and  Wife» 
or  More  Secrets  than  One,'  a  comedy  pro- 
duced at  Drury  Lane  in  1809,  enjoyed  some 
thirty  representations.  In  this  year  Arnold 
obtained  from  the  Lord  Chamberlain  a  license 
to  open  as  an  English  opera  house  the  Ly- 
ceum in  the  Strand,  a  building  previously 
devoted  to  subscription  concerts,  picture  ex- 
hibitions, feats  of  horsemanship,  conjuring, 
&c.  Upon  the  destruction  of  Drury  Lane 
by  fire  in  the  same  year,  the  company  moved 
to  the  English  Opera  House,  and  remained 
there  three  seasons.  The  license  had  been 
originally  granted  in  the  belief  that  the  house 
would  be  open  only  for  four  months  in  the 
summer,  and  would  become  a  nursery  of 
singers  for  the  winter  theatres.  '  Up  all 
Night,  or  the  Smuggler's  Cave,'  '  Britain's 
Jubilee,'  the  'Maniac,  or  Swiss  Banditti,' 
'  Plots,  or  the  North  Tower,'  are  the  titles  of 
musical  plays  by  Arnold  presented  by  the 
Drury  Lane  company  during  their  occu- 
pancy of  the  English  Opera  House.  The 
theatre  Avas  afterwards  open  under  his  own 
management,  when  his  operas  of  the  '  King's 
Proxy,'  the  '  Devil's  Bridge,'  the  '  Ameri- 
cans,' '  Frederick  the  Great,' '  Baron  Trenck,' 
'  Broken  Promises,'  and  dramas  entitled  'Two 
Words,' '  Free  and  Easy,'  &c.,  &c.,  were  pro- 
duced in  succession.  Hazlitt  wrote  in  1816 
of  Arnold's  '  King's  Proxy,'  that  it  was  '  the 
essence  of  four  hundred  rejected  pieces  .  .  ► 
with  all  that  is  threadbai-e  in  plot,  lifeless  in 
wit,  and  sickly  in  sentiment.  .  .  .  Mr.  Arnold 
writes  with  the  fewest  ideas  possible;  his^ 
meaning  is  more  nicely  balanced  between 
sense  and  nonsense  than  that  of  any  of  his 
competitors;  he  succeeds  from  the  perfect 
insignificance  of  his  pretensions,  and  fails  to 
offend  through  downright  imbecility.'  Ar- 
nold's 'Two  Words,'  however,  Hazlitt  pro- 
nounced '  a  delightful  little  piece.  It  is  a 
scene  with  robbers  and  midnight  murder  in 
it :  and  all  such  scenes  are  delightful  to  the 
reader  or  spectator.  We  can  conceive  nothing 
better  managed  than  the  plot  of  this.'  In 
1812  Arnold  had  been  invited  to  undertake 
the  direction  of  Drury  Lane  Theatre  ;  he  re- 
signed his  office  on  the  death  of  Mr.  AMiit- 
bread  by  his  own  hand  in  1815.  In  1816 
the  English  Opera  was  reopened  by  Arnold, 
having  been  rebuilt  upon  an  enlarged  scale 


Arnold 


"3 


Arnold 


by  Samuel  Beazlfey,  the  architect,  at  a  cost 

of  80,000/.    In  1824  Arnold  produced  for  the 

first  time  in  England  a  version  of  Weber's 

*  Der  Freischiitz,'  which  liad  been  previously 

refused  by  the  two  patent  theatres.     Other 

foreign  operas  of  note,  the '  Tartare '  of  Salieri, 

the   '  Freebooters  '   of  Paer,   tlie  *  Robber's 

Bride  '  of  Ferdinand  Ries,  and  Marschner's 

'  Der  Vampyr,'  were  afterwards  produced  at 

tlie  English  opera  house  for  the  first  time  in 

P^ngland.    In  1830  the  theatre  was  destroyed 

by  fire.     In  1833  the  present  Lyceum,  also 

rebuilt  by  Samviel  Beazley,  was  opened  to 

the  public.     The  English  operas  of  '  Nourja- 

had    by  Edward  Loder,  and  the  '  Mountain 

Sylph     by   John    Baniett,   were   produced 

under  Arnold's  management.     Arnold  was 

a   magistrate   and   a   fellow   of  the   Royal 

Society, b  uf  h.  s  '^^r&.'^ " ^l-^*"^  ztppe^r 
iTv +hit'    5<>«-ie-t/'i      Record". 

[Genest's  History  of  the  Stage,  1832;  The 
Georgian  Era,  1834  ;  Phillip's  Musical  and  Per- 
sonal Eecollections,  1864.]  D.  C. 

ARNOLD,  THOMAS  (1679-1737),  cap- 
tain in  the  navy,  was  descended  from  a  family 
wliich  had  been  settled  for  many  generations 
in  Lowestoft,  and  was,  in  1718,  first  lieuten- 
ant of  the  Superb.  He  distinguished  himself 
in  the  battle  oil"  Cape  Passaro  by  heading  the 
boarders  and  carrying  the  Spanish  flagship, 
the  Real  Felipe,  and  in  this  service  he  was 
severely  wounded,  and  lost  the  use  of  one  arm. 
His  gallantry  was  rewarded  by  his  promotion, 
probably  by  Sir  George  Byng,  to  the  rank  of 
commander ;  in  1727  he  was  advanced  to  be 
a  captain,  appointed  to  the  Fox,  and  sent  to 
the  coast  of  Carolina,  where  he  was  for  some 
time  under  the  orders  of  Captain  Anson. 
On  his  return  to  England  he  retired  from 
active  service  and  settled  at  Lowestoft, 
where  he  died  31  Aug.  1737.  A  monument 
in  Lowestoft  church  still  keeps  alive  his  me- 
mory, which,  throughout  the  last  century,  was 
further  distinguished  by  a  local  custom  now 
obsolete.  '  It  is  ciistomary,'  wrote  Gilling- 
water  in  1790,  '  at  Lowestoft  to  hang  flags 
across  the  streets  at  weddings.  The  colours 
belonging  to  the  Royal  Philip  taken  by 
Lieutenant  Arnold  have  frequently  been 
made  use  of  upon  these  occasions.' 

[Gillingwater's  Historical  Account  of  the  an- 
cient Town  of  Lowestoft  (1790),  pp.  410-15.] 

J.  K.  L. 

ARNOLD,  THOMAS,  M.D.  (1742-1816), 
physician  and  writer  on  insanity,  was  bom 
in  the  town  of  Leicester,  educated  at  Edin- 
burgh, where  he  took  the  degree  of  M.D., 
became  a  fellow  of  the  Royal  College  of 
Physicians,  and  of  the  Royal  Medical  Society 
of  Edinburgh.     He  practised  in  Leicester, 

VOL.    II. 


where  he  waa  deservedly  popular,  and  became 
owner  and  conductor  of  a  large  lunatic  asylum 
there.  '  In  a  word,  he  was  an  enlightened 
ornament  of  his  native  town'  {Gent  Maff.). 

His  principal  works  are :  1.  'Observations 
on  the  Nature,  Kinds,  Causes,  and  Preven- 
tion of  Insanity,  Lunacy,  or  Madness,'  Lon- 
don and  Leicester,  1782,  1786.  2.  *  A  Case 
of  Hydrophobia  successfully  treated,'  1793. 
3.  *  Observations  on  the  Management  of  the 
Insane,'  1809.  In  the  first  of  these  he  ex- 
amines and  compares  the  opinions  of  ancient 
and  modern  writers  on  the  subject.  It  is  a 
work  of  great  learning  and  research,  and 
abounds  with  interesting  cases  related  from 
the  author's  experience.  He  died  at  Leicester 
2  Sept.  1816. 

[Gent.  Mag.  Ixxxri.  pt.  ii.  p.  378.]   G,  V.  B 

ARNOLD,  THOMAS  (1795-1842),  head 
master  of  Rugby,  was  bom  on  13  June  1795, 
at  East  Cowes,  in  the  Isle  of  Wight,  where 
his  family,  originally  from  Suffolk,  had  been 
settled  for  two  generations,  and  where  his 
father  was  collector  of  customs.  There,  as 
a  child,  he  learned  to  delight  in  the  sea,  to 
know  the  flags  of  half  Europe  that  floated 
on  the  Solent  during  the  gi-eat  war,  and  to 
feel  something  of  its  stir.  When  he  was 
hardly  six  years  old  his  father  died  suddenly 
of  spasm  of  the  heart,  and  his  education  for 
the  next  two  years  Avas  committed  by  his 
mother  to  her  sister.  Miss  Delafield.  In 
1803  he  went  to  a  school  at  W^arminster, 
and  thence  in  1807  to  AVinchester.  He  ap- 
pears to  have  been  a  shy  and  retiring  boy, 
somewhat  stiff  and  angular  in  character 
and  manners,  but  high-principled  and  warm- 
hearted ;  with  remarkable  powers  of  memory ; 
devoted  to  history,  geography,  and  poetry, 
especially  ballad  poetry. 

In  1811,  at  the  early  age  of  sixteen,  he  was 
elected  scholar  of  Corpus  Christi  College,  Ox- 
ford, where  a  small  society  of  picked  students, 
under  an  easy  rule,  were  left  in  great  mea- 
sure to  educate  themselves  and  one  another, 
the  two  most  prominent  members  of  it  at  the 
time  being  John  Keble,  the  author  of  the 
'  Christian  Year,'  and  John  Taylor  Coleridge, 
afterwards  one  of  the  judges  of  the  court  of 
Queen's  Bench,  the  lifelong  friend  to  whom 
Amold  loved  to  say  that  he  *  owed  more  than 
to  any  living  man.'  Here,  in  a  little  Oxford 
within  Oxford,  he  spent  the  next  three  years, 
his  whole  nature  expanding  in  an  atmosphere 
of  venerable  institutions  and  youthful  friend- 
ships, of  keen  study  of  the  great  classical 
authors,  especially^  Thucydides  and  Aristotle, 
varied  by  '  skirmishings '  over  the  surround- 
ing country  and  discussions  in  the  under- 
graduates' common  room  on  every  variety  of 

I 


Arnold 


114 


Arnold 


subject — political,  literary,  and  philosophical. 
In  these  he  is  said  to  have  been  eager  and 
vehement,  but  always  candid  and  ingenuous, 
and  *  never  showing,  even  then,  a  grain  of 
vanity  or  conceit.'  In  1814  he  obtained  a 
first  class  in  classics,  and  the  next  year  a 
fellowship  at  Oriel,  and  he  gained  the  chan- 
cellor's prizes  for  the  Latin  and  English 
essays  in  1815  and  1817.  For  four  years  he 
resided  on  his  fellowship,  amidst  a  group  of 
the  ablest  men  then  in  the  university — 
Copleston,  Davison,  Whately,  Keble,  IlaAV- 
kins,  and  Hampden ;  using  this  *  golden 
time '  to  store  his  mind  and  fill  many  manu- 
script volumes  with  the  results  of  wide  and 
independent  reading,  chiefly  of  original 
authorities,  in  the  libraries  of  the  place.  In 
1818  he  was  ordained  deacon,  and  in  the 
following  year  he  settled  at  Laleham,  a 
quiet  village  on  the  broad  Thames,  to  take 
as  private  pupils  a  small  number  of  young 
men  ])reparing  for  the  universities.  In  1820 
he  married  ]\Iary  Penrose,  daughter  of  the 
Rev.  John  Penrose,  and  sister  of  one  of  his 
earliest  friends. 

The  eight  years  of  active  growth  at  Ox- 
ford had  traced  the  general  lines  of  character 
and  opinion  which  were  to  be  his  through 
life  ;  and  these  were  deepened  and  developed 
during  the  eight  quiet  years  which  followed, 
spent  chiefly  in  continued  study,  in  working 
and  playing  with  the  pupils  Avhom  he  made 
part  of  his  peaceful  and  industrious  home, 
and  in  assisting  in  the  care  of  the  parish. 
Here  he  learned  to  know  the  poor,  and  to 
feel  that  sympathy  with  the  humbler  classes 
which  afterwards  so  strongly  marked  his 
vieAvs  of  duty,  both  individual  and  social. 
It  was  during  this  time  that  his  mind  came 
under  an  influence  by  which  it  was  power- 
fully affected,  that  of  Niebuhr's  '  History  of 
Home,'  which  not  only  inspired  him  with 
new  views  of  historical  criticism,  but,  by 
introducing  him  to  German  literature,  opened 
to  him  new  realms  of  thought.  And  it 
was  now  that,  imder  the  elevating  influence 
of  a  happy  marriage  and  increased  responsi- 
bilities, his  religious  convictions  and  feelings 
were  brought,  so  to  speak,  to  a  focus,  and  he 
came  to  be  possessed  with  that  vivid  sense  of 
the  reality  of  the  invisible  world,  and  that 
personal  devotion  to  Jesus  Christ,  which 
formed  henceforth  the  basis  of  his  spiritual 
life.  From  this  time  he  became  more  and 
more  remarkable  for  that  close  interpenetra- 
tion  of  all  parts  of  his  being — spiritual, 
moral,  intellectual,  and  emotional — which 
was  the  key  to  his  character,  and  reflected 
itself  in  all  his  opinions  and  habits  of 
thought.  Thus — to  give  a  few  characteristic 
instances — the  central  truth  of  life  to  him, 


not  as  a  dogma  accepted  from  without,  but 
as  the  satisfaction  of  a  craving  within,  was 
the  union  of  the  divine  and  the  human  in 
the  person  of  Jesus  Christ ;  to  speak  of  a 
Christian's  body  as  the  temple  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  was  hardly  a  metaphor;  the  church 
and  the  state  were  one ;  the  natural  and  the 
supernatural,  things  secular  and  religious, 
were  inexti'icably  blended;  every  act  of  a 
Christian's  life  was  at  once  secular  as  done 
on  this  earth,  and  religious  as  done  in  the 
presence  of  God ;  and  evei*y  act  was  of  im- 
portance, as  affecting  the  great  struggle 
everywhere  and  at  all  times  going  on  between 
good  and  evil.  This  solidarity  of  the  whole 
nature,  'moving  altogether  if  it  move  at  all,' 
is  not  without  its  drawbacks.  There  must 
be  a  danger  that  the  lower  parts,  instead  of 
adding  strength  to  the  higher,  may  usui-j) 
their  place;  that  sympathies  or  antipathies 
may  be  mistaken  for  moral  judgments,  and  a 
hasty  temper  for  righteous  indignation.  The 
uncompromising  earnestness  which  belongs 
to  it  is  apt  to  give  offence ;  but  if  it  provokes 
opposition  it  gives  the  force  necessary  for 
overcoming  it ;  and  in  Arnold's  case,  being 
absolutely  free  from  all  taint  of  self-seeking, 
it  won  for  him,  in  a  singular  degree,  the  con- 
fidence of  all  with  whom  he  was  brought 
into  close  contact. 

In  1827  the  mastership  of  Rugby  fell  va- 
cant, and  he  was  urged  to  be  a  candidate  for  it. 
He  hesitated,  chiefly  from  doubt  whether  he 
should  be  free  to  make  such  changes  as  he 
might  find  necessary.  This  doubt  removed, 
at  the  eleventh  hour  he  sent  in  his  name, 
and  he  was  elected,  chiefly  on  the  strength 
of  a  letter  from  Dr.  Hawkins,  prophesying 
that  if  Mr.  Arnold  were  appointed  '  he  would 
change  the  face  of  education  all  through  the 
public  schools  of  ICngland.'  In  August  1828 
he  removed  to  Rugby,  where  he  remained 
till  his  death  in  1842.  He  became  B.D.  and 
D.D.  in  1828. 

Tlie  humble  grammar  school  of  Lawrence 
Sheriff  had  before  this  expanded  into  a  pro- 
sperous public  school,  with  ample  funds  and 
commodious  buildings,  including  (what  was 
not  then  usual)  a  chapel ;  but  it  was  still,  as 
compared  with  such  foundations  as  Eton  or 
Winchester,  limited  in  numbers,  without 
marked  character  or  time-honoured  tradi- 
tions, and  therefore  all  the  better  fitted  for 
the  hand  of  the  reformer.  And  it  was  no 
doubt  a  time  when  reforms  Avere  needed  in 
public  schools ;  but,  viewed  by  the  light  of 
the  present  day,  there  was  nothing  startling 
in  those  Avhich  were  introduced  by  Dr.  Arnold, 
nor  was  there  anything  recondite  in  his  sys- 
tem. If,  as  is  now  acknowledged,  he  verified 
his  friend's  prediction  by  regenerating  public 


Arnold 


"S 


Arnold 


school  education  in  England,  it  was  mainly 
hy  very  simple  means — by  treating  the  boys 
with  confidence,  and  by  impressing  upon  them 
his  own  sense  of  the  value  of  knowledge  and 
the  sacredness  of  duty :  in  short,  it  was  by 
the  force  of  his  personal  character,  touched, 
according  to  his  habitual  j)rayer,  by  the  *  spirit 
of  power,  and  of  love,  and  of  a  sound  mind.' 

As  a  teacher  his  aim  Avas  not  so  mucli  to 
impart  information  as  to  awaken  thought  and 
stimulate  industry.  Wliile  insisting,  some- 
Avhat  sternly,  on  a  careful  prt>p!iration  of  the 
prescribed  lesson,  if  any  difficulty  arose  in 
•connection  with  it,  instead  of  giving  the  ex- 
planation at  once,  he  would  place  himself,  so 
to  speak,  l)y  the  side  of  his  pupils  and  help 
them  to  find  it  for  themselves.  Though  not 
what  is  called  a  finished  scholar,  he  had  a 
strong  turn  for  philolog^y- in  its  wider  aspects, 
and  a  rare  power  of  terse  and  spirited  trans- 
lation; and  the  ever  fresh  delight  which  he 
took  in  his  favourite  authors,  such  as  Homer 
and  Thucydides,  Cicero  and  A'irgil,  Avas  in 
itself  a  lesson  to  his  scholars.  While  main- 
taining the  old  pre-eminence  of  the  classics 
as  the  best  A'ehicle  for  the  study  of  language 
— a  study  Avhich  seemed  to  him  as  if  'given 
for  the  A'ery  pui"pose  of  forming  the  human 
mind  in  youth ' — he  A\'as  the  first  to  add  ma- 
thematics, modern  history,  and  modern  lan- 
guages to  the  ordinary  school  course.  Into 
tlie  classical  lessons  he  put  fresh  life  by  con- 
stantly directing  attention  to  the  genei'al 
questions,  literary,  moral,  or  historical,  Avhich 
they  opened  up ;  and  perhaps  nothing  in  his 
method  of  teaching  AA'as  more  remarkable 
than  the  manner  in  Avhich  he  habitually  made 
different  parts  of  knoAvledge  illustrate  one 
:another.  The  '  Divinity '  lessons,  apt  in  those 
days  to  be  few  and  meagi-e,  Avere  with  him 
very  frequent,  and  ahvays  marked  by  special 
fulness  of  interest  and  a  peculiar  reA^erence 
of  tone  and  manner.  In  these,  as  AA-ell  as  in 
the  lessons  on  modem  liistoiy,  it  Avas  im- 
possible but  that  his  oaa'u  A'iews  should  find 
some  expression ;  but  he  made  it  quite  clear 
to  his  hearers  that  they  Avere  not  desired  to 
acce])t  those  A'iews,  but  to  examine  and  think 
for  themselves.     • 

In  his  government  of  the  school  he  Avas un- 
doubtedly aided  by  a  natural  sternness  of 
aspect  and  manner,  Avhich,  making  all  his 
relations  Avith  his  pupils  rest  on  a  background 
•of  aAve,  gaA'e  the  greater  efi'ect  to  his  perfect 
frankness  and  simplicity,  his  entire  freedom 
alike  from  '  donnishness '  and  from  suspicion. 
The  (juick  insight  of  boys  soon  discoA'ered 
that  his  anger,  if  easily  roused,  had  nothing 
in  it  of  personal  resentment,  and  that  the 
severest  sense  of  the  sinfulness  of  an  act  did 
not   exclude   the  most  fatherly  tenderness 


tOAA'ards  the  offender.  Sensitively  alive  to 
the  peculiar  evils  incident  to  the  free  life  of 
public  schools,  Avliere  a  Ioav  tone  may  so 
easily  be  set  by  a  few  bad  boys,  he  felt  also 
their  unique  advantages  if  only  a  good  tone 
could  be  infused  into  them.  This  he  sought 
to  do  mainly  through  the  medium  of  the 
sixth-form  boys,  with  Avhom  he  was  in  hourly 
contact,  and  Avho  were  entrusted  Avith  much 
authority  over  the  rest ;  and  wherever  he 
saAV  an  evil  influence  at  AA'ork — a  l)oy,  and 

,  still  more  a  knot  of  boys,  doing  harm  to 
themselves  and  others — it  Avashis  practice  to 

;  require  their  ])arents  to  remove  tliem  quietly 
from  the  school.  But  as  in  intellectual  so  in 
moral  matters,  it  Avas  to  promise  rather  than 
to  attainment  that  he  looked,  and  it  was  by 

I  stimulating  to  good,  rather  than  by  repression 
of  evil,  that  he  acted.  He  made  boys  feel  that 
each  indiA'idual  AA'as  an  object  of  personal 

j  interest  to  him,  and  they  learned  to  think 

I  that  he  had  an  insight  almost  supernatural 
into  their  thoughts  and  feelings.  At  the  same 
time  the  manliness,  the  independence,  the 
buoyant  cheerfulness  of  his  oaa'u  tempera- 
ment, his  hearty  interest  in  the  school  games, 
which  he  looked  upon  as  an  integral  part  of 
education,  put  him  in  sympathy  Avith  all  that 
Avas  good,  even  in  the  least  intellectual  of 
his  scholars. 

As  a  moral  and  religious  teacher,  the  special 
engine  of  his  influence  AA'as  the  AA'eeklj'  sermon. 
Written  generally  AA'ith  gi-eat  rapidity,  but 
expressing  what  Avas  habitually  in  his  mind, 
and  deliA'ered  Avitli  singular  earnestness  and 
feeling,  these  discourses  couA'eyed  to  his 
hearers,  Avith  a  poAver  exceeding  that  of  the 
most  finished  compositions,  the  spirit  that 
was  in  him.  But  more  potent  perhaps  than 
any  sermon  was  the  impression  habitually 
conveyed,  Avith  all  the  force  of  his  poAverful 
character,  that  in  eAerything  that  he  said  or 
did,  Avhether  in  the  pulpit  or  out  of  it,  he 
Avas  seeking  to  do  all  to  the  gloiy  of  God. 

The  result  of  the  neAV  influence  at  work  in 
the  school  soon  began  to  attract  attention. 
At  the  uniA'ersities  many  of  its  scholars  at- 
tained distinction,  Avhile  A'ei'y  feAv  (a  point  to 
AAdiich  the  head  master  himself  attached  even 
greater  importance)  failed  to  pass  their  ex- 
aminations. Not  in  the  universities  only,  but 
in  the  army  and  elscAvhere,  it  came  more  and 
more  to  be  observed  that  Arnold's  pupils  Avere, 
to  a  degree  imusual  at  that  time,  *  thought- 
ful, manly-minded,  and  conscious  of  duty  and 
obligation.'  For  some  years,  hoAvever,  the 
increase  in  the  numbers  of  the  school  did  not 
keep  pace  with  the  rise  in  its  reputation,  be- 
ing checked  by  the  unpopularity  of  the  head- 
master's utterances  on  public  matters.  In 
1829  he  published  a  pamphlet  on  the  'Chris- 

I  2 


Arnold 


ii6 


Arnold 


tian  Duty  of  conceding  the  Roman  Catholic  [ 
Claims,'  in  the  course  of  which  he  ruthlessly  ■ 
exposed  the  incompetence  of  the  clergy  as  a 
body  to  deal  with  such  questions.  In  1831 
he  started  a  newspaper,  chiefly  to  plead  for 
more  generous  treatment  of  the  lower  classes ; 
and  though  this  paper  failed,  he  continued  to 
write  on  similar  subjects  in  the  same  out- 
spoken style,  almost  to  the  end  of  his  life. 
In  1833,  when  the  very  existence  of  the  na- 
t  ional  church  seemed  to  be  in  peril,  he  issued, 
in  the '  Principles  of  Church  Reform,'  a  power- 
ful appeal  for  comprehension,  as  at  once  right 
in  itself,  and  the  only  escape  from  the  '  ca- 
lamity '  of  disestablishment.  And  when,  in 
1836,  the  dominant  x^arty  in  Oxford  attempted 
to  keep  Dr.  Hampden  out  of  a  professorship 
on  the  ground  of  alleged  heresy,  he  assailed 
them  with  unmeasured  vehemence  in  the 
*  Edinburgh  Review.' 

The  first  of  these  publications  so  irritated 
the  clergy  that  some  years  afterwards  the 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury  objected  to  Arnold's 
preaching  Bishop  Stanley's  consecration  ser- 
mon, on  the  ground  of  the  offence  that  it  would 
give  them.     For  years  his  principles,  tenets, 
and  proceedings  at  Rugby  were  the  subject, 
in  certain  tory  papers,  of  abuse  little  short  of 
libellous.     The  article  in  the  '  Edinburgh  Re- 
view' nearly  led  to  the  abrupt  termination  of 
his  mastership.     Disturbed  by  the  stir  which 
it  created,  the  trustees  wi'ote  formally  to  ask 
whether  he  was  the  author ;  and  when  he  de- 
clined to  give  any  answer  to  the  question  a 
motion  of  censure,  which  would  have  led  to 
his  resignation,  was  all  but  carried.   To  these 
annoyances  was  often  added  the  worse  pain  of 
feeling  that  as  to  many  of  the  objects  nearest 
to  his  heart  he  stood  practically  alone.   With 
the  exception  perhaps  of  Chevalier  Bunsen,  the 
eminent  Prussian  minister,  whose  friendship, 
made  at  Rome  in  1827,  he  counted  as  one  of 
the  cliief  blessings  of  his  life,  he  knew  no  man 
altogether  like-minded.     Many  who  admired 
his  freedom  of  thought  could  not  understand 
his  firm  adherence  to  the  old  faith ;  many  who 
shared  his  reverent  spirit  were  shocked  by  his 
liberal  opinions.     Thus  in  labouring  to  libe- 
ralise the  national  church  he  displeased  alike 
his  liberal  friends  who  wished  to  destroy  it, 
and  his  church  friends  who  wished  to  keep 
it  narrow.     Thus,  having  joined  the  new  uni- 
versity of  London,  chiefly   in   the  hope  of 
making  it  an  engine  of  education  at  once  re- 
ligious and  unsectarian,  he  found  that  he 
could  get  no  support  in  this  design,  and  with- 
drew in  bitter  disappointment. 

But  for  all  this  he  found  ample  solace  in 
his  school  duties  and  his  literary  labours  in 
connection  with  them,  in  frank  and  friendly 
intercourse  with  old  pupils,  in  his  own  happy 


family  circle,  and  especially  in  the  seclusion 
of  the  home  which  he  had  made  for  himself 
at  Fox  How,  in  a  beautiful  nook  among  the 
Westmoreland  hills. 

At  length,  about  the  year  1840,  the  tide 
turned.  The  merits  of  the  schoolmaster,  th& 
high  character  of  the  man,  came  to  be  gene- 
rally recognised,  even  where  his  opinions 
could  find  no  acceptance.  The  numbers  of 
the  school  rose  beyond  the  limit  within 
which  he  had  wished  to  Iteep.  Nowhere 
was  the  change  of  feeling  towards  him 
more  marked  than  at  Oxford  ;  and  when,  in 
1841,  he  was  appointed  regius  professor  of 
history  at  that  university,  the  delight  with 
which  he  returned  to  his  old  haunts  to  de- 
liver his  inaugural  lecture  was  greatly  en- 
hanced by  his  finding  himself  treated  with 
cordial  respect  by  those  whose  alienation  he 
had  most  deeply  regretted.  At  the  same 
time  a  change  came  over  his  own  spirit.  Not 
that  he  bated  one  jot  of  his  devotion  to  '  that 
great  work,'  the  extension  of  Christ's  church, 
or  of  his  hostility  to  everything  which  seemed 
to  retard  it,  whether  toryism  or  jacobinism, 
sectarianism  or  indifferentism,  superstition  or 
unbelief ;  while  to  the  last  he  continued  to 
denounce  tractarianism  as  a  revival  of  the 
very  judaizing  spirit  against  which  St.  Paul 
fought.  But  the  impatient  fervour  passed 
away.  It  was  not  only  that  some  of  his  views 
on  particular  subjects  underwent  modifica- 
tion, but  there  came  a  general  relaxation  of 
tension,  a  disposition  to  trust  more  to  time, 
and  to  bring  his  own  immediate  eftbrts  and 
aspirations  more  within  the  bounds  of  what 
was  practicable. 

On  this  more  tranquil  phase  of  life  he  had 
hardly  entei'ed  when,  in  the  fulness  of  life 
and  activity,  on  12  June  1842,  the  last  day  of 
his  forty-seventh  year,  he  was  suddenly  cut 
off  by  an  attack  of  angina  pectoris.  A  slight 
previous  illness  had  passed  away  without  caus- 
ing any  alarm ;  but  those  nearest  and  dearest  to^ 
him  remembered  afterwards  to  liave  observed  a 
'visible  ripening  for  heaven  ; '  and  a  touching 
entry  in  his  private  diary,  written  late  on  the 
night  of  the  11th,  seems  to  indicate  something 
of  a  foreboding  that  his  A\«3rk  on  earth  was 
drawing  to  a  close.  He  left  a  widow,  who 
survived  him  for  thirty-one  years,  and  nine 
children,  of  whom  the  eldest  son,  Matthew, 
is  the  distinguished  poet  and  critic,  and  the 
eldest  daughter  is  the  wife  of  Mr.  W.  E. 
Forster. 

Dr.  Arnold's  chief  published  works  are  as 
follows : — 1 .  An  edition  of  Thucydides,  espe- 
cially valuable  for  its  geographical  notes,  and 
for  the  light  thrown  on  the  constitutional 
history  of  the  period  of  the  Peloponnesian 
war.     The  first  volume  of  the  first  edition 


Arnold 


117 


Arnold 


was  printed  in  1830,  and  the  third  and  last 
in  1835;  two  volumes  of  the  second  edition, 
which  was  left  incomplete,  u])peared  in  1841. 
(Professor  Jowett,  in  his  translation  of  Thu- 
cydides  (i.  ix.),  gives  a  general  estimate  of 
the  value  of  Arnold's  edition.)  2.  The  early 
history  of  Home,  in  three  volumes,  of  which 
the  two  first  were  mainly  based  on  Niebuhr 
(London,  1838-43).  3.  A  history  of  the  later 
period  of  the  Roman  commonwealth,  from 
the  end  of  the  second  Punic  war  to  the  i*eign 
of  Augustus,  with  a  life  of  Trajan,  published 
posthumously  in  1845,  and  consisting  of  re- 
prints of  articles  that  had  appeared  in  the 

*  Encyclopsedia  Metropolitana.'  4.  Lectures 
on  the  study  of  modern  history,  delivered  at 
Oxford  in  1841  and  1842  (Oxford,  1842). 
5.  A  collection  of  sermons  in  three  volumes 
published  between  1829  and  1834.  The  j 
third  volume  was  republished  separately  in  j 
1876,  and  the  whole  series,  together  with 
other  sermons  printed  separately  in  Dr. 
Arnold's  lifetime,  was  issued  again  in  1878 
in  six  volumes,  under  the  editorship  of  Mrs. 
AV.  E.  Forster.  Arnold's  biographer.  Dean 
Stanley,  collected  and  republished  his  *  Mis- 
cellaneous AVorks'  in  1845,  and  his  'Tra- 
velling Journals,  with  Extracts  from  his 
Life  and  Letters,'  in  1852.  But  it  is  chiefly 
through  Stanley's '  Life  and  CoiTespondence,' 
first  pubished  in  two  volumes  in  1844,  and 
reaching  its  twelfth  edition  in  1881,  that  the 

*  hero  of  schoolmasters,'  the  champion  alike 
of  reverent  faith  and  of  independent  thought, 
is  and  will  be  known  to  the  world. 

In  person  he  was  a  little  above  the  middle 
lieight ;  spare,  but  vigorous,  and  healthy  with- 
out being  robust.  A  slightly  projecting  under- 
lip,  and  eyes  deep  set  beneath  strongly  marked 
eyebrows,  gave  to  his  countenance  when  at 
rest  a  somewhat  stern  expression,  which  be- 
came fonnidable  when  he  was  moved  to  anger ; 
but  the  eftect  was  all  the  greater  when,  in 
the  playful  or  tender  moods  which  were  fre- 
quent with  him,  or  on  meeting  in  a  book  or 
in  conversation  with  a  noble  sentiment  or  a 
striking  thought,  his  eye  gleamed,  and  his 
whole  face  lighted  up.  Simple  in  his  tastes 
and  habits,  never  idle  and  never  liumed,  he 
made  his  home  a  '  temple  of  industrious 
peace ; '  and  he  rarely  left  it  except  to  travel 
occasionally  on  the  continent,  with  an  eye 
enlightened  by  lifelong  studies  in  histoiy  and 
geography,  lie  had  an  intense  delight  in 
beautiful  scenery,  and  took  pleasure  in  the 
fine  arts  and  in  some  of  the  natural  sciences, 
but  chiefly  as  bearing  on  the  life  and  history 
of  man.  For  science  as  such,  for  art  as  such, 
he  cared  comparatively  little  ;  for  music  not 
at  all.  'Flowers,'  he  used  to  say,  'are  my 
music,'  and  his  love  for  them  was  like  that 


of  a  child.  "Walking  by  the  side  of  his  wife's 

Eonv — his  daily  haoit  during  term  time — he 
all  forgot  the  dulness  of  tlie  flat  and  fea- 
tureless country-  about  Rugby  in  spying  them 
out  along  the  hedgerows  and  in  the  copses ; 
and  .they  added  to  the  enjoyment  of  the 
rambles  over  hill  and  dale  which  were  a 
marked  feature  in  his  life  at  Fox  How. 
Nothing,  perhaps,  gives  a  better  idea  of  the 
man  than  the  description  of '  his  delight  in 
those  long  mountain  walks  when  they  would 
start  with  their  provisions  for  the  day,  him- 
self the  guide  and  life  of  the  party,  always 
on  the  look-out  how  best  to  break  the 
ascent  by  gentle  stages,  comforting  the  little 
ones  in  tteir  falls,  and  helping  foi-ward 
those  who  were  tired,  himself  always  keep- 
ing with  the  laggers,  that  none  might  strain 
their  strength  by  trying  to  be  in  front  with 
him ;  and  then,  when  his  assistance  was  not 
wanted,  the  liveliest  of  all — his  step  so  light, 
his  eye  so  quick  in  finding  flowers  to  take 
home  to  those  who  were  not  of  the  party.' 
It  is  by  the  aid  of  imageiy  taken  from  these 
walks  that  the  lesson  of  his  life  is  summed 
up  for  us  and  for  posterity  by  his  son  in  the 
lines  on '  Rugby  Chapel,'  where  he  has  drawn 
the  striking  picture  of  a  strong,  hopeful, 
helpful  soul,  cheering  and  supporting  his 
weaker  comrades  on  their  upward  and  on- 
ward way. 

[Arnold's  Life  and  Correspondence  Ly  Stanley ; 
personal  knowledge.]  T.  W. 

ARNOLD,  THOMAS  JAMES  (1804  P- 
1877),  hamster  and  man  of  letters,  was  the 
son  of  Stephen  James  Arnold,  and  was  bom 
about  1804.  He  was  called  to  the  bar  in 
1829,  was  appointed  magistrate  at  the  Wor- 
ship Street  police-court  in  1847,  and  trans- 
ferred to  the  Westminster  court  in  1851. 
He  died,  still  holding  this  appointment,  on 
19  May  1877,  being  then  senior  London 
police  magistrate.  He  wrote  legal  manuals 
on  the  law  of  municipal  corporations,  the 
labour  laws,  and  other  subjects.  Asa  trans- 
lator he  is  known  by  his  versions  of  Goethe's 
'  Reineke  Fuchs '  (1860),  of  '  Faust '  (1877), 
and  of  Anacreon  (1869).  The  translation 
of  '  Reineke  Fuchs '  is  a  very  creditable 
work ;  that  of  '  Faust '  is  respectable,  but 
inferior  to  some  other  recent  versions,  and, 
having  been  published  in  folio  form  as  an 
accompaniment  to  a  volume  of  illustrations, 
is  but  little  known.  The  translator  of 
Anacreon  has  only  the  alternative  of  bald- 
ness or  infidelity,  and  Mr.  Arnold  chose  the 
former.  He  also  translated  Schiller's '  Song 
of  the  Bell,'  and  ^vrote  an  able  review  of  the 
controversy  respecting  Mr.  Collier's  anno- 
tated Shakespeare  folio  in  '  Eraser's  Maga- 


Arnold 


ii8 


Arnold 


zine '  for  January  1860.  This  was  to  have 
been  continued,  but  the  sequel  never  ap- 
peared. He  was  a  man  of  great  culture  and 
accomplishments,  an  intimate  friend  of  Shel- 
ley's friend,  Thomas  Love  Peacock,  and  the 
son-in-laAv  of  Shelley's  biographer,  Thomas 
Jefterson  Hogg. 

[Annual  Register,  1877  ;  private  information.] 

E.  G. 

ARNOLD,    THOMAS    IvEllCHEYER 

(1800-1853),  voluminous  writer  of  educa- 
tional works  and  theologian,  was  born  in 
1800.  His  father,  Thomas  George  Arnold, 
was  a  doctor  of  Stamford.  lie  was  educated 
at  Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  was  seventh 
junior  optime  in  the  mathematical  tripos  of 
1821,  and  was  elected  fellow  of  his  college 
shortly  afterwards.  He  took  his  degi-ee  of 
B.A.  in  the  same  vear,  and  that  of  M.A.  in 
1824.  In  1830  he  Avas  presented  to  the 
living  of  Lyndon,  in  Rutlandshire,  where  his 
parishioners  only  numbered  one  hundred.  He 
at  first  devoted  his  ample  leisure  to  theology, 
and  showed  himself  an  obstinate  opponent 
of  the  views  advanced  by  the  leaders  of  the 
Oxford  movement.  From  1838  until  his 
death  he  applied  himself  mainly  to  the  pre- 

{)aration  of  school  books,  which  procured 
lim  a  very  wide  reputation.  He  died  at 
Lvndon  Rectory  of  bronchitis  after  a  few 
days'  illness  on  9  March  1853.  A  writer  in 
the  '  Guardian '  at  the  time  of  liis  death  de- 
scribes him  as  '  remarkable  for  an  almost 
feminine  gentleness  of  manner,  and  for  the 
unaft'ected  simplicity  of  his  life.' 

Arnold  began  his  career  as  an  educational 
writer  with  the  publication  of  the  '  Essentials 
of  Greek  Accidence  '  in  1838,  and  this  work 
was  followed  almost  immediately  by  his 
*  Practical  Introduction  to  Greek  Prose  Com- 
position,' which  had  an  unprecedented  suc- 
cess, and  was  '  the  keystone  of  his  literary 
fortunes.'  The  book  reached  a  fourth  edition 
in  1841,  and  a  seventh  in  1849,  when  its  sale 
had  exceeded  20,000  copies.  It  Avas  at  once 
adopted  as  a  text-book  in  the  higher  classes 
of  the  chief  schools  of  England.  Its  leading 
merit  consisted  in  its  author's  judicious  use 
of  the  system  and  researches  of  recent  Ger- 
man scholars — '  in  applying  the  method  of 
Ollendorft'  to  the  syntax  of  Buttmann.' 
In  1839  Arnold  issued  a  '  Latin  Prose  Com- 
position '  on  a  similar  plan,  and  it  met 
with  a  welcome  little  less  warm  than  tliat 
accorded  to  its  forerunner,  and  in  the  suc- 
ceeding years  he  pi'epared  a  whole  library 
of  classical  school-books,  which  included 
translations  and  adaptations  of  many  Ger- 
man and  American  works.  In  association 
with  the  Rev.  J.  E.  Riddle  he  published  in 


1847  an  *  English-Latin  Lexicon,'  based  on 
a  German  work  by  Dr.  C.  E.  Georges,  which 
cost  him,  he  wrote  in  the  preface,  '  many 
years  of  labour.'  Between  1848  and  185S 
he  edited,  in  tAventy-five  Aolumes,  portions, 
of  all  the  chief  Latin  and  Greek  authors, 
and  published  handbooks  of  classical  antiqui- 
ties, an  *  Anticleptic  Gradus,'  and  similar 
works.  Nor  did  he  confine  himself  to  the 
classics.  He  superintended  the  publication 
of  English,  French,  German,  Italian,  and 
Hebrew  grammars,  and  aided  in  the  prepa- 
ration of  a  '  Handbook  of  Hebrew  Antiqui- 
ties '  and  a  '  Boy's  Arit  hmetic'  Almost  all 
his  educational  writings  bear  the  distinct 
impress  of  German  influence.  In  his  classical 
Avork  he  depended  largely  on  Madvig,  Krii- 
ger,  Zumpt,  and  other  less  known  scholars ; 
his  treatment  of  modern  languages  Avas  also 
based  on  German  models,  and  Arnold  was 
generally  ready  to  acknoAA'ledge  his  obliga- 
tions to  foreign  Avriters. 

As  a  theological  Avriter  Arnold  Avas  almost 
equally  Aoluminous.  His  earliest  published 
AA'ork  Avas  a  sermon  on  the  '  P'aith  of  Abel,' 
Avhich  appeared  in  the  third  Aolume  of  a  col- 
lection of  'Family  Sermons'  in  1833, and  four 
years  later  he  projected  and  edited  a  ])eriodical 
under  the  title  of  the '  Churchman's  Quarterly 
Magazine,'  AA-liich  soon  perished.  Subse- 
quently he  made  tAvo  similar  attempts  to 
further  the  interests  of  the  church  of  England 
by  means  of  periodical  literature.  In  Janu- 
ary 1844  he  published  the  first  number  of  the 
'  Churchman's  Monthly  Companion,'  which 
succumbed  to  popular  indifi"erence  eight 
months  later,  and  in  1851  he  started  another 
monthly  magazine,  entitled  the  '  Theological 
Critic,'  AA'hich  liAed  on  until  his  death  in 
1853.  Arnold's  contributions  to  theological 
literature  also  included  fiAe  pamphlets  on 
ecclesiastical  questions  raised  by  the  Oxford 
moA'ement ;  an  abridgment  of  an  American 
Aversion  of  Hengstenberg's '  Christ ologj' ; '  two 
Aolumes  of  sermons,  one  published  in  1845, 
and  the  other  posthumously  in  1858;  and 
'Short  Helps  to  Daily  Devotion'  (1847). 
He  llkeAvIse  issued  controAersial  treatises 
criticising  well-known  theological  Avorks 
like  Taylor's  'Intei-pretatlons  of  the  Fathers,' 
Elliott's  'HorfB  Apocalyptic?e,'  and  Dean 
Close's  sermons.  In  all  of  AvhIch,  according 
to  a  sympathetic  critic  In  the  '  Guardian'  of 
1853, '  his  critical  eye  discerned  unsoundness 
.  .  .  AA-hlch,  If  not  exposed,  was  likely  to  do 
extensiA'e  mischief.' 

Of  the  value  of  Arnold's  educational 
writings,  by  which  alone  he  is  noAV  remem- 
bered, more  than  one  opinion  has  been  held. 
The  multifarious  character  of  his  literary 
Avork necessarily  rendered  it  of  Aery  unequal 


Arnold 


119 


Arnot 


(juality,  and  a  very  small  part  of  the  classical 
portion  of  it  Las  alone  stood  the  test  of 
time.  In  an  article  in  '  Frasei'*s  Magazine  ' 
for  February  1853,  which  was  afterwards 
published  in  pamphlet  form,  and  has  been 
attributed,  correctly,  as  we  believe,  to  Ur. 
J.  W.  Donaldson,  the  author  of  the  *  New 
Cratylus,'  the  attempt  was  made  in  very 
forcible  language  to  throw  discredit  on  the 
whole  of  Arnold's  classical  schoolbooks.  But 
the  unmeasured  vituperation  of  the  criticism, 
which  attracted  considerable  attention  at 
the  time,  is  only  very  partially  justified.  In 
u  temperate  reply,  written  a  few  weeks  before 
his  death,  Arnold  successfully  rebutted  some 
of  the  more  sinister  imputations  on  his  cha- 
racter introduced  into  the  article ;  and  he 
justly  remarks,  in  reference  to  the  miUtipli- 
city  of  his  works,  that '  regular  industry  Avith 
a  careful  division  of  time  and  employment, 
carried  on,  with  hardly  any  exception,  for 
six  days  in  every  week,  will  accomplish  a 
gi-eat  deal  in  fifteen  years.'  The  popularity 
of  a  few  of  the  books  that  Donaldson  specially 
denounced  has,  moreover,  survived  his  fierce 
attack,  and  his  Latin  and  Greek  '  Prose  Com- 
positions,' new  editions  of  which,  revised  by 
leading  scholars,  appeared  in  1881,  are  valued 
highly  at  the  present  day  by  many  teachers 
of  eminence. 

[Gent.  Mag.  (new  series),  xxxix.  667;  Athe- 
iispum  for  1853,  i.  353  ;  Brit.  Mus.  Cat. ;  Ar- 
nold's Few  AVords  in  Answer  to  the  Attack  on 
my  Classical  School  Books  (1853).]      S.  L.  L. 

ARNOLD,    WILLIAM    DELAFIELD 

(182&-18o9),  Anglo-Indian  official  and  no- 
velist, the  second  son  of  Thomas  Arnold, 
D.D.,  was  born  at  Laleham,  7  April  1828, 
and  was  educated  at  Rugby.  lie  was 
elected  a  student  of  Christ  Cliurch,  Oxford, 
in  1847,  and  in  the  following  year  proceeded 
to  India  as  ensign  in  the  58th  regiment  of 
native  infantry.  lie  soon  became  an  assistant 
commissioner  in  the  Punjab,  and  in  1856 
was  appointed  by  Sir  John  Lawrence  director 
of  public  instruction.  The  department  Avas 
new,  and  its  organisation  fell  entirely  upon 
Arnold,  who,  after  much  invaluable  service, 
Avas  obliged  to  quit  India  on  sick  leave,  and 
died  at  Gibraltar  on  his  Avay  home,  9  April, 
1859.  His  Avife,  Frances  Anne,  daughter  of 
Major-general  Hodgson,  had  died  shortly 
before  in  India.  Their  joint  memories  are  cele- 
brated by  his  brother MattheAV  in '  ASouthern 
Night,'  one  of  the  most  beautiful  memorial 
poems  in  our  language.  Arnold's  name  is 
further  perpetuated  by  an  annual  distribution 
of  medals,  bearing  his  likeness,  to  the  best 
pupils  in  the  schools  AA'hich  he  founded,  pro- 
vided from  a  fund  subscribed  by  his  felloAV- 


workers  in  the  Punjab.  lie  is  the  autlior  of 
*  Oakfield,  or  FelloAvsliip  in  the  Knst,'  a  novel 
in  two  volumes,  published  in  1858  under  the 
pseudonym  of  'Punjabee.'  It  depicts  the 
struggles  of  a  young  officer  of  exceptional 
cultiire  and  seriousness  to  elevate  the  Ioav 
tone  of  the  military  society  about  him,  and 
the  trials  and  problems  forced  upon  him  by 
this  peculiar  form  of  quixotism.  It  is  well 
Avritten  and  deeply  interesting,  imbued  ia 
every  line  with  the  spirit  of  the  author's  il- 
lustrious father ;  but,  as  is  usually  the  case- 
when  the  ethical  element  largely  predomi- 
nates, is  open  to  the  charge  of  insufficient 
sympathy  with  types  of  character  alien  from 
the  writer's  own.  He  also  translated  Wiese's 
'  Letters  on  English  Education  '  (1854),  and 
published  in  1855  four  lectures,  treating  re- 
spectively of  the  Palace  of  Westminster,  the 
English  in  India,  Caste,  and  the  Discovery 
of  America. 

[Prospective  Review,  x.  274-303  ;  information 
from  Miss  Frances  Arnold.]  E.  G. 

ARNOT,  HUGO  (1749-1786),  historical 
writer,  was  son  of  a  merchant  at  Leith,  where 
he  was  born  8  Dec.  1749.  He  changed  his 
name  from  Pollock  to  Arnot  on  succeeding  to 
his  mother's  property  of  Balcornio,  Fifeshire. 
He  became  an  advocate  5  Dec.  1772.  In  1 777 
he  published  a  satirical  paper,  called  an  *  Es- 
say on  Nothing,'  read  before  the  Speculative 
Society,  and  made  himself  unpopular  by  his 
sarcasms.  In  1779  he  published  his '  History 
of  Edinburgh '  (a  second  edition  appeared  in 
1817),  and  in  1785  a '  Collection  of  Celebrated 
Criminal  Trials  in  Scotland.'  Both  works 
were  pirated  in  Ireland.  He  published  the 
second  at  his  OAvn  expense  in  defiance  of  the 
Edinburgh  booksellers,  and  the  gross  proceeds 
were  600/.  His  books  shoAv  reading  and 
shrewdness.  He  became  prematurely  old 
from  asthma,  and  his  irritability  and  caustic 
language  hindered  his  success  at  the  bar. 
Many  anecdotes  are  told  of  his  eccentricity. 
He  Avrote  many  papers  on  local  politics,  op- 
posed local  taxation,  and  is  said  to  have  re- 
tarded for  ten  years  the  erection  of  the  South 
Bridge  in  Edinburgh.  He  died  20  Nov.  1786, 
and  left  eight  children.  He  was  a  favourite 
subject  Avith  John  Kay,  the  Edinburgh  cari- 
caturist, who  took  full  advantage  of  the  ex- 
treme slimness  of  his  figure. 

[Kay's  Edinburgh  Portraits,  with  biographic 
sketches,  Nos.  v,  viii,lxvi,  cxxxii,  and  pp.  16,  25, 
157,  324,  ed.  1877  ;  Anderson's  Scottish  Nation.] 

ARNOT,  WILLIAM  (1808-1875), 
preacher  and  theological  writer,  was  bom  at 
Scone,  where  his  father  was  a  farmer,  6  Nov. 
1808.     In  early  life  he  was  apprenticed  to  a 


Arnot 


Arnott 


gardener ;  but  the  deep  impression  made  on 
his  mind  by  the  death  of  a  religiously  minded 
brother  led  him  to  study  for  the  ministry.  In 
his  university  career  in  Glasgow  he  gained  dis- 
tinction in  spite  of  his  poverty,  especially  in 
the  Greek  classes.  He  had  for  classfellows  two 
men,  whose  biographies  he  afterwards  wrote : 
James  Ilalley,  Avho  died  quite  early,  and 
James  Hamilton,  afterAvards  minister  of  the 
National  Scotch  Church  in  Kegent  Square, 
London.  Arnot  was  of  an  honest,  joyous, 
unconventional,  hearty  nature,  with  a  dash  of 
originality  almost  amounting  to  eccentricity. 
AVriting  to  his  father  he  revealed  the  true 
secret  of  his  character :  '  I  love,  in  a  greater 
or  less  degi-ee,  every  person  whom  I  know, 
and  also  all  that  I  do  not  know ;  and  this  is 
one  gi-and  source  of  my  happiness.' 

Soon  after  completing  liis  theological 
studies  he  was  called,  in  1838,  to  be  minister 
of  St.  Peter's  Church  in  Glasgow,  one  of  the 
new  churches  built  under  the  extension 
scheme  of  Dr.  Chalmers.  He  soon  became 
one  of  the  most  popular  ministers  of  the  city. 
His  ministry,  which  after  1843  was  car- 
ried on  in  connection  with  the  Free  Church, 
was  marked  by  an  intense  love  of  nature, 
united  with  a  poetical  temperament ;  by  sym- 
pathy with  young  men ;  by  ardent  advocacy 
of  temperance,  and  a  strong  appreciation  of 
ethical  Christianity.  He  strongly  sympa- 
thised with  all  movements  fitted  to  advance 
the  welfare  of  the  working  class. 

In  the  year  1863,  on  the  appointment  of 
Dr.  Rainy  to  a  professorship,  Arnot  was 
called  to  be  minister  of  one  of  the  leading 
congregations  of  the  Free  Church  in  Edin- 
burgh, where  for  the  last  ten  years  of  his  life 
he  was  a  conspicuous  figure.  During  that 
time  he  edited  a  monthly  religious  magazine, 
called  the  '  Family  Treasuiy.'  He  thrice 
visited  America :  in  1845,  to  render  important 
ministerial  service  in  the  dominion  of  Canada ; 
in  1870  as  a  delegate  from  the  Free  Church 
of  Scotland  to  congratulate  the  presbyterian 
churches  in  the  northern  states  on  their  happy 
reunion;  and  for  the  third  time,  in  1873,  as 
a  member  of  the  Evangelical  Alliance,  to  at- 
tend its  meetings  at  New  York.  Having 
been  a  steady  sympathiser  with  the  northern 
states  and  the  anti-slavery  movement,  he  was 
received  in  the  United  States  with  extra- 
ordinary cordiality. 

The  degree  of  D.D.  was  virtually  offered 
to  Mr.  Arnot  by  the  university  of  Glasgow, 
and  afterwards  formally  by  the  university  of 
New  York ;  but  for  personal  reasons  he  de- 
clined to  avail  himself  of  it  in  either  case.  He 
died  after  a  short  illness  at  Edinburgh,  3  June 
1875. 

His    chief    works    were    the    following  : 


1.  '  Life  of  James  Halley.'  2.  '  The  Race  for 
Riches,  and  some  of  the  Pits  into  which  the 
Runners  fall :  six  lectures  applying  the  Word 
of  God  to  the  traffic  of  man.  It  liad  a  wide 
circulation  both  in  this  countiy  and  America, 
as  following  up  the  principles  of  Chalmers's 
'  Commercial  Discourses.'  3.  '  The  Drunkard's 
Progi-ess,  being  a  panorama  of  the  overland 
route  from  the  station  of  Drouth  to  the  gene- 
ral terminus  in  the  Dead  Sea,  in  a  series  of 
thirteen  views,  drawn  and  engraved  by  John 
Adam,  the  descriptions  given  by  John  Bun- 
yan,  junior.'  4.  '  Laws  from  Heaven  for  Life 
on  Earth ;  Illustrations  of  the  Book  of  Pro- 
verbs.' 2  vols.  This  was  one  of  his  most 
characteristic  and  successful  books,  treating 
of  the  maxims  of  Hebrew  wisdom  viewed  from 
a  christian  standpoint  in  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. 5.  *  Roots  and  Fruits  of  the  Christian 
Life.'  6. 'The  Parables  of  our  Lord.'  7. 'Life 
of  James  Hamilton,  D.D.'  8.  '  This  Present 
World.'  Some  thoughts  on  the  adaptation  of 
man's  home  to  the  tenant.  9.  A  posthumous 
volume  of  sermons. 

[Autobiography,  with  Memoir  by  his  daugli- 
ter,  1877.]  W.  G.  B. 

ARNOTT,  GEORGE  ARNOTT 
WALKER  (1799-1868),  botanist,  was  born 
at  Edinburgh,  6  Feb.  1799.  His  early  years 
were  spent  at  Edenshead  and  Arlary,  on 
the  borders  of  Fife  and  Bjnross ;  in  1807 
he  went  to  Edinburgh,  entering  the  univer- 
sity in  1813,  where  he  took  his  A.M.  degree 
in  1818.  He  studied  for  the  law,  and  was 
admitted  to  the  faculty  of  advocates  in 
1821 ;  but  the  profession  was  uninteresting 
to  him,  and  he  soon  abandoned  it.  His  at- 
tention some  three  or  four  years  previously 
had  been  turned  to  botany,  and  to  this 
study  he  now  devoted  himself,  becoming 
acquainted  with  Wight  and  Greville,  and 
a  little  later  with  Dr.  (afterwards  Sir  Wil- 
liam) Hooker.  In  1821  he  went  to  France, 
where  he  worked  in  the  Paris  herbaria, 
and  published  two  papers  on  mosses.  He 
afterwards  visited  Spain  and  Russia,  and,  on 
his  return  to  Scotland,  man-ied  in  1831  Miss 
Mary  Hay  Barclay,  of  Paris,  Perthshire.  From 
1830  to  1840  he  was  engaged  with  Sir  Wil- 
liam Hooker  upon  an  account  of  the  plants 
collected  in  Captain  Beechey's  voyage  to  the 
Pacific  and  Behring's  Straits,  which  formed 
a  quarto  volume  published  in  1841.  During 
these  ten  years  he  was  very  active  in  pub- 
lishing descriptions  of  new  plants  from  South 
America,  India,  and  Senegambia,  in  various 
periodicals ;  he  co-operated  with  Wight  in  his 
'  Illustrations  of  Indian  Botany,'  and  in  tlie 
'  Prodromus  Florae  peninsulae  Indije  Orien- 
talis.'      In   1839   he  temporarily   took   Dr, 


Arnott 


121 


Arnott 


Hooker's  place  as  botanical  lecturer  at  Glas-  ] 
gow,  and  in  1845  was  appointed  professor  of  ! 
botany  in  that  university,  leaving  Arlary  in 
1846,  and  taking  up  his  residence  in  Glasgow. 
In  1850  he  was  associated  with  Sir  William 
Hooker  in  the  sixth  edition  of  the  '  British 
Flora.'  About  this  time  he  took  up  the  study 
of  Diatoms,  of  Avhich  he  foi-med  a  lai'ge  and 
valuable  collection,  publishing  several  me- 
moirs on  the  subject.  In  1868  his  health, 
which  had  previously  begun  to  fail,  gave 
way,  and  the  delivery  of  his  university 
course  liad  to  be  abandoned.  Jaundice  set 
in,  and  he  died  on  17  April  18(58,  and  was 
buried  in  the  Lighthill  cemetery,  Glasgow, 
He  left  three  sons  and  five  daughters.  His 
large  collections  subsequently  became  the 
property  of  the  university  of  Glasgow.  He 
was  a  good  correspondent,  an  esteemed  pro- 
fessor, an  accurate  observer,  and  a  zealous 
worker. 

[Trans.  Bot.  Sec.  Ediubiurgh,  ix.  414-26.] 

J.  B. 

ARNOTT,  NEIL  (1788-1874),  physician 
and  natural  philosopher,  was  born  at  Ar- 
broath, in  Scotland,  where  his  father  held  a 
valuable  farm.  His  father  had  become  a 
catholic  in  early  life ;  and  his  mother,  Ann, 
daughter  of  Maclean  of  Boteray,  was  of 
the  same  faith.  Misfortunes  compelled  the 
father  to  give  up  his  fann  and  settle  first 
at  Blair  and  aftei"wards  in  Aberdeen.  Neil 
was  taught  by  his  mother  and  at  the  parish 
school  of  Lunan,  and  in  November  1798 
entered  Aberdeen  grammar  school.  In  1801 
he  was  entered  as  a  student  in  the  Max-ischal 
College,  with  a  small  bursaiy,  where  he  re- 
mained during  four  sessions,  and  was  especi- 
ally interested  by  the  lectures  of  Patrick 
Copland  on  natural  philosophy.  He  gradu- 
ated M.A.  in  1805,  and  at  once  commenced 
the  study  of  medicine  in  Aberdeen.  He 
supported  himself  partly  by  acting  as  shop- 
assistant  to  a  chemist.  In  September  18{)6, 
he  went  to  London,  and  became  a  student 
at  St.  George's  Hospital,  under  Sir  Everard 
Home.  A  year  later  Home's  favour  obtained 
him  an  appointment  as  surgeon  in  the  East 
India  Company's  service,  and  he  sailed  for 
China  in  April  1807.  During  the  long  and 
stormy  voyage  he  appears  to  have  made  a 
number  of  physical  and  meteorological  ob- 
servations i-egarding  ocean  currents,  tides, 
winds,  and  other  atmospheric  phenomena, 
w^aves,  &c.,  many  of  which  are  recorded  in 
his  '  Elements  of  Physics.'  He  learned 
languages  and  gave  lectures  to  the  captain 
and  officers.  He  also  turned  his  attention 
to  sanitary  matters,  clothing,  and  ventila- 
tion.    In  1809,  he  returned  to  England,  and 


in  the  following  year  made  a  second  voyage 
to  China.  He  performed  a  novel  operation 
for  stricture,  which  saved  the  life  of  the 
captain,  and  devised  new  modes  of  ventilat- 
ing the  ship. 

Qn  his  return  to  London,  in  1811,  he  com- 
menced practice  in  Hunter  Street,  Bruns- 
wick Square,  in  partnership  with  a  friend 
named  Darling,  and  he  soon  afterwards  began 
a  course  of  lectures  on  Natural  Science  ap- 
plied to  Medicine  at  the  Philomathic  Institu- 
tion, which,  in  1827,  were  published  under 
the  title  of '  Elements  of  Physics.'  In  1813 
he  obtained  the  diploma  of  the  College  of 
Surgeons,  and  in  1814  the  university  of 
Aberdeen  confen-ed  upon  him  the  degree  of 
M.D.  He  continued  to  practise  as  a  physician 
till  the  year  1855,  and  enjoyed  a  large  and 
lucrative  practice. 

Arnott's  catholic  connections  and  know- 
ledge of  languages  helped  him  in  his  profes- 
sion. Many  foreigners  consulted  him.  In 
1816  he  became  physician  to  the  French,  and 
some  time  aftei-wards  to  the  Spanish  em- 
bassy. In  the  same  year  he  dissolved  his 
partnership  with  Darling,  who  had  married, 
and  took  up  his  residence  in  a  large  house, 
No.  38  Bedford  Square,  where  he  remained 
to  the  end  of  his  professional  life — more  than 
forty  succeeding  years.  During  the  next 
seven  or  eight  years  but  few  changes  appear 
to  have  taken  place  in  his  career. 

About  1823  he  began  to  prepare  his  'Phy- 
sics.' Sir  David  Barry  was  at  this  time  pro- 
pagating his  views  concerning  the  circulation 
of  blood  through  the  capillary  tubes  and  the 
veins;  and  he  attributed  this  to  atmosi)heric 
pressure.  The  view  was  opposed  by  Dr. 
Armstrong,  who  begged  Arnott  to  take  up 
his  cause.  This  led  to  the  delivery  of  lectures 
on  medical  physics  in  1825  in  Arnott's  house. 
Professor  Bain  says  :  '  The  lectures  made  a 
great  impression,  and  there  was  a  strong 
desire  expressed  that  he  should  repeat  them.' 

The  first  volume  of  Arnott's  *  Physics '  ap- 
peared in  1827,  and  it  was  received  with 
enthusiasm.  A  second  edition  was  printed  in 
the  same  year,  a  third  in  1828,  and  a  fourth, 
together  with  Part  I.  of  the  second  volume, 
in  1829.  In  1833  appeared  a  fifth  edition  of 
the  first  volume,  with  a  second  of  vol.  ii. 
Part  I.  It  was  speedily  translated  into 
Spanish,  French,  Dutch,  and  German.  The 
book  went  out  of  print,  and  Arnott  spent 
much  time  upon  a  sixth  edition,  half  of  which 
appeared  in  1864,  and  a  second  half,  with  new 
chapters,  in  1865 ;  a  seventh  edition  has  ap- 
peared since  his  death. 

About  the  year  1855,  he  gave  up  his  prac- 
tice, and  turned  liis  attention  more  especially 
to  scientific  and  sanitary  matters.  His  name 


Arnott 


122 


Arran 


had  become  well  known  many  years  earlier 
in  connection  witli  the  invention  of  a  smoke- 
less gi-ate,  known  as '  Arnott's  Stove,'  Avhich 
combined  economy  of  fuel  and  consumption 
of  the  smoke  with  uniformity  of  combustion. 
For  this  he  was  awarded  the  Rumford  medal 
of  the  Royal  Society  in  1854.  He  devised 
the  water-bed  in  1832,  and  in  1838  he  pub- 
lished an  important  essay  on  '  Warming  and 
Ventilation,'  in  Avhich  both  his  stove  and 
ventilator  are  fully  described.  He  declined 
to  patent  any  of  his  inventions,  and  was 
never  more  happy  than  Avhen  he  could  devise 
or  apply  any  means  of  lessening  human 
suffering,  or  extending  man's  dominion  over 
nature.  For  his  various  inventions  he  was 
awarded  a  gold  medal  by  the  jurors  of  the 
Paris  Exhibition  of  1 855,  and  Napoleon  III. 
gave  him  the  cross  of  the  Legion  of  Honour, 
He  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  university 
of  London  in  1836,  and  an  original  member 
of  the  senate.  In  the  following  year  he  was 
appointed  one  of  the  physicians  extraordi- 
nary to  tlie  queen ;  in  1838  he  was  elected 
a  fellow  of  the  Royal  Society,  and  in  1854 
a  member  of  the  Medical  Coimcil.  In  1861, 
he  published  a  '  Survey  of  Human  Progress,' 
which  reached  a  second  edition  in  1862.  It 
was  well  received,  though  criticised  as  re- 

f)resenting  a  'narrow  xitilitarianism.'  In  1867 
le  wrote  a  small  tract  on  arithmetic,  and  in 
1870  a  pamphlet  on  national  education. 

To  a  great  age  Dr.  Arnott  retained  clear 
faculties,  and  his  old  spirit  of  inventiveness 
never  forsook  him.  Among  his  last  devices 
was  a  chair-bed  for  preventing  sea-sickness. 
Having  a  large  circle  of  scientific  friends,  and 
being  a  prominent  member  of  the  Royal  In- 
stitution, he  lived  much  in  the  society  of 
the  most  progressive  men  of  science  in  Lon- 
don, His  benefactions  were  widely  spread. 
In  1869  he  gave  2,000Z.  to  the  university  of 
London,  and  1,000/.  to  the  universities  of 
Edinburgh,  Aberdeen,  Glasgow,  and  St,  An- 
drews, In  1865  Mrs,  Arnott  gave  1,000/,  to 
each  of  two  ladies'  colleges  in  London,  and 
after  her  husband's  death  carried  out  his 
wishes  by  giving  1,000/.  to  each  of  the  four 
Scotch  imiversities. 

In  1859  he  caught  cold,  which  brought  on 
a  deafness,  gradually  increasing,  and  ulti- 
mately limiting  greatly  his  sociable  habits. 
A  fall  in  1871  produced  a  concussion  of  the 
brain  and  weakened  his  mind.  He  died  22 
March  1874,  and  was  buried  in  Edinburgh. 
His  wife,  whom  he  married  in  1856,  survived 
him  two  years.  She  Avas  the  widow  of  one 
of  his  oldest  friends,  Mr.  Knight,  and  the 
daughter  of  Mr.  G.  II.  Holley,  of  Blickling, 
in  Norfolk. 

Dr.  Arnott  was  physically  a  very  strong 


man.  He  was  perfectly  sound  in  health, 
and  for  more  than  sixty  years  he  lived  in 
the  heart  of  London,  and  rarely  sought  or 
required  a  lioliday.  In  many  manual  exer- 
cises, sucli  as  handicraft  and  games,  drawing, 
and  playing  upon  musical  instruments,  he 
excelled.  He  possessed  a  gi-eat  aptitude  for 
languages — wrote  English  elegantly,  and 
gave  fluent  speech  to  Italian,  Spanish,  and 
French.  When  his  'Physics 'was  translated 
into  German,  he  began  the  study  of  that 
language.  His  intellect  was  very  versatile. 
It  widely  embraced  both  languages  and 
science.  As  an  inventor  he  possessed  many 
resources.  He  was  a  very  sociable  man,  was 
extremely  amiable,  and  always  full  of  phi- 
lanthropic aims  and  objects.  There  is  a 
crayon  drawing  of  Arnott  by  Mrs,  W,  Car- 
penter in  the  Royal  Society,  and  a  portrait 
by  Partridge  in  Marischal  College,  Aberdeen. 

[Obituary  notice  of  Dr.  Neil  Arnott,  in  the 
Proceedings  of  the  lioyal  Society,  vol,  xxv, 
1877  ;  Bain's  Biographical  Memoir  of  Dr.  Neil 
Arnott,  read  before  the  Aberdeen  Philosophical 
Society,  1881.]  G.  F.  K. 

ARNOUL  or  ARNULF.   [See  Eknitlf.] 

ARNWAY,  JOHN  (1601-1653),  royalist 
divine,  was  of  a  Shropshire  family  and  heir  to 
a  considerable  estate.  He  Avas  a  commoner  of 
St.  Edmund's  Hall,  Oxford,  and  in  1635  rector 
of  Ilodnet  and  Ightfield.  (For  difficulties  con- 
nected with  these  appointments  see  State  Pa- 
pers, Dom.  1634-5.)  His  abounding  charity 
and  devoted  loyalty  were  conspicuous.  When 
he  repaired  to  the  king  at  Oxford  in  1642, 
the  parliament  garrison  at  Wem  plundered 
his  house  so  completely  that  (according  to 
his  own  account)  they  left  him  neither  bible, 
nor  money,  nor  clothes.  He  was  promoted 
to  be  archdeacon  of  Lichfield  and  Coventiy 
and  prebendary  of  Woolvey.  Resuming  his 
activity  in  the  royal  service,  his  estate  was 
sequestrated  and  he  imprisoned  till  after  the 
king's  death.  He  was  then  exiled,  and  took 
refuge  at  the  Hague,  where  (in  1650)  he  pub- 
lished two  pamphlets,  (1)  the  '  Tablet,'  a  vin- 
dication of  the  king  against  Milton's '  Eikono- 
clastes,'  and  (2)  '  An  Alarum  to  the  Subjects 
of  England,'  an  account  of  the  oppressions 
which  he  and  others  had  suffered.  He  was 
compelled  by  poverty  to  accept  an  invitation 
to  exercise  his  function  among  the  English  in 
Virginia,  where  he  died,  it  is  supposed  in 
165.3.  Both  his  tracts  were  reprinted  in  1661 
by  William  Rider  of  Merton  College. 

[Wood's  Athenaj  Oxen.  (Bliss),  iii.  307  :  Fasti, 
i.  397,  415.]  R.  C.  B. 


ARRAN,  Earls  of. 

Stewart.] 


[See  Hamilton  and 


Arrowsmith 


123 


Arrowsmith 


ARROWSMITH,  AARON  (1750-1823), 
geograplier,  the  Lead  of  a  well-known  family 
of  cartographers,  was  born  in  Winston,  Dur- 
ham, 14  July  1750.  His  father  dying  while 
he  was  young,  his  mother  married  again,  the 
stepfather  being  a  dissipated  man,  who  soon 
wasted  the  children's  patrimony.  Young 
Arrowsmith  was  thus  early  in  life  thrown 
on  his  own  resources  for  a  livelihood.  The 
only  instruction  he  ever  received  beyond  the 
mere  elements  of  reading  and  wi'iting  was 
in  mathematics,  from  the  eccentric  Emerson 
[see  Ejiersox,  William],  who  was  so  taken 
by  the  boy's  auxiety  to  learn  that  he  taught 
him  for  one  winter. 

Arrowsmith  came  to  London  about  1770. 
One  authority  states  that  he  commenced  his 
career  under  AV.  Faden,  but  of  this  there  is 
no  evidence  extant ;  another  authority,  ap- 
parently better  informed  from  private  sources, 
states  that  he  first  found  employment  with 
John  Gary,  for  whose  county  maps  Arrow- 
smith  made  all  the  pedometer  measurements 
and  drawings.  We  find  him  in  1790  esta- 
blished in  Castle  Street,  Long  Acre,  where, 
at  great  cost  and  labour,  he  brought  out  his 
first  effort  in  map-making,  '  A  Chart  of  the 
AVorld  upon  Mercator^s  Projection,  showing 
all  the  New  Discoveries,  .  .  .  with  the 
Tracts  [se'c]  of  the  most  distinguished  Navi- 
gators since  1700.'  This  chart,  now  rare, 
was  published  1  April  1790.  There  is  a 
copy  preserved  in  'Brit.  Mus.  Gren.  Lib. 
20273.'  In  179-4  he  published  his  large '  Map 
of  the  World '  on  the  Globular  projection, 
on  the  same  scale  as  the  Mercator  chart,  viz. 
five  equatorial  degrees  to  one  inch.  With 
the  map  of  1794  he  published  a  '  Companion ' 
in  quarto,  from  which  we  learn  that  these  two 
maps  were  published  '  in  order  to  exhibit  the 
contrast  between  the  two  best  projections 
upon  which  general  maps  of  the  world  can 
be  constructed.'  The  materials  used  in  the 
second  map  were  mainly  the  collections  of 
A.  Daliymple  and  the  manuscripts  of  the 
Hudson's  Bay  Company,  Avhich  last  were 
used  to  much  greater  advantage  in  his  '  Map 
of  North  America,'  published  in  1796.  In 
1802  Arrowsmith  appears  to  have  removed 
westward  to  Rathbone  Place,  where,  we 
learn  from  the  London  directories  of  the 
period,  he  remained  until  1808.  In  1807  he 
brought  out  his '  Map  of  Scotland,  constructed 
from  original  materials  obtained  by  the 
authority  of  the  Parliamentary  Commis- 
sioners for  Making  Roads  and  Bridges  in  the 
Highlands,'  engi-aved  on  four  sheets,  on  the 
scale  of  four  miles  to  one  inch.  The  valu- 
able *  Memoir '  for  this  map  Avas  published 
in  1809.  The  'original  materials'  referred  to 
were  mainly  the  large  manuscript  '  Military 


Survey  of  Scotland,' on  the  scale  of  1000  yards 
to  an  inch,  executed  at  the  in.stance  of  the 
Duke  of  Cumberland,  1745-55,  by  the  engi- 
neers under  the  command  of  General  Watson. 
The  greater  part  of  the  hill-shading  was  done 
by  Paul  Sandby,  the  well-known  landscape 
draughtsman.  This  Survey,  but  little  known, 
is  preserved  in  the  King's  Libraiy,  British 
Museum.  In  1814  Arrowsmith  removed  to 
Soho  Square,  where  he  carried  on  his  busi- 
ness of  map  publishing  until  his  death.  L'p 
to  this  period  all  our  maps  of  India  had  been 
based  upon  route  surveys  only.  In  1822 
Arrowsmith  produced  his  '  Atlas  of  Southern 
India,'  on  the  scale  of  four  miles  to  one  inch, 
in  eighteen  sheets,  which  was  based  upon  the 
triangulations  of  Colonel  Lampton  and  the 
'  Madras  Survey  Maps.'  This  Avas  his  last 
important  Avork,  Avhich  became  the  model 
for  the  AA'ell-knoAvn  '  Indian  Atlas,'  after- 
wards issued  by  the  directors  of  the  East 
India  Company  in  1827. 

Arrowsmith  died  at  his  house  in  Soho 
Square,  23  April  1823,  aged  73  years.  After 
his  decease  the  business  Avas  carried  on  by 
his  tAvo  sons,  Aaron  and  Samuel.  A  fairly 
complete  list  of  the  maps  and  charts  made 
and  published  by  the  elder  ArroAAsmith  might 
be  compiled  from  the  newly-printed  cata- 
logue of  maps  in  the  British  Museum,  and 
the  catalogue  of  the  map-room  of  the  Royal 
Geographical  Society,  1882.  Considering 
the  period  at  Avhich  they  Avere  published, 
it  is  remarkable  that  sufficient  patronage 
should  liaAe  been  found  for  such  large  and 
costly  maps  and  charts.  They  AA^ere  evi- 
dently remunerative,  as  they  obtained  a  high 
reputation  throughout  Europe  for  their  cor- 
rectness, distinctness,  and  good  engraving. 
Although  Arrowsmith  never  received  the 
scientific  training  of  a  Berghaus  or  a  Ritter, 
his  Avork  never  deserved  the  adverse  com- 
ments bestoAved  upon  it  by  Klaproth,  than 
whom  a  more  fanciful  geographer  neA'er  made 
a  map.  ArroAvsmith's  merits  Avere  rather 
those  of  a  Avell-trained  map-maker  than  a 
scientific  geographer.  He  understood  the 
projection  of  maps  in  all  its  branches  tho- 
roughly, Avhich  enabled  him  to  utilise,  in  a 
way  peculiarly  his  OAvn,  all  the  Aast  store  of 
infonnation  and  material  placed  at  his  dis- 
posal by  his  friends  Dalrymple  and  Rennell, 
and  the  Directors  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  and 
the  East  India  Companies.  His  elephantine 
maps,  as  compared  Avith  those  of  to-day, 
will  ahvays  remain  monuments  of  his  un- 
tiring industry  and  unshaken  faith  in  honest 
work.  The  maps  published  after  his  death 
bearing  his  name  are  either  neAV  editions 
corrected  to  date,  or  neAV  ones  made  by  his 
son  Aaron,  Avho  Avith   his  brother   Samuel 


Arrowsmith 


124 


Arrowsmith 


carried  on  the  business  until  the  death  of  i 
the  latter  in  1839.  To  this  period  may  be 
assigned  the  '  Geometrical  Construction  of 
Maps  and  Globes,'  1825,  4to.  The  Atlas 
to  accompany  the  '  Edinburgh  Dictionary  of 
Geography,'  6  vols,  8vo,  1827 ;  '  Atlas  of 
Ancient  Geography,'  1829,  8vo ;  '  Atlas 
of  Modern  Geography,'  1830,  8vo ;  and  the 
'  Bible  Atlas,'  by  Samuel,  1835,  4to.  1 

[Diet.  Biog.  S.  D.  U.  K. ;  Ocean  Highways,  i 
1873-4,  p.  124;    Markham's    Indian    Surveys, 
2nd  ed.  1878.]  C,  H.  C. 

ARROWSMITH,  EDMUND  (1585-  | 
1628),  Jesuit,  sometimes  knoAvn  as  Brad- 
SHAW  and  Rigby,  was  born  in  1585  at  Had- 
dock, in  the  parish  of  Winwick,  near  War- 
rington, Lancashire.  His  father  was  Robert 
AiTowsmith,  a  yeoman,  and  his  mother 
Margery  was  a  lady  of  the  ancient  family  of 
Gerard.  Both  his  parents  were  catholics,  and 
great  sufferers  for  their  religion,  as  were  also 
their  fathers  before  them.  He  was  baptised 
as  Brian,  but  took  the  christian  name  of  Ed- 
mund at  confirmation,  and  used  it  exclusively 
afterwards.  Crossing  the  seas  in  1605  he  was 
received  into  the  Englisli  college  at  Douay  ; 
was  ordained  priest  in  1612  ;  and  sent  back 
upon  the  English  mission  in  1613.  He  pur- 
sued his  missionary  labours  in  his  native 
county  of  Lancaster  with  gi-eat  zeal  and  suc- 
cess. In  1624  he  entered  the  Society  of  Jesus. 
Previously  to  this  he  had  been  apprehended, 
probably  in  1622,  and  imprisoned  at  Lan- 
caster, but  he  was  released  afterwards  upon 
pardon,  with  divers  others.  His  second  appre- 
hension took  place  a  little  before  the  summer 
assizes  of  1628,  at  which  he  was  tried  before 
Sir  Henry  Yelverton,  on  a  charge  of  having 
taken  the  order  of  priesthood  beyond  the 
seas  in  disobedience  to  the  king's  laws.  He 
was  found  guilty,  and  suffered  at  Lancaster, 
28  Aug.  1628.  He  was  drawn  to  the  place 
of  execution  on  a  hurdle,  and  after  having 
been  hanged,  his  body  was  cut  down,  dis- 
membered, embowelled,  and  quartered.  His 
head  was  also  cut  off,  and  with  the  quarters 
boiled  in  the  cauldron;  the  blood,  mixed 
with  sand  and  earth,  was  scraped  up  and 
cast  into  the  fire.  Lastly,  his  head,  as  the 
sentence  directed,  was  set  up  upon  a  pole 
amongst  the  pinnacles  of  Lancaster  castle, 
and  tlie  quarters  were  hung  on  foiu'  several 
quarters  of  the  building.  The  incidents  of 
the  trial  and  the  repulsive  particulars  of  the 
execution  are  given  in  '  A  True  and  Exact 
Relation  of  the  Death  of  Two  Catholicks,  who 
suffered  for  their  Religion  at  the  Summer 
Assizes,  held  at  Lancaster  in  the  year  1628. 
Republished  with  some  additions,  on  account 
of  a  wonderful  Cure  wrought  by  the  Interces- 


sion of  one  of  them,  F.  Edmund  Arrow- 
smith,  a  Priest  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  in  the 
Person  of  Thomas  Hawarden,  son  of  Caryl 
Hawarden  of  Appleton,  within  Widness  in 
Lancashire.  The  death  of  the  generous  Lay- 
man, Richard  Ilerst,  was  not  to  be  omitted, 
that  the  happy  Cause,  wliich  united  them  in 
their  Sufterings,  may  jointly  preserve  their 
Memories,'  Lond.  1737.  This  octavo  volume 
contains  two  excellent  portraits  of  the  mar- 
tyrs, the  second  of  whom,  Richard  Herst,  a 
farmer,  suffered  the  day  after  Father  Arrow- 
smith.  Most  probably  its  compiler  was 
Father  Cornelius  Moi-phy. 

The  miraculous  cure  is  alleged  to  have  been 
wrought  by  Father  Arrowsmith's  interces- 
sion, through  the  application  of  the  famous 
relic,  the  martyr's  hand,  which  is  now  pre- 
served in  the  catholic  church  of  St.  Oswald 
at  Ashton,  Newton-le-Willows.  Attesta- 
tions respecting  another  miracle  said  to  have 
been  wrought  by  means  of  this  relic  are 
printed  in  Foley's  '  Records  of  the  English 
Province  of  the  Society  of  Jesus.'  That  the 
relic  is  still  an  object  of  popular  veneration 
is  obvious  from  the  following  intimation  I'e- 
lating  to  the  church  at  Ashton,  given  in  the 
'  Catholic  Directory,'  published  in  1883,  per- 
missu  superiorum : — '  Those  who  wish  to  visit 
"  the  Holy  Hand  "  will  have  an  opportunity 
of  satisfying  their  devotion  on  Sunday  after 
the  Masses,  and  after  service ;  on  week-days 
after  Mass,  and  on  Friday  at  1.30.' 

[Relation  of  the  Death  of  Two  Catholicks 
(1737);  Tanner,  Societas  Jesu  usque  ad  San- 
guinis et  Vitse  profusionem  militans,  99-101  ; 
Morus,  Historia  Missionis  Anglicanse  Soc.  Jesu, 
462-465  ;  Recit  veritable  de  la  cruaute  et  Tyra- 
nie  faicte  en  Angleterre  a  I'endroit  du  Pere  Ed- 
mond  Arosmith  de  la  compagnie  de  Jesus  (Paris, 
1629)  ;  Foley's  Eecords,  ii.  24-74,  viii.  18  ;  Chal- 
loner's  Memoirs  of  Missionary  Priests  (1803),  ii. 
66.  MS.  note  by  Isabel  Burton  in  copy  of  Clial- 
loner's  Memoirs  in  Brit.  Mus.  (edit.  1742),  be- 
tween pp.  140,  141  ;  Oliver's  Collectanea  S.  J., 
46  ;  Dodd's  Church  Hist.  iii.  80  ;  Notes  and  Qu. 
4th  ser.  ix.  436,  452,  455,  x.  177,  257,  5th  ser. 
xi.  94,  318  ;  Granger's  Biog.  Hist,  of  England, 
ii.  383  ;  Catholic  Directory  (1883),  161  ;  Roljy's 
Traditions  of  Lancashire,  5th  edit.  (1872) ; 
Baines's  Hist,  of  Lancashire,  iii.  638.]      T.  C. 

ARROWSMITH,  JOHN,  D.D.  (1602- 

1659),  puritan  divine,  was  born  near  New- 

castle-on-Tyne  on  29  INIarch  1602.     In  1616 

he   entered  St.   John's  College,  ■  Cambridge, 

and  graduated  B.A.inl619,andM.A.  in  1623. 

In  1623  he  became  fellow  of  St.  Catherine's 

i  Hall.     He  married  in  1631,  and  became  in- 

[  cumbent  in  the  same  year  of  St.  Nicholas 

I  Chapel,  King's  Lynn.     He  was  nominated 

on  25  April  1642  one  of  the  two  Norfolk 


Arrowsmith 


J  25 


Artaud 


divines  to  be  consulted  on  churcli  affairs.  He 
sat  as  a  member  of  the  Westminster  Assem- 
bly in  1643.  In  1644  he  was  made  D.l).  and 
regius  professor  of  divinity  at  Cambridge; 
and  master  of  St.  Catherine's  Hall,  in  the 
room  of  Dr.  Beale,  removed  by  the  Earl  of 
Manchester.  On  the  sequestration  of  the 
Rev.  Edward  Sparke,  D.D.  (author  of '  Scin- 
tilla Altaris  '),  Arrowsmith  obtained  the 
rectoiy  of  St.  Martin's,  Ironmonger  Lane,  in 
1645,  and  became  a  member  of  the  Sixth  Lon- 
don Classis,  as  soon  as  the  presbyterian  form 
of  government  was  set  up.  In  1647  he  was 
A'ice-chancellor  of  Cambridge  University,  and 
in  1649  became  master  of  Trinity.  His 
writings  are  sternly  puritanical,  but  candid 
and  clear.  He  must  have  had  rich  and  en- 
dearing qualities  and  some  bi-eadth  to  secure 
for  him  at  Cambridge  the  deep  attachment 
of  AVhichcote,  who  speaks  of  him  as  *  my 
friend  of  choice,  a  companion  of  ray  special 
delight,  whom  in  former  years  I  have  ac- 
quainted with  all  my  heart,'  and  further  bears 
testimony  to  '  the  sweetness  of  his  spirit  and 
the  amiableness  of  his  conversation.'  He 
died  in  February  1659,  being  buried  24  Feb. 
He  published  sermons:  1.  'Covenant-aveng- 
ing Sword  brandished,'  1643.  2.  '  England's 
Ebenezer,'  1645.  3.  '  A  great  Wonder  in 
Heaven,'  1647  (all  preached  before  parlia- 
ment). Also  (4)  'Tactica  Sacra;  sive,  de 
milite  spiritual i  pugnante,  vincente  et  trium- 
phante  Dissertatio.  Accesserunt  Orationes 
aliquot  anti-Weigelianse,'  1657  ;  and  (5)  *  Ar- 
milla  Catechetica  :  a  Chain  of  Principles  .  ,  , 
wherein  the  chief  heads  of  Christian  Religion 
are  asserted,'  1659.  Posthumously  appeared 
his  (6)  QedvOpwnos'  or  God-man;  being  an 
exposition  of  John  i.  1-18,'  1660. 

[Coles'  MS.  Athense  Cantab,  in  Brit.  Mus. ; 
TuUoch's  Eat.  Theol.and  Christ.  Philos.  in  Eng- 
land in  the  Seventeenth  Century,  1872,  ii.  76-7.] 

A.  G. 

ARROWSMITH,  JOHN  (1790-1873), 
geographer,  nephew  of  the  elder  Aaron  Arrow- 
smith,  came  to  London  in  February  1810,  and 
for  many  years,  with  his  cousins  Aaron  and 
Samuel,  aided  his  uncle  in  the  construction 
of  his  large  collection  of  maps  and  charts. 
After  his  uncle's  death  in  1823  he  commenced 
business  on  his  own  account  in  Essex  Street, 
Strand,  but  finally  succeeded  to  the  honours 
of  the  house  in  Soho  Square  on  the  death  of 
his  cousin  Samuel.  His  first  publication  Avas 
the  well-known  '  London  Atlas '  in  1834,  fol., 
which  has  passed  through  three  editions, 
thus  revei'ting  to  the  practice  of  Ortelius  and 
Mercator  of  the  sixteenth  century.  In  con- 
structing the  sixty-eight  maps  for  the  latest 
edition  of  his  '  Atlas'  in  1858,  he  infonns  us 


in  the  preface  that  '  he  examined  more  than 
10,000  sheets  of  private  maps,  charts  and 
plans,  thereby  rectifying  all  the  labours  of 
his  predecessors.'  His  large  maps  and  charts 
are : — India,  in  twenty  sheets  ;  England  and 
Wales,  in  eighteen  ;  Spain,  twelve ;  World, 
ten ;  Pacific,  nine ;  Atlantic,  British  Chan- 
nel, Canada,  and  Ceylon,  each  in  eight  sheets ; 
America,  Australia,  France,  Germany,  W^il- 
kinson's  Thebes,  each  in  six  sheets ;  Africa, 
America,  Asia,  Bolivia,  East  Indies,  West 
Indies,  and  Italy,  each  in  four  sheets.  To 
these  may  be  added  numerous  smaller  maps, 
illustrating  expeditions  in  various  parts  of 
the  globe,  many  of  Avhich  are  to  be  roimd  in 
books  of  travel  and  the  Royal  Geographical 
Society's  Journals.  He  retired  from  the  more 
active  pursuit  of  publication  of  his  maps  in 
1861,  but  devoted  some  of  his  time  to  the 
improvement  of  his  old  maps,  or  to  the  illus- 
tration of  other  geographical  work.  Among 
the  maps  left  unpublished  at  his  death  were 
some  very  fine  ones  of  each  of  the  Australian 
colonies,  of  Ceylon,  and  of  other  countries. 
Arrowsmith's  last  labour  was  a  small  map 
of  Central  Asia,  on  the  scale  of  about  ninety 
geogi'aphical  miles  to  the  inch,  upon  which 
he  was  working  at  the  India  Office  up  to  the 
last  week  of  his  life.  Arrowsmith  died  at  his 
house  in  Hereford  Square,  South  Kensington, 
1  May  1873,  aged  83.  He  Avas  one  of  the 
fellows  who  aided  in  founding  the  Royal 
Geographical  Society  in  1830,  and  for  many 
years  was  one  of  the  council,  and  in  1863 
he  received  the  patron's  gold  medal  for  the 
important  services  he  had  rendered  to  geo- 
graphical science. 

By  an  order  of  the  Court  of  Chancery  the 
vast  collections  of  the  Arrowsmiths,  consist- 
ing of  maps,  plates  and  manuscripts,  were 
dispersed  by  public  auction  on  28  July  1874, 
and  have  since  fallen  into  the  hands  of  one 
of  our  most  eminent  map  publishers. 

[Authorities  as  under  Aaron  Arrowsmith.] 

C.  H.  C. 

ARSDEKIN,  RICHARD.  [See  Akch- 
DEKiN,  Richard.] 

ARTAUD,  WILLIAM  (/.  1776-1822), 
portrait  painter,  was  the  son  of  a  jeweller.  In 
1776  he  gained  a  premium  from  the  Society 
of  Ai-ts  ;  in  1780  exhibited  his  first  work,  a 
'St,  John,'  in  the  Academy;  in  1784  and 
1786  he  sent  portraits  in  oil  to  the  same 
place.  He  gamed  the  gold  medal  of  the 
Academy  for  a  picture  from  '  Paradise  Lost,'' 
and  (in  1795)  the  traA'elling  studentship.  la 
1822  his  name  appears  as  an  exhibitor  at  the 
Academy  for  the  last  time.  He  painted 
portraits  of  Bartolozzi,  Samuel  Parr,  Priest- 


Arthur 


126 


Arthur 


ley,  and  other  well-known  characters.  Nag- 
ler  gives  a  list  of  engravings  after  his  paint- 
ings. The  date  of  his  death  is  not  known. 
'  Ilis  portraits  were  cleverly  drawn,  and 
painted  with  great  power.  They  have  indi- 
viduality of  character,  but  Avant  expression.' 

[Nagler,  2nd  ed. ;  Redgrave's  Diet,  of  Eng. 
Painters.]  E.  E. 

ARTHUR,  the  real  or  fabulous  king  of 
Britain,  and  a  favourite  hero  of  romantic 
literature  from  the  middle  ages  down  to  our 
own  days,  is  not  mentioned  by  any  contem- 
porary writer ;  unless,  indeed,  we  accept  as 
contemporary  with  him  certain  anonymous 
Welsh  poems  in  which  his  name  occurs.  It 
is  probable  that  all  these  pieces  are  of  a  much 
later  date.  The  earliest  writing  in  which  Ar- 
thur is  spolven  of  at  any  length  is  the  '  His- 
toria  Britonum '  assigned  to  Nennius,  and 
probably  written  in  the  eighth  century.  He 
is  incidentally  mentioned  in  the  '  Annales 
Cambrise,'  a  compilation  of  the  tenth  century. 
The  story  as  told  by  Nennius  was  taken  up 
and  enlarged  by  the  addition  of  a  mass  of 
fabulous  material  from  the  hands  of  Geoifrey 
of  Monmouth  (Gruffydd  ap  Arthur),  wliose 
'Historia  Britonum,'  in  which  this  expanded 
history  of  Arthur  occurs,  Avas  written  in 
1147.  Geoffrey  professed  to  have  gathered 
his  materials  in  Brittany.  Whether  he  really 
did  so,  or  adopted  Welsh  traditions  which  Avere 
current  in  his  day,  or  Avhether  he  simply  in- 
vented the  fabulous  details  wliich  he  inserted, 
may  be  matter  of  dispute.  Few  liaAe  now 
any  doubt  that  his  account  is  Avorthless  for 
any  historical  purpose.  And  though  it  is  by 
no  means  a  settled  question  whether  Arthur 
is  to  be  regarded  as  a  purely  mythical  or  as 
fundamentally  an  historical  personage,  it  is 
pretty  generally  agreed  that  if  there  be  any 
historical  element  in  his  biograpliy  this  ele- 
ment is  confined  almost  entirely  to  what  Ave 
learn  from  Nennius,  In  adopting  the  second 
of  these  tAVO  theories  and  treating  Arthur  as 
originally  an  historical  personage,  Ave  must 
not  be  thought  to  prejudge  the  matter  in  dis- 
pute, for  it  is  only  iipon  this  second  supposi- 
tion that  Arthur  can  be  entitled  to  a  place 
in  this  Dictionary. 

Arthur  Avas  probably  born  towards  the  end 
of  the  fifth  century,  and,  according  to  the 
most  generally  accepted  theory,  the  scene  of 
his  actions  lay  generally  in  South  Britain. 
At  this  time  the  Saxons  Avere,  Avith  all  the 
power  they  could  muster,  pushing  their  vic- 
torious arms  towards  the  Avest.  In  their 
endeavours  the  principal  resistance  they  met 
Avith  seems  to  have  come  from  tliat  section  of 
their  opponents  wliich  Avas  composed  of  men 
either  really  of  Roman  descent  or  deeply  im- 


bued Avith  Roman  civilisation.  At  the  head  of 
this  body  stood  Ambrosius  Aurelianus,  Avho 
is  spoken  of  as  long  Avaging  a  doubtful  Avar 
against  the  Saxons,  obtaining  frequent  suc- 
cesses OA'er  them,  but,  owing  to  the  CA'er  in- 
creasing hordes  by  Avliich  tlie  invaders  Avere 
recruited,  unable  to  draAV  much  profit  from 
his  A'ictories.  Ambrosius  claimed  descent 
from  Constantine  the  Tyrant,  the  last  Roman 
AAdio  CA'er  wore  the  purple  in  Britain.  The 
later  histories  of  Arthur  represent  him  as 
the  nepheAV  of  this  Ambrosius,  and  the  son 
of  Ambrosius's  brother,  Utlier  Pendragon. 
Uther  is  certainly  a  mythical  personage,  and 
there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  a  nearer  con- 
nection between  Arthur  and  Ambrosius  than 
that  Arthur  succeeded  to  the  command  of 
the  same  body  of  Britons  and  in  the  same 
part  of  Britain  as  had  been  formerly  held  by 
Ambrosius.  If  AA^e  adopt  an  ingenious  iden- 
tification first  proposed  by  Carte  and  sup- 
ported by  Dr.  Guest  {Orif/ines  Celticce,  ii. 
181  seq.),  Ambrosius  died  in  a.d.  508.  It  may 
liaA'e  been  that  Arthur  thereupon  obtained 
the  command  of  the  British  army.  The  date 
generally  giA^en  for  that  event  is  0I6.  That 
he  OAved  this  eleA-ation  not  to  blood  but  to 
merit  is  clearly  stated  ]jy  Nennius  in  the  first 
mention  of  Arthur  AA'hich  occurs  in  any 
extant  historical  document:  'Tlien  it  AA'as 
that  the  Avarlike  Arthur  AA^th  all  the  kings 
and  military  force  of  Britain  fought  against 
the  Saxons.  Albeit  there  Avere  many  more 
noble  than  himself,  yet  AA'as  he  tweh^e  times 
chosen  their  commander,  and  was  as  often 
A'ictorious'  (Vat.  MS.) 

Nennius  then  enumerates  Arthur's  twelve 
A'ictories,  which  are  as  folloAvs : — 1.  At  the 
mouth  of  the  riA'erGlein.  2,3,4,5.  OnariAer 
called  by  the  Britons  Dugblas  [Duglas]  in  the 
region  of  Linnuis  (Geoffrey  of  Monmouth 
converts  this  Linnuis  into  Lincolnshire,  and 
most  Avriters  Iuiac  followed  his  lead  in  deter- 
mining the  locality).  6.  On  the  riAcr  Bassas 
(according to  the  Ilarleian  MS.,  according  to 
the  Vatican  MS.  Lusas).  7.  In  the  Avood 
Celidon,  '  which  is  called  in  British  cat  coit 
Celidon '  (that  is  to  say,  Cat  Celidon  is  the 
British  for  <■  the  wood  of  Celidon ').  8.  At 
Guinnion  Castle,  'wliere  Arthur  bore  the 
image  of  the  Holy  Virgin,  the  ^Mother  of 
God,  upon  his  shoulder,  and  through  the 
poAver  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  the  Holy 
Mary  put  the  Saxons  to  flight  and  pursued 
them  the  Avhole  day  Avith  great  slaughter. 
9.  At  the  city  of  Leogis  (or  '  legionis,'  of  the 
legion),  Avliich  is  called  Kairleon  (Caerleon 
on  the  Usk,  says  Geoffrey.  Chester  Avould 
answer  to  the  name  quite  as  well,  and  in  fact 
many  other  places  would  do  so,  Kairleon 
simply  meaning  *  Camp   of    the   Legion '). 


Arthur 


127 


Arthur 


10.  At  the  river  Tribruit  (Treuroit).  11.  At 
the  mountain  Agnet,  wliich  is  also  called 
cat  Bregion  (or  Bregnoin.  Here,  again, 
*  cat '  is  simply  wood.  The  wood  of  Breguoin 
or  Bregion).  A  marginal  gloss  says  that 
this  was  in  Somersetshire.  12.  The  twelfth 
was  the  hardest  fight  of  all,  in  which  Arthur 
penetrated  to  the  hill  Badon.  In  this  con- 
test 960  (940  other  MSS.)  fell  by  his  hand 
alone,  no  one  bnt  the  Lord  giving  him  aid. 

The  battle  of  Mons  Badonicus  is  the  only 
one  of  these  mentioned  by  Gildas  {Hist.  c. 
26),  though  he  nowhere  connects  Arthur 
with  the  victory.  In  the  'Annales  Cam- 
brise '  it  is  again  mentioned,  and,  whatever 
may  be  thought  about  the  other  eleven 
battles,  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  this 
one  is  historical.  Historians  are  not  agreed 
with  what  place  this  Mons  Badonicus  is  to 
be  identified.  In  a  gloss  to  Gildas  it  is  said 
to  be  upon  the  Severn,  and  by  GeoftVey  of 
Monmouth  and  all  Avho  follow  him  it  has 
been  identified  with  Bath.  This  theory  is 
almost  irreconcilable  with  other  ascertained 
facts  of  the  Saxon  conquests  in  the  south, 
which  show  that  they  could  not  possibly 
have  penetrated  so  far  at  this  date.  Carte 
suggested  Baydon  Hill,  on  the  road  between 
Silchester  and  Chichester ;  Dr.  Guest  suggests 
Badbury  in  Dorsetshire.  Roger  of  Wendover 
assigned  520  as  the  date  of  this  battle,  which 
would  thus  be  one  year  after  that  in  which, 
according  to  the  Saxon  chronicle,  Cerdic  and 
Cynric  assumed  the  kingship  among  the  West 
Saxons.  Other  Avriters  give  516  as  the  date. 
Arthur  by  his  later  biographers  is  always 
placed  as  the  opponent  of  Cerdic  (Cheldric  : 
GeoiFrey). 

These  are  really  all  the  facts  of  Arthur's 
life  for  which  we  lune  any  distinct  historical 
authority.  We  shall  speak  presently  of  new 
attempts  to  identify  the  sites  of  Arthiu"'s 
twelve  battles.  The  first  difficulty  must  be 
to  reconcile  the  account  of  Nennius  Avitli  the 
complete  silence  of  Gildas  upon  the  deeds  of 
Arthur,  And  it  must  be  acknowledged  at 
once  that  there  is  much  to  be  said  for  the 
view  which  would  make  Ai'thur  a  purely 
mythical  personage,  possibly  an  ancient  divi- 
nity among  the  Britons.  The  large  number 
of  places  connected  with  the  name  of  Arthur 
and  scattered  over  all  the  most  Celtic  portions 
of  the  countrj'^  tells  in  favour  of  this  theory. 
Such  localities  are  to  be  found  in  Wales, 
Somersetshire,  Devonshire,  Cornwall,  and  in 
Scotland,  as  well  as  in  Brittany.  Even 
Nennius's  account,  though  on  the  whole 
strongly  marked  with  signs  of  sobriety  and 
trustworthiness,  is  not  quite  above  suspicion. 
In  especial  the  number  tioelve  for  the  number 
of  Arthur's  victories,  taken  in  connection 


with  the  twelve  knights  of  the  round  table, 
the  twelve  paladins  of  Charlemagne,  is  rather 
suspiciously  appropriate.  None  of  these  ob- 
jections can  be  considered  conclusive.  The 
likeliest  theory  in  support  of  Arthiir's  his- 
torical character  is  that  he  was  in  the  eyes 
of  his  contemporaries  in  a  far  less  conspicuous 
position  than  that  to  which  he  was  afterwards 
raised  by  the  vox  populi  of  myth  and  ballad. 
In  this  respect  his  case  would  be  only  parallel 
to  that  of  two  other  famous  epic  heroes, 
whom  we  are  by  no  means  bound  to  look 
upon  as  pixrely  mythical  creations.  Could 
we  have  had  accounts  Avritten  by  the  con- 
temporaries of  Achilles,  there  is  every  reason 
to  believe  that  in  their  eyes  he  Avould  have 
appeared  only  as  a  petty  chieftain  in  com- 
mand of  an  insignificant  band  of  auxiliaries. 
Something  the  same  is  actually  the  impres- 
sion given  us  by  the  only  contemporary 
mention  of  Roland,  the  popular  hero  of  the 
'  Chansons  de  Geste.'  Later  generations 
would  invent  for  Achilles  his  divine  descent 
and  for  Roland  his  kinship  with  Cliailemagne, 
just  as  for  Arthur  they  invented  the  half- 
miraculous  descent  from  Uther  and  Igerna, 
and  the  kinship  to  Ambrosius  Aurelianus. 

Gildas  is  our  witness  that  after  the  battle 
of  Badon  Hill  a  long  peace  was  established 
between  the  Saxons  and  the  Britons,  and  in 
the  *  Polychronicon  '  we  read  the  additional 
statement  that  Arthur  'made  peace  with 
Cerdic  and  gave  him  Hampshire  and  Somer- 
setshire, wliich  was  called  Wessex'  {Polychr. 
cap.  6).  Dr.  Guest,  acting  upon  this  hint, 
has  tried  with  great  ingenuity  and  consider- 
able success  to  define  the  limits  of  the  tw 
kingdoms,  and  thus  to  show  the  actual  region 
over  which  Arthur's  poAver  extended  (Or, 
Celt.  ii.). 

Nennius  has  nothing  further  to  tell  us 
of  Arthur  except  the  fact  of  his  death  at 
the  battle  of  Camlan;  and  the  'Annales 
Cambrise '  tell  us  just  as  much,  but  no  more. 
It  is  in  the  period  following  the  battle  of 
Badon  Hill  that  the  later  biographers  intro- 
duce the  most  extravagant  portions  of  the 
Arthurian  legend,  the  conquests  of  Ireland, 
Denmark,  Norway,  Gaul,  Spain,  and  finally 
of  the  armies  of  the  (long  defunct)  Roman 
Republic  itself.  What  we  learn  from  Gildas 
is  more  to  the  point,  namely,  that  the  Britons, 
after  enjoying  peaceably  for  some  time  the 
benefits  of  this  'unhoped-for  succour,'  did 
presently  again  break  out  into  civil  war, 
which  raged  as  fiercely  as  if  there  were  no 
external  foe  at  their  gates. 

This  last  picture  is  at  all  events  not  in- 
consistent with  what  all  the  biographers 
represent  as  the  final  act  in  the  Arthurian 
drama.     By  these  accounts  the  king,  just 


Arthur 


128 


Arthur 


when  liis  arms  had  been  crowned  by  the 
completest  success  abroad,  found  himself 
beset  by  treachery  at  home.  His  nephew 
Mordred  seduced  Arthur's  queen  Guenevere 
and  raised  a  rebellion  against  him.  Arthur 
thereupon  turned  homewards,  and  at  his 
approach  Guenevere  fled  from  Mordred  and 
hid  herself  in  a  convent ;  while  Mordred, 
after  being  long  chased  from  place  to  place, 
was  at  length  brought  to  bay  at  Camlan 
(Cambula)  '  in  Cornwall '  (Geoffrey). 

Then  took  place  that  last  and  fatal  battle 
of  Camlan,  which  has  left  its  echo  in  all  the 
subsequent  Arthurian  romance.  The  later 
writers  imagined  the  field,  in  the  words  of 
Malory,  '  upon  a  down  beside  Salisbury  not 
far  from  the  seaside.'  And  the  story  went  on 
to  tell  how  Arthur,  finding  himself  wounded 
to  death,  gave  his  sword  Excalibur  to  Sir 
Bedevere,  and  bade  him  throw  it  into  the 
water.  And  when  he  threw  it  *  there  came 
an  arm  and  a  hand  out  of  the  water  and 
met  it  and  cauglit  it,  and  so  shook  it  thrice 
and  brandished.  And  then  the  hand  van- 
ished away.'  Anon  came  '  a  little  barge 
with  many  fair  ladies  in  it,  and  among 
them  a  queen.'  The  barge  came  to  take 
Arthur  to  the  vale  of  Avalion,  where  men 
said  that  he  still  waited  and  (as  they  said  of 
Charlemagne  and  of  Frederick  Barbarossa) 
would  one  day  return,  would  once  more  place 
himself  at  the  head  of  his  countrymen,  and 
lead  them  to  victory.  Avalion,  once  the 
mythical  paradise  of  the  Celts,  came  to  be 
identified  with  Glastonbury,  and  in  the  mid- 
dle ages  men  showed  the  inscription  which 
had  stood  over  the  place  where  Arthur  lay, 
and  which  expressed  the  history  and  the  hope 
whichin  popular  belief  attached  to  his  name — 

Hie  jacet  Arthurus, 

Rex  quondam,  rexque  futurus. 

We  have  here  given  the  generally  accepted 
and  what  may  be  called  the  orthodox  theory 
of  the  historic  Arthur.  It  is  impossible  to 
give  the  variants  upon  this  which  the  specu- 
lations of  different  writers  have  suggested. 
One  very  important  theory  must  not,  how- 
ever, remain  unmentioned.  According  to 
this  view  Arthur  was  not  a  king  in  South 
Britain,  or  rather  South  Wales,  as  later 
writers,  from  Geoffrey  downwards,  have  al- 
ways supposed,  but  a  king  of  the  North 
Britons  of  southern  Scotland  and  of  Cum- 
bria. The  sites  of  all  his  battles,  say  these 
theorists,  can  be  identified  with  places  which 
lie  in  the  region  which  now  forms  the  south 
of  Scotland  and  the  English  border.  Thus 
Glein,  they  say,  is  Glen  in  Ayrshire  (or  it 
may  be  in  Tweeddale).  Dubglas,  in  Lin- 
nuis,  far  from  being,  as  Geoffrey  imagined,  in 


Lincolnshire,  is  Douglas  in  Lennox,  a  stream 
which  falls  into  Loch  Lomond  ;  Coit  Celidon 
is  a  wood  on  the  banks  of  the  Carron  in  Up- 
per Tweeddale ;  Castle  Guinnion  is  found  in 
Wedale  ;  Leogis,  instead  of  being  Caerleon, 
is  (they  say)  at  Dumbarton,  that  is  to  say, 
upon  the  Leven  which  flows  from  Loch  Lo- 
mond into  the  Clyde.  Treuroit  may  be  iden- 
tified with  a  place  on  the  banks  of  the  Forth 
near  Stirling,  where,  we  remember,  Arthur's 
round  table  is  still  preserved.  Agnet,  or 
Mynyd  Agnet,  is  a  name  for  Edinburgh  ;  and, 
finally,  Badon  Hill  is  not  Bath  on  the  Eng- 
lish Avon,  nor  yet  Badbury  in  Dorset,  but 
Bowdon  Hill,  in  Linlithgow,  on  the  Scottish 
Avon.  The  history  of  Nennius,  it  is  urged, 
is  almost  exclusively  concerned  with  the 
doings  of  the  invaders  in  the  north  of  the  is- 
land ;  his  account  ends  with  the  accession  of 
Ida  to  the  Northumbrian  throne. 

The  arguments  by  which  this  theory  is 
supported  may  be  studied  to  best  advantage 
in  Mr.  W.  F.  Skene's  '  Four  Ancient  Books 
of  Wales,'  and  in  Mr.  Stuart  Glennie's  '  Ar- 
thurian Localities.' 

If  this  theory  should  ever  be  established, 
the  life  of  Arthur  would  form  part  of  an 
epoch  in  history  of  which  the  memory  lias 
now  been  almost  completely  lost.  For  it 
must  be  noticed  that  the  foes  against  whom 
the  British  king  fought  were  Angles  and  not 
Saxons ;  and,  in  fact,  the  Angles  did  not 
come  into  Northumbria  until  after  the  death 
of  Arthur.  The  armies  over  wliich  Arthur 
gained  his  victories,  then,  supposing  these 
victories  to  have  lain  in  the  north,  were  not 
those  of  the  ultimate  founders  of  the  North- 
umbrian kingdom,  but  an  earlier  body  of 
Saxon  or  Frisian  invaders,  Avhose  very  ex- 
istence was  at  one  time  unsuspected  by  his- 
torians. Among  the  few  traces  which  these 
Frisians  have  left  behind  them  is  Dumfries, 
the  fort  of  the  Frisians,  as  opposed  to  Dum- 
barton, the  fort  of  the  Britons.  We  have 
seen  that,  according  to  Mr.  Skene,  one  of 
Arthur's  victories  was  gained  at  Dumbarton. 

[The  bibliography  of  the  historic  Arthiir  is 
small,  but  that  of  the  mythic  Arthur  is  ahnost 
infinite.  Among  Welsh  poems  of  uncertain  date 
he  is  mentioned  by  several  anonymous  ones  pub- 
lished in  the  '  Myvyrian  Archaiology,'  as  well  as 
in  the  '  Historic  Triads.'  Gildas,  in  his '  Historia,' 
as  we  have  seen,  without  mentioning  the  name  of 
Arthur,  refers  to  one  or  two  events  which  are 
connected  with  his  history.  Nenniiis's '  Historia 
Briton um '  is  our  one  authority  who  possesses  any 
degree  of  trustworthiness,  save,  perhaps,  the 
'  Annales  Cambriae,'  where  Arthur  is  only  twice 
spoken  of.  The  mythical  history  of  Arthur  begins 
(in  literature)  with  the  '  Historia  Britonum'  of 
Geoffrey  of  Monmouth,  whose  contemporary, 
William  of  Malmesbury,  adds  one  or  two  minor 


Arthur 


129 


Arthur 


details  not  given  by  Geoffrey.  In  rhyme  the  his- 
tory was  repeated  about  the  same  time  by  Wace 
aiul  Gaimar  in  Anglo-Norman,  and  by  Layamon 
in  English.  In  the  course  of  the  next  century 
seversvl  new  narratives  were  incorporated  with  the 
history  of  Arthur  by  Walter  Ma  pes,  Geoffrey  de 
Borron,  &c.,  until  the  romantic  history  acquired 
the  completeness  which  we  find  in  Sir  T.  Malory's 
'Mort  d'Arthure.'  Of  the  development  of  the 
same  myth  in  French  romantic  literature  it  is 
impossible  to  speak  here.  See  Guest,  Origines 
Celticse ;  Skene,  The  Four  Ancient  Books  of 
Wales,  introd..  The  Dean  of  Lismore's  Book, 
introd.,  and  Celtic  Scotland  ;  Glennie,  Arthurian 
Localities;  Burton.Hist.of  Scotland,  i.ch.  5;  Pro- 
bert.  The  Ancient  Lsiws  of  Cambria  (for  a  trans- 
lation of  tile  Historical  Triads).  Lady  Guest's 
'  Mabinogion  '  is  a  translation  of  the  Red  Book  of 
Hergest,  also  published  by  Mr.  Skene  in  his '  Four 
Ancient  Books  of  Wales.'  De  Villemarque  has 
published  numerous  Breton  ballads  upon  Arthur, 
which  are  of  doubtful  authenticity.]  C.  F.  K. 

ARTHUR,  duke  or  count  of  Brittany 
(1187-1203),  for  whose  death  King  John 
was  responsible,  was  the  son  and  heir  of 
Geoffrey,  third  son  of  Henry  II,  who  was 
killed  in  a  tournament  at  Paris  19  Aug.  1186, 
His  mother  was  Constance,  daughter  and 
heiress  of  Conan  le  Petit,  count  of  Brittany. 
He  was  born  after  his  father's  death,  on 
29  March  1189.  The  Bretons  hailed  his 
birth  with  enthusiasm,  and  the  bestowal 
upon  him  of  the  name  of  their  national  hero 
excited  in  them  new  hopes  of  independence, 
which  was  at  the  time  seriously  threatened 
by  the  ambitious  designs  of  the  kings  of 
France  and  England. 

The  death  of  his  grandfather,  Henry  II, 
in  1189  gave  the  infant  Arthur  a  momentous 
political  position.  The  pi-inciple  of  strictly 
hereditary  succession  made  him  the  heir  pre- 
sumptive of  his  uncle,  Richard  I,  to  the  ex- 
clusion of  John,  Henry  II's  fourth  son.  In 
order  to  repress  John's  dangerous  ambition, 
Richard  was  anxious  to  assert  Arthur's  claim. 
In  October  1190  he  opened  negotiations  for 
the  young  prince's  marriage  with  a  daughter 
of  Tancred  of  Sicily,  and  in  a  letter  to  Pope 
Clement  III,  dated  11  Nov.  1190,  he  dis- 
tinctly declared  his  nephew  his  heir  in  case 
he  should  die  childless.  From  that  date 
John,  who  was  plotting  to  supplant  Richard  I, 
viewed  Arthur  as  his  most  dangerous  enemy, 
and,  according  to  one  account,  in  1191  en- 
tered into  alliance  with  Philip  II  of  France, 
who  was  willing  to  employ  any  means  to 
injure  English  influence  in  France,  to  dis- 
possess Arthur  of  all  his  rights  (Annales 
Monastici,  iii.  26).  But  this  scheme  proved 
for  the  present  abortive ;  in  March  of  the 
same  year  Philip  agreed  that  Arthur  should 
do  homage  to  Richard  as  duke  of  Normandy, 

VOL.  II. 


and,  so  as  to  gain  a  more  effectual  control 
over  him  later,  for  the  five  years  following 
abstained  from  molesting  him.  In  April  1196 
the  king-  of  France  had  obtained  sufficient 
influence  with  the  prince  and  his  mother  to 
insure  their  open  support  in  one  of  his  con- 
stantly recurring  quarrels  with  Richard,  and 
the  Breton  nobles  aided  his  policy  by  re- 
i  fusing  to  acknowledge  the  king  of  England 
i  as  Arthur's  guardian.  But  in  August  1198 
Richard  contrived  to  reverse  the  position  of 
affairs,  and  Arthur  entered  into  an  agree- 
ment with  him  to  follow  his  guidance  in  his 
relations  with  France. 

Eight  months  later  Richard  died,  and 
Arthur  was  left  face  to  face  with  John,  who 
was  resolved  to  succeed  his  brother  in  both 
France  and  England,  and  was  crowned  king 
of  England  27  May  1199.  The  nobles  of 
Anjou,  Maine,  and  Touraine  immediately 
declared  for  Arthur,  as  the  son  of  Geoffrey, 
John's  elder  brother.  Constance  sent  the 
boy  to  Philip  II,  who  placed  him  at  Paris 
under  the  care  of  his  eldest  son  Lewis,  a  lad 
of  exactly  Arthur's  age.  At  the  same  time 
Philip  took  possession  of  several  castles, 
forming  part  of  the  dominions  claimed  by 
Arthur,  on  the  plea  of  protecting  them  from 
John.  He  shortly  afterwards  knighted 
Arthur,  and  formally  invested  him  with 
Brittany  and  with  all  Richard's  French  do- 
minions— Anjou,  Poitou,  Maine,  Touraine, 
and  Normandy.  John  arrived  in  Normandy 
without  delay,  and  with  an  army  endeavoured 
to  establish  his  power  in  France.  A  conference 
between  Philip  and  himself  took  place  on 
16  and  17  Aug.,  but  no  terms  were  made,  and 
in  the  hostilities  that  followed  in  October 
the  French  king's  forces  were  driven  from 
Maine.  But  Philip's  high-handed  treatment 
of  those  who  acknowledged  Arthur's  sove- 
reignty occasioned  a  breach  between  himself 
and  the  Bretons,  and  William  des  Roches,  the 
leader  of  Arthur's  forces,  arranged  a  pacifi- 
cation between  John  and  his  nephew.  This 
step  was  an  unhappy  one.  John  is  said  to 
have  imprisoned  Arthur,  and  to  have  so  ill- 
used  him  and  his  mother  that  they  fled  from 
him  with  all  haste  to  Angers,  a  town  already 
in  Arthur's  possession.  On  22  May  1200, 
while  the  dispute  was  still  unsettled,  Philip 
and  John  met  at  Vernon,  and  Arthur  did 
homage  to  his  uncle  for  Brittany  and  other 
lands,  which  do  not  appear  to  have  been 
specified ;  but  he  remained  in  Philip's  keep- 
ing, and  took  part  in  the  tournament  held  at 
the  time  to  celebrate  the  betrothal  of  Prince 
Lewis  to  Blanche  of  Castile.  For  the  greater 
part  of  the  year  John  was  in  England,  and 
Arthur  was  at  peace,  but  Philip  was  busy 
preparing  an  attack  on  Normandy.     In  1201 


Arthur 


130 


Arthur 


Arthur's  mother  died;  in  1202  Philip  affi- 
anced him  to  his  daughter  Marie,  who  was 
not  six  years  old ;  and  hefore  many  months 
had  passed  Ai'thur  found  himself  forced  by 
Philip  to  reopen  the  strife  with  John.     The 
nobles  of  Poitou  had  risen  in  insurrection  \ 
against  the  king   of  England,  and  Arthur  ! 
was   set   at   their   head.     John   aiTived   in  j 
France  and  summoned  his  nephew,  who  had  \ 
just  been   knighted  for  a  second   time  by  j 
Philip,  to  do  him  homage  at  Argentan.     He  ; 
replied  by   marching  with   an   army  from 
Poitou  to  besiege  the  castle  of  Mirabel,  where 
Eleanor,  his  grandmother,  who  had  persist- 
ently  supported  John,   was    staying.      On 
1  Aug.  1202  John  suddenly  surprised  the 
attacking  force  by  night  and  captured  Arthur. 
The  prince  was   placed   in  the   custody  of 
William  de  Braose  at  Falaise,  who  treated 
him  kindly.     In  the  following  year  Braose  is 
said  to  have  delivered  him  '  safe  in  life  and 
limb '  to  John,  who  removed  him  to  Rouen. 
There,  in  the  seventeenth  year  of  his  age,  he 
was  murdered,  on  3  April  1203.     His  sister 
Eleanor,  known  as  the  Maid  of  Brittany, 
had  also  fallen  into  John's  hands,  and  she 
was  kept  by  him  in  close  confinement  in 
England. 

Great  imcertainty  exists  as  to  the  manner 
in  which  Arthur  met  his  death.  We  learn 
from  an  itinerary  of  the  reign  that  John  was 
at  Ptouen  on  3  April  1203  {Archceologia,  xxii. 
126).  There  is  therefore  every  probability, 
when  this  fact  is  combined  with  the  current 
rumours  of  the  time,  that  he  was  immediately 
responsible  for  the  murder,  but  whether,  as 
many  writers  have  asserted,  it  was  the  work 
of  his  own  hands,  is  doubtful.  Of  the  con- 
temporary chroniclers  of  the  event,  the  author 
of  the  *  Annales  Margam,'  who  alone  gives 
the  exact  date  of  the  occurrence,  states  that 
John,  in  a  fit  of  frenzy,  struck  Arthur  dead 
with  a  huge  stone,  and  flung  his  body  into 
the  Seine,  that  it  was  recovered  by  fishermen, 
and  subsequently  buried  secretly  at  the  priory 
of  Ste  Marie  des  Prez,  near  Bee.  Walter  of 
Coventry,  in  his  '  Memoriale,'  says  that 
Arthur  suddenly  disappeared,  and  that  his 
burial-place  is  unknown.  According  to  the 
circumstantial  account  of  Ralph,  abbot  of 
Coggeshall,  who  wrote  his  '  Chronicon  An- 
glicanum '  soon  after  the  death  of  John, 
Hubert  de  Burgh  was  ordered  by  the  king, 
with  the  consent  of  his  council,  to  put  out 
Arthur's  eyes  and  otherwise  mutilate  him,  in 
order  to  incapacitate  him  for  succeeding  to 
the  throne.  Hubert,  however,  yielding  to 
his  appeal,  spared  the  prince,  although  he 
announced  to  his  master  not  only  his  death, 
but  his  burial  at  the  Cistercian  abbey  of  St. 
Andr6   de   Gouffen.     Later,  the  fact  that 


Arthur  was  still  living  in  concealment  reached 
John,  who  apparently,  so  far  as  the  chronicler 
knew,  took  no  steps  to  authenticate  it.  Mat- 
thew Paris  and  Thomas  Wikes  both  assert 
that  John  had  Arthur  murdered.  Early 
French  annalists  and  Breton  historians  have 
no  hesitation  in  attributing  the  crime  imme- 
diately to  the  king  of  England,  and  state  that 
fifteen  days  after  its  commission  the  Bretons 
assembled  in  force  at  Vannes,  and  sent  Peter, 
bishop  of  Rennes,  to  ask  Philip  II  to  summon 
John  before  his  peers  to  take  his  trial  on  the 
charge.  All  mediaeval  historians  are  agreed 
that  Philip  acceded  to  this  request ;  that  John 
refused  to  appear,  was  pronounced  by  an  as- 
sembly of  his  peers  guilty  of  the  murder,  and 
that  all  his  lands  in  France  were  declared 
forfeited.  It  was  after  this  declaration  that 
Philip  invaded  and  conquered  Normandy.  In 
the  proclamation  made  by  Prince  Lewis  on 
his  arrival  in  England  in  1216  the  murder  of 
Arthur,  for  which  John,  it  is  there  said,  was 
tried  and  condemned  by  his  peers,  is  reckoned 
among  his  chief  offences.  This  is  the  only 
direct  reference  to  the  fact  in  a  document  of 
state  (Rymer's  Foedera,  i.  140). 

Later  historians  between  the  thirteenth  and 
the  sixteenth  centuries  have  added  a  few  un- 
authenticated  details  to  the  old  stories  of 
Arthur's  death,  most  of  which  have  been 
adopted  by  Holinshed.  The  account  given 
by  the  abbot  of  Coggeshall  forms  the  groxrnd- 
work  of  Holinshed's,  as  of  all  the  later  nar- 
ratives. It  seems,  therefore,  uncertain 
whether  Hubert  de  Burgh,  whom  the  ab- 
bot alone  connects  with  John's  murderous 
project,  was  in  any  way  concerned  with  it. 
The  differences  in  detail  which  characterise 
the  evidence  we  have  cited  from  contem- 
porary writers,  lead  to  no  more  definite 
conclusion  than  that  in  April  1203  Arthur 
suddenly  disappeared,  and  that  his  disappear- 
ance was  contrived  by  John.  Shakespeare, 
in  his  play  of  '  King  John,'  has  closely 
followed  Holinshed  in  his  treatment  of  Ar- 
thur, with  a  few  unhistorical  variations,  in 
which  he  followed  an  older  and  anonymous 
drama  on  the  same  subject.  It  should  be 
noted  that  Shakespeare  erroneously  represents 
Arthur  at  the  time  of  his  death  as  a  veiy 
young  child,  although  he  was  actually  in  his 
seventeenth  year,  and  makes  him  claim  of 
John  not  only  the  English  dominions  in 
France,  but  the  crown  of  England  itself,  to 
which  Arthur  himself  never,  asserted  his 
right. 

[Roger  of  Hoveden's  Chronica,  ed.  Stubbs ; 
Walter  of  Coventry's  Memoriale,  ed.  .Stubbs, 
with  introduction  tovol.ii. ;  Ralph  of  Coggeshall's 
Chi'onicon  Anglicanum,  ed.  Stevenson,  pp.  137- 
142;  Annales  de  Margam  in  Annales  Monastiei, 


Arthur 


131 


Arthur 


i.  27 ;  Thomas  Wikes  in  Annales  Monastici,  ed. 
Liiard,  iv.  51 ;  Bouquet's  Historiens  de  la  France, 
vols.  xvii.  xviii. ;  Sisraondi's  Histoire  de  France, 
Ti.  211;  Martin's  Histoire,  iii.  624,  550,  558, 
573,  578  ;  Le  Baud's  Histoire  do  Bretagne, 
p.  210;  Daru's  Histoire  de  Bretagne,  i.  377; 
Courtenay's  Commentaries  on  Shakespeivre's  His- 
torical Plays,  vol.  i.]  S.  L.  L. 

ARTHUR  (1486-1502),  the  eldest  son  of 
Henry  VII,  was  born  at  Winchester  on  19  Sept. 
1486.  His  mother  was  Elizabeth  of  York,  the 
eldest  daughter  of  Edward  IV,  whom  his 
father,  after  he  obtained  the  crown,  had  mar- 
ried in  fulfilment  of  a  promise  that  he  had 
made  in  exile.  The  marriage  was  intended  to 
have  the  effect  of  putting  an  end  to  the  wars 
of  the  Roses  by  uniting  the  rival  houses  of 
York  and  Lancaster,  and  the  firstborn  was 
naturally  an  object  of  great  solicitude.  He 
was  baptised  in  Winchester  Cathedral  the 
Sunday  after  his  birth,  and  was  named 
Arthur  after  the  famous  JBritish  hero  whose 
fabulous  exploits  fill  the  pages  of  Geoffrey  of 
Monmouth.  His  descent  was  traced  by  in- 
dustrious genealogists  from  Cadwallader  and 
the  ancient  British  kings ;  so  that  while  on 
the  mother's  side  he  was  the  undoubted  heir 
of  the  house  of  York,  the  defects  of  his 
father's  title  were  compensated  by  a  pedigree 
carried  back  to  the  fabled  Brutus.  In  1489, 
when  only  three  years  old,  he  was  created 
knight  of  the  Bath.  His  education  was 
looked  to  with  peculiar  care.  His  first  mas- 
ter after  he  had  learned  the  elements  of 
letters  was  one  John  Rede,  who,  it  seems,  was 
also  his  chaplain  (Wood's  Fasti  O.von,,  ed. 
Bliss,  i.  3);  but  after  a  time — apparently 
when  he  was  in  his  tenth  year — he  was 
placed  under  the  tuition  of  the  blind  poet 
laureate,  Bernard  Andre,  who  gives  a  glow- 
ing account  of  his  proficiency.  Before  he 
was  sixteen  he  had  not  only  studied  the 
leading  gTammarians,  but  was  familiar  with 
all  the  best  Greek  and  Latin  authors,  whose 
names  the  enraptured  tutor  proudly  enume- 
rates in  his  life  of  Henry  VII. 

But  the  interest  of  his  brief  life  turns  al- 
together upon  the  story  of  his  marriage  with 
Katharine  of  Arragon.  Negotiations  had 
already  taken  place  with  a  view  to  that 
marriage  as  early  as  1488,  when  he  Avas  not 
yet  two  years  old,  Ferdinand  and  Isabella 
perceiving  that,  notwithstanding  the  uncer- 
tainty of  the  succession  in  England  created 
by  the  recent  civil  wars,  Henry  might  be  a 
valuable  ally  against  France,  and  one  that  it 
was  desirable  to  win,  while  on  the  other  hand 
the  friendship  of  a  recently  united  Spain  was 
an  equally  important  object  to  secure  on  the 
])art  of  England.  The  marriage  project,  of 
course,  was  no  more  at  first  than  a  prospec- 


tive link  between  the  two  kingdoms  in  a 
comparatively  remote  future ;  but,  as  Lord 
Bacon  remarks,  '  the  very  treaty  itself  gave 
abroad  in  the  world  a  reputation  of  a  strait 
conjunction  and  amity  between  them,  which 
served  on  both  sides  to  many  purposes  that 
their  several  affairs  required,  and  yet  they 
continued  still  free.'  Ferdinand  was  too 
great  a  politician  to  conclude  the  arrange- 
ment definitely  till  he  was  sure  that  no 
future  Simnels  or  Warbecks  could  do  much 
to  shake  Heniy's  throne.  Henry,  on  the 
other  hand,  was  continually  on  his  guard  lest 
by  virtue  of  the  treaty  he  should  make  him- 
self a  mere  catspaw  to  carry  out  the  de- 
signs of  Ferdinand.  At  length,  however,  all 
difficulties  were  removed.  Kathai'ine  landed 
at  Plymouth  on  2  Oct.  1501,  and  was  married 
to  Arthur,  at  St.  Paid's,  on  14  Nov.  fol- 
lowing. Three  times  had  the  prince  gone 
through  a  form  of  mairiage  with  her  already 
befoi'e  her  arrival  in  England,  the  Spanish 
ambassador  acting  as  her  proxy — all  to 
satisfy  the  doubts  of  Ferdinand  lest  there 
should  be  some  evasion  on  the  part  of  Eng- 
land. Now  all  was  secure;  and  though 
Arthur  was  weak  and  sickly,  and  the  English 
council  objected  to  the  cohabitation  of  the 
young  couple  on  this  account  (Arthur  having 
only  just  completed  his  fifteenth  year), 
Henry  wrote  to  Ferdinand  that  he  had 
risked  his  son's  health  for  the  love  he  bore 
to  Katharine.  The  prince  and  his  bride  were 
sent  down  to  the  borders  of  Wales  to  keep 
court  at  Ludlow,  where,  in  less  than  five 
months,  the  bridegroom  died  on  2  April 
1502.  A  touching  account  is  given  by  a  con- 
temporary pen  of  the  manner  in  which  the 
news  was  received  by  his  bereaved  father 
and  mother. 

[Gairdner's  Memorials  of  Henry  VII ;  Ber- 
genroth's  Spanish  Calendar,  vol.  i.  and  supp. 
to  vols.  i.  and  ii. ;  Leland's  Collectanea,  iv. 
204,  250-7,  V.  373-4;  Somers  Tracts,  i.  26-31 ; 
Letter  of  Henry  VII  to  Ferdinand  and  Isabella 
in  the  Duke  of  Manchester's  Court  and  Society, 
i.  59.]  J.  G. 

ARTHUR,  ARCHIBALD  (1744-1797), 
librarian  and  professor  of  moral  philosophy 
at  the  university  of  Glasgow,  was  the  eldest 
son  of  Andrew  Arthur,  a  considerable 
farmer,  and  was  born  at  Abbot's  Inch,  in 
Renfrew,  6  Sept.  1744.  He  entered  the 
university  of  Glasgow  in  his  thirteenth  or 
fourteenth  year,  and  in  due  course  took  his 
degree  of  M.A.  Both  before  and  after  his 
appointment  to  a  professorship  he  lectured 
with  success  in  logic,  botany,  humanity,  and 
church  history.  In  October  1767  he  received 
from  the  presbytery  of  Paisley  his  preacher's 

k2 


Arthur 


132 


Arthur 


license,  not,  however,  without  some  opposi- 
tion on  the  gi-ound  of  want  of  orthodoxy  in 
the   doctrines   of  the   church  of  Scotland. 
He  was  soon  afterwards  appointed  chaplain 
to  the  university  of  Glasgow,  and  assistant 
minister  with  Dr.  Craig  of  that  city.     He 
was  also  chosen  librarian  to  the  university, 
and  held  the  office  until  nearly  the  close  of 
his  life.     For  some  years  he  was  usefully 
employed  in  compiling  a  complete  catalogue 
of  the   books,  arranged   in  two  parts,  one 
under  an  alphabet  of  authors,  and  the  other 
according  to  the  position  of  the  volumes  on 
the  shelves.     The  catalogue  was  printed  in 
1791,  and  described  20,000  volumes.  It  gave 
much  satisfaction.  Arthur  was  appointed  as- 
sistant professor  in  moral  philosophy  through 
the  influence  of  Dr.  Thomas  lieid,  who  was 
obliged  to  give  up  his  full  professorial  duties 
on  account  of  increasing  years.     This  took 
place  in  May  1780,  and  Arthur  taught  the 
class  for  fifteen  years  in  return  for  part  of 
the  salary.     On  the  death  of  Reid  he  was 
elected  full  professor,  but  held  the  office  only 
for  one  session,  dying  on  14  .Tune,  1797.    He 
never  married,  and  died  worth  a  considerable 
sum  of  money,  which  he  left  to  his  brothers 
and  sisters.     They  devoted  part  of  it  to  the 
publication  of  his  posthumous  'Discom-ses 
on  Theological  and  Literary  Subjects,'  which 
were  edited,  with  a  pompous  memoir,  by  his 
friend  William  Richardson.    The  theological 
discourses  include  one  on  the  argument  for 
the  existence  of  God,  another  on  the  goodness 
of  God,  and  otliers  on  objections  to  David 
Hume,  and  similar  topics  ;   among  the  lite- 
rary  discourses   are  two   upon   theories  of 
beauty,  one  on  the  arrangement  of  ancient 
and  modern  languages,  and  others  on  the 
study  of  ancient  languages  as  a  necessary 
branch  of  liberal  education.    They  are  fairly 
well-written  and  well-reasoned  essays.     Ar- 
thur had  a  shy  and  hesitating  manner,  but 
possessed  liberal  opinions  to  which  he  al- 
ways had  the  courage  to  hold  firm.     A.  F. 
Tytler   {Life  of  Lord  Karnes,  iii.   89),  in  a 
note  upon  a  letter  of  Dr.  Reid,  remarks : 
*  Mr.  Arthur,  a  man  of  learning,  abilities,  and 
worth,  filled  the  chair  of  moral  philosophy 
.  .  .  with  a  reputation  which  did  not  dis- 
appoint   the    hopes  of  his  respectable  pre- 
decessor.'    The    Discourses    '  give    a    very 
favourable  idea  of  his  talents,  the  justness 
of  his  taste,  and  the  rectitude  of  his  moral 
and  religious  principles.' 

His  works  are  : — 1.  '  Catalogus  impresso- 
rum  liibrorum  in  Bibliotheca  Universitatis 
Glasguensis,  secundum  literarum  ordinem 
dispositus.  Impensis  ^Vcademife,  labore  et 
studio  A.  Arthur,'  Glasguae,  1791, 2vols.  folio. 
2.  '  Discourses  on  Theological  and  Literaiy 


Subjects,  by  the  late  Rev.  A.  Arthur,  with 
an  account  of  some  particulars  in  his  life 
and  character,  by  William  Richardson,  M.A., 
Professor  of  Humanity  in  the  University  of 
Glasgow,'  Glasgow  Univ.  Press,  1803,  Bvo. 

[Memoir  by  Richardson,  prefixed  to  Dis- 
courses ;  Edinburgh  Review,  iv.  168 ;  Reid's 
Works,  by  Sir  W.  Hamilton,  1846.]   H.  R.  T. 

ARTHUR,  Sir  GEORGE,  baronet 
(1784r-18o4),  lieutenant-general,  the  yoiuigest 
son  of  John  Arthur,  of  Norley  House,  Ply- 
mouth, entered  the  army  in  the  91st  Argyll- 
shire Highlanders  on  25  Aug.  1804.  Having^ 
been  promoted  to  a  lieutenancy  in  the  35th 
foot,  he  served  with  that  regiment  in  Sir  James 
Craig's  expedition  to  Italy  in  1806,  and  in  the 
following  year  proceeding  to  Egypt  with  the 
force  under  the  command  of  General  Eraser, 
he  was  engaged  in  the  attack  upon  Rosetta, 
and  was  severely  wounded.  In  1808  he  served 
as  a  captain  in  Sicily  under  Sir  James  Kempt, 
and  in  1809  in  the  expedition  to  Walcheren, 
where,  in  command  of  the  light  company  of 
his  regiment,  he  was  employed  in  the  attack 
upon  Flusliing,  and  was  again  wounded,  he 
with  his  single  company  taking  prisoners 
five  officers  and  three  hundred  men.  For  hi* 
services  on  this  occasion  Captain  Arthur  was 
thanked  in  general  orders,  and  was  appointed 
on  the  field  deputy  assistant  adjutant-generaU 
On  his  return  to  England  he  received  the 
freedom  of  the  city  of  London  and  a  sword. 
A  similar  distinction  was  conferred  upon  him 
by  his  native  town  of  Plymouth.  He  sub- 
sequently served  as  military  secretary  to  Sir 
George  Don,  the  governor  of  Jersey,  and 
having  obtained  his  majority  in  the  7th  West 
India  regiment  in  1812  joined  that  regiment 
in  Jamaica,  and  was  shortly  afterwards  ap- 
pointed assistant  quartermaster-general  of  the 
forces  in  that  island.  Major  Arthur  was 
subsequently  appointed,  in  1814,  lieutenant- 
governor  of  British  Honduras,  which  office 
he  held  with  the  rank  of  colonel  on  the  staff, 
exercising  the  military  command,  as  well  as 
the  civil  government,  until  1822.  During 
this  period  Colonel  Arthur  suppressed  a 
serious  revolt  of  the  slave  population  of 
Honduras.  His  despatches  on  the  subject  of 
slaveiy  in  the  West  Indies  attracted  the  at- 
tention of  Mr.  Wilberforce,  and  of  Mr.  (after- 
wards Sir  James)  Stephen.  Returning  to- 
England  on  leave  of  absence  in  1822  for  the 
purpose  of  furnishing  the  government  with 
further  information  on  the  subject  of  eman- 
cipation, Colonel  Arthur  was  appointed,  in 
1823,  to  the  lieutenant-governorship  of  Van 
Diemen's  Land,  together  with  the  command 
of  the  military  forces  in  that  colony,  then  our 
principal  penal  settlement.   The  ill-regulated 


Arthur 


133 


Arthur 


system  of  transportation  which  was  in  force 
had  led  to  terrible  abuses,  and  the  object  of 
Colonel  Arthur's  appointment  was  the  intro- 
duction of  an  improved  system.  His  strong 
good  sense  and  humanity  indicated  the  pos- 
sibility of  a  middle  course  between  the  ex- 
treme severity  of  the  system  which  would 
make  transportation  simply  deterrent,  and 
the  over-indulgence  of  the  system  which 
aimed  at  reforming  the  convict  by  gentle 
treatment.  He  held  that  it  was  possible 
to  make  transportation  a  punishment  much 
dreaded  by  criminals,  whilst  offering  every 
facility  for  reform  to  those  who  were  not 
luirdened  in  crime ;  but  he  entertained  no 
quixotic  expectations  of  frequent  i-eforma- 
tion.  His  plans  were  never  allowed  a  fair 
trial.  The  colonists  and  their  friends  in 
England  were  bent  on  putting  an  end  to  the 
transportation  system,  and  their  views  ulti- 
mately prevailed.  Colonel  Arthur's  admini- 
stration of  Van  Diemen's  Land  lasted  for 
twelve  years,  and  was  marked  throughout 
by  a  rare  combination  of  humanity  with 
firmness  and  courage,  and,  above  all,  by  a 
shrewd  common  sense  and  practical  judg- 
ment, which  secured  for  him  alike  the  re- 
spect of  the  colonists  abroad  and  the  confi- 
dence of  statesmen  at  home.  While  holding 
this  government  Colonel  Arthur  discerned 
the  advantage  which  would  accrue  to  the 
Australian  colonies  from  adopting  a  system 
of  confederation.  It  is  believed  that  he  was 
the  first  person  to  suggest  this  important 
colonial  reform. 

On  his  retm-n  to  England  in  March  1837 
Colonel  Arthur  received  the  Hanoverian 
order,  and  at  the  end  of  that  year  was  sent 
to  Upper  Canada  as  lieutenant-governor,  with 
the  military  rank  and  command  of  a  major- 
general  on  the  staif.  The  state  of  Canada  at 
that  time  Avas  such  as  to  demand  the  services 
of  a  firm  and  judicious  administi'ator.  Both 
the  provinces  of  Upper  and  Lower  Canada  had 
recently  been  the  scene  of  attempts  to  subvert 
the  authority  of  the  British  crown.  These  had 
b<«n  suppressed,  but  Lord  Durham's  mission 
and  the  lenity  with  Avhich  the  I'ebels  were 
treated,  had  caused  much  dissatisfaction 
among  the  loyal  section  of  the  population  in 
both  provinces,  and  especially  among  the  mi- 
litia m  Upper  Canada.  On  the  eve  of  Lord 
Durham's  departure  a  fresh  revolutionary  at- 
tempt had  been  made  in  Lower  Canada,  and 
shortly  after  Sir  George  Arthur  had  taken 
charge  of  his  government.  Upper  Canada 
was  mvaded  by  bands  of  American  sympa- 
thisers. Sir  George  Arthur's  arrangements 
for  the  defence  of  the  colony  were  well  plan- 
ned, and  were  perfectly  successful ;  but  his 
difiicidties   were  great.     '  I  much  fear,'  he 


wrote,  '  from  the  discontent  prevailing  among 
many  of  the  militia,  that  even  the  mostloval 
of  them  will  feel  a  reluctance  to  come  for- 
ward until  the  very  hour  of  emergency,  and 
when  it  may  be  too  late  to  prevent  a  great 
deal  of  mischief.' 

In  1841  the  two  provinces  were  united 
under  a  governor-general,  in  the  person  of 
Lord  Sydenham,  at  whose  special  request  Sir 
George  Arthur  continued  for  a  time  to  con- 
duct the  administration  of  Upper  Canada  as 
deputy  governor,  but  upon  his  own  express 
stipulation  that  he  should  receive  no  emolu- 
ment or  remuneration  whatever  for  that  duty. 
Sir  George  Ai-thur's  services  in  Canada  were 
rewarded  with  a  baronetcy,  which  was  con- 
ferred upon  him  shortly  after  his  return  to 
England  in  the  summer  of  1841.   The  general 
election,  which  resulted  in  Sir  Robert  Peel's 
return  to  power,  was  then  in  progress,  and 
Sir  George  .\_rthur  received  from  two  con- 
stituencies ofters  to  return  him  to  parliament 
I  free  of  expense ;  but  he  declined  both  these 
!  ofters,  and  shortly  afterwards  entered  upon 
J  an  entirely  new  splxere  of  duty,  having  been 
I  appointed  governor  of  the  Indian  presidency 
of  Bombay,  which  office  he  assumed  on  8  June 
1842.     Reference  has  already  been  made  in 
I  the  memoir  of  Sir  George  Anderson  [see  An- 
i  DEKSON,  Sir  George,  K.C.B.]  to"  the  critical 
1  position  of  aifaii's  in  India  at  the  time  when 
!  Sir  George  Arthur  entered  upon  his  new  du- 
j  ties,  and  to  the  responsibilities  which  devolved 
upon  the  government  of  Bombay  in  connec- 
tion with  our  military  forces  in  Afghanistan, 
I  Beluchistan,  and  Sind.     A  few  years  previ- 
j  ously,  under  the  provisions  of  the  East  India 
!  Company's  charter  act  of  1833,   a  material 
I  change  had  been  made  in  the  relations  of  the 
!  minor  governments  of  Madras  and  Bombay 
!  with  the  supreme  government  of  India.    Pre- 
:  vious  to  the  passing  of  that  enactment,  al- 
[  though  in  all  matters  of  imperial  policy  the 
governor-general  Avas  supreme,  the  two  minor 
{  governments  had  retained  a  large  share  of 
administrative  independence.     The  increase 
!  in  the  statutory  powers  of  the  governor-gene- 
I  ral  and  his  council  was  speedily  followed  by 
i  minute  interference  on  the  part  of  the  supreme 
government  Avith  administrative  details  which 
had  been  previously  left  to  the  discretion  of 
the  governments  of  Madras  and  Bombay.  The 
result  was  frequent  and  constantly  increasing 
friction  between  the  supreme  and  local  admi- 
nistrations. These  difficulties  were  experienced 
in  an  intensified  form  by  Sir  George  Arthur, 
succeeding,  as  he  did,  at  a  crisis  which  required 
considerable  power  of  independent  judgment 
and  yet  loyal  obedience  by  the  local  govern- 
ments to  the  final  decisions  of  the  governor- 
general.     Moreover,  the  unavoidable  difficul- 


Arthur 


134 


Arthur 


ties  of  the  situation  were  greatly  increased 
by  the  individuality  of  Lord  Ellenborough, 
who  had  recently  assumed  the  governor- 
generalship.  Lord  EUenborough  had  studied 
Indian  questions  as  president  of  the  board 
of  control,  and  had  formed  an  exaggerated 
view  of  the  weakness  and  defects  of  the 
company's  government.  Arriving  in  India 
at  a  juncture  when  the  Indian  administra- 
tion seemed  stunned  and  paralysed  by  the 
loss  of  the  greater  portion  of  the  army  in  Af- 
ghanistan, he  found  himself  in  hopeless  dis- 
cord with  many  a  time-honoured  institution 
and  recognised  principle  of  Indian  adminis- 
tration. Sir  George  Arthur  had  before  his 
appointment  to  Bombay  won  the  confidence 
of  Lord  EUenborough,  wliich  he  never  after- 
wards lost.  Still,  to  avoid  friction  with  the 
government  of  India  under  such  circum- 
stances was  not  easy,  and  it  is  much  to  Sir 
George  Arthur's  credit  that  during  that  brief 
but  eventful  period  he  succeeded  in  retaining 
the  esteem  of  the  court  of  directors  and  of  his 
own  colleagues  in  the  government  of  Bombay, 
as  well  as  that  of  Lord  EUenborough,  who  re- 
corded the  name  of  Sir  George  Arthur  upon 
a  monument  which  he  erected  in  England  to 
those  who  had  best  seconded  his  eflbrts  for 
the  maintenance  and  extension  of  the  British 
empire  in  India. 

It  would  be  beyond  the  scope  of  this  me- 
moir to  discuss  the  policy  of  Lord  Ellen- 
borough  in  connection  with  Afghanistan. 
Sir  George  Arthur  was  entirely  opposed  to 
the  measure,  at  one  time  contemplated  by  the 
governor-general,  of  withdrawing  the  garri- 
sons from  Candahar  and  Jellalabad  without 
striking  a  blow  for  the  rescue  of  the  prisoners 
in  the  hands  of  the  Afghans,  or  for  the  re- 
establishment  of  our  military  reputation. 
Eventually  the  beleaguered  garrison  of  Jel- 
lalabad was  relieved,  Cabul  was  reoccupied, 
the  captives  were  released,  and  conclusive 
proof  was  afforded  that  it  was  not  owing  to 
want  of  power  that  we  evacuated  Afgha- 
nistan and  allowed  Dost  Mahomed  to  return 
as  ruler  to  the  realm  from  which  he  had  been 
driven. 

The  withdrawal  of  the  troops  from  Canda- 
har involved  the  return  of  the  Bombay  por- 
tion of  the  Candahar  garrison  through  Sind, 
and  was  folloAved  in  the  course  of  a  few 
months  by  the  annexation  of  that  country 
and  the  deposition  of  its  rulers,  the  Talpur 
amirs.  Sir  Charles  Napier,  then  commanding 
a  diA^ision  of  the  Bombay  anny,  had  been 
selected  by  the  governor-general  to  command 
the  troops  in  Sind.  He  an-ived  in  that 
country  greatly  prejudiced  against  the  amirs. 
Nearly  the  whole  of  the  troops  in  Sind  be- 
longed to  the   Bombay  anny,  the  general 


commanding  was  a  major-general  on  the  staff 
of  that  army,  and  up  to  that  time  the  troops 
in  Sind  had  been  practically  as  well  as  theo- 
retically under  the  orders  of  the  government 
of  Bombay ;  but  from  the  date  of  Sir  Charles 
Napier's  appointment  to  the  Sind  command 
the  governor-general  departed  from  the  esta- 
blished practice  of  sending  orders  through 
the  government  of  Bombay,  and  entered  into 
a  direct  correspondence  with  Sir  Charles 
Napier.  Such  a  state  of  things  could  hardly 
have  failed  under  any  circumstances  to  pro- 
duce official  and  departmental  friction,  even 
if  the  policy  of  the  governor-general  and  of 
the  general  commanding  in  Sind  had  been  in 
accordance  with  the  views  of  the  Bombay  au- 
thorities and  of  the  court  of  directors.  But 
the  reverse  was  the  fact,  and  the  antagonism 
was  intensified  by  the  differences  which  arose 
between  Sir  Charles  Napier  and  Major  (after- 
wards Sir  James)  Outram.  Throughout  this 
embarrassing  juncture  Sir  George  Arthur 
kept  himself  studiously  aloof  from  all  per- 
sonal partisanship,  and,  ignoring  the  irre- 
gularity of  Lord  Ellenborough's  proceedings, 
rendered  a  loyal  obedience  to  the  decisions  of 
the  governor-general  and  a  cordial  and  ener- 
getic support  to  Sir  Charles  Napier  in  his  diffi- 
cult task  of  establishing  British  rule  in  Sind ; 
whilst  he  retained  the  respect  and  esteem  of 
Outran!  and  of  the  many  other  Indian  officials 
who  regarded  the  annexation  of  Sind  as  an 
unjustifiable  act. 

The  military  operations  against  Gwalior, 
which  took  place  not  long  before  the  close  of 
Lord  Ellenborough's  government,  indirectly 
affected  the  presidency  of  Bombay  by  leading 
to  an  outbreak  of  hostilities  in  Kolapur,  a 
small  southern  Mahratta  state,  the  head  of 
which  was  closely  connected  by  marriage 
with  Gwalior.  The  suppression  of  this  insur- 
rection, which,  but  for  Sir  George  Arthur's 
judicious  and  prompt  measures,  might  have 
assumed  serious  proportions,  and  that  at  a 
time  when  so  large  a  portion  of  the  Bombay 
ai-my  was  employed  in  Sind,  was  by  no  means 
an  easy  task. 

Lord  EUenborough,  having  been  recalled 
by  the  court  of  directors,  was  succeeded  by 
Sir  Henry  Hai'dinge,  upon  whom  it  devolved 
in  the  succeeding  year  to  repel  the  invasion 
of  British  India  by  the  Sikhs.  The  arduous 
struggle  which  then  took  place,  when  the 
governor-general  deemed  it  his  duty  to  offer 
his  services  to  the  commander-in-chief  as 
second  in  command,  led  Sir  II.  Hardinge  to 
recommend  to  the  home  authorities  the  ap- 
pointment of  a  provisional  governor-general. 
His  choice  fell  upon  Sir  George  Arthur,  and, 
the  recommendation  having  been  approved 
by  the  court  of  directors  and  the  ministry, 


Arthur 


135 


Arthur 


Sir  George  Arthur  received  in  due  course  his 
appointment  as  provisional  governor-general 
in  the  event  of  the  death  or  departure  from 
India  of  Sir  Heniy  Ilardinge.  But  he  was 
not  destined  to  assume  the  office  for  which 
he  was  thus  selected,  being  compelled  by  ill- 
health  to  leave  India  before  Sir  Henry  (then 
Lord|)  Ilardinge  vacated  the  governor-gene- 
ralship. 

The  principal  measures  of  internal  adminis- 
tration which  engaged  Sir  George  Arthur's  at- 
tention at  Bombay  were  the  Deccan  survey, 
the  object  of  which  was  to  equalise  and  lighten 
the  pressure  of  the  land  assessment  upon  the 
cultivators  of  the  Deccan,  and  the  improve- 
ment of  the  communications  and  means  of 
imgation.  The  first  of  these  measures  had 
been  commenced  before  the  arrival  of  Sir 
George  Arthur  at  Bombay ;  but  it  was  during 
his  administration  that  the  plan  which  has 
since  been  carried  out  was  elaborated,  and 
the  rules  which  relieved  the  cultivators  from 
arbitrary  and  excessive  taxation  were  fixed. 

The  hindrances  which  the  want  of  roads 
and  of  means  of  irrigation  offered  to  the  com- 
merce and  industiy  of  Western  India  had 
attracted  the  notice  of  Sir  George  Arthur's 
predecessor.  Sir  Robert  Grant ;  but  little  pro- 
gress had  been  made  when  Sir  George  Arthur 
aiTived  and  took  up  the  subject  with  cha- 
racteristic energy.  The  project  of  a  line  of 
railway  from  Bombay  to  Callian,  which  was 
to  be  extended  in  the  direction  of  Calcutta 
and  through  Central  India  to  Hindustan, 
was  suggested  by  Mr.  G.  T.  Clark,  a  trusted 
assistant  of  Brunei,  and  received  the  cordial 
support  of  Sir  George  Arthur.  This  line 
may  be  regarded  as  the  germ  of  the  Great 
Indian  Peninsular  Railway.  Other  engineer- 
ing questions,  upon  which  the  same  engineer 
was  employed  by  Sir  George  Arthur,  were  the 
improvement  of  the  manufacture  of  salt  by 
mechanical  appliances,  and  the  drainage  and 
sanitary  improvement  of  Bombay,  both  of 
which  important  works  have  since  been  car- 
ried out.  Mr.  Clark's  report  on  the  conser- 
vancy of  Bombay  was  not  only  the  starting 
point  of  such  improvements  in  that  city  and 
in  other  cities  in  India,  but  was  not  without 
its  influence  on  the  sanitaiy  improvement  of 
our  English  towns,  which  about  the  same 
time  was  first  taken  up  in  earnest  in  this 
country. 

Another  material  improvement,  first  pro- 
jected during  Sir  George  Arthur's  admini- 
stration, was  the  reclamation  of  the  fore- 
shore of  the  island  of  Bombay.  Sir  George 
Arthur  also  took  a  great  interest  in  promot- 
ing the  education  of  the  natives,  which  at 
that  time,  under  the  impulse  given  to  it  some 
years  previously  by  Mr.  Mountstuart  Elphin- 


stone,  was  somewhat  more  advanced  in  Bom- 
bay than  in  other  parts  of  India. 

Sir  George  Arthur  retired  from  the  Bombay 
government  in  1846,  and  on  his  return  to 
England  was  made  a  privy  councillor  and 
was  honoured  by  the  university  of  Oxford 
with  the  honorary  degree  of  D.C.L.  He  re- 
ceived the  colonelcy  of  the  oOth  Queen's  Own 
regiment  in  1853,  and  died  in  the  following 
year.  Sir  George  Arthur  man-ied  in  1814 
Eliza  Orde  Usher,  second  daughter  of  Lieu- 
tenant-general Sir  John  Frederick  Sigismund 
Smith,  K.C.B.,  and  had  five  daughters  and 
seven  sons,  of  whom  five  sun^ived  him. 

The  career  of  Sir  George  Arthur  is  at  once 
remarkable  and  instructive.  Entering  the 
army  as  a  young  man  with  little  or  no  inte- 
rest to  push  him  on,  he  speedily  established  a 
reputation  for  bravery  and  sound  judgment, 
which  led  to  his  being  selected  at  a  com- 
paratively early  age  for  civil  employment. 
This  he  continued  to  hold  until  within  a  few 
years  of  his  death,  rising  without  solicita- 
tion from  post  to  post,  and  in  every  position 
which  he  filled  justifying  by  his  administra- 
tive ability  and  capacity  for  government  the 
confidence  which  had  been  reposed  in  him. 
Ultimately  he  was  officially  recognised  as 
the  fittest  man  to  succeed  at  a  time  of  diffi- 
culty and  danger  to  the  high  and  responsible 
office  of  governor-general  of  India,  a  post 
which  he  only  failed  to  fill  in  consequence 
of  his  failing  health.  He  was  an  eminently 
unselfish  man,  imbued  with  a  deep  sense  of 
religion,  and  as  much  respected  for  his  un- 
swerving integrity  in  private  as  in  public  life. 

[Hart's  Army  List ;  Annual  Eegister  for  1 838 
and  1854;  United  Service  Gazette,  30  Sept.  1854; 
Parliamentary  Papers  on  Afghanistan,  Sind,  and 
the  Southern  Mahratta  Coimtry ;  Family  papers.] 

A.  J.  A. 

ARTHUR,  JAMES  {d.  1670?),  divine, 
was  born  at  Limerick,  and  professed  himself 
a  Dominican  friar  in  the  abbey  of  St.  Stephen, 
Salamanca.  He  was  professor  of  divinity  at 
Salamanca  University  for  many  years.  He 
went  thence  to  Coimbra,  but  after  the  sepa- 
ration of  Portugal  from  Spain  in  1640  was 
expelled  for  refusing  an  oath  imposed  upon 
all  the  professors  to  defend  the  immaculate 
conceptionof  the  Virgin.  In  1642he  retired  to 
the  convent  of  St.  Dominic  in  Lisbon,  and 
there,  according  to  Quetif  andEchard,  died  on 
1  Feb.  1644.  Ware  says  that  he  survived 
till  about  1670,  referring  to  Nicolas  Antonio, 
who,in  the  'BibliothecaHispana  Nova '(1672), 
says  that  he  died  *non  dudum.'  The  first 
volume  of  a  commentary  by  Arthur  upon  the 
first  part  of  Aquinas's  *  Summa '  was  printed 
in  1655 ;  another  volume  had  been  completed, 


Arthur 


136 


Arundale 


but  seems  never  to  have  been  printed.  Arthur 
was  also  preparing  at  the  time  of  his  death  a 
commentary  on  the  whole  of  Aquinas's  work 
in  ten  volumes. 

[Ware's  Writers  of  Ireland,  ed.  Harris,  p. 
160;  Quetif  and  Echard's  Scriptores  Ordinis 
Prsedicatonim,  ii.  536  b ;  N.  Antonius,  Biblio- 
theca  Hispana,  (1672)  ii.  358,  (edition  of  1688) 
ii.  368.] 

ARTHUR,  THOMAS  {d.  1533),  divine 
and  dramatist,  a  native  of  Norfolk,  Avas  edu- 
cated at  Cambridge,  probably  in  Trinity  Hall, 
and  imbibed  protestant  opinions  from  his  fel- 
low-countryman, Thomas  Bilney.  He  was 
admitted  a  fellow  of  St.  John's  College  in 
February  1517-8,  being  then  a  master  of  arts, 
and  in  1518  he  occurs  as  principal  of  St. 
Mary's  Hostel.  In  1526  he  and  Bilney  were 
charged  with  heresy,  and  compelled  to  take 
an  oath  abjuring  Luther's  opinions.  In  No- 
vember 1527  they  were  brought  as  relapsed 
heretics  before  Cardinal  Wolsey  and  other 
bishops  in  the  chapter-house  at  Westminster. 
Both  of  them  recanted  and  did  penance, 
though  Bilney  afterwards  had  the  courage  of 
his  opinions  and  suffered  for  them  at  the 
stake.     Arthur  died  at  Walsingham  in  1532. 

He  wrote:  1.  * Microcosmus,'  a  tragedy. 
2.  'Mundus  plumbeus,'  a  tragedy.  3.  'In 
quosdamPsalmos.'  4.  '  Homelise  Christianse.' 
5.  A  translation  of  Erasmus,  '  De  Milite 
Christiano.' 

[Tanner's  Bibl.  Brit. ;  Fox's  Acts  and  Monu- 
ments ;  Cooper's  Annals  of  Cambridge,  i.  325  ; 
Baker's  Hist,  of  St.  John's  Coll.  Camb.  ed.  Mayor, 
i.  282  ;  Cooper's  Athense  Cantab,  i.  46.]    T.  C. 

ARTHUR,  THOMAS,  M.D.  (1593- 
1666.''),  Irish  catholic  physician,  was  born 
of  an  ancient  family  settled  at  Limerick, 
many  members  of  which  had  filled  municipal 
offices  in  tliat  city  in  early  times.  His 
father's  name  being  William,  he  often  styled 
himself  Tliomas  Arthur  Fitz- William.  He 
was  educated  at  Bordeaux,  and  afterwards 
studied  medicine  at  Paris.  In  May  1619, 
having  returned  to  his  native  country,  he 
began  a  successful  practice  in  Limerick,  and 
soon  gained  the  reputation  of  a  skilful  phy- 
sician. In  April  1624,  on  the  invitation,  as 
he  himself  tells  us,  of  persons  of  influence,  he 
opened  practice  in  Dublin,  where  he  spent  the 
greater  part  of  his  time,  but  still  attended 
patients  in  Limerick  during  occasional  visits. 
In  1630,  liowever,  he  moved  his  household  to 
the  capital.  His  manuscript  entry-book  (Brit. 
Mus.  Add.  MS.  31885)  contains  a  complete 
list  of  his  patients  and  fees  fi-om  1619  to 
1666,  the  last  date  being  probably  the  year 
of  his  death.  Among  the  various  cases  which 
he   treated  the  most  important  one,  or  at 


least  the  one  in  which  he  took  most  pride, 
was  that  of  Archbishop  Usher,  'pseudo- 
primas  Ardmachanus,'  whose  complaint  had 
baffled  the  English  physicians.  Arthur 
effected  a  cure  in  1626,  aiid  received  a  fee  of 
51/.  His  success  brought  him  the  patronage 
of  the  lord  deputy.  Viscount  Falkland.  His 
entry-book  also  contains  an  exact  record  of 
his  gradual  accumulation  of  landed  property, 
and  also  a  few  pieces  in  ponderous  Latin 
verse.  Among  the  latter  is  an  '  Anagramma 
pliysiognomicum  in  nomen  Thomas  Went- 
worth,  Proregis  Iliberniae,  truculenti  et 
nefarii  hominis.'  But  his  greatest  literary 
effort  is  a  genealogical  account,  '  Edylium 
genealogicum,'  of  the  family  of  Arthur,  in 
Latin  elegiacs,  in  which,  besides  the  glory 
of  his  ancestors,  he  gives  some  particulars  of 
his  own  life. 

[Brit.  Mils.  Additional  MS.  31885;  Lenihan's 
History  of  Limerick.]  E.  M.  T. 

ARTLETT,  RICHARD  AUSTIN  (1807- 
1873),  engraver,  was  born  9  Nov.  1807. 
He  was  a  pupil  of  Robert  Cooper,  and  after- 
wards of  James  Thomson.  He  engraved  in 
the  dotted  manner  a  few  figure-subjects, 
including  '  Boulogne  in  1805  and  '  Bou- 
logne in  1855,'  after  Absolon,  and  several 
portraits,   among  which  are  those  of  Lord 

i  Ashburton,   after   Sir    Thomas    Lawrence ; 

j  Lord  Lyndhurst,  after  A.  E.  Chalon ;  the 
Right  Hon.  Henry  Goulburn  and  Sir  James 
Emerson  Tennent,  after  George  Richmond ; 
George  Macdonald,  after  George  Reid  ;  Lady 
Clementina  Villiers,  after  F.  Winterhalter  ; 
and  Mrs.  Gladstone,  after  W.  Say.  He  was, 
however,  most  distinguished  as  an  engraver  of 
sculpture,  his  plates  of  which  in  the  'Art 
Journal '  are  executed  with  great  taste  and 
delicacy.  Among  them  may  be  mentioned 
'  The  Fawn,'  a  statue  by  C.  B.  Birch ;  '  The 
Virgin  Mother,'  a  group  by  Carrier-Belleuse ; 

*  The  Leopard-Hunter,'  a  statue  by  Jerichau ; 

*  The  Day-Dream,'  a  statue  by  P.  MacDowell ; 
'  The  Veiled  Vestal,'  a  statue  by  R.  Monti ; 

*  Boadicea,'  a  group  lay  J.  Thomas ;  the  eques- 
trian statue  of  Viscount  Hardinge,  and '  Asia,' 
one  of  the  groups  of  the  Albert  Memorial,  by 
J.  II.  Foley  ;  '  Christ  giving  sight  to  the  Blind 
Man,'  a  group  by  J.  D.  Crittenden  ;  and  *  Per- 
dita  and  Florizel '  and  '  The  Siren  and  the 
drowned  Leander,'  groups  bv  J.  Durham, 
He  died  1  Sept.  1873. 

[Art  Journ.  1873,  p  377.]  R.  E.  G, 

ARUNDALE,  FRANCIS  (1807-1853), 
architect,  born  in  London  9  Aug.  1807,  was 
a  pupil  of  Augustus  Pugin ;  he  accom- 
panied his  master  to  Normandy,  and  helped 
him  Avith  his 'Architectural  Antiquities  of 


Arundel 


137 


Arundel 


Kormandy.'  With  Pugin  he  stayed  seven 
years.  In  1831  he  went  to  Egypt,  and  in 
1833  with  Mr.  Catherwood  and  Mr.  Bonomi 
to  Palestine.  He  was  nine  years  in  the  East, 
and  then  travelled  in  Greece,  Sicily,  Italy, 
and  Prance.  In  Rome  he  spent  several  winters. 
He  never  actually  practised  as  an  architect, 
but  he  painted  some  large  pictures  fi-om  his 
oriental  studies,  and  published  a  number  of 
books,  amongst  which  may  be  mentioned  the 
'  Edifices  of  Palladio'  infolio,  1832;  'Illus- 
trations of  Jerusalem  and  Mount  Sinai,'  4to, 
1837  ;  and,  in  conjunction  with  Mr.  Bonomi, 
*  Selections  from  the  Gallery  of  Antiquities 
in  the  British  Museum,'  4to,  1842. 

Arundale  married  a  daughter  of  Mr.  Pick- 
ersgill,  R.A.,  and  had  six  children.  He  died 
at  Brighton  on  9  Sept.  1853. 

[Nagler's  Allgemeines  Kunstler-Lexicon,  ed. 
1878  :  Art  Journal,  1851,  p.  50;  Kedgrave's 
Dictionary  of  English  Painters.]  E.  K. 

ARUNDEL,  Eakls  of.  [See  Albini, 
FxTZALAN,  and  Howard.] 

ARUNDEL,     THOMAS     (135^1414), 

archbishop  of  Canterbiu-y,  was  the  third  son 
of  Richard  Fitzalan,  earl  of  Arundel,  the 
title  of  his  father  being,  according  to  a 
very  common  custom,  used  as  a  family  sui*- 
name.  His  mother  was  Eleanor,  daughter 
of  Henry  Plantagenet,  earl  of  Lancaster, 
and  was  his  father's  second  wife.  The  Fitz- 
alans  were  an  old  Norman  family  whose  an- 
cestor Alan,  the  son  of  Fleald,  came  in  with 
the  Conqueror.  The  earldom  of  Arundel 
liad  come  to  them  by  maiTiage  in  the  reign 
of  Henry  III.  The  influence  they  pos- 
sessed is  shown  by  the  singularly  early  age 
at  which  young  Thomas  Arundel  attained 
high  preferment  in  the  church.  He  was 
archdeacon  of  Taunton  in  1373,  was  promoted 
by  papal  bull  to  the  bishopric  of  Ely  on 
13  Aug.  in  the  same  year,  was  consecrated  in 
April  following,  and  received  full  possession 
of  the  temporalities  on  5  May  1374,  when  he 
was  only  in  his  twentj^-second  year.  On 
24  Jan.  1.376  he  lost  his  father  (Dugdale,  i. 
318),  and  Richard,  the  elder  of  his  two 
brothers,  succeeded  to  the  title  of  Earl  of 
Arundel.  With  the  subsequent  career  of 
this  brother,  who  became  a  leading  actor  in 
the  turbulent  times  of  Richard  11,  a  con- 
siderable part  of  his  own  life  is  very  closely 
connected. 

The  first  occasion  on  which  we  find  him 
taking  a  prominent  part  in  public  affairs  is  in 
the  year  1386,  when  parliament  demanded 
of  Richard  II  the  dismissal  of  the  chancellor 
Michael  De  la  Pole,  duke  of  Suffolk.  The  king 
lit  first  replied  that  he  would  not  at  their 
request  discharge  the  meanest  servant  of  his 


kitchen.    Nevertheless  he  afterwards  lowered 
his  tone,  and  was  willing  to  hear  the  coni- 

fdaints  of  the  commons  if  foity  members  of  the 
ower  house  were  sent  to  represent  them.  It 
was  then  agreed  between  lords  and  commons 
that  the  king's  uncle,  the  Duke  of  Gloucester, 
and  the  Bishop  of  Ely  (Arundel)  should  go 
to  him  at  li^ltham,  and  persuade  him  to  come 
toAVestminster.  Richard  accordingly  came  to 
the  parliament,  when  he  presently  found  him- 
self compelled  to  dismiss  Suffolk  and  make 
Arundel  chancellor  in  his  room  (24  Oct. — 
Rymek,  vii.  548).  On  20  Feb.  following  an 
assignment  was  made  to  him  of  the  towns 
and  parishes  of  Hackney  and  Leyton  for 
the  support  of  his  household  as  chancellor 
(lb.  553). 

ITiis  was  the  beginning  of  that  first  great 
struggle  between  Richard  and  his  parliament 
for  which,  in  the  latter  part  of  his  reign,  he 
so  unwisely  revenged  himself.  A  council  of 
regency  was  appointed,  consisting  of  eleven 
lords,  of  whom  the  Earl  of  Arundel,  the  new 
chancellor's  brother,  was  one  of  the  most  pro- 
minent. Next  year  Richard  took  counsel  with 
his  judges  at  Nottingham  as  to  the  validity  of 
what  had  been  done  in  parliament,  and  ob- 
tained from  them  a  unanimous  opinion  that 
the  commission  of  regency  was  iuAalid,  the 
statutes  unconstitutional,  and  those  who  had 
procured  them  guilty  of  treason.  The  result 
was  that  five  confederate  lords  marched  up 
to  London  at  the  head  of  40,000  men,  and 
brought  accusations  against  Richard's  coun- 
cillors, which  they  offered  to  prove  by  single 
combat.  By  the  advice  of  Bishop  Arundel 
and  the  Earl  of  Northumberland  Richard 
again  put  himself  into  the  hands  of  those 
whom  he  distrusted,  and  the  councillors  who 
had  hitherto  supported  him  took  to  flight. 
This  paved  the  way  for  the  Wonderful  par- 
liament, in  which  the  fugitives  were  pro- 
nounced guilty  of  ti'eason.  Among  these 
was  Archbishop  Nevill  of  York,  who,  being 
a  churchman,  could  not  be  put  to  death. 
Application,  however,  was  made  to  Rome 
for  his  translation  to  St.  Andrew's,  by  which 
he  was  in  efl'ect  deprived  of  any  benefice 
whatever,  as  Scotland  adhered  to  the  schis- 
matic pope,  Clement  VII,  and  did  not  ac- 
knowledge the  bulls  of  Urban  VI.  The  see 
of  York  being  thus  vacated,  Arundel  was 
made  archbishop  in  Nevill's  place  by  a  bull 
procured  from  Pope  Urban  on  3  April  1388 
(Rymer,  vii.  573). 

Next  year  the  king  declared  himself  of 
age,  and  finally  dismissed  the  council  of  re- 
gency. Arundel  was  recjuired  to  give  up  the 
great  seal  (3  May),  and  William  of  AVyke- 
ham,  bishop  of  AVinchester,  was  made  chan- 
cellor in  his  room  next  day  (Rtmer,  vii.  616). 


Arundel 


138 


Arundel 


But  the  king  exercised  his  new  powers  with 
moderation  for  some  years,  and  in  1391 
(when  William  of  Wykeham  resigned)  ac- 
tually made  Arundel  chancellor  again  on 
27  Sept.  {ib.  707).  Next  year,  on  30  March, 
an  order  was  issued  hy  him  as  chancellor  for 
the  removal  of  the  courts  of  King's  Bench, 
Common  Pleas,  and  Exchequer  from  London 
to  York  {ib.  713).  This  was  perhaps  either 
the  cause  or  the  effect  of  the  disaffection 
shown  towards  the  king  hy  the  city  of  Lon- 
don that  year ;  and  it  appears  to  have  been 
attributed  by  some  to  Archbishop  Arundel's 
desire  to  promote  the  interest  of  his  own 
cathedral  city.  London,  however,  was  re- 
conciled to  the  king  in  the  course  of  the 
following  summer,  and  after  Christmas  jus- 
tice returned  to  its  old  haunts.  In  1394, 
after  the  king  had  gone  over  to  Ireland,  the 
archbishop,  along  with  the  Bishop  of  London 
and  others,  was  sent  over  to  him  on  behalf 
of  the  clergy  to  request  his  speedy  return,  in 
order  that  they  might  better  withstand  the 
attacks  of  the  Lollards,  who  aimed  at  the 
complete  disendowment  of  the  church ;  and 
their  remonstrances  were  so  effectual  that 
the  king  returned  from  Ireland  after  Easter. 

In  1396  Arundel  was  promoted  to  Canter- 
buiy,  on  the  death  of  Archbishop  Courtney, 
by  a  papal  bull  dated  25  Sept.  It  was  in 
anticipation  of  this  promotion  (for  the  bull 
was  only  received  at  Lambeth  on  10  Jan. 
following,  and  published  at  Canterbury  next 
day)  that  he  on  27  Sept.  resigned  the  great 
seal  once  more  (Rymee,  vii.  840).  He  re- 
ceived the  pall  from  AVilliam  of  Wykeham, 
bishop  of  Winchester,  on  10  Feb.  1397,  and 
Avas  enthroned  at  Canterbury  on  the  19th. 
The  very  next  day,  if  we  may  trust  the  date 
in  the  register,  he  presided  over  a  synod  in 
London,  which  had  assembled  the  day  before, 
and  received  an  address  from  the  faculty  of 
law  at  Oxford,  requesting  him  to  vindicate 
his  right  of  visitation  against  their  chan- 
cellor, who  had  procured  from  the  reigning 
pope,  Boniface  IX,  a  bull  of  exemption  for 
the  university.  Arundel  was  nowise  reluc- 
tant, and,  backed  by  a  letter  from  the  king, 
endeavoured  to  enforce  his  right  next  year. 
Nevertheless,  the  dispute  seems  only  to  have 
terminated  fifteen  years  later  by  the  arch- 
bishop obtaining  another  bull  from  Pope 
John  XXIII  recalling  that  of  Boniface 
(Wood's  Antiq.  O.if.  i.  365-6). 

In  the  Ijondon  synod  above  referred  to, 
the  Oxford  doctors  also  took  action  against 
the  Wycliffites,  and  asked  for  the  formal  con- 
demnation of  a  number  of  their  opinions. 
In  this  matter  too  it  might  reasonably  be 
supposed  they  had  Arundel's  hearty  sym- 
pathy;   for  in    no   character   is    he   better 


known  (at  least  in  later  days)  than  that 
of  an  opponent  of  the  Lollards,  But  he 
adjom-ned  the  synod  till  next  day,  and  we 
have  no  record  of  its  further  proceedings. 
Soon  after  he  made  new  statutes  for  tlie 
court  of  Arches,  and  proceeded  to  an  almost 
complete  visitation  of  his  province,  hearing 
appeals  everywhere  from  the  judgment  of  his 
suffragans,  whose  jurisdiction  he  seems  to 
have  set  aside  to  an  extent  altogether  un- 
usual by  delegating  causes  to  his  own  com- 
missaries. He  also  issued  two  monitions  to 
the  citizens  of  London  against  withholding 
of  tithes  and  other  offerings,  renewing  an 
old  constitution  of  Roger  Niger,  bishop  of 
London  in  the  days  of  Henry  III,  which 
appears  to  have  fallen  into  neglect. 

At  this  time,  if  we  may  trust  some  French 
accounts  (and  the  incident  might  have  oc- 
curred during  the  archbishop's  visitation  of 
his  province),  a  new  conspiracy  against 
Richard  II  was  hatched  at  Arundel  by  the 
king's  turbulent  uncle,  Gloucester,  and  the 
Earls  of  Arundel  and  Warwick,  to  whom  the 
archbishop  administered  the  sacrament  to  se- 
cure their  fidelity  to  each  other.  The  story 
has  been  generally  discredited — perhaps  on 
insufficient  grounds — because  no  reference  to 
any  such  conspiracy  is  made  in  the  proceed- 
ings soon  afterwards  taken  in  parliament 
against  the  earl  and  archbishop.  But,  what- 
ever may  have  been  the  occasion,  it  is  clear 
that  there  was  a  new  oxitbreak  of  disti'ust  on 
the  king's  part  as  regards  the  three  noble- 
men in  question.  The  surrender  of  Brest  to 
the  Duke  of  Brittany,  and  Richard's  recent 
marriage  to  the  daughter  of  the  King  of 
France,  were  little  relished  by  perhaps  the 
majority  of  Englishmen,  least  of  all  by  the 
Duke  of  Gloucester.  What  the  archbishop's 
sentiments  about  them  were  we  do  not  know ; 
but  he  himself  had  performed  the  marriage 
ceremony  at  Calais  (1  Nov.  1396),  and  been 

E resent  at  the  conferences  with  the  French 
ing  which  immediately  preceded  it.  And, 
whether  he  deserved  the  king's  confidence  or 
not,  there  was  no  appearance  that  it  had  yet 
been  withdrawn  from  him.  But  a  sudden 
storm  in  the  political  world  changed  the  po- 
sition of  matters  for  him  as  for  others.  The 
king,  suspecting  the  designs  of  Gloucester 
and  the  Earls  of  Arundel  and  Warwick,  in- 
vited these  three  noblemen  to  dine  with  him 
on  10  July.  Gloucester  excused  himself  on 
the  ground  of  ill  health ;  Arundel  thought 
it  best  to  remain  in  his  castle  of  Eeigate, 
which  was  strongly  fortified ;  Warwick  alone 
accepted  Richard's  hospitality.  He  was 
agreeably  entertained,  and  quite  thrown  off 
his  guard ;  but  after  the  banquet  he  Avas 
arrested  by  the  king's  orders. 


Arundel 


139 


Arundel 


That  same  night  llichard  urged  the  arch- 
bishop to  endeaA'Our  to  persuade  his  brother, 
the  Earl  of  Arundel,  to  come  to  him  of  his 
own  accord,  swearing  by  St.  Jolin  the  Bai)- 
tist  (his  usual  oath)  that  no  injury  should 
be  done  to  him  if  he  would  only  come  peace- 
fully. The  earl  at  first  hesitated,  but  tlie 
archbishop,  trusting  to  the  king's  oath,  in- 
duced him  to  put  himself  in  Richard's  power ; 
on  which  lie  was  appreliended  and  sent  to 
the  Isle  of  Wight  until  the  meeting  of 
parliament  in  September.  That  done,  the 
king,  procuring  a  body  of  men  from  the 
mayor  of  London,  and  taking  with  him  also 
some  of  the  noblemen  of  his  court,  paid  an 
unexpected  visit  to  his  uncle  Gloucester  at 
Pleshy,  in  Essex,  and  caused  him  also  to  be 
ari'ested  and  sent  over  to  Calais,  where  he 
was  some  little  time  afterwards  mixrdered. 

The  archbishop  never  saw  his  brother 
again.  He  took  his  place  beside  the  king  in 
tlie  parliament  which  met  in  September,  and 
was  appointed  one  of  the  triers  of  petitions; 
but  on  20  Sept.  1397 — almost  exactly  a  year 
after  the  date  of  the  bull  appointing  him 
archbishop,  but  only  seven  months  since  he 
had  begun  really  to  exercise  an  archbishop's  1 
functions — he  was  impeached  by  the  House 
of  Commons.  The  charge  against  him  was  | 
that  he,  being  then  chancellor,  had  assisted  I 
in  procuring  the  commission  of  regency 
eleven  years  before  in  derogation  of  the 
king's  authority.  He  was  about  to  reply, 
but  the  king,  with  a  motion  of  his  hand, 
caused  him  to  be  silent  and  sit  down,  and 
made  answer  to  the  commons  himself  that, 
as  the  matter  touched  so  high  a  person,  he 
would  take  counsel  upon  the  subject  apart. 
Meanwhile  he  privately  encouraged  the  arch- 
bishop to  believe  that  the  cloud  would  soon 
disperse.  But  next  day  the  archbishop's 
brother,  the  earl,  was  brought  into  the  House 
of  Peers  in  the  custody  of  the  constable  of 
the  Tower,  and  an  appeal  of  treason  was 
lodged  against  him.  The  charges  against 
him  likewise  had  reference  to  acts  done 
many  years  before,  and  he  had  since  ob- 
tained the  king's  pardon,  but  it  was  disal- 
lowed. For  the  king  had  explicitly  demanded 
of  the  assembled  peers  whether  charters  of 
pardon  granted  under  compulsion  might  not 
be  revoked,  and  all  but  tlie  archbishop  him- 
self agreed  that  they  miglit  be.  The  earl  was 
therefore  summarily  condemned  and  executed 
the  same  day.  On  the  24th  the  earl  marshal, 
who  was  to  have  produced  his  prisoner,  the 
Duke  of  Gloucester,  before  the  peers,  reported 
that  he  had  died  in  prison  at  Calais.  On  the 
2.')th  the  commons  prayed  judgment  on  the 
archbishop,  wlien  the  king  related  that  he  had 
examined  him  in  the  presence  of  some  other 


lords,  and  that  he  had  confessed  his  offence. 
Sentence  of  banishment  was  then  pronounced 
against  him,  six  weelcs  being  allowed  him 
from  Michaelmas  day  during  Avhich  to  take 
his  passage  from  Dover  into  France. 

These  occurrences  were  the  beginning  of 
the  despotism  of  Richard's  later  days.  He 
had  obtained  a  subservient  parliament,  but 
he  had  already  lost  the  hearts  of  many  of 
his  subjects.  The  Earl  of  Arundel  was 
looked  upon  as  a  martyr.  The  archbishop, 
undisturbed  by  his  sentence,  seems  to  have 
continued  at  least  part  of  the  time  allowed 
him  in  the  vigorous  discharge  of  his  func- 
tions ;  and  on  14  Oct.  issued  an  order  from 
Lambeth  in  confirmation  of  one  he  had  al- 
ready issued  in  August  defining  the  rights 
and  duties  of  two  officials  in  the  court  of 
Arches  (Wilkins,  iii.  233).  At  last  he  left 
England  and  fled  to  Rome,  where  he  sought 
the  intercession  of  Boniface  IX  with  the 
king  his  master.  But  Richard  wrote  in 
strong  terms  to  his  holiness  of  his  seditious 
and  intriguing  character ;  and  the  pope, 
though  he  had  favoured  him  at  first,  con- 
sented, at  Richard's  request,  to  deprive  him  of 
his  see  by  translating  him  to  St.  Andrew's, 
as  his  predecessor  Urban  had  translated 
Archbishop  Nevill  of  York. 

It  is  said  by  one  authority  that  he  abso- 
lutely refused  to  go  abroad  till  the  king  as- 
sured him  privately  that  he  would  soon  be 
recalled,  and  that  no  one  else  should  be  arch- 
bishop while  he  lived  ;  on  which  he  told  the 
king  that  before  his  departure  he  had  some- 
thing to  say  to  him,  and  proceeded  to  deliver 
a  long  denunciation  of  the  luxury  and  avarice 
of  the  court  {^Eulogium,  iii.  376-7).  To  this 
account  we  may  attach  what  weight  we 
think  proper;  but  it  shows,  at  all  events, 
the  opinion  entertained  by  many  of  his  inde- 
pendence of  character.  The  pope,  at  the 
king's  request,  not  only  translated  him  to  St. 
Andrew's,  where  the  authority  of  Boniface 
was  not  respected,  but  filled  up  the  vacancy 
in  the  see  of  Canterbury  by  the  appointment 
of  Roger  Walden,  at  that  time  dean  of  York, 
who  had  the  temporalities  restored  to  him  on 
21  Jan.  1398,  and  kept  possession  of  the  see 
during  the  brief  remainder  of  Richard's 
reign. 

There  is  no  record — nor  is  the  thing  at  all 
probable  in  itself — that  Arundel  returned  to 
England,  in  spite  of  the  decree  of  banish- 
ment, before  he  came  back  with  Henry  of 
Lancaster  in  1399.  Yet  we  are  told  most 
minutely  by  Froissart  that  just  before  that 
occasion  he  was  sent  over  to  Henry  in  France 
by  the  Londoners  to  represent  to  him  the 
gi'oss  misgovernment  of  Richard,  and  to  in- 
vite him  to  come  and  assume   the  crown ; 


Arundel 


140 


Arundel 


that  he  embarked  in  the  Thames  at  London, 
passed  through  Sluys,  Aardenborg,  Ghent, 
( )udenarde,  and  various  other  places  in  the 
Low  Countries,  and  at  length,  disguised  as  a 
monk  going  on  a  pilgrimage,  came  to  Henry 
in  the  outskirts  of  Paris.  The  story,  how- 
ever, requires  but  a  slight  correction  to  bring 
it  into  harmony  with  the  statements  of  other 
writers.  The  archbishop's  nephew  and  name- 
sake, Thomas,  now  Earl  of  Arundel,  eager  to 
avenge  his  father's  death,  escaped  from  the 
custody  of  his  guardian,  John  Holland, 
duke  of  Exeter,  and  with  the  aid  of  a  Lon- 
don merchant  fled  abroad  to  join  his  uncle  at 
Cologne.  It  was  he,  in  all  probability,  whose 
itinerary  is  given  in  Froissart,  and  who  con- 
veyed through  his  uncle  the  message  of  the 
city  of  London  to  Henry  of  Lancaster. 
There  is  no  doubt,  at  all  events,  that  the 
archbishop  and  the  young  earl  were  together 
with  Henry  abroad,  and  landed  with  him  at 
Ravenspur.  The  archbishop  accompanied 
Henry  to  the  siege  of  Bristol,  and  after- 
wards into  Wales,  to  intercept  Richard's 
return  from  Ireland ;  and  it  was  alleged  that 
Richai-d's  first  offer  to  resign  the  crown  was 
made  to  him  and  the  Earl  of  Northumber- 
land at  Conway.  Such  was  the  statement  of 
the  archbishop  himself  in  Heniy's  first  par- 
liament, and  it  must  be  owned  it  has  rather 
the  look  of  a  political  fiction,  like  the  other 
assertion,  made  at  the  same  time,  touching 
Richard's  formal  abdication  in  the  Tower, 
that  it  was  an  act  done  with  perfect  willing- 
ness and  with  a  cheerful  countenance.  It  is 
certain  that  the  archbishop  had  no  interview 
with  Richard  at  Conway,  though  he  had  one 
afterwai-ds  at  Flint.  At  Conway  it  was  stiU 
possible  for  the  unhappy  king  to  escape  by 
sea,  and  the  archbishop,  instead  of  receiving 
from  him  then  an  offer  to  resign  the  crown, 
was  plotting  with  Henry  how  to  lure  Richard 
into  the  power  of  the  invader  and  cut  off  his 
retreat. 

Soon  after  his  return  Arundel  took  pos- 
session again  of  his  see  of  Canterbury,  Roger 
Walden  being  i-egarded  as  an  intruder.  He 
took  his  place  at  once  in  parliament  as  arch- 
bishop, and  was  one  of  the  lords  who  wit- 
nessed the  abdication  of  Richard  in  the 
Tower.  This  being  reported  next  day  to  the 
assembled  peers,  and  Henry  having  chal- 
lenged the  crown  as  his  right,  he  took  the 
new  king  by  the  right  hand,  and  led  him  to 
the  throne ;  then,  after  he  Avas  seated,  de- 
livered a  sermon  in  parliament  on  the  text 
*  Vir  dominabitur  populo'  (1  Samuel  ix.  17). 

Henry  was  crowned  by  Arundel  at  West- 
minster on  13  Oct.  At  the  feast  in  West- 
minster Hall  the  same  day  he  sat  on  the 
king's  right  hand,  and   the  Archbishop  of 


York  upon  his  left  (Fabyan).  For  a  few 
days  he  continued  to  discharge  the  duties  of 
chancellor,  which  seem  to  have  been  again 
imposed  upon  him  from  the  time  that  Richard 
fell  into  Henry's  hands;  but  he  presently 
resigned  the  great  seal  to  John  de  Scarle, 
master  of  the  rolls,  afterwards  archdeacon 
of  Lincoln.  He  was  lord  chancellor  again 
for  the  fourth  time  1407,  and  for  a  fifth 
time  in  1412.  But  his  life  after  the  ac- 
cession of  Henry  IV  is  comparatively  un- 
eventful, being  chiefly  remarkable  for  two 
things :  first,  for  his  successful  opposition  to 
the  demand  of  the  Lacklearning  parliament 
(1404)  and  the  parliament  of  1410  for  a 
general  disendowment  of  the  church;  and 
second,  his  proceedings  against  the  Lollards. 
He  seems  also  to  ha^e  been  sent  on  an 
embassy  abroad  in  the  year  1411,  but  of  the 
particulars  of  this  mission  Ave  have  no  in- 
formation. The  great  business  of  his  later 
life  was  to  resist  the  tide  of  Ijollardy.  In 
1401  he  passed  sentence  of  degradation  upon 
Sawtree,  and  handed  him  over  to  the  secillar 
arm,  when  he  was  burned  under  the  neAv 
statute  against  heresy.  In  1408  he  summoned 
a  provincial  council  at  Oxford,  in  Avhich  cer- 
tani  constitutions  against  the  Lollards  were 
drawn  up,  but  not  immediately  published. 
In  1410  another  heretic  was  brought  before 
him,  Badby,  a  tailor  of  Evesham,  who  denied 
transubstantiation,  and,  as  he  coidd  not  be 
induced  to  recant,  was  committed  to  the 
flames.  In  1411  the  old  question  arose  again 
about  the  visitation  of  the  university,  and 
was  settled  in  the  manner  we  have  already 
shown.  In  1413,  just  after  the  accession  of 
Henry  V,  arose  the  more  important  case  of 
Sir  John  Oldcastle,  Lord  Cobham,  whom  the 
archbishop  examined  at  great  length,  and 
finally  condemned  as  a  heretic,  though  he 
was  not  brought  to  the  flames  till  some  years 
after  the  archbishop's  death.  For  Arundel 
died  on  19  Feb.  following  of  a  sudden  at- 
tack of  some  complaint  in  the  throat.  He 
was  buried  in  his  own  cathedral,  where  he 
had  caused  a  tomb  to  be  erected  in  his  life- 
time, but  it  has  been  since  destroyed. 

It  is  difficult  fully  to  appreciate  the  cha- 
racter and  motives  of  any  leading  actor  in 
those  turbulent  times.  But  we  may  well 
believe  that  Arundel's  conduct  throughout 
life  was  governed  by  a  standard  of  duty 
which,  thoiigh  we  may  not  always  approve 
it,  was  in  accordance  with  the  general  feel- 
ing and  the  principles  of  his  own  day.  Nor 
does  it  appear  that  he  Avas  by  any  means  un- 
merciful in  his  treatment  of  the  unhappy 
heretics  brought  before  him,  Avdiose  ultimate 
doom,  indeed,  did  not  rest  Avith  him.  His 
inhibitions  of  unlicensed  preachers  displeased 


Arundell 


141 


Arundell 


even  the  reputed  orthodox  of  another  gene- 
ration ;  and  Ur.  Gascoigne  tells  us  how  he 
was  struck  dumb,  unable  to  speak  or  swallow 
for  days  before  his  death,  which  was  believed 
to  be  a  judgment  on  him  for  having  tied  up 
the  word  of  God  in  the  mouths  of  preachers 
{Loci  e  Libra  Ventatum,  34,  61).  It  does 
not  appear  that  Arundel's  own  bigotry  was 
of  this  narrow  description.  He  was  a  man  of 
princely  tastes,  built  fine  edifices  for  himself 
at  Ely  and  Canterbury,  and  was  a  munificent 
benefactor  of  the  churches  in  which  he  had 
any  interest. 

[Walsingham ;  Annales  Ricardi  II,  ed.  Riley 
(with  Trokelo-we) ;  Monk  of  Evesham ;  Knighton ; 
Froissart ;  Gower's  Tripartite  Chronicle ;  Eulo- 
giiiin,  ed.  Haydon,  iii.  376  sq. ;  Traison  et  Mort 
de  Richart  Deux,  ed.  Williams  ;  Rolls  of  Par- 
liament, iii.  423,  435  ;  Parker,  De  Antiquitate 
Britannicse  Ecclesise;  Hook's  Lives  of  the  Arch- 
bishops, vol.  iv.]  J.  G. 

ARUNDELL  of  Coknwall.  The  Arun- 

dells  are  amongst  the  few  Cornish  families  of 
Norman  origin,  and  there  are  still  fewer  of 
French  extraction  avIio  have  for  so  long  a 
period  as  at  least  five  or  six  centuries  been, 
like  them,  traceable  in  that  county.  It  will 
be  convenient,  before  referring  to  the  more 
celebrated  members  of  the  family,  to  briefly 
sketch  the  histoiy  of  the  three  principal  stems 
— viz.  the  Arundells  of  Lanherne,  Trerice, 
and  Tolverne — and  to  add  a  few  words  about 
the  minor  Arundells. 

The  Arundells  of  Lanherne — '  the  Great 
Arundells'  as  they  were  styled — appear  to 
have  settled  in  Cornwall,  about  the  middle  of 
the  thirteenth  century,  at  the  place  so  called 
(now  the  site  of  a  nunnery),  situated  on  the 
western  slope  of  a  wooded  valley,  lying  be- 
tween St.  Columb  Major  and  the  sea;  or  pos- 
sibly before  that  time  at  a  place  in  the  ad- 
joining parish  of  St.  Ervan,  named  Trembleath 
{Journal  of  Royal  Institution  of  Cormvall, 
September  1876,  pp.  285-93).  A  very  early 
member  of  the  family,  Roger,  was  marshal  of 
England ;  and  according  to  the  Exeter  Cathe- 
dral *  Martyrologium,'  William  de  Arundell, 
who  died  in  1246,  was  a  canon  of  that  cathe- 
dral ;  about  the  same  time  a  Roger  Arundell 
lived  opposite  St.  Stephen's  church  in  that 
city.  In  1260  a  Sir  Ralph  Arundell  was  sherifi" 
of  Cornwall ;  and  a  few  years  later  we  find  a 
John  Arundell  holding  lands  at  EfFord,  near 
Bude,  and  other  Ai-undells  were  landowners 
in  the  eastern  part  of  the  county.  Of  the  Sir 
John  Arundell,  the  story  of  whose  expedition 
against  the  Duke  of  Brittany  in  1379  is  re- 
corded by  the  chroniclers,  a  separate  and  fuller 
account  is  given  below.  His  grandson.  Sir 
John  Arundell,  K.B.,  '  the  Magnificent,'  was 


a  great  church  benefactor  (notably  to  the  cele- 
brated lost  church  of  St.  Piran-in-the-Sands 
— Perranzabulae),  and,  according  to  his  will, 
dated  18  April  1433,  possessed  no  less  than 
fifty-two  complete  suits  of  cloth  of  gold  (cf. 
Harl.  MSS.  1074,  art.  203,  fo.  3228).  He 
was  a  naval  commander,  and  was  sheriff  of 
Cornwall  four  times,  and  M.P.  for  the  county 
in  1422-3.  The  Arundells  intermarried  with 
most  of  the  old  Cornish  families — nearly  all 
of  them  now  extinct — thus  adding  consider- 
ably to  their  vast  possessions,  until  at  lengfth, 
in  the  twenty-ninth  year  of  Henry  VI,  John 
Arundell,  born  about  1421,  had  become  the 
largest  free  tenant  in  Cornwall,  his  estates 
being  of  the  value  of  2,000/.  per  annum.  He 
was  sherifi"  and  admiral  of  Cornwall,  and  a 
general  for  Henry  VI  in  his  French  wars,  but 
was  attainted  in  1483.  The  Arundells  ac- 
quired Lanherne  by  marriage  with  the  heiress 
of  that  family;  and  they  also  formed,  at  difl'e- 
rent  periods,  alliances  with  the  Carminows, 
the  Grenvilles,the  Bevils,  the  Lambournes,the 
Carews,  the  Trevanions,  the  Erisys,  and  other 
Cornish  families.  Another  John  Arundell 
was  bishop  of  Exeter  (1502-4) ;  and  of  him 
too,  as  well  as  of  another  member  of  the  Lan- 
herne family,  who  became  bishop  of  Chichester 
in  1458,  fuller  accounts  will  appear  below. 
A  gi'andson  of  the  above-named  admiral — 
also  a  Sir  John  Arundell — was  made  knight- 
banneret  on  the  field  of  Therouenne,  died  in 
1545,  and  Avas  buried  in  the  church  of  St. 
Mary  Wolnoth,  Lombard  Street.  He  was 
the  father  of  the  erudite  Mary  Arundell. 
Another  Sir  John  Arundell,  who  died  in 
1589 — or,  according  to  the  Isleworth  Regis- 
ter (Oliver's  Collections),  in  1591 — at  Isle- 
Avorth,  was  converted  to  Catholicism,  as  Dodd 
tells  us  in  his  'Church  History,'  by  Father 
Cornelius  (a  native  of  the  neighbouring  town 
of  Bodmin).  In  defence  of  Cornelius  Sir  John 
Arundell  lost  his  own  liberty,  and  was  con- 
fined for  nine  years  in  Ely  Palace,  Holborn 
(cf.  Morris's  Troubles  of  our  Catholic  Fore- 
fathers, 1875  ;  Simpson's  Edmund  Campion, 
1867 ;  and  Challoner's  Memoirs  of  Mission- 
ary Priests,  1803).  The  next  prominent  mem- 
bers of  the  Lanherne  family  are  Sir  Thomas 
((Z.1552)  and  Humphry  Arundell  (151 3-1649- 
50),  of  both  of  whom  accounts  are  given 
below.  From  Sir  John  Arundell,  the  knight- 
banneret  of  Therouenne,  descended  the  Arun- 
dells of  Wardour  Castle ;  and  by  the  marriage 
of  Mary  Arundell,  in  1739,  to  Henry,  seventh 
Baron  Arundell  of  "VVardour,  the  Lanherne 
and  Wardour  branches  of  the  family  were, 
after  a  separation  of  more  than  two  centuries^ 
reunited. 

The  Arundells  of  Trerice  were  seated 
in  the  parish  of  Newlyn,  about  five  miles- 


Arundell 


142 


Arundell 


south  of  Lanherne ;  and  some  fine  portions 
remain  of  their  mansion  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury. At  an  early  period  they  had  another 
residence  at  AUerford  in  West  Somerset,  but 
they  were  seated  at  Trerice  at  least  as  early 
as  the  reigii  of  Edwai-d  III.  At  first  tliey 
bore  difterent  arms  from  the  Lanherne  Arun- 
dells,  apparently  owing  to  a  difference  of 
opinion  as  to  which  was  the  elder  branch  ; 
but  ultimately  they  adopted  the  same,  viz. 
sable,  six  swallows  argent.  However  this 
may  be,  '  precisely  to  rip  up  the  whole  pedi- 
gi-ee,'  as  Richard  Carew,  tlie  Cornish  historian, 
who  married  into  the  Tolverne  branch  of  the 
family,  observes, '  were  more  tedious  than  be- 
hooveful.'  The  earliest  Trerice  Arundell  of 
note  seems  to  have  been  a  Sir  John,  vice-ad- 
miral of  Cornwall  early  in  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury. When  sheriff"  of  Cornwall  he  was  sent 
by  King  Edward  IV  to  retake  St.  Michael's 
INIount,  which  had  been  seized  by  the  Earl  of 
Oxford.  Sir  John  had  removed  from  Effbrd, 
by  the  seaside,  to  Trerice  (an  inland  abode), 
owing,  it  is  said,  to  a  prophecy  (Hals)  that 
'he  would  be  slain  in  the  sands.'  Yet  he  did 
not  avert  his  fate ;  for,  on  the  strand  near  Mara- 
zion,  he  lost  his  life  in  1471  in  a  skirmish;  and 
his  remains  lie  in  the  chapel  of  St.  Michael's 
Mount  (cf.  Oakew,  1811,  p.  281).  The  Arun- 
dells  of  Trerice  evidently  continued  in  royal 
favour,  for  one  of  them  received  an  autograph 
letter  from  the  queen  of  Henry  VII,  an- 
nouncing to  him  the  birth  of  a  prince,  her 
son.  Henry  VIII  appointed  another  Sir  John 
Arundell  (grand-nephew  of  him  who  was 
killed  at  the  Mount)  his  esquire  of  the  body. 
He  was  known  as  '  Jack  of  Tilbury.'  He  is 
noticed  below,  as  well  as  his  grandson, '  John 
Game  to  the  Toes ' — '  John  for  the  King' — and 
his  great-grandson,  Richard  Arundell,  first 
Baron  Arundell  of  Trerice.  Carew  is  full  of 
information  as  to  this  branch  of  the  family. 
The  male  line  of  the  family  became  extinct  by 
the  death  of  the  fourth  baron,  John,  in  1768 ; 
and  Trerice  ultimately  passed  into  the  hands 
of  its  present  possessor.  Sir  Thomas  Dyke 
Acland,  Bart.  An  uncle  of  the  last  baron, 
the  Hon.  Richard  Arundell,  who  died  in 
1759  without  issue,  was  M.P.  for  Knares- 
borough,  clerk  of  the  pipe,  surveyor  of  works, 
master  and  warden  of  the  mint,  and  a  com- 
missioner of  the  treasury.  Amongst  the 
legal  representatives  of  the  Arundells  of 
Trerice  in  1829,  was  the  Hon.  Ada  Byron, 
daughter  of  the  poet  {Gent.  Mag.  xcix.  pt. 
ii.  p.  216). 

The  AKirifDEixs  of  Tolverne  were  seated 
at  a  very  early  date  at  the  place  on  the  left 
bank  of  the  Fal  which  gives  them  their 
distinctive  name;  but  no  trace  remains  of 
their  abode,  though  in  Carew's  time  (about 


three  hundred  years  ago) '  amongst  all  of  the 
houses  on  that  side  of  the  river,  Tolverne,  for 
pleasant  prospect,  large  scope,  and  other 
liousekeeping  commodities,  challengeth  the 
pre-eminence.'  They  seem  to  have  separated 
from  the  main  stem  of  Lanherne  at  an  earlier 
date  than  the  Arundells  of  Trerice,  and  to 
have  settled  at  Tolverne  in  the  i*eign  of  Ed- 
ward I,  in  consequence  of  Sir  John  Arundell 
of  Trembleath  (son  of  Sir  Ralph  Arundell 
of  Lanherne,  who  was  slierift"  of  CoruAvall 
in  1260)  marrying  Joan  le  Soor  of  Tolverne. 
Sir  Thomas  Arundell,  who  died  in  1443,  is 
another  of  the  early  Arundells  who  appears 
upon  the  scene.  Like  the  Arundells  01  Lan- 
herne and  Trerice,  the  Arundells  of  Tolverne 
intermarried  with  good  Cornish  blood,  but, 
this  branch  chose  generally  tlie  western  fami- 
lies for  their  alliances,  such  as  Reskymer, 
Trefusis,  St.  Aubyn,  Godolphin,  and  Tre- 
laAvny.  The  grandson  of  Thomas  Arundell, 
who  died  in  1552  (who  was  also  called 
Thomas,  and  who  was  knighted  by  James  I), 
having  seriously  impaired  his  fortune  by 
endeavouring  to  discover  an  imaginary  island 
in  America,  called  '  Old  Brazil,'  sold  Tol- 
verne, and  afterwards  lived  at  Truthall  in 
the  parish  of  Sitlmey.  John  Arundell,  son 
of  Sir  Thomas,  one  of  the  Truthall  Arun- 
dells, was  a  colonel  of  liorse  for  Charles  II, 
and  a  deputy  governor  of  Pendennis  Castle, 
in  1665,  under  his  relative  Richard,  Baron 
Arundell  of  Trerice;  he  died  in  1671. 

Of  the  Minor  Arundells,  the  brancli  which 
settled  at  Menadarva,  in  the  parish  of  Illogau, 
appears  to  have  been  founded  by  one  Robert 
Arundell,  a  natural  son  of  '  Jack  of  Tilbury.' 
Hals  has,  as  usual,  some  odd  gossip  about 
him  {Harl.  M8S.  433,  art.  651).  One  of 
his  descendants  (a  great-grandson  ?),  Francis 
Arundell  of  Trengwainton  near  Penzance,  was 
born  about  the  year  1620,  and  died  in  1697. 
He  followed  that  unusual  course  amongst 
the  Cornish  gentry  of  taking  up  arms  for  the 
parliament,  holding  tlie  rank  of  captain.  The 
Arundells  sold  Menadarva  in  1755  to  the 
Bassets  of  Telvidy. 

Another  branch  settled  at  Trevithick,  about 
two  miles  west  of  St.  Columb  Major. 

Various  others  of  the  minor  Arundells 
appear  from  time  to  time  (but  fallen  from 
their  high  estate)  in  the  church  registers  in 
the  eastern  pai't  of  Cornwall :  one  of  the  line, 
William,  more  than  two  centuries  ago,  mar- 
ried Dorothy,  a  descendant  of  that  Theodoro 
Palseologus  who  was  buried  at  Landulph  in 
1637.  She  is  described  in  the  parish  register 
as  being  '  ex  stii-pe  imperatorum ; '  so  that 
there  probably  still  flows  in  the  veins  of  many 
a  rustic  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Callington 
and  Saltash  the  mingled  blood  of  those  Arun- 


Arundell 


143 


Arundell 


dells  who  came  over  to  England  with  the 
Conqueror,  and  that  of  the  Byzantine  empe- 
rors of  the  East  (Note/i  and  Quenes,4th.  series, 
vols.  iii.  and  iv.) 

[Col.  A'^ivian'.s  annotated  edition  of  Heralds' 
Visitations  to  Corn-wall;  Harl.  MSS.  Brit.  Mils.; 
Collectanea  Topographica  et  Genealogica,  vols, 
i.,  iii.,  iv.,  and  vi. ;  Add.  MSS.  Brit.  Mus.  5524, 
fol.  160.]  W.  H.  T. 

«'  ARUNDELL,  Lady  BLANCHE  (1583- 
1649),  defender  of  Wardour  Castle,  was 
daughter  of  Edward,  earl  of  Worcester,  and 
Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Francis  Hastings, 
earl  of  Hungeribrd.  She  married  Thomas, 
second  Lord  Arundell,  of  Wardour,  Wilts. 
She  is  chiefly  remembered  for  her  gallant  de- 
fence of  Wardour  Castle  against  Sir  Edward 
Hungerford  and  Colonel  Strode,  commanders 
for  the  ])arliament.  Though  her  husband 
was  at  Oxford,  and  she  had  but  twenty-five 
men  against  thirteen  hundred,  she  replied  to 
tlie  summons  to  surrender  the  castle  that  she 
had  a  command  from  her  lord  to  keep  it,  and 
she  would  obey  his  command.  Quarter  being 
offered  fot;  the  women  and  children  only,  she 
refused  it,  and  held  out  from  Tuesday,  2  May 
1648,  till  Wednesday  of  the  next  week.  The 
battery  of  the  besiegers  played  on  the  castle 
night  and  day,  and  the  maidservants  loaded 
the  muskets  for  the  garrison,  who  were  worn 
out  for  want  of  sleep.  Resistance  ceased 
when  two  mines  Avere  sprung  beneath  the 
fortress,  but  honourable  terms  Avere  obtained. 
All  were  admitted  to  quarter ;  but  the  stipu- 
lation against  plunder  Avasshamelessly  broken. 
Outbuildings  were  burnt,  deer  killed,  ponds 
cut,  fish  sold,  fruit  trees  rooted  up,  and 
the  leaden  pipes,  two  miles  long,  supplying 
the  castle  with  water,  were  sold  at  6d.  a 
yard.  When  to  this  was  added  the  damage 
to  choice  pictures  and  books,  the  total  loss 
Avas  estimated  at  100,000/.  The  castle  was 
occupied  by  Ludlow,  but  recovered  (after  a 
siege  from  September  to  March  1644)  by  the 
son  of  Lady  Blanche  [see  Arundell,  Henhy]. 
Lady  Arundell,  on  leaving  the  castle,  '  had 
not  a  bed  to  lie  on,  nor  means  to  provide 
herself  a  house  or  furniture'  (Hist.  MSS. 
Comm.  Report,  v.  89).  She  went  to  Salisbury, 
Avhere  she  Avas  provided  with  a  lodging  by 
the  charity  of  Lord  Hertford.  Thence  she 
petitioned  the  parliament  for  protection.  She 
died  at  Winchester  28  Oct.  1649,  and  was 
buried  with  her  husband  at  Tisbury. 

[Mercurius  Britannicus ;  Ludlow's  Memoirs 
(1751) ;  Sir  E.  C.  Hoare's  Wiltshire.] 

R.  C.  B. 

ARUNDELL,  FRANCIS  VYVYAN 
JAGO  (1780-1846),  antiquary  and  oriental 
traveller,  was  born  at  Launceston  in  July 


1780,  being  the  only  son  of  Thomas  Jago,  a 
solicitor  in  that  tOAvn,  Avho  married  Cathe- 
rine, a  daughter  of  Mr.  Bolt,  a  surgeon  at 
Launceston.  He  was  educated  at  Liskeard 
grammar  school  and  at  Exeter  College,  Ox- 
ford, Avhere  he  took  the  degree  of  M.A.  in 
1809,  and  after  liaving  been  ordained  in  the 
English  church  he  took  a  curacy  at  East 
Antony  in  his  native  county.  From  youth 
to  old  age  Mr.  Jago  Avas  imbued  Avith  a  love 
of  antiquarian  study,  and  after  his  insti- 
tution in  1805  to  the  rectory  of  Landulph 
on  the  banks  of  the  Tamar,  he  threw  himself 
Avith  avidity  into  the  history  of  CoruAvall. 
When  Nicholas  Condy,  an  artist  at  Ply- 
mouth, published  a  series  of  views  of  Cothele, 
the  ancient  seat  of  Lord  Mount  Edgciunbe, 
]\Ir.  Jago  supplied  the  description  of  the  house 
Avhich  accompanied  them.  In  the  church  of 
Landulph  is  a  brass  to  the  memory  of  Theo- 
doro  Palaeologus,  descended  from  the  last  of 
the  christian  emperors  of  Greece,  who  died 
on  21  Jan.  1636-7,  and  an  account  of  this 
inscription,  and  of  the  person  Avhom  it  com- 
memorated, was  printed  by  Mr.  Jago  in  the 
A'olume  of  the  *  Archieologia '  for  1817,  and 
reprinted  in  Davies  Gilbert's  '  CornAvall'  (iii. 
365),  This  paper  was  afterwards  amplified 
into  '  Some  Notice  of  the  Church  of  Lan- 
dulph,' which  Avas  published  in  1840,  and  a 
reprint  of  Avhich,  Avith  additions  by  Mr, 
Polsue  of  Bodmin,  Avas  announced  some 
years  ago.  One  of  Mr.  Jago's  ancestors  mar- 
ried a  co-heiress  of  John  Arundell  of  Tre- 
varnoe,  and  Mr.  ,Jago  assumed  that  name  in 
addition  to  his  own  on  25  Feb.  1815.  Next 
year  (17  Oct.)  he  married  Anna  Maria,  second 
daughter  of  Isaac  Morier,  consul-general  at 
Constantinople,  and  sister  of  James  Morier, 
the  author  of  *  Hayi  Baba.'  After  this  mar- 
riage Mr.  Arundell  turned  his  thoughts  to- 
wards the  East,  and  became  in  1822  the 
chaplain  to  the  British  factory  at  Smyrna, 
where  he  remained  for  fourteen  years.  With 
characteristic  energy  he  began,  veiy  soon 
after  settling  at  Smyrna,  to  arrange  a  tour 
of  exploration  in  Asia  Minor.  The  months 
from  March  to  September  1826  were  spent 
in  a  pilgi'image  to  the  seA^en  churches  of  Asia 
and  an  excursion  into  Pisidia,  a  naiTative  of 
which  was  issued  in  1828.  This  book  Avas 
very  favourably  received,  and  with  this  en- 
couragement he  ventured  in  1833  upon 
another  tour  of  1,000  miles  through  districts 
the  gi'eater  part  of  which  had  hitherto  been 
undescribed  by  any  European  traveller,  when 
he  made  an  especial  study  of  the  ruins  of 
Antioch  in  Pisidia.  Tavo  A'olumes  describing 
these  discoveries  Avere  published  in  1834, 
Although  he  made  a  third  tour  in  1835  and 
1836  through  Palestine,  no  account  of  his 


Arundell 


144 


Arundell 


travels  was  published.  Wliilst  residing^  at 
Smyrna  Mr.  Arundell  made  large  collections 
of  antiquities,  coins,  and  manuscripts ;  on 
his  return  to  England  the  coins  were  sold  to 
the  British  Museum.  lie  gave  great  assist- 
ance to  the  brothers  Lysons  in  their  history 
of  Cornwall,  and  at  one  time  contemplated 
the  publication  of  a  history  of  that  county 
on  his  own  account.  It  has  even  been  said 
that  some  plates  were  engraved  for  it.  The 
materials  which  he  collected  for  histories  of 
Smyrna  and  of  his  native  town  of  Launces- 
ton  were  never  used,  and  are  probably  lost,  j 
He  died  at  Landulph  on  5  Dec.  1846,  and 
was  buried  in  its  church,  not  far  from  the 
tomb  of  Palseologus.  His  widow  died  in  Os- 
naburgh  Street,  London,  on  2  June  1869, 
aged  80. 

[Gent.  Mag.  vol.   Ixxxvi.  pt.  ii.  462  (1816), 
27  N.  S.  206-8  (1847) ;  C.  S.  Gilbert's  Cornwall, 
ii.  4,  162,  446-7;  Bibliotheca  Cornub.  i.  7-8,  iii.  i 
1037.]  W.  P.  C.      j 

ARUNDELL,  HENRY  (1000  ?-l 694),  | 
third  LoKD  Arundell  op  Waedoite,  Avas  the  ! 
only  son  of  Thomas,  second  Lord  Arundell  i 
of  Wardour,  by  liis  wife,Lady  Blanche  [q.  v.].  ! 
On  the  death  of  his  father  (19  May  1643)  he 
succeeded  to  his  estates  and  to  his  titles,  j 
which  included  that  of  Count  of  the  Holy  ; 
Roman  Empire.  Throughout  his  life  a  de- 
voted catholic,  he  fought  on  the  side  of 
Charles  I  in  the  civil  wars.  In  May  1043 
the  parliamentarians  wrested  the  family 
castle  of  Wardour,  in  Wiltshire,  from  his 
mother,  who  bravely  defended  it.  In  the 
following  September  Arundell  laid  siege  to 
the  castle  and  its  new  occupiers.  By  spring- 
ing a  mine  and  ruining  the  building,  he 
finally  dislodged  the  enemy  under  General 
Ludlow  in  March  1643-4  (Edmund  Lud- 
low's Memoirs  (1751),  pp.  23,  38).  Early 
in  life  he  had  married  Cecily,  daughter  of 
Sir  Henry  Compton,  knight,  of  Brambletye, 
Sussex,  and  widow  of  Sir  John  Fermor,  and 
in  1652  he  acted  as  one  of  the  seconds  of  his 
wife's  brother,  Henry  Compton,  in  a  duel 
with  Lord  Chandos.  Compton  was  slain, 
and  a  warrant  was  issued  by  the  council  of 
state  to  arrest  Arundell,  with  others  who 
had  taken  part  in  the  engagement.  In  1653 
Arundell  appears  to  have  petitioned  Crom- 
well for  pardon,  and  in  1656  to  have  received 
permission  to  take  refuge  in  France,  At 
the  restoration  of  Cliarles  II,  Arundell,  on 
paying  35,000/.,  was  confirmed  in  all  his 
family  estates,  many  of  which  had  been  sold 
by  the  Commonwealth  to  one  Humphrey 
Weld.  On  7  March  1662-3  he  was  nominated 
master  of  the  horse  to  the  queen-mother, 
Henrietta  Maria.    In  January  1668-9  he  was 


summoned  by  Charles  II,  with  other  Roman 
catholic  peers,  to  a  secret  council,  and  was 
commissioned  to  proceed  to  France  to  inform 
Louis  XIV  of  the  English  king's  desire  to 
be  reconciled  to  Roman  Catholicism,  and  of 
his  want  of  ready  money.  In  June  1669 
Arundell  returned  with  Louis's  assent  to  a 
secret  treaty  with  Charles,  which  was  signed 
in  the  following  year,  and  is  known  as  the 
treaty  of  Dover.  In  1678  Titus  Oates  and 
his  associates  announced  that  Arundell  was 
a  chief  mover  in  the  popish  plot  against 
Charles  II,  which  they  professed  to  have 
discovered.  According  to  the  evidence  of 
these  informers,  attempts  had  been  made  by 
the  catholics  of  England,  in  league  with 
Louis  XIV,  to  raise  an  army  of  50,000, 
which  was  to  be  placed  under  the  command 
of  Lords  Arundell,  Powis,  and  Belasyse. 
Some  of  the  witnesses  asserted  that  the  pope 
had  issued  a  commission  to  Arvmdell  to  be 
lord  chancellor  as  soon  as  the  present  ministers 
had  been  removed,  and  that  Arundell  had 
for  many  years  been  actively  employed  in 
arranging  the  details  of  the  plot.  On 
25  Oct.  1678  Arundell  was  arrested  at  the 
instance  of  the  House  of  Commons  and  com- 
mitted to  the  Tower,  with  Lords  Stafford, 
Powis,  Peti'e,  and  Belasyse.  On  1  Nov.  the 
House  of  Commons  resolved  to  proceed  by 
impeachment  against  *  the  five  popish  lords.' 
On  23  Nov.  all  Arundell's  papers  were  seized 
and  examined  by  the  lords'  committee ;  on 
3  Dec.  the  Middlesex  grand  jury  found  the 
five  peers  guilty  of  high  treason ;  and  on 
5  Dec.  the  lower  house  announced  that 
tliey  were  ready  to  impeach  Arundell.  A 
month  later  parliament  was  dissolved,  and 
the  proceedings  were  interrupted.  After 
some  discussion,  in  March  1678-9,  it  was  re- 
solved by  both  houses  that  the  dissolution 
had  not  invalidated  the  motions  for  the  im- 
peachment. On  10  April  1679  Arundell  and 
three  of  his  companions  (Belasyse  was  too  ill 
to  attend)  were  brought  to  the  House  of  Lords 
to  put  in  pleas  against  the  articles  of  impeach- 
ment. Arundell  complained  of  the  uncer- 
tainty of  the  charges  brought  against  Jiim, 
and  implored  the  peers  to  have  them  '  reduced 
to  competent  certainty.'  But  this  plea  was 
on  24  April  voted  irregular,  and  on  26  A])ril 
the  prisoners  were  again  brought  to  tlie 
House  of  Lords  and  ordered  to  amend  their 
pleas.  Arundell  replied  by  briefly  declaring 
himself  not  guilty.  The  trial  of  the  five 
lords  was  soon  afterwards  fixed  for  13  May ; 
but  a  quarrel  between  the  two  houses  as  to 
points  of  procedure,  and  as  to  the  legality  of 
admitting  the  bishops  to  a  capital  trial,  fol- 
lowed by  a  dissolution,  delayed  its  com- 
mencement till  30  Nov.  1680.     On  that  day 


Arundell 


145 


Arundell 


it  was  decided  to  proceed  first  against  Lord 
Stafford,  who  was  condemned  to  death  on 
7  Dec.  and  beheaded  on  23  Dec.  On  30  Dec. 
the  evidence  against  Arundell  and  his  three 
fellow-prisoners  was  ordered  to  be  in  readi- 
ness, but  there  public  proceedings  stopped. 
Petre  died  in  the  Tower  in  1683.  His  com- 
])anions  remained  there  till  12  Feb.  1683-4 
(i.e.  for  five  years  and  nearly  four  months), 
when  an  appeal  to  the  court  of  Queen's 
Bench  to  release  them  on  bail  was  successful. 
On  21  May  1685  Arundell,  Powis,  and  Be- 
lasyse  came  to  the  House  of  Lords  to  present 
petitions  for  the  annulling  of  the  charges 
against  them,  and  on  the  following  day  the 
petitions  were  granted.  On  1  June  1685 
their  liberty  was  formally  assured  them  on  the 
gi'ound  that  the  witnesses  against  them  had 
perjured  themselves,  and  on  4  June  the  bill 
of  attainder  against  Stafford  was  reversed. 

After  the  death  of  Charles  II,  his  successor, 
.Tames  II,  ad^jitted  Arundell,  although  a 
catholic,  to  the  privy  council  17  Aug.  1686, 
and  appointed  him  keeper  of  the  privy  seal 
in  place  of  Lord  Clarendon  in  March  1687. 
By  royal  dispensation  he  was  relieved  of  the 
necessity  of  taking  the  customary  oaths  on 
accepting  office  (Sir  John  Bramston's 
Autobiog.  (Camden  Soc),  p.  283).  In  the 
following  .Tune  Arundell  presented  an  ad- 
dress to  the  king  on  behalf  of  the  Roman 
catholics,  thanking  him  for  the  declaration 
of  indulgence,  but,  although  evincing  as  a 
rule  little  tact,  he  strongly  opposed  the  ad- 
mission of  the  unpopular  Jesuit,  Father 
Petre,  to  the  privy  council  (Burket,  His- 
tory, iii.  218  n.).  He  received,  on  24  June 
1687,  a  '  bounty  '  of  250/.  from  the  king  for 
secret  service  (Secret  Services  of  Charles  II 
and  James  II  (Camden  Soc),  p.  156).  On 
the  abdication  of  James,  Arundell  retired  to 
liis  house  at  Breamore,  Hampshire,  and  took 
no  further  part  in  public  life.  He  received 
a  legacy  of  1,000  crowns  from  Cardinal 
Howard  in  .Tuly  1694,  and  died  at  Breamore 
28  Dec.  1694,  at  the  age  of  eighty-eight. 
He  was  buried  with  his  ancestors  at  Tisbury. 
His  wife  had  died  in  1675,  but  three  children 
survived  him.  The  elder  son,  Thomas,  became 
the  fourth  Lord  Arundell  of  Wardour,  was 
in  the  retinue  of  Lord  Castlemaine  on  his 
visit  to  Pope  Innocent  XI  as  James  II's  am- 
bassador, and  died  10  Feb.  1711-12.  Lord 
Anindell's  only  daughter,  Cecily,  entered 
'  the  order  of  Poor  Clares  of  Rouen '  in  1662, 
and  died  at  Rouen  13  June  1717,  at  the  age 
of  eighty-two. 

During  his  imprisonment  in  1679  Arundell 
wrote  five  short  religious  poems,  published  in 
a  single  folio  sheet  in  1679,  and  reissued  in 
*  A  Collection  of  Eighty-six  Loyal  Poems '  in 

VOL.  II. 


1685.  His  piety  and  generosity  to  poor 
catholics  are  commended  in 'The  Liturgicall 
Discourse '  of  Richard  Mason  (Angelus  a 
Sancto  Francisco),  and  in  the  *  Divine  Peda- 
gogue,' by  F.  Welldon  (cf.  extracts  from 
these  books  in  G.  Oliver's  Catholic  Beliyiou 
in  Cornwall,  Devon,  8fc.,  pp.  82-3),  He  was 
a  noted  gambler  and  sportsman,  and  kept  at 
Breamore  a  celebrated  pack  of  hounds,  whicli 
became  the  property  of  the  Earl  of  Castle- 
haven,  and  subsequently  of  Hugo  Meynell. 
From  them  the  Quorn  pack  is  descended. 
Portraits  of  Lord  Arundell,  of  his  wife,  and 
of  his  daughter  are  preserved  in  the  dining- 
room  of  the  modern  Wardour  Castle. 

[Hoare's  Wiltshire,  s.  'Dunworth  Hundred,' 
pp.  178  et  seq. ;  Gr.  Oliver's  Catholic  Keligion  in 
Cornwall  and  Western  Counties,  pp.  81-6 ;  State 
Trials,  vii.  1294  etseq. ;  Liittrell's  Brief  Eelatioii, 
passim ;  Walpole's  Royal  and  Noble  Authors, 
iii.  325;  Burnet's  History,  ed.  1826,  ii.  94,  154, 
iii.  218;  Macaulay's  History,  vol.  i. ;  Eanke's 
History  (Oxford  translation),  iii.  496,  iv.  283, 
343;  Cal.  Domest.  State  Papers  for  1652,  1653, 
1656,  1660,  1662-3;  Burke's  Peerage;  Brit. 
Mus.  Cat.]  S.  L.  L. 

ARUNDELL,  HUMPHRY  (1513-1550), 

rebel,  was  the  son  of  Roger  Arundell  of 
Lanheme  by  Johanna,  daughter  and  heir  of 
Humphry  Calwodeley ,  both  of  whom  belonged 
to  the  principal  Cornish  families  of  the  time. 
He  was  born  in  1513,  and  on  the  death  of 
his  parents  in  1536  came  into  possession  of 
extensive  estates  in  his  native  county.  On 
the  dissolution  of  the  priory  of  St.  Michael's 
Mount  in  Cornwall  in  1539  he  received  a 
grant  of  its  revenues,  and  its  government 
was  placed  in  his  hands.  In  June  1549  a 
serious  insurrection  broke  out  in  Cornwall 
and  Devon,  partly  through  the  indignation 
of  the  poor  at  the  numerous  enclosures  of 
common-lands,  but  more  especially  through 
their  sympathy  with  the  Roman  catholic  re- 
ligion. Humphry  Arundell  was  the  chief 
Comishman  who  sided  with  the  insurgents, 
and  he  became  their  leader.  LTnfortunately 
for  the  ultimate  success  of  his  cause,  which 
was  at  first  triumphant,  he  stopped  to  be- 
siege Exeter,  in  the  belief  that  it  would  soon 
capitulate.  Contrary  to  his  expectation  the 
city  held  out  bravely,  and  Lord  Russell  had 
time  to  collect  the  royal  forces.  For  two 
days  (4  and  5  Aug.)  a  fierce  battle  raged 
round  St.  Mary  Clyst,  when  the  insurgents 
were  beaten.  The  contest  was  resumed  with 
the  same  result  at  Sampford  Courtenay,  when 
Arundell  fled  to  Launcestou.  In  compliance 
with  the  directions  of  the  council,  he  was 
seized  and  sent  to  London,  and,  after  having 
being  tried  at  Westminster,  was  executed  at 
Tyburn  on  27  Jan.  1550.     Spirited  narra- 


Arundell 


146 


Arundell 


tives  of  the  rebellion  of  1549  are  printed 
in  Fronde's  '  History '  (v.  169-200),  and  in 
Cotton  and  Woollcombe's  *  Gleanings  from 
llecords  of  Exeter.'  Arundell's  estates  were 
forfeited  and  granted  to  others;  his  wife, 
Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Sir  John  Fulford  of  j 
Devon,  subsequently  married  Thomas  Gary  j 
of  the  same  county. 

[Maclean's  Trigg  Minor,  ii.  9,  39;  Hals's  Hist, 
of  Cornwall  in  Davies  Gilbert's  Hist.  ii.  191-8  ; 
Bibliotheca  Cornub.  iii.  1037,  1468,  col.  1.]  \ 

W.  P.  C.      ! 

ARUNDELL,  Sir  JOHN,  of  Lanherne 
{d.  1379),  naval  commander,  whose  descent 
illustrates  the  great  difficulties  in  genealogies 
of  the  earlier  Arundells,  is  celebrated  for  his 
repulse  of  the  French  fleet  off  the  coast  of 
Gornwall  in  1379,  when  he  commanded  an  ex- 
pedition fitted  out  by  King  Richard  II  in  aid 
of  the  Duhe  of  Bretagne.  Having,  according 
to  Thomas  Walsingham's  story,  profaned  a 
convent  at  or  near  Southampton,  and  carried 
oil' '  vi  vel  sponte '  many  of  its  occupants,  the 
fleet  was  pursued  by  a  violent  tempest,  when 
the  wretched  nuns  Avho  had  been  carried  off 
were  thrown  overboard  to  lighten  the  ships. 
The  vessels  were,  however,  wrecked  on  the 
Irish  coast,  according  to  some  authorities 
n=;ar  Scariff,  but  according  to  others  at  Gape 
Clear.  Sir  John  Arundell,  together  with  his 
es(|uires,  and  other  men  of  high  birth,  were 
drowned,  and  twenty-five  ships  were  lost 
with  most  of  their  crews.  Froissart's  ac- 
count of  the  event  differs  essentially  from 
AValsingham's,'  in  the  omission  of  the  story 
of  the  desecration  of  the  convent. 

[Walsingham's  Historia  Anglicana  (Riley's  ed. 
Rolls  Series),  pp.  418-25.]  W.  H.  T. 

ARUNDELL,  JOHN  («?.  1477),  bishop 
of  Chichester,  was  a  native  of  Gornwall,  and 
probably  a  member  of  the  Lanherne  family. 
For  rather  more  than  nine  years,  from  the 
summer  of  1421  to  the  autumn  of  1430,  he 
enjoyed  a  fellowship  at  Exeter  College,  Ox- 
ford, and  in  1426  he  was  proctor  to  the 
university.  Several  members  of  this  college 
were  closely  connected  with  the  Lancastrian 
party ;  Arundell  himself  was  domestic  chap- 
lain and  confessor  to  Henry  VI,  and  from  a 
passage  in  Johnson's  *  Life  of  Linacre '  (p.  164), 
it  appears  that  he  was  one  of  the  three  phy- 
sicians entrusted  with  the  care  of  their  king's 
health.  He  held  at  various  dates  prebendal 
stalls  at  Wells,  Lichfield,  Lincoln,  Hereford, 
York,  and  St.  Paul's,  the  archdeaconiy  of 
Richmond  in  Yorkshire,  and  the  deanery  of 
AVindsor.  The  king  pressed  the  claims  of 
this  fortunate  pluralist  for  the  see  of  Dur- 
ham, but  his  elevation  to  the  episcopal  bench 


was  delayed  until  his  consecration  in  145H 
as  bishop  of  Chichester.  He  died  18  Oct. 
1477,  and  was  buried  in  his  cathedral  churcli 
of  Chichester.  At  his  cost  there  was  erected 
in  that  edifice  the  shrine  or  oratory  whiclr 
until  1860  used  to  stand  between  the  eastern- 
most piers  of  the  nave. 

[Boase's  Exeter  Coll.  p.  1 7  ;  Stephens's  See  of 
Chichester,  pp.  166-8;  Bibliothoca  Cornub.  iii. 
1038.]  W.  P.  C. 

ARUNDELL,  JOHN  {d.  1504),  succes- 
sively bishop  of  Lichfield  and  Coventry'  and 
of  Exeter,  was  the  younger  son  of  Humphry 
Arundell  of  Lanherne,  by  Joanna,  sister  and 
heir  of  Sir  John  Coleshill  of  Tremoderet. 
After  having  enjoyed  '  the  first  taste  of  the 
liberal  arts  and  sciences'  in  a  college  of 
Augustine  monks  at  St.  Columb,  Cornwall, 
he  remained  at  Exeter  College,  Oxford,  until 
he  took  the  degree  of  M.A.,  when  he  was 
immediately  presented  by  his  father  to  the 
rich  rectory  of  St.  Columb,  and  during  his 
residence  there  built  a  parsonage  house  and 
moated  it  round  with  rivers  and  fish-ponds. 
A  variety  of  preferments  quickly  followed 
his  presentation  to  this  family  living.  H*- 
became  rector  of  Duloe  in  Cornwall  in  1474, 
and  of  Sutton  Courtney  about  1479.  In  the 
latter  year  he  was  appointed  to  a  canonry  at 
Windsor,  and  a  few  years  later  prebendal 
stalls  at  York  and  Salisbury  were  conferred 
upon  him.  From  1483  to  1496  he  held  the 
deanery  of  Exeter,  when  he  vacated  it  to 
become  bishop  of  Ijichfield  and  Coventry,  a 
bishopric  which  he  resigned  for  that  of  Exeter 
in  1502.  His  death  took  place  in  the  episco- 
pal palace  within  the  parish  of  St.  Clement 
Danes,  London,  on  15  March  1504,  and  he 
was  buried  on  the  south  side  of  the  altar  of 
the  parish  church,  under  a  tomb  of  marble 
inlaid  with  brass.  A  fragment  of  the  inscri}>- 
tion  to  his  memory  is  printed  in  Weever's 
'  Ancient  Funeral  Monuments '  (p.  444). 
Bishop  Arundell  is  said  to  have  been  con- 
spicuous for  his  love  of  learning  and  his 
hospitality  towards  the  poor. 

[Wood's  Athense  Oxon,  (ed.  Bliss),  ii.  692-3  ; 
Oliver's  Bishops  of  Exeter,  pp.  116-17  ;  Biblio- 
theca  Cornub.  iii.  1038.]  W.  P.  C. 

ARUNDELL,  Sir  JOHN,  of  Trerice 
(1495-1561),  knight,  twice  sheriff  of  Corn- 
wall, and  vice-admiral  of  the  west  under 
Henry  VII  and  Henry  VIII,.  was  esquire 
of  the  body  to  the  latter  king,  and  known  as 
'  Jack  of  Tilbury.'  He  was  kuighted  at  the 
battle  of  Spurs'  in  1513;  and  in  1520  the 
king  entrusted  him  with  the  preparations 
for  the  reception  of  the  emperor  at  Canter- 
;  bury.     In  1523  he  captured,  after  a  long  sea 


Arundell 


147 


Arundell 


fight,  a  notorious  Scotch  pirate,  Duncan 
Campbell,  who  had  for  some  time  scourged 
oiu-coasts.  The  Duke  ofNorfolk  wrote  shortly 
afterwards  to  Sir  John  Arundell,  requesting 
him  to  bring  liis  prisoner  to  the  king's  pre- 
sence, and  tlianking  him  in  the  king's  name 
for  his  *  valiant  coiu-age  and  bolde  enterprise 
in  the  premises.'  It  was  apparently  to  the 
same  !bir  John  Arundell  that  Henry  VIII 
wrote  in  1544  requesting  his  attendance  in 
the  wars  against  the  French  king — an  order 
which  was,  however,  countermanded  in  order 
tliat  Arundell  '  with  his  servants,  tenants, 
and  others  within  his  rooms  and  offices,  espe- 
cially Iiorsemen,'  might  be  held  in  readiness 
for  other  services.  In  the  following  reign  he 
was  vice-admiral  of  the  king's  ships  in  the 
west  seas  ;  and  in  looS,  when  he  was  sheriff 
of  CoruAvall,  Queen  Mary  wrote  requiring 
that  lie,  with  his  »friends  and  neighbours, 
'  should  see  the  Prince  of  Spain  most  honour- 
ably entertained,  if  he  fortuned  to  land  in 
Cornwall.'  By  his  first  wife,  a  coheir  of  Bevil, 
he  had  two  children,  Roger,  who  married  a 
Dinham,  and  Katherine,  who  married  a  Pri- 
<leaux.  By  his  second  wife,  an  Erisy,  he  had 
a  son  John,  who  succeeded  him  at  Trerice,and 
was,  like  him,  sherift"  of  Cornwall,  'whose  due 
commendation'  Carew  desired  not  to  give 
'  because  another  might  better  deliver  than 
myself,  who  touch  him  as  nearly  as  Tacitus 
did  Agricola.'  Sir  John  Arundell  was  born 
in  1495,  died  in  1561,  and  is  buried  at  Strat- 
ton  Church,  Cornwall,  where  there  is  a  monu- 
ment to  his  memory. 

[Collectanea  Topographica  et  Grenealogica,  iv. 
17'i  ;  Archseological  Journal,  viii.  94  (1851).] 

W.  H.  T. 

ARUNDELL,  Sir  JOHN,  of  Trerice, 
(1576-1656:'),  Mackfor  the  King,' was gi'and- 
son  of  Henry  VIII's  '  Jack  of  Tilbury,'  and  j 
was  born  about  1576.  He  was  the  sou  of ! 
Jolin  Arundell  of  Trerice  by  Gertrude  Dennys 
of  Ilolcombe  in  Devon  ;  llichard  Carew,  the 
historian  of  Cornwall,  married  his  half-sister 
Julian.  He  was  amongst  the  Cornish  gentry 
present  in  1623  at  the  battle  of  Braddock 
Down,  near  Lostwithiel,  when  the  king's 
army  obtained  so  decided  a  victory  over  the 
forces  of  the  parliament.  He  was  at  different 
times  M.P.  for  Cornwall,  for  Bodmin,  for 
Tregony,and  for  Michell,a  now  disfranchised 
borough  situated  within  their  manor  of  Me- 
deshole  (Michell  ?),  which  the  Arundells  had 
held  at  least  as  early  as  the  time  of  Edward  I. 
About  1643  he  was  appointed  gOA-ernor  of 
Pendennis  Castle,  which,  with  St.  Mawes 
Castle,  commands  the  enti'ance  of  Falmouth 
harbour,  then  a  place  of  much  greater  national 
and  strategic  importance  than  it  is  at  present. 


He  succeeded  in  office  Sir  Nicholas  Slan- 
ning;  and  at  Pendennis  in  1644  he  harboured 
for  a  night  or  two  Queen  Henrietta  Maria 
on  her  fliglit  from  Exeter  into  France,  and 
also  Charles  II  in  February  1646.    The  story 
of  Fairfax's  five  months'  siege  of  Pendennis 
Castle  and  its  gallant  defence  by  old  Sir  Jolin 
I  Arundell  and  his  colleagues  is  told  in  Claren- 
'  don,  and  in  greater  detail  by  Captain  Oliver, 
!  R.A.,  in  his  '  Pendennis  and  St.  Mawes,  an 
j  Historical  Sketch  of  two  Cornish  Castles.' 
Sir  John  Arundell's  reply  (dated  18  May 
\  1646)  to  Fairfax's   summons   to   suiTender 
I  within   two   hours    (preserved    among   the 
Clarendon  State  Papers)  closes  thus  :  '  And, 
I  having  taken  less  than  two  minutes'  resolu- 
tion, I  resolve  tliat  I  will  here  bury  myself 
J  before  T  deliver  up  this  castle  to  such  as 
I  fight  against  his  majesty,  and  that  nothing 
I  you  can   threaten    is   formidable  to  me  in 
j  respect  of  tlie  loss  of  loyalty  and  conscience.' 
!  On  the  16th  of  the  following  August,  how- 
[  ever,  Pendennis  was  starved  out,  and  became 
the  last  castle  but  one  (Raglan)  to  surrender 
to  the  parliament.     The  siirrender  was  con- 
ducted with  the  full  honours  of  war  (Origi- 
nal Articles   of  Surrender,   Egertfm   MSS, 
Brit.  Mus.  1048,  fol.  86).     Sir  John  Arun- 
dell did  not  live  to  see  the  Restoration  and 
reap  his  Avell-earned  honours.     The  fall  of 
Pendennis  and  the  defeat  of  the  king's  cause 
ruined  his  estates,  and  probably  hastened  his 
death ;    he  was  even  reduced  to  the  neces- 
sity of  suing  Cromwell  himself  for  assistance, 
urging  that  the  Trerice  Arundells  '  had  once 
the  honom*  to  stand  in  some  friendship,  or 
even  kinsliip,  with  vour  noble  family '  (  Tait- 
ner  MSS.  Bod.  Lib.  54,  fol.  18).   'He  was 
buried  at  Duloe  in  Cornwall;  and  Richard, 
his  second  son,  wlio,  like  many  other  members 
of  his  family,  was  a  staunch  royalist,  was 
ennobled  in  1664,  partly  in  recognition  of 
the  loyalty  and  sufferings  of  his  fatlier  [see 
Arundell,  Richard]. 

[Forsters  Life  of  Eliot  (1872),  ii.  388,  396  ; 
Gary's  Memorials  of  tlie  Civil  "War  (1842),  ii. 
258  ;  Carlyle's  Cromwell,  iii.  App.  20.] 

W.  H.  T. 

ARUNDELL,  :MARY  {d.  1691),  daughter 
of  Sir  John  Arundell  of  Lanherne,  knight- 
bannei-et  of  Therouenne,  and  his  second  wife 
Catherine,  daughter  of  Sir  Thomas  Grenville 
of  Stow,  was  one  of  the  learned  ladies  of  her 
time,  and  is  included  in  George  Ballard's 
'  Celebrated  British  Ladies '  (ed.  1775,  p.  85). 
She  is  chiefly  known  by  her  translations 
from  the  I>atin,  especially  of  the  *  Sayings 
and  Doings  of  the  Emperor  Severus,'  dedi- 
cated to  her  fatlier,  and  the '  Select  Sentences 
of  the  Seven  Wise  Men  of  Greece  '  {King's 

1.2 


Arundell 


148 


Arundell 


MSS.  Brit.  Mus.  12  A.  iii.  and  iv.).  Some  of 
her  MSS.  are  preserved  in  the  royal  collec- 
t  ions  at  Windsor.  She  married,  first,  Robert 
lladcliff,  earl  of  Essex,  and,  secondly,  Henry, 
seventeenth  earl  of  Arundel.  Slie  is  buried 
at  the  east  end  of  the  soutli  aisle  of  Newlyn 
Church,  Cornwall,  in  the  vault  of  the  Trerice 
Arundells ;  and,  according  to  Davies  Gilbert 
{Parochial  History  of  Cornwall),  it  was 
tlirough  her  that  the  Trerice  estates  passed 
into  the  hands  of  their  present  possessor.  Sir 
Thomas  Dyke  Acland,  Bart. 

[King's  MSS.  Brit.  Mus.  12  A.  iii.  and  iv.] 

W.  H.  T. 

ARUNDELL,  EICHARD  {d.  1687),  first 
Baron  Arundell  of  Trerice,  Clarendon's 
'  Dear  Dick,'  was  the  second  son  of  Sir  John 
Arundell  of  Trerice,  the  defender  of  Pendennis 
Castle ;  and  was  also  present  at  that  siege,  as 
Avell  as  at  the  battles  of  Edgehill  and  Lans- 
downe.  He  was  M.P.  for  Lostwithiel  in 
1639,  but  was  expelled  for  putting  into  exe- 
cution the  commission  of  array  in  1642,  He 
was  a  colonel  in  the  king's  army,  and  Claren- 
don describes  him  as  '  a  stout  and  diligent 
officer.'  His  estates,  much  impoverished 
during  the  civil  war,  were  confiscated  by 
the  parliament  in  1647,  but  on  the  Restora- 
tion were  recovered  by  him,  and  on  23  March 
1664  he  was  created  a  baron.  Charles  I, 
Avriting  from  Oxford  in  January  1643,  had 
])romised  William  Killigrew  that  Richard 
Arundell  should  succeed  his  father  in  the 
government  of  Pendennis  Castle,  and  accord- 
ingly  in  1662  Charles  II  redeemed  his  father's 
])romise.     He  died  7  Sept.  1687. 

[Cf.  Harl.  MSS.  1079,  art.  9,  and  3319,  art.  22  ; 
Ashmolean  MSS.  (Bod.  Lib.)  838,  art.  51  ;  Tan- 
ner MSS.  (Bod.  Lih.)  69,  fol.  193.]    W.  H.  T. 

ARUNDELL,  Sir  THOMAS  {d.  1552), 
alleged  conspirator,  Avas  the  second  son  of 
Sir  John  Arundell,  knight-banneret  of  Lan- 
lierne.  He  was  sheriff  of  Dorsetshire  1531-2, 
gentleman  of  the  privy  chamber  to  Cardinal 
AVolsey,  and  was  knighted  at  the  corona- 
tion of  Anne  Boleyn  in  1533.  He  was  ap- 
])ointed  in  1535,  with  Sir  John  Tregonwell 
and  others,  as  a  commissioner  for  the  su])- 
jn-ession  of  religious  houses.  The  reception 
Avhich  he  met  with  at  I<]xeter  may  be  read 
in  Dr.  Oliver's  'Monasticon  Diocesis  Exo- 
niensis,'  p.  116.  In  1545  Ileniy  VIII  granted 
to  him  a  church  at  Trescoe,  one  of  the  Scilly 
islands,  and  addressed  to  him  a  remarkable 
letter  concerning  the  papists  in  Cornwall 
{MS.  Westminster  Abbey  and  Stowe  MSS. 
Cat.  1849).  In  January  1549-50,  the  year 
in  which  he  was  made  receiver-general  of 
the  duchy  of  Cornwall,  he  and  his  elder 
brother  John    (vice-admiral   of  the   king's 


ships  in  the  west  seas,  and  sheriff  of  Corn- 
wall) were  committed  to  the  Tower  on  sus- 
picion of  being  implicated  with  their  cousin, 
Humphry  Arundell,  in  the  Cornish  rising  in 
favour  of  '  the  old  religion.'  Sir  Thomas,, 
although  released  in  October  1551,  was  again 
committed  to  the  Tower  in  the  same  month 
for  being  concerned  in  the  Duke  of  Somer- 
set's '  conspiracy,'  wherein,  Bishop  Pouet 
says, '  Arundell  conspired  with  that  ambitious 
and  subtil  Alcibiades,  the  Earl  of  Warwick, 
after  Duke  of  Northumberland,  to  pull  down 
the  good  Duke  of  Somerset,  King  Edward's 
uncle  and  protector ; '  but,  as  Mr.  Doyne 
Bell  has  pointed  out,  in  his  history  of  "the 
church  of  St.  Peter  ad  Vincula  in  the  Tower 
(1877),  pp.  149-153,  if  this  be  correct  it  is 
singular  that  Arundell  should  have  after- 
wards been  re-arrested  on  28  Jan.  1551-2 
for  conspiring  with  Somerset  against  North- 
umberland. Nevertheless,  this  change  of  sides 
may  have  been  the  price  of  his  release.  It 
is,  however,  possible  that  there  were  two 
contemporaries  of  the  same  name,  one  of 
the  Lanherne  (a  Roman  catholic),  the  other 
of  the  Trerice  (a  protestant)  branch.  Sir 
Thomas  was  brought  to  trial  with  Sir  Ralph 
Vane  on  the  day  following  his  arrest ;  when 
Machyn  records  that  '  the  quest  qwytt  ym 
of  tresun,  and  cast  hym  of  felonye,  to  be 
hanged.'  The  less  degrading  death  by  be- 
heading Avas,  however,  ultimately  allotted 
to  him ;  and  the  sentence  was  earned  into 
effect  on  Tower  Hill  on  26  Feb.  The  writer 
of  the  '  Chronicon  ex  registro  Fratrum  Mino- 
rum  Londiniae,'  as  given  in  Mr.  Richard 
Howlett's  'Monumenta  Franciscana,'  vol.  ii.,. 
records  that  Sir  Miles  Partridge,  Sir  Ralph 
Vane,  and  Sir  Miles  Stanhope  were  executed 
at  the  same  time;  and  declares  that '  theis  iiii 
knyghtes  confessyd  that  the  war  neuer  gylte 
for  soche  thynges  as  was  layd  vn-to  their- 
charge,  and  dyde  in  that  same  oppinioun.'  The 
commission  for  seizing  on  the  possessions  of 
Sir  Thomas  Arundell,  '  rebel  and  traitor,'  is 
in  Harl.  MS.  433,  art.  557 ;  and  an  interest- 
ing catalogue  of  his  plate,  together  with  a 
list  of  that  portion  which  was  returned  to  his 
Avidow  Margaret  (a  sister  of  Queen  Katha- 
rine Howard),  will  be  found  in  the  Add. 
MS.  5751,  fol.  209.  Richard  Carew,  the 
historian  of  Cornwall,  says  of  him  that  '  he 
was  in  Edward  VI's  time  made  a  privy 
counsellor;  but  cleaving  to  the  Duke  of 
Somerset,  he  lost  his  head  with  liim..' 

[Cf.  also  Fourth  Keport  of  Dep.  Keeper  of 
PublicRecords(1843),  pp. 231-2  ;  and  Hutchins's 
Doi-set  (the  new  edition),  iii.  656.]    W.  H.  T. 

ARUNDELL,  THOMAS,  first  Lord 
Arundell  oi-  Wardoitr  (1560-1639),  Avas- 


Asbury 


149 


Ascham 


a  gi-andson  of  Sir  John  Arundell,  the  friend  | 
of  F'ather  Cornelius.    When  about  thirty-five  | 
years  of  age,  he  was  made  count  of  the  Holy 
Koman  Empire  in  1595  bj  the  Emperor  Ru-  j 
dolph  II,  for  his  valour  in  the  wars  against  ! 
the  Turks  in  Hungary ;  on  one  occasion  he  | 
captured  the  enemy's  banner  with  his  own  ; 
hand,  whilst  forcing  the  water-tower  at  Gran 
or  Esztergom.     He  was  a  great  favourite  of 
Queen  Elizabeth,  who  recommended  him  to 
the  emperor  in  an  autogi-aph  Latin  letter, 
said  to  be  still  preserved  at  \Vardour  Castle,  j 
He  was  made  first  Baron  Arundell  of  War-  1 
dour  by  James  I  in  1605,     His  eldest  son,  | 
Thomas,  second  Baron  or  W^ardottr  (born 
1584),  was  (according  to  Clarendon,  iv.  | 
125,   ed.    1826)    amongst    the    royalists   of ; 
Cornish  extraction  who  were  present  at  the 
bloody  battle  of  Lansdowne  near  liath  on 
6  July  1643,  where  he  was  wounded.     But 
this  statement  seems  to  be  erroneous,  for 
his  monument  in  Tisbury  Church,   Wilts, 
records  that  he  died  at  Oxford  on  19  May 
1643,  probably  of  wounds  received  in  some 
other    engagement    during    the   civil    war. 
Lady  Blanche  Arundell,  whose  gallant  de- 
fence of  W^ardour   Castle  against  the  par- 
liament is  a  familiar  matter  of  history,  was 
the  wife  of  the  second  baron. 

[See  ante,  sub  Arundells  of  Lanherne.] 

W.  H.  T. 

ASBURY,  FRANCIS  (1745-1816), 
Wesleyan  bishop,  was  born  20  or  21  Aug. 
1745,  at  Ilamstead  Bridge,  in  the  parish  of 
Handsworth,  Staftbrdshire,  four  miles  from 
Birmingham.  He  was  the  only  son  of  Joseph 
Asbury  and  Eliza  Rogers,  both  methodists. 
He  began  to  preach,  as  a  local  preacher,  at 
the  age  of  eighteen,  and  was  admitted  as  an 
itinerant  preacher  at  the  age  of  twenty-one. 
In  August  1 771 ,  when  preachers  were  wanted 
by  the  Bristol  conference  to  go  to  America, 
Asbury  oftered  himself;  he  embarked  in  Sep- 
tember, and  landed  at  Philadelphia  27  Oct. 
1771.  The  American  methodists,  especially 
after  the  war  of  independence,  were  troubled 
by  the  want  of  the  sacraments  and  of  con- 
firmation. Wesley,  then  in  his  eighty-second 
year,  with  the  Revs.  Thomas  Coke,  D.C.L., 
and  James  Creighton,  ordained  at  Bristol,  in 
1784,  Richard  What  coat  and  Thomas  Vasey 
as  presbyters  for  America ;  subsequently 
Wesley,  by  liimself,  ordained  Coke  as  super- 
intendent, explaining  his  views  in  a  man- 
date dated  10  Sept.  1784.  Following  its 
terms.  Coke  and  Asbury  were  elected  joint 
superintendents  by  the  Baltimore  conference 
at  Christmas,  1784.  Coke  and  the  two  pres- 
byters ordained  Asbury  deacon  and  elder  on 


Christmas  day;  and  superintendent,  with 
the  further  assistance  of  the  Rev.  William 
Philip  Otterbein,  a  Lutheran  clergyman, 
on  27  Dec.  Coke  suggested  the  use  of  the 
title  of  bishop,  and  the  conference  agreed  to 
constitute  the  *  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
of  the  United  States  of  America.  The  re- 
mainder of  Asbury's  life  was  spent  in  organ- 
ising and  extending  the  church  thus  formed. 
Its  germ  had  been  planted  by  the  emigration 
of  Philip  Embury  and  Paul  and  Barbara 
Heck  from  Ireland  to  New  York.  Its  exist- 
ing constitution  dates  from  1786,  its  fonn 
of  discipline  from  1787  ;  its  two  superinten- 
dents have  since  gi'own  to  thirteen  bishops. 
Asbury's  '  Journal '  shoAvs  him  to  have  been 
a  man  of  simple  and  winning  character,  ad- 
ministrative power,  and  pithy  expression ; 
his  piety  is  both  frank  and  deep.  lie  died 
unmamed,  31  March  1816. 

[Asbury's  Journal,  N.Y,,  1852;  Janes's  Cha- 
racter and  Career  of  Francis  Asbury,  N.Y.,  1872, 
with  portrait ;  Larrabee's  Asbury  and  his  Co- 
adjutors, Cincinnati,  1854  ;  Strickland's  Pionctn- 
Bishop,  London,  1860,  with  portrait;  Briggs's 
Bishop  Asbury,  London.  1874,  with  portrait.] 

A.  G. 

ASCHAM,  ANTHONY  {jl.  1553),  astro- 
loger, studied  at  Cambridge,  became  M.B. 
in  1540,  and  in  1553  was  presented  by  Ed- 
ward VI  to  the  vicarage  of  Burneston,  York- 
shire. He  is  probably  to  be  identified  witli 
Anthony,  the  brother  of  Roger  Ascham  (cf. 
Grant's  Viia  As:ehami  in  Ascham's  Works, 
ed.  Giles,  iv.  307).  His  works  are  as  fol- 
lows: 1.  '  A  Little  Herbal,'  by  Ant.  Askam, 
1550.  2.  *  Anthonie  Ascham  his  Treatise  of 
Astronomie,  declaiming  what  Herbs  and  all 
Kinde  of  Medicines  are  appropriate,  and  also 
under  the  influence  of  the  Planets,  Signs,  & 
Constellations,' 1550.  3.  '  A  Treatise  of  As- 
tronomy, declaring  the  Leap  Year  and  what 
is  the  Cause  thereof;  and  how  to  know  St. 
Matthis  Day  for  ever,  with  the  marvellous 
motion  of  the  Sun  both  in  his  proper  circle, 
and  by  the  moving  that  he  hath  of  the  10th, 
9th,  and   8th   sphere,'  London,  1552,  8vo. 

4.  *A  Prognostication  and  an  Almanack 
made  for  the  Year  of  our  Lord  God,  1550.' 

5.  '  An  Almanacke  or  Prognostication,'  &c., 
for  1552.  6.  The  like  for  1555.  7.  The  like 
for  1557.  8.  'Treatise  made  1547  of  the 
State  and  Disposition  of  the  World,  witli 
the  alteration  and  changing  thereof  througli 
the  highest  planets,  called  Maxima,  Major, 
Media,  and  Minor,  declaring  the  very  time 
of  the  day,  houre,  and  minute  that  God 
created  the  Sunne,  Moone,  and  Starres,  and 
the  places  where  they  were  first  set  in  the 
Heavens  and  the  beginning  of  their  movings^ 


Ascham 


150 


Ascham 


and  so  continued  to  this  day,  (S:c./  London, 

ir)58. 

[Tanner,  51 ;  Hemiug's  Chartularius  Ecclesise 
Vigorneiisis,  by  Hearne,  ii.  App.  647;  Piilteney's 
Botan.  .Sketches,  i.  50 ;  Ames,  ed.  Herbert  and 
Dibdin,  iii.  284  ;  Hazlitt's  Handbook  to  Popular 
Literature,  p.  15.] 

ASCHAM,  ANTONY  {<l.  1650),  par- 
liamentarian ambassador  at  Madrid,  was 
'  born  of  a  genteel  family,  educated  in  Eton 
school,  and  thence  elected  into  King's  Col- 
lege, Cambridge,  1638.'  He  took  the  parlia- 
ment side  in  the  civil  war,  and  was  appointed 
tutor  to  James,  duke  of  York.  In  1648  he 
])ublished  his  '  Discourse  of  what  is  lawful 
during  confusions  and  revolutions  of  g"0vern- 
nient,'  a  treatise  determining  within  what 
time  allegiance  might  be  transfeiTed  from  a 
sovereign  to  those  who  had  conquered  him. 
It  Avas  answered  by  Dr.  Sanderson  (whose 
tract  on  the  subject  was  formerly  printed 
with  A\'alton's  ' LiAes ' ),  and  republished  in 
1 689  without  the  author's  name.  In  August 
1 649  Ascham  was  the  Hamburg  agent  of  the 
republic,  and  in  the  following  June  he  was 
aj)pointed  resident  at  Madrid,  at  a  salary  of 
HOO/.  a  year.  Clarendon  (then  Sir  Edward 
Hyde  and  ambassador  for  Charles  II)  sneers 
at  his  rival's  incompetence  ;  but  ^lilton,  some 
years  after,  recommending  Marvell  to  Brad- 
shaw, thinks  it  sufficient  commendation  to  say 
that  '  Mr.  Marvell  will  do  as  good  service  as 
Mr.  Ascham.'  The  dignity  of  the  new  resident 
was  jealously  guarded  by  a  formal  introduc- 
t  ion  to  the  Spanish  ambassador,  and  hj  a  special 
commission  under  the  great  seal.  At  ^Madrid 
Hyde  was  assured  that  no  embassy  Avas  in 
((uestion:  it  was  only  that  a  gentleman  had 
come  with  letters  from  the  parliament  to  the 
king.  The  letters  were  never  delivered,  for 
the  day  after  his  arrival  Ascham  and  his  in- 
tei"preter,  De  llivas,  were  murdered  at  their 
inn  by  John  Guillim  and  William  Spark,  who, 
with  their  four  accomplices  (Henry  and  Va- 
lentine Progers,  John  Halsal,  and  William 
Arnet),  took  sanctuary  immediately  after- 
wards. The  parliament  not  only  demanded 
their  punishment,  but  ordered  that  six  per- 
sons, who  had  been  in  arms  for  the  king  and 
had  not  been  admitted  to  compound,  .should 
l)e  at  once  seized  and  tried  by  the  high  court 
of  justice,  an  (n-der  repeated  in  NoAember. 
The  Spaniards,  to  save  ap])earances,  took  the 
assassins  out  of  the  church,  tried,  condemned, 
and  restored  them  to  sanctuary,  where  they 
were  maintained  by  the  contributions  of  '  per- 
sons of  quality  '  till  they  all  had  opportunity 
to  escape.  Spark,  the  only  protestant  among 
them,  Avas  alone  recaptiu'ed  and  executed. 
In  1652  the  murderers  Avere  excepted  from  the 


act  of  oblivion,  and  proA'ision  was  made 
Ascham's  relations,  and  .so  late  as  1655 
topic  of  the  murder  is  urged  in  CromAvt 
declaration  against  Spain.  The  pleadings 
the  punishment  of  the  murderers,  transla 
from  the  Spanish,  AA^ere  published  in  16 
and  are  reprinted  in  the  *  Harleian  Mis( 
lany'(iv.  280,  ed.  Park). 

[Wood's  Athenae  Oxon.  (Bliss),  iii.  628,  7 
Clarendon's  Hist. ;  Thurloe's  State  Papers  ;  ( 
State  Papers,  Domestic,  1649-55.]      R.  C.  I 

ASCHAM,  ROGER  (1515-1568),  autl 
Avas  born  in  1515  at  Kirby  AViske,  n 
Northallerton.  His  family  appears  to  hi 
been  of  considerable  anti(juity,  and  to  hi 
taken  its  name  from  the  A^llages  known 
East  and  West  Askham,  near  York. 
Roger  de  Askham  is  mentioned  as  an  ad 
rent  of  Thomas,  earl  of  Lancaster,  in  18 
and  as  receiving  pardon  for  his  complicity 
the  murder  of  Piers  Gaveston  (Rym 
Foedera,  iii.  444).  Hamond  Askham  a 
appointed  master  of  Balliol  College,  ( )xfc 
in  1397  (Wood,  Antiquities,  p.  82).  In  1- 
William  Askham  became  an  alderman  of  L^ 
don,  and  was  sheriff  in  1398,  Avhen  Rich 
Whittington  Avas  mayor  (RiLEY,  Memon 
of  London,  546,  548,  565).  The  Avill  of ; 
other  William  Askham,  dated  7  Nov.  13 
preserA^ed  at  York,  proves  the  members  of 
family  who  remained  in  Yorkshire  to  hi 
belonged  to  the  yeoman  class.  At  the  d 
of  Roger's  birth  his  father,  John  Aschf 
Avas  house-steAvard  to  Lord  Scrope,  of  Bolt 
and  bore  a  high  reputation  for  uprightnesi 
life.  A  mention  of  him  in  the  Avill  (20  F 
1507-8)  of  Robert  Lascelles,  a  substani 
Yorkshire  landoAvner,  proves  him  to  In 
then  held  the  tithes  of  New.sham,  near  Kir 
Wiske,  and  to  have  lately  sustained  he! 
losses  (cf.  Testamenta  Ehoracnisia,  publisl 
by  Surtees  Soc.  i.  129-30,  ii.  28,  iv.  27 
The  maiden  name  of  Roger's  mother.  Mar 
ret  Ascham,  has  not  been  preserved  ;  bu 
has  been  stated  that  she  was  of  an  imports 
Yorkshire  family.  Roger  Avas  the  third  s 
The  eldest  son,'  Thomas,  Avas  felloAV  of 
John's  College  in  1523  (Bakek,  Hist,  of 
John's  Coll.  ed.  Mayor,  i.  282),  and  died 
fore  1544  (Ascham,  Epistles,  ed.  Giles,  1 
xxi.).  He  apparently  mamed,  and  ] 
three  sons,  Roger,  Thomas,  and  John, 
whom  the  first  was  promoted,  in  1573,  fr 
the  office  of  ordinary  yeoman  of  Elizabel 
chamber  to  that  of  yeoman  of  the  bears,  i 
the  last  Avas  the  author  of  an  unprin 
pamphlet  entitled  'A  Discours  against 
Peace  Avith  Spayne,  1603'  (Had.  MSS.  1 
art.  117:  295,  art.  231 /^).    Anthony,  Rogi 


Ascham 


151 


Ascham 


.second    brotlier,    was     an    astrologer    [see 
AsOHAM,  Anthony,^.  1553]. 

Roger  received  his  earliest  education  from 
his  father,  to  whom  he  refers  in  his  letters  as 
'  the  wisest  of  men,'  and  whose  advice  he 
frequently  sought  and  acted  upon  in  early 
manhood.  But  Avhile  still  a  child  he  was  re- 
ceived into  the  family  of  Sir  Anthony  Wing- 
field,  who  '  ever  loved  and  used  to  have 
many  children  brought  up  in  leamynge  in 
his  house '  together  witli  his  own  sons 
(  Ascham,  Toxophilm,  ed.  Arber,  p.  140).  K, 
liond  was  the  name  of  the  tutor  employed 
hy  Sir  Anthony,  and  imder  his  guidance 
Roger  made  rapid  progress  in  English  as  well 
as  in  classical  studies.  His  physical  educa- 
tion was  not  neglected,  and  Sir  Anthony 
liimself  taught  the  boys  archery,  which  was 
always  Ascliam's  favourite  exercise  (ihid.). 
At  the  age  of  fifteen  (1630)  Roger,  by  the 
advice  and  at  the  expense  of  his  patron,  who 
recognised  his  promise,  proceeded  to  St. 
.lolm's  College,  Cambridge,  where  the  best 
education  of  the  day  was  to  be  obtained. 
His  first  tutor  was  Hugh  Fitzherbert,  who 
had  become  fellow  of  the  college  in  1528, 
but  of  him  little  is  known  (CooPEK,  Athen. 
Cantab,  i.  64).  Ascham  appears  to  have  de- 
veloped his  special  aptitude  for  Greek  under 
Robert  Pember,  another  fellow  of  St.  John's 
( cf.  Epist.  cxxxiv.).  During  his  undergraduate 
days  he  Avrote  a  letter  to  Pember  in  Greek, 
w  liich  the  tutor  described  as  fit  to  have  been 
Avritten  i^t  Athens.  But  to  John  Cheke, 
afterwards  tutor  to  Edward  VI,  and  to  John 
Redman,  afterwards  first  master  of  Trinity 
College — both  of  whom  were  admitted  fel- 
lows of  St.  John's  during  his  first  year  of 
residence — Ascham  always  ascribed  the  chief 
advantages  he  derived  from  his  academic 
training.  With  them,  and  especially  with 
the  first,  he  lived  throughout  their  lives  on 
terms  of  peculiar  intimacy,  and  in  his  latest 
work  he  praised  '  their  onely  example  of  ex- 
cellency in  learnyng,  of  godnes  in  liuyng,  of 
diligence  in  studying,  of  councell  in  exhort- 
ing, of  good  order  in  all  thyng'  (^Schole- 
viaster,  p.  67).  Gther  friends  that  he  made 
at  St.  John's  at  the  same  time  were  George 
Day  and  John  Christopherson,  both  after- 
wards bi.shops  of  Chichester,  Robert  Home, 
afterwards  bishop  of  Winchester,  Thomas 
Watson,  afterwards  bishop  of  Lincoln,  James 
Pilkington,  afterwards  bishop  of  Durham, 
and  John  Set(ni,  afterwards  well  knoMMi  as 
the  chaplain  of  Gardiner,  bishop  of  Win- 
chester. Among  members  of  other  colleges 
with  whom  he  became  acquainted  were 
I"jdmund  Grindal,  afterwards  archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  Walter  Haddon,  afterwards  the 
eminent  civilian,  Thomas  Wilson,  who  sub- 


sequently wrote  on  logic,  and  Nicholas  Rid- 
ley, the  martyr  bishop  of  London.  Besides 
devoting  himself  to  Greek,  which  he  taught 
as  an  undergraduate  to  students  younger  than 
himself,  Ascham  made  himself  master  of 
almost  all  extant  Latin  literature,  paid  some 
attention  to  mathematics,  became  an  accom- 
plished musician,  and  acquired  singular  skill 
in  penmanship.  On  18  leb.  1533-4  he  took 
the  degree  of  B.A.,  and  on  23  March  follow- 
ing was  admitted  to  a  fellowship  at  St,  John's, 
which,  as  he  wrote  later,  was  '  the  whole 
foundation  ...  of  all  the  furderance  tliat 
hitherto  else  where  I  have  obteyned'  {Scholp- 
master,  p.  134).  Although  Ascham 's  pro- 
ficiency well  merited  a  fellowship,  his  open 
avowal  of  the  reformed  religion  imperilled 
his  election.  In  1533-4  a  public  disputation 
as  to  the  authority  of  the  pope  in  England 
took  place  at  Cambridge,  and  Ascham  so 
violently  opposed  the  catholic  champions  as 
to  oft'end  many  of  his  friends,  among  them 
George  Day,  a  subsequent  bishop  of  Chi- 
chester, to  whom  in  later  years  he  apolo- 
gised for  his  'imprudence'  (Epist.  cxxxvi.). 
His  fellowship  was  only  bestowed  on  him 
owing  to  the  '  goodnes  and  fatherlie  discre- 
tion '  of  Dr.  Metcalfe,  master  of  his  college, 
who  was  himself  a  catholic,  but  came  from 
the  neighbourhood  of  Ascham's  birthplace 
{Scholemaster,  p.  134).  Early  in  July  1537 
Ascham  proceeded  M.A.  In  the  meantime 
he  had  been  studying  hard  and  gathering- 
pupils  about  him,  in  whom  he  took  an  aff"ec- 
tionate  interest :  among  them  he  has  made 
special  mention  of  William  Grindal,  John 
Thomson,  Edward  Raven,  and  William  Ire- 
land, the  last  three  of  whom  became  fellows 
of  St.  John's,  and  to  Raven  and  Ireland 
Ascham  addressed  some  of  his  most  charming 
letters  in  later  life  (Epistt.  ci.  cii.  civ.  cxvi. 
cxx.  cxxx.  cxxxiv.).  About  1538  Ascham  was 
appointed  Greek  reader  at  St.  John's,  with  a 
good  salary.  His  success  was  remarkable. 
In  five  years,  he  afterwards  asserted,  Sopho- 
cles and  Euripides  had  become  at  his  college 
as  familiar  as  Plautus  had  been  previously, 
and  Demosthenes  was  as  much  discussed  as 
Cicero  in  former  times  (Epist.  xii.).  Students 
from  other  colleges  regularly  attended  his 
lectures.  In  1539  he  apparently  sought, 
through  the  influence  of  William  Buck- 
master,  vice-chancellor,  a  mathematical  lec- 
tureship (Epist.  iv.),  although  he  candidly 
confessed  in  later  life  that,  compared  with 
the  classics,  *  Euclid's  pricks  and  lines'  had 
little  educational  value  (Epist.  ii.  liv. ;  cf. 
Scholemaster,  p.  34).  The  beauty  of  his 
handwriting  also  brought  him  much  employ- 
ment as  the  writer  of  official  letters  in  behalf 
of  the  university ;  but  although  he  said  in 


Ascham 


152 


Ascham 


lo44:  that  lie  had  been  employed  in  that  1 
capacity  for  twelve  years,  the  earliest  extant  j 
letter  from  him  of  the  kind  cannot  be  dated  ' 
earlier  than  1541  (^Epistt.  viii.  xxii.).  But  \ 
petty  quarrels  soon  disturbed  his  academic  i 
career.  He  was  working  hard  in  1639  to  ! 
procure  the  election  of  his  pupil  Thomson  to  j 
a  vacant  fellowship  at  St.  John's  (Epistt.  v. 
vi,  viii.),  and  his  zeal  in  the  matter,  which 
proved  successful,  brought  him  into  collision 
with  his  friend  Redman,  who  was  interesting 
himself  in  another  candidate  (Epist.  xx.). 
Soon  after  this  dispute  Ascham  paid  a  visit 
to  his  parents  in  Yorkshire,  whom  he  had 
not  seen  for  several  years  (Epist.  ii.).  At  the 
time  he  apparently  attended  archery  meetings 
at  Norwich  and  York,  and  increased  his  en- 
thusiasm for  the  sport,  which  he  had  practised 
habitually  from  youth  (^Toxophilus,  p.  159). 
It  is  of  interest  to  note  that  the  statutes  of 
St.  John's,  adopted  in  1530  and  reaffirmed  in 
1545,  allowed  him  to  pursue  the  recreation  at 
Cambridge  (Scholemaster,  ed.  Mayor,  p.  258). 
While  in  Yorkshire  he  was  seized  with  a  severe 
illness — a  quartan  fever — which  prevented 
his  return  to  Cambridge  for  two  years,  and 
exhausted  his  pecuniary  resources  (Epistt. 
ix.  X.  xii.).  His  poverty  compelled  him  to 
appeal  for  money  to  Robert  Holgate,  bishop 
of  Llandaft",  who  had  had  some  connection 
with  St.  John's  (Epist.  x.),  and  to  Edward 
Lee,  archbishop  of  Y^ork,  of  whom  he  re- 
quested employment  either  in  epitomising 
books  which  the  archbishop  had  not  time 
to  read,  or  in  translating  into  Latin  Greek 
patristic  literature  (Epist.  ix.).  Lee  replied 
by  awarding  him  an  annual  pension  of  forty 
shillings,  and  Ascham,  to  show  his  grati- 
tude, set  himself  to  translate  into  Latin 
CEcumenius's  commentaries  on  St.  Paul's 
Epistles  to  Titus  and  Philemon,  gathered 
out  of  Cyril,  Chrysostom,  and  other  Greek 
fathers.  At  the  close  of  1541 ,  while  Ascham 
was  apparently  still  in  Y^orkshire,  the  work 
waa  completed.  It  was  published  at  Cam- 
bridge, after  his  return  there,  in  1542.  He 
presented  a  copy  to  the  archbishop  (Epist. 
xiii.),  but  it  did  not  satisfy  his  patron.  Lee 
was  displeased  with  the  approval  Ascham 
had  bestowed  on  the  married  clergy,  and 
there  seemed  some  likelihood  of  his  pension 
being  discontinued.  With  the  humility  which 
invariably  characterised  Ascham  whenever 
money  matters  were  in  question,  he  implored 
pardon,  and  promised  to  abandon  theology 
for  pure  classics,  and  to  translate  Sophocles 
into  Latin  (Epist.  xv.).  In  a  second  letter 
to  the  archbishop  on  the  subject  he  declared 
that  he  was  not  self-opinionated,  nor  a  seeker 
after  novelties,  as  his  lectures  on  Aristotle, 
Plato,  and  Cicero  would  plainly  show,  and 


that  his  knowledge  of  Christianity  was  solely 
derived  from  the  Psalter  and  the  Greek 
Testament  (Epist.  xvii.).  On  13  Sept.  1544 
the  archbishop's  death  brought  Ascham's 
pension  to  an  end,  and  he  contemplated  seek- 
ing a  new  patron  in  George  Day,  the  bishop 
of  Chichester  (Epistt.  xvii.  xxiv.).  At  the 
time  he  was  involved  in  many  misfortunes. 
His  brother  Thomas  died  early  in  the  year, 
and  shortly  afterwards  both  his  father  and 
mother  after  nearly  fifty  years  of  married 
life.  Dissensions  in  the  university  disheart- 
ened him.  In  a  controversy  as  to  the  correct 
mode  of  pronouncing  Greek  he  had  played 
an  active  part.  Cheke  had  attempted  to  in- 
troduce a  system  of  pronunciation  resembling 
that  in  use  in  England  at  the  present  time, 
and  opposed  to  the  continental  practice. 
Ascham,  having  at  first  resisted  the  innova- 
tion, finally  supported  it ;  but  to  his  chagrin 
Gardiner,  bishop  of  Winchester,  issued 
(15  May  1542)  a  decree,  at  the  instance  of 
Cheke's  enemies,  forbidding  the  teaching  of  the 
new  pronunciation  (Epist.  xii. ;  A.  J.  Ellis, 
English  Pronunciation  of  Greek,  p.  5).  His 
father  had  advised  him  to  escape  the  conten- 
tions caused  by  the  discussion  of  this  and 
other  questions  by  abandoning  the  univer- 
sity, and  in  July  1542  he  appears,  in  pursuit 
of  this  counsel,  to  have  supplicated  for  in- 
corporation at  Oxford,  but  he  does  not 
seem  to  have  persisted  in  this  application 
(Wood,  Fasti,  ed.  Bliss,  i.  114).  He  had 
also  entertained  proposals  to  become  tutor 
to  Lord  Mountjoy's  son  (Epistt.  xix.  xx.), 
and  about  Lady-day  1544  he  wrote  to 
Redman  that,  deep  as  was  still  his  interest 
in  his  Greek  lectureship  at  St.  John's,  he 
longed  for  nothing  more  than  foreign  travel 
in  the  suite  of  an  English  ambassador  (Epist. 
XX.).  He  was  not,  however,  Avilling  to  forego 
very  hastily  his  chances  of  preferment  in  tlie 
university,  and,  with  his  customary  shrewd- 
ness, he  wrote  to  Sir  William  Paget,  secre- 
tary of  state,  early  in  the  same  year  (Epist. 
xxii.),  demanding  his  influence  with  the  king 
to  obtain  for  himself  the  regius  professorship 
of  Greek  at  Cambridge,  soon  to  be  vacated  by 
Cheke  on  his  appointment  as  tutor  to  Prince 
Edward. 

But,  fortunately  for  his  future  reputation, 
Ascham  looked  for  advancement  in  one  other 
direction.  In  1543  and  1544  he  was  engaged 
on  his  famous  treatise  on  archeiy,  which  he 
believed  would  secure  him  the  favour  of 
Henry  VIII,  and  'would  be  no  doubtful 
sign  of  his  love  of  his  country  nor  a  mean  me- 
morial of  his  humble  learning '  (Epist.  xxii.). 
During  1544  he  was  seeing  it  through  the 
press,  and  he  desired  pennission  to  present 
it  personally  to  the  king  before  his  departure 


Ascham 


153 


Ascham 


for  the  siege  of  Boulogne.  But  Henry  left 
England  in  July  1544  before  the  book  was 
completed,  and  it  was  not  till  1545  that  he 
foundhis  opportunity  of  offering  it  to  theking 
in  the  gallery  at  Greenwich.  Henry  VIII,  ac- 
cording to  Ascham's  own  account,  *  did  so  well 
like  and  allow  it,  as  he  gave  me  a  living  for 
it '  in  the  shape  of  a  pension  of  10/.  (^Epist.  ii. 
Ixxxvii.).  Shoi'tly  before,  he  had  obtained 
personal  introductions  to  Bishop  Gardiner, 
who  was  beginning  to  show  a  kindly  interest 
in  him  on  account  of  his  literary  ability,  and 
to  the  Duke  of  Norfolk,  and  his  favourable 
reception  by  the  king  was  owing  mainly 
to  their  influence.  The  book,  dedicated  to 
Henry  VIII,  and  printed  at  Ijondon  in  1545, 
was  cast  in  the  form  of  a  dialogue  between 
Toxophilus  (Ascham  himself)  and  Philo- 
logus,  a  Greek  tutor  of  Cambridge  (doubtless 
Sir  John  Cheke).  The  first  part  formed  an 
argument  in  favour  of  archery  as  a  recreation 
for  students  and  as  an  instrument  of  war ; 
the  second  part  contained  practical  hints  for 
becoming  proficient  in  the  art.  The  most 
remarkable  characteristics  of  the  work  are 
its  vigorous,  flexible,  and  pure  English  prose, 
and  its  plea  for  the  literary  use  of  the  '  Eng- 
lyshe  tonge,'  as  opposed  to  Latin  or  Greek, 
which  is  set  forth  in  an  introductory  address 
*  to  all  gentle  men  and  yomen  of  Englande.' 
Of  translators  Lord  Berners,  and  of  original 
writers  John  Tindal  and  Sir  Thomas  More, 
alone  of  preceding  writers,  had  exhibited  a 
comparable  command  of  '  the  speech  of  the 
common  people,'  and  they  did  not  always  ex- 
hibit the  ease  which  is  here  habitual  to 
Ascham.  Walter  Haddon  prefixed  Latin 
elegiacs,  in  which  he  praised  Ascham's  own 
skill  as  an  archer  and  a  scholar.  Ascham  was 
justly  proud  of  his  performance,  and  sent 
copies  of  the  'Toxophilus,'  with  autograph 
letters,  to  the  queen  {Epist.  xxxii.),  the  Earl 
of  Essex  (ibid.),  Lord  Chancellor  Wriothes- 
ley  (Episf.  xxxiii.),  Bishop  Gardiner  (Epistt. 
xxxiv.  XXXV.),  and  to  a  large  number  of 
noblemen  at  court  (Episf.  xxxviii.). 

Soon  after  the  publication  of  this  Avork 
Ascham  fell  ill  again,  and  was  unable  to  re- 
side at  Cambridge.  In  1545  he  asked  Arch- 
bishop Cranmer,  on  account  of  his  ill  health, 
to  permit  him  to  eat  flesh  instead  of  fish  on 
fast  days,  and  the  dispensation  was  granted 
(Epistt.  xxvii.  xxviii.  xxix.).  In  1546  he  had 
sutficiently  recovered  from  his  sickness  to 
succeed  Cheke  as  public  orator  of  the  uni- 
versity (Epist.  xlvi.),  and  in  that  capacity 
conducted  for  the  next  few  years  a  volumi- 
nous correspondence  for  the  university.  He 
repeatedly  sought  the  influence  of  all  the 
great  officers  of  state  to  keep  the  privileges 
and  property  of  the  colleges  intact.   In  1547 


troubles  again  appear  to  have  come  upon  him. 
Late  in  tliat  year  lie  complained  in  two  let- 
ters, one  (Episf.  Ixxxiii.)  addressed  to  Sir 
William  Cecil,  to  whom  lie  had  been  intro- 
duced by  Cheke,  and  the  other  (Epist.  Ixxxii.) 
to  the  master  of  St.  John's  (William  Bill), 
that  he  had  been  treated  with  scant  courtesy 
in  the  matter  of  a  public  disputation  on  the 
mass  to  which  he  had  looked  foi^ward  as  a 
means  of  utterly  reducing  the  catholic  cham- 
pions at  Cambridge.  To  give  the  discussion 
greater  publicity  and  importance,  its  scene 
during  its  progress  had  been  removed  at  his 
suggestion  from  St.  .John's  College  to  the 
public  schools,  but  it  was  there  suddenly 
closed  by  order  of  the  vice-chancellor  Madew. 
He  consoled  himself  for  this  disappointment 
by  writing  a  treatise  on  the  mass,  which  was 
published  posthumously  in  1577.  About  the 
same  time  (1548)  the  death  of  his  pupil  and 
friend,  William  Grindal,  appointed  through 
Cheke's  influence  in  1544  tutor  to  the  Prin- 
cess Elizabeth,  caused  him  intense  grief 
(^Epistt.  Ixxxiv.  cxvii.). 

But  this  last  event  was  not  without  a 
brighter  side.  Ascham  had,  doxibtless  through 
Cheke,  already  made  the  acquaintance  of  the 
Princess  Elizabeth,  and  had  been  as  favour- 
ably impressed  with  her  zeal  for  learning  as 
she  had  been  impressed  with  his  skill  as  a 
teacher.  From  1545  onwards  he  frequently 
wrote  to  encourage  her  in  her  studies  (cf. 
Epist.  xxxi.),  and  on  one  occasion  mended 
her  silver  pen  for  her,  and  presented  her  with 
an  Italian  book  and  a  book  of  prayers  (Epist. 
xxxix.).  He  had  also  been  intimate  with  her 
attendants,  John  Astley  and  his  wife  (Epist. 
Iv.),  of  whom  he  had  urged  in  1545  the  ap- 
pointment of  the  latter  as  the  princess's 
governess  (Epist.  xl.).  Sir  Anthony  Denny, 
at  whose  house  at  Cheshunt  the  princess 
lived  for  many  years,  had  also  shown  Ascham 
marks  of  special  favour  since  the  days  that  the 
latter  was  a  poor  and  he  a  rich  student  of 
St.  John's.  On  Grindal's  death  Ascham 
wrote  to  Elizabeth,  condoling  with  her  on 
the  loss  of  her  tutor,  urging  her  to  persevere 
in  her  studies,  and  vaguely  expressing  his 
anxiety  that  he  might  place  his  abilities  at 
her  service,  while  he  reccmimended  her  to 
find  another  tutor  in  '  that  other  Grindal 
(i.e.  Edmund,  afterwards  archbishop),  who 
resembles  William  in  gentleness'  (Epist. 
Ixxxiv.).  But  to  Sir  John  Cheke  he  openly 
stated  his  desire  to  succeed  Grindal  himself 
(Epist.  Ixxxv.).  Before  July  1 548  his  wishes 
were  fulfilled,  and  he  took  up  his  residence 
at  Cheshunt.  He  found  there  a  congenial 
companion  inayoungman  named  John  W^hit- 
neye,  whom  he  had  known  before  (Epist. 
xxxvii.),  and  to  whom  he  now  taught  Latin 


Ascham 


154 


Ascham 


on  the  system  afterwards  recommended  in 
the  '  Scholemaster.'  The  death  of  this  '  wor- 
thie  young  gentleman  '  within  a  few  months 
of  Ascham's  settlement  at  Cheshunt  gave  him 
a  new  grief,  for  wliich  he  sought  expression 
in  some  poor  Englisli  verses  *  of  misorderlie 
meter,'  printed  in  the  '  Scholemaster '  (p.  91). 
Ascham  found  his  royal  pupil  as  apt  as  he 
had  anticipated.  According  to  his  account 
she  talked  French  and  Italian  as  well  as 
English;  she  could  hold  her  own  in  Latin 
conversation,  and  fairly  well  in  Greek  ; 
she  was  a  shrewd  critic  of  style  in  Latin, 
Greek,  and  English.  Her  handwriting  was 
admirable,  and,  like  Ascham  himself,  she 
delighted  in  music.  During  the  two  years  he 
taught  her  at  this  time,  he  read  all  Cicero 
Avith  her,  and  the  greater  part  of  Livy ;  every 
morning  she  devoted  some  hours  to  the  Greek 
Testament,  and  some  to  Isocrates  and  Sopho- 
cles. To  Cyprian  and  Melanchthon  Ascham 
also  introduced  her,  to  confirm  her  in  good 
doctrine  (Ejnst.  xcix.).  But  none  the  less 
he  found  the  life  he  led  in  the  princess's  ser- 
vice an  irksome  one.  He  could  rarely  visit 
Cambridge  ;  he  had  to  go  to  court,  and  mixed 
witli  men  whose  frivolity  or  dishonesty  dis- 
gusted him.  Finally,  he  quarrelled  over  a 
trifle  with  Elizabeth's  steward  :  a  coolness 
sprang  up  between  himself  and  his  mistress 
(Epist.  cxi.),  and  he  hastily  resigned  his  post 
in  1549-50,  to  resume  his  own  studies  and  his 
official  duties  as  public  orator  at  Cambridge. 
Among  his  pupils  on  his  return  were  Lords 
Henry  and  Charles  Brandon,  to  both  of  whom 
he  taught  penmanship,  and  to  the  latter 
Greek  (Epist.  cviii.).  To  the  sad  deaths  of 
these  youths  on  1(5  July  1551  Ascham  fre- 
quently makes  mournful  reference  in  his  later 
letters.  But  Ascham  was  still  restless.  He 
paid  a  visit  to  his  friends  in  Yorkshire  in  1550; 
and  hinted  to  Cheke,  whose  influence  he  freely 
claimed  for  his  own  advancement,  that  he 
should  be  glad  to  spend  two  years  in  foreign 
travel  (Epist.  cv.).  While  still  in  York- 
shire, he  heard  from  Cheke  that  he  had  been 
appointed  secretary  to  Sir  Richard  Morysin, 
recent  lynominatedEnglish  ambassador  to  the 
emperor  Charles  V.  On  his  journey  south  to 
Billingsgate  to  embark,  Ascham  visited  Lady 
Jane  Grey  at  her  father's  house  at  Bradgate, 
Leicestershire,  and  in  a  memorable  passage 
in  the  'Scholemaster"  (p.  46)  he  has  described 
how  he  found  her  reading  Plato's  '  Phjedo ' 
In  her  chamber  while  all  the  household  was 
out  hunting.  Before  leaving  her,  he  obtained 
a  promise  from  her  of  a  Greek  letter  (Epist. 
xcix.),  Ascham  also  visited  the  Princess 
Elizabeth,  and  effectedareconciliation  (Epi^t. 
cxi.).  While  in  London  he  met  Cheke,  and 
spent  nine  hours  on  the  day  before  his  depar- 


ture talking  with  him  of  old  days  at  Cam- 
bridge (Ejnst.  civ.).  On  21  Sept.  1550  he 
set  out  from  Billingsgate.  He  landed  at 
Gravesend  to  visit  Archbishop  Cranmer  at 
Canterbury,  who  escorted  the  party  to  Boa  er. 
In  the  passage  to  Calais  Ascham  and  a  young- 
man  alone  escaped  sea-sickness.  On  30  Sept. 
Antwerp  was  reached ;  on  6  Oct.  the  embassy 
arrived  at  Louvain,  Avhose  university  teach- 
ing he  thought  far  inferior  to  that  given  at 
St.  John's ;  afterwards  he  visited  Cologne, 
where  he  heard  a  lecture  on  Aristotle's 
'  Ethics '  in  Greek  which  he  says  he  could 
not  admire,  and  travelled  on  to  Mainz, 
Worms,  Spires,  and  Ulm.  On  28  Oct.  Sir 
Richard  Morysin  fixed  his  headquarters  at 
Augsburg.  There  Ascham  stayed  with  a  few 
intervals  till  the  end  of  1552.  It  was  pro- 
bably at  tlie  close  of  1551  that  he  spent  nine 
days  in  Italy  and  visited  Venice,  where  he 
bitterly  lamented  the  absence  of  '  all  service 
of  God  in  spirit  and  truth'  (Scholemaster, 
p.  84).  He  paid  occasional  visits  to  Hallo 
in  the  Tyrol  (17  Nov.  1551,  and  29  Jan. 
1551-2),  to  Innspruck  (18  Nov.  1551),  and 
to  Villach  in  Carinthia  (12  July  1552). 
Early  in  1553  he  was  staying  at  Brussels, 
and  in  July  of  that  year  he  retm-ned  to 
England,  when  the  embassy  was  recalled  on 
the  death  of  Edward  VI.  Ascham  through- 
out these  years  regularly  corresponded  with 
his  friends  in  England,  and  especially  with 
his  old  pupils.  Raven  and  Ireland,  besides 
writing  all  Sir  Richard  Morysin's  official  des- 
patches. In  one  very  long  English  letter  to 
Raven  (20  Jan.  1550 ;  Epist.  cxvi.)  he  gives 
an  entertaining  account  of  his  interviews  with 
Charles  Y.  To  Sir  William  Cecil  and  to 
Cheke  he  sent,  shortly  before  his  return,  some 
Roman  coins ;  he  mentioned  to  the  latter 
that  he  had  accustomed  himself  to  write  all 
his  letters  in  English  instead  of  Latin  (Epist. 
cl.),  a  statement  that  his  collected  corre- 
spondence fully  supports,  and  he  informed 
Cecil  (Epist.  cxlix.)  that  he  had  ceased  to 
feel  interest  in  strange  countries  or  courts, 
and  longed  for  peace  at  Cambridge  to  keep 
company  with  the  Bible,  Plato,  Aristotle, 
Demosthenes,  and  Tully.  The  most  inte- 
resting portion  of  his  correspondence  in  Ger- 
many is  that  with  the  learned  John  Sturm, 
rector  of  the  gymnasium  at  Strasburg  and 
editor  of  Cicero.  For  his  classical  attain- 
ments Ascham  had  had  from  an  early  date  the 
most  sincere  respect.  He  had  apparently  heard 
much  of  him  from  JMartin  Bucer,  whose  ac- 
quaintance Ascham  had  made  as  soon  as  Bucer 
had  arrived  in  England,  and  had  written  a 
long  letter  from  Cambridge  introducing  him- 
self to  the  scholar  on  that  ground  early  in 
1550  (Epist.  xcix.).     He  went  to  Strasburg 


Ascham 


155 


Ascham 


to  see  liim  in  1 552,  but  Sturm  was  from  home 
(Epist.  cxl.),  nnd  the  two  friends  never  met, 
althoupli  they  continued  to  corresjunid  in 
terras  of  tlie  utmost  intimacy  from  1550  till 
n  few  days  before  Ascham's  death.  On  the 
death  of  Martin  Bucer  on  28  Feb.  155()-1, 
Ascham  offered  to  aid  Sturm  in  writing  his 
life.  With  Sir  Richard  Morysin  Ascham 
seems  to  have  lived  on  excellent  terms ;  he 
read  Greek  with  him  five  days  a  week,  and 
between  12  Oct.  1550  and  12  Aug.  1551  they 
went  through  all  Herodotus  with  fiAe  trage- 
dies (probably  of  Sophocles)  and  seventeen 
orations  of  Demosthenes,  lie  kept  a  diary 
in  English  throughout  his  foreign  sojourn,  in 
wliich  he  described  the  German  princes  he 
met  and  the  political  questions  at  issue  in 
Eni'ope.  The  greater  part  of  it  he  forwarded 
in  1552  in  a  letter  to  his  friend,  John  Astley, 
in  attendance  on  Princess  Elizabeth  at  Hat- 
tield,  and  this  document  was  published  at 
London  in  1553  under  the  title  of  'A  Report 
...  of  tlie  Aifaires  and  State  of  Germany.' 
On  the  accession  of  Queen  Mary,  Ascham's 

5»rospects  in  England  looked  very  gloomy, 
lis  pension  of  10/.,  which  had  been  renewed 
and  increased  by  Edward  VI,  had  again 
terminated.  While  in  Germany  he  had, 
through  the  influence  of  Cheke  and  William 
Cecil,  been  nominated  Latin  secretary  to  the 
king  and  his  librarian,  but  he  had  never 
exercised  these  functions,  and  the  appoint- 
ments now  ceased  to  have  eftect.  He  still 
retained  the  public  oratorship  at  Cambridge 
and  a  fellowship.  Before  the  close  of  1553 
his  fortunes  improved.  He  sought  the  favour 
of  his  old  fi'iend  Gardiner,  and  through  him 
was  appointed  Latin  secretary  to  Queen 
Mary,  with  an  annual  salary  of  twenty 
pounds.  The  bishop,  on  hearing  how  he  had 
lost  his  pension,  bade  him  have  the  patent 
written  out  again,  and  Ascham  brought  the 
document  to  him,  leaving  a  blank  space  for 
the  sum  of  money.  He  showed  Gardiner  that, 
tiirough  tlie  carelessness  of  the  scrivener,  the 
s])ace  was  too  wide  for  '  the  old  word  ten,^  and 
bt'gged  him  to  iise  his  influence  with  the  queen 
to  obtain  twenty  pounds  a  year  for  him.  In 
oneletter  to  Gardiner  (Ejnst.  clxx.)  he  naively 
wrote :  '  The  space  which  is  left  by  chance 
doth  seem  to  crave  by  good  luck  some  words 
of  length,  as  viginti  or  tri(/infa,  yea,  with  the 
help  of  a  little  dash,  quadrmfinta  would  serve 
best  of  all.'  He  told  the  same  story  to  Queen 
I'i!  izabeth  in  1567,  with  some  variations  to  give 
it  a  more  avowedly  amusing  tone  (ii.lxxxvii.). 
l?ut  his  device  succeeded,  and  Queen  INIary 
gave  him  twenty  pounds  a  year.  Through  I 
the  favour  of  Sir  William  Petre  he  obtained  ! 
a  grant  from  the  crown  of  the  lease  of  a  farm  j 
at  Walthamstow,   Essex,   called   Salisbury 


Hall,  at  the  low  rent  of  twenty  pounds.  He 
soon  aftersvards  gave  proof  of  his  industry  as 
the  queen's  Latin  secretary  by  writing  with 
his  wonted  skill  forty-seven  letters  for  her  to 
persons  of  exalted  rank,  of  whom  cardinals 
were  the  lowest,  within  three  days.  One 
other  exceptional  favour  was  bestowed  on 
him  at  the  time.  While  his  friend  Cheke 
was  compelled  to  renounce  the  reformed  re- 
ligion, and  Ridley  suffered  for  his  adherence 
to  it  with  his  life,  Ascham  was  permitted  to 
continue  in  its  profession,  and  Gardiner's 
friends  incited  him  in  vain  to  interfere  with 
his  religious  liberty  {^Epist.  cxci.).  This  ex- 
emption has  been  attributed  to  various  cause  s, 
but  Ascham  was  doubtless  worldly-minded 
enough,  as  Dr.  Johnson  has  suggested,  to 
avoid  any  obnoxious  display  of  his  opinions, 
and  thus  escaped  notice.  It  is  noticeable 
that  in  his  voluminous  correspondence,  while 
he  bestoAvs  approval  on  Gardiner's  policy 
(Epist.  clxxv.),  to  whose  personal  kindness 
he  repeatedly  refers,  keeps  Pope  Paul  IV  in- 
formed, in  the  exercise  of  his  official  duties, 
of  the  progress  that  the  Roman  catholic  revival 
makes  in  England  (Epist.  cxciv.),  and  seeks 
with  success  the  patronage  of  Cardinal  Poh> 
(Epist.  clxxxix.),  he  preserves  an  ominous 
silence  as  to  the  fate  of  Lady  Jane  Grey,  to 
whom  he  had  last  written  with  friendly 
familiarity  from  Germany  in  1551  (Epist. 
cxiv.),  and  makes  no  mention  of  his  friends, 
Ridley  and  Cranmer.  But  Ascham  in  the 
early  part  of  Mary's  reign  continued  on  inti- 
mate terms  Avith  Elizabeth,  who  never  con- 
cealed her  religious  opinion,  and  found  leisure 
to  read  with  her  Demosthenes  and  vEschines 
(Epist.  cxci.) 

On  1  Jan.  1554  Ascham  married  Margaret 
Howe,  and  he  consequently  resigned  his  fel- 
loAvship  and  public  oratorship  at  Cambridge. 
The  lady  was  a  niece  by  marriage  of  Sir 
Henry  Wallop.  Ascham,  writing  to  Stunn 
at  the  time,  speaks  in  high  praise  of  his 
wife's  beauty  (Epist.  cxci.),  and  in  a  later 
letter  to  Queen  Elizabeth  (ii.  Ixxxvii.),  de- 
scribes her  as  very  young  compared  with 
himself,  who  Avas  noAv  '  well  stept  into  years.' 
ElseAvhere  (ii.  clxxi.)  he  writes  of  her  under 
date  18  Jan.  1554-5:  'God,  I  thancke  him, 
hath  given  me  such  an  one  as  the  lesse  she 
seeth  I  doe  for  herr  the  more  loveing  in  all 
causes  she  is  to  me,'  and  adds  that  *  hitherto 
she  hath  founde  rather  a  loveing  than  a  luckye 
husband  unto  her.'  The  close  of  Mary's  reign 
saw  Ascham  steadily  at  work  in  her  ser- 
vice, but  his  private  letters  are  full  of  com- 
plaints of  his  poverty  and  his  inability  to 
maintain  on  his  income  his  wife  and  his  son 
Giles.  The  accession  of  Elizabeth  did  not 
appreciably  improve  his  fortunes.  "  He  was 


Ascham 


1^6 


Ascham 


continued  in  the  various  offices  lie  held  under 
Mary,  and  was  installed  anew  in  the  office  of 
the  queen's  private  tutor.  He  read  Greek 
with  her  until  his  death,  and  sometimes  played 
chess  with  her.  On  5  Oct.  1559  the  queen 
bestowed  on  him  the  prebend  of  Wetwang 
in  York  Cathedral,  to  which  he  was  admitted 
on  11  March  1559-60.  But  a  long  lawsuit 
followed,  apparently  with  the  former  holder 
of  the  preferment,  who  had  been  deprived 
for  nonconformity,  and  he  only  won  the  case 
in  1566,  after  the  queen  had  bidden  the  arch- 
bishop of  York  to  give  him  his  assistance 
{Epist,  ii.  Ixxv.),  and  thus  enjoyment  of  the 
emoluments  of  the  office  was  long  delayed. 
In  1562  a  second  son  was  born  to  him,  and 
he  christened  him  Sturm  after  his  friend  at 
Strasburg  (Epist.  ii.  xxxviii.).  '  Household 
griefs '  were  still  oppressing  him.  The  death 
of  his  wife's  father  in  1559  left  her  mother 
almost  destitute,  and  he  mortgaged  his  farm 
at  Walthamstow  in  her  behalf.  He  made 
few  friends  at  the  court,  with  which  he  was 
always  out  of  sympathy ;  and  although  Sir 
AVilliam  Cecil  still  oifered  him  aid  in  suits  for 
advancement,  the  Earl  of  Leicester,  who  had 
been  well  disposed  to  him  as  a  young  man, 
and  stood  godfather  to  his  third  son  Dudley  in 
1564  (J^i'sif.  lix.),  apparently  contrived  later 
that  his  connection  with  the  queen  should 
give  him  no  very  substantial  advantage  (^Epist. 
ii.  Ixxv.).  Before  1567  he  borrowed  a  small 
sum  of  money  of  the  queen,  the  repayment 
of  which  she  generously  excused  (cf.  Epist. 
ii.  Ixxxvi.),  and  about  the  same  date  he  re- 
ceived, on  the  death  of  his  mother-in-law,  a 
lease  of  Wicklyford  parsonage.  His  severest 
trouble  for  the  last  nine  years  of  his  life  was 
his  own  ill-health  and  the  fear  that  he  should 
leave  his  wife  and  children  wholly  unpro- 
vided for.  After  hinting  to  many  noblemen 
from  1559  onwards  that  his  official  services 
deserved  a  fuller  recognition  than  they  had 
received,  in  1567  he  boldly  applied  to  the 
queen  to  make  some  permanent  provision  for 
his  family  {Epist.  ii.  Ixxxvii.).  In  a  half- 
humorous  tone  he  reminded  her  of  the  favour 
shown  him  by  her  father,  brother,  and  sister, 
and  asked  her  as  his  friend  to  intercede  in  his 
behalf  with  herself  as  queen.  He  had  never 
solicited  any  previous  favour,  except  a  gift 
of  venison  to  make  some  friend  merry.  He 
expected  death  very  soon,  and  pathetically 
entreated  her  to  enable  him  to  settle  twenty 
pounds  a  year  on  each  of  his  sons.  No  an- 
swer to  this  appeal  is  extant,  and  no  favour- 
able one  seems  to  have  been  given.  In  the 
course  of  the  following  year  his  son  Sturm 
died,  and  he  sent  his  wife  soon  afterwards, 
while  temporarily  absent  from  her,  a  very 
touching  letter  of  condolence  {Epist.  ii. 
xcviii.) 


But  between  1563  and  the  date  of  his 
death  Ascham  found  some  relief  from  his 
cares  in  the  composition  of  hts  '  Schole- 
master.'  In  1563,  the  year  of  a  plague,  As- 
cham dined  at  Windsor  with  Sir  William 
Cecil,  and  among  the  guests  were  Sir  Richard 
SackviUe  and  his  friends  Haddon  and  Astley. 
Afrer  dinner  Ascham  was  informed  that  cer- 
tain scholars  had  run  away  from  Eton  for 
fear  of  a  flogging,  and  the  conversation  turned 
on  educational  discipline,  in  which  Ascham 
strongly  condemned  corporal  punishment. 
Sir  Richard  Sackville  was  so  well  impressed 
with  Ascham's  remarks  that  he  oifered  to 
educate  Ascham's  son  with  his  own  under  a 
master  instructed  in  Ascham's  system,  and 
others  of  the  company  begged  him  to  Avrite 
a  practical  treatise  on  education.  He  at 
once  set  to  work,  chiefly  with  a  view  to  the 
bringing  up  of  his  own  children.  He  freely 
confessed  that  his  method  was  borrowed 
mainly  from  Sturm  and  from  his  old  tutor 
Cheke,  who  had  died  in  1557,  and  whose 
memory  he  believed  he  might  best  honour 
by  putting  posterity  in  possession  of  the 
secrets  of  his  teaching.  For  Ave  years  he 
was  filling  in  a  plan  of  the  work,  of  which 
he  sent  a  sketch  to  Sturm  in  the  last  letter 
he  ever  wrote,  about  December  1568.  Of 
the  greater  portion,  Avhich  he  had  then  com- 
pleted, the  first  book  contained,  with  many 
autobiographical  reminiscences,  a  general  dis- 
quisition on  education,  arguments  in  favour 
of  alluring  a  child  to  learning  by  gentleness 
rather  than  by  force,  a  statement  of  the 
evils  attendant  on  foreign  travel,  and  an 
account  of  the  immoral  training  acquired 
by  young  men  at  court.  The  second  book 
detailed  Ascham's  method  of  teaching  Latin 
by  means  of  a  'double  translation,'  which 
subsequent  ^Titers  on  education  have  inva- 
riably praised.  He  advised  the  master  in 
the  first  place  to  explain  in  general  terms 
the  meaning  of  a  selected  passage,  and  aftei*- 
wards  to  let  the  pupil  construe  it  and  parse 
eacli  word  in  two  successive  lessons.  After 
an  intei-val  the  child  Avas  to  write  out  his 
translation,  and  after  a  further  internal  Avas • 
to  turn  his  translation  back  into  Latin.  Tht.' 
teacher  should  then  show  him  how  the  various 
constructions  employed  corresponded  with, 
and  were  explained  by,  examples  in  the 
grammar-book.  The  first  reading-book  As- 
cham recommended  was  Sturm's  selection 
from  Cicero,  and  the  second  a  play  of  Terence. 
The  advance  to  more  difficult  authors  was  to 
be  gradual,  and  the  boy  was  not  to  attempt 
to  speak  Latin  until  he  was  master  of  tlie 
grammar.  Ascham  added  remarks  on  Latin 
prosody,  which  he  looked  forward  to  seeing 
adopted  in  English  verse,  and  criticised  the 
style  of  many  Latin  authors. 


Ascham 


157 


Ascham 


But  before  the  book  had  gone  further  As- 
cham died.  In  November  1568  he  sat  up 
many  nights  to  finish  a  Latin  poem  which 
lit-  desired  to  present  to  the  queen  on  17  Nov., 
file  anniversary  of  her  accession;  some  of 
tliese  verses  are  printed  in  the  various  editions 
of  Ascham's  letters,  excepting  that  of  1703. 
lie  had  long  suffered  from  sleeplessness  and 
u  kind  of  continuous  fever.  But  on  23  Dec. 
his  habitual  ill-health  assumed  a  fatal  form. 
I  le  lingered  for  a  week  in  the  utmost  pain, 
and  could  give  little  attention  to  the  minis- 
trations at  his  bedside  of  William  Gravet, 
vicar  of  St.  Sepulchre's,  London,  in  whose 
parish  he  was  living,  and  of  Alexander 
iS  owell,  dean  of  St.  Paul's.  lie  died  in  his 
fifty-fourth  year  on  30  Dec.  1568.  His  last 
words  were  :  '  I  desire  to  depart  and  be  with 
Christ.'  He  was  buried  quietly  in  St,  Sepul- 
chre's Church,  and  Dean  Nowell  preached 
his  funeral  sermon,  in  which  he  declared  that 
'  he  had  never  seen  or  heard  of  any  one  who 
had  lived  more  virtuously  or  died  more  chris- 
tianly.'  Queen  Elizabeth,  on  hearing  of  his 
death,  exclaimed  that  she  would  rather  have 
cast  10,000/.  into  the  sea  than  have  lost  her 
Ascham.  His  widow  published  the  '  Schole- 
master'  in  1570  as  her  husband  had  left  it, 
only  adding  a  graceful  dedication  to  Sir 
William  Cecil,  recently  elected  chancellor  of 
Cambridge  University. 

All  scholars  in  England  and  on  the  Conti- 
nent lamented  Ascham's  death,  and  many  of 
them  expressed  their  grief  in  I^atin  verses  to  [ 
his  memory.  George  Buchanan,  who  had 
dined  with  him  at  his  house  some  years 
before  (Buchanani  Opera,  ii.  762),  and  had 
already  addressed  him  in  complimentary 
Ijatin  epigrams  (bk.  i.  No.  29)  wrote  on  his 
death — 

Aschamum  extinctum  patri;e  Graiaeque  Camceiise 

Kt  LatijB  vera  cum  pietate  dolent. 
Principibus  vixit  cams,  jucundus  amicis, 

Ke  modica,  in  mores  dicere  fama  nequit. 

A  short  time  afterwards  (1577)  Gabriel 
Harvey  panegyrised  the  style  and  matter  of 
Ascham's  '  Scholemaster '  in  his  '  Ciceronia- 
nus,'  p.  55;  and  in  manj'  of  his  letters 
Harvey  refers  to  him  as  worthy  of  a  place 
beside  Chaucer  and  Spenser,  More  and  Sid- 
ney. His  '  period '  he  called  '  the  siren  of  Iso- 
crates.'  Otliers  of  the  century  who  honoured 
Ascham's  memory  by  flattering  mention  of 
him  in  their  works  were  Mulcaster,  Camden, 
Thomas  Nash,  and  Bacon ;  and  Mr.  J.  E.  B. 
Mayor  has  collected  their  testimonies  in 
an  appendix  to  his  edition  of  the  '  Schole- 
master,' pp.  268-80.  All  scholars  who  Avere 
personally  acquainted  with  him  speak  of  his 
affectionate  and  gentle  nature ;  but  Camden 


adds    in   his   'Annals,'   under    date   1568: 

*  Nevertheless, being  too  much  given  todicing 
and  cockfight  iug,  he  lived  and  died  a  poor 
man.'  Upon  this  passage  much  discussion 
has  arisen,  and  several  writers  have  attributed 
the  poverty  of  Ascham's  later  years  to  his 
habit  of  gambling.  In  the  'Toxophilus,' 
however,  he  especially  denounces  'cardes  and 
dyse,'  but  he  complains  that  'those  which 
use  shooting  be  so  much  marked  of  men, 
and  ofttimes  blamed  for  it,  and  that  in  a 
maner  as  moche  as  those  which  play  at  cardes 
and  dise '  (p.  49).  Camden's  accusation  may 
therefore  rest  on  a  confusion  of  the  kind  here 
indicated.  As  to  the  charge  of  cockfighting, 
thought  by  few  of  his  contemporaries  to  be 
a    discreditable    pastime,   Ascham,  in    the 

*  Scholemaster,'  acknowledged  his  interest  in 
the  sport,  and  his  intention,  which  was  never 
fulfilled,  of  writing  'a  book  of  the  Cock- 
pitte,'  in  which  *  all  kinde  of  pastime  fitte  for 
a  gentleman '  should  be  fully  declared  (p.  65). 
Ascham's  undoubted  love  of  sport  is  an  in- 
teresting trait :  it  distinguishes  him  from  the 
over-diligent  students  of  the  Renaissance,  \ 
with  whom  he  has  much  in  common.  His  / 
letters  show  him  to  have  shared  much  of 
their  irritability,  and  more  than  their  cus- 
tomary freedom  in  demanding  money  of  their 
patrons.  But  his  treatment  of  his  wife,  of 
friends  like  Cheke  and  Sturm,  and  of  his 
pupils,  wholly  relieves  him  of  the  charge  of 
undue  selfishness.  His  place  in  English  lite- 
rature depends  less  on  his  efforts  to  extend  \ 
the  knowledge  of  Greek  at  Cambridge,  or  to  ' 
improve  the  method  of  teaching  Latin — 
labours  which  were  attended  with  eminent 
success — than  on  the  simple  vigour  of  his 
English  prose.  He  precedes  the  Euphuistic 
period ;  his  style,  as  Gabriel  Harvey  sug- 
gested, knows  no  tricks :  its  easy  flow  and 
straightforwardness,  at  a  time  when  litei-ary 
composition  in  English  was  seldom  attempted, 
constitute  the  grounds  of  Ascham's  reputa- 
tion. As  a  letter-writer,  both  in  English  and 
in  fluent  Ciceronian  Latin,  he  takes  rank  with 
the  most  eminent  literary  men. 

Of  the  career  of  Ascham's  widow  after  his 
death  little  is  known.  An  unprinted  letter 
from  her  to  Queen  Elizabeth  at  Hatfield, 
dated  March  1582,  proves  her  to  have  been 
still  living  then  {Hist.  MSS.  Com.  Rep.  iv. 
221).  Of  his  surviving  sons  no  information 
of  Dudley,  the  younger,  is  extant.  Giles, 
the  elder,  was  given  a  pension  in  1569,  at  Sir 
William  Cecil's  intercession ;  but  its  payment 
was  delayed,  and  several  letters  from  him 
to  the  lord  treasurer  are  extant  petitioning 
for  money.  It  is  clear  from  these  and  later 
letters  among  the  Lansdowne  MSS.  that  his 
life  was,  like   his  father's,  a  long  struggle 


Ascham 


158 


Ascham 


with  poverty.  He  was  in  1573  admitted  to 
Westminster  School,  of  which  Grant,  his 
father's  friend  and  biographer,  had  just  be- 
come head  master.  In  1578  he  went  to 
Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  proceeded  B.A. 
1582-3,  and  was  admitted  a  fellow  under 
royal  mandate  2  Oct.  1583.  He  proceeded 
ALA.  1586  and  B.D.  1593,  and  was  presented 
by  his  college  to  the  vicarage  of  Trumpington 
1590-1,  which  he  resigned  the  same  year. 
About  1595  he  obtained  the  rectory  of 
Duxford  St.  Peter,  Cambridgeshire,  and  died 
shortly  afterwards,  his  will  being  dated 
15  June  1596  (Cooper,  Athen.  Cantab,  ii. 
207). 

No  contemporary  portrait  of  Ascham  is 
known  ;  but  an  engraved  portrait  of  him 
reading  a  letter  to  Queen  Elizabeth,  by 
Michael  Burghers,  was  prefixed  to  Elstob's 
edition  of  his  letters,  published  in  1703. 

The  separate  editions  of  Ascham's  English 
Avorks  are  as  follows:  1.  '  Toxophilus,'  with 
engraved  title-page,  was  first  published  in 
quarto  in  1545 (London,  Edw.  Whytchurch) ; 
second  and  third  editions  appeared  in  1571 
and  1589.  In  1788  and  again  in  1821  the 
llev.  .Tohn  Walters  reprinted,  Avith  a  preface, 
the  edition  of  1571,  and  the  original  edition 
has  since  been  reprinted  by  Dr.  Giles  in  1865, 
and  by  Professor  Arber  in  1868.  The  copy 
of  the  first  edition,  presented  by  Ascham  to 
Edward  VI,  is  in  the  library  of  the  Rev.  Sir 
William  Cope,  at  Bramshill  House,  Hamp- 
shire {Hist.  MSS.  Com.  Rep.  iii.  244). 
2.  'A  Report  and  Discourse  -written  by 
Roger  Ascham  of  the  Affaires  and  State  of 
(lermany  and  the  Emperour  Charles  his  Court, 
duryng  certain  years  while  the  sayd  Roger 
was  there,'  was  first  printed  about  1553  (the 
volume  is  undated).  It  was  republished  in 
1 572.  3.  '  The  Scholemaster,  a  plaine  and 
perfite  way  of  teachyng  children  to  vnder- 
stand,  write,  and  speake  in  Latin  tong,'  was 
fii'st  published  in  1570,  republished  in  1571, 
and  again,  according  to  the  bibliographers, 
in  1572,  1573,  1579,  and  1583.  An  edition 
of  1589  is  well  known.  A  carefully  edited 
reprint  was  issued,  with  introduction  and 
notes,  by  the  Rev.  James  Upton  in  1711, 
and  again  in  1743.  Professor  J.  E.  B.  Mayor 
published  the  best  extant  edition,  with 
elaborate  notes,  in  1863,  and  Professor  Arber 
reprinted  the  first  edition  in  1870.  Extracts 
from  the  'Scholemaster,'  with  critical  re- 
marks, appear  in  Sabourn's  'Epitome  of 
Grammar'  (1733)  and  in  Lefevre's  'Com- 
pendious AVay  of  teaching  ancient  and  mo- 
dern Languages'  (1750).  The  best  analysis 
of  Ascham's  educational  system  is  that  by 
Air.  R.  II.  Quick,  in  his  '  Essavs  on  Educa- 
tional Reformers' (1868). 


Of  Ascham's  Latin  works,  (1)  the  '  Expo- 
sitiones  antiqute  in  Epistolam  Divi  Pauli  ad 
Titum  et  Philemonem  ex  diversis  sanctorum 
Patrum  Gnece  script  is  Commentariis  ab  Qi!cu- 
menico  collect ae  etCantabrigisBLatine  versa)' 
(1542)  was  published  in  his  lifetime.  In  1577 
it  Avas  reprinted  by  EdAvard  Grant,  Avitli 
Ascham's  (2)  '  Apologia  pro  Ctiena  Dominica 
contra  Missam  et  ejus  pr«estigias,'  Avhich  Avas 
then  published  for  the  first  time.  (3)  A 
little  A  oliune,  printed  at  Strasburg  in  1551 , 
contained  Ascham's  'Epistola  J.  Stiu-mio 
de  Nobilitate  Anglicana,  4  Apr.  1550,'  Avitli 
'  Conradi  Herksbachii  de  laudibus  literarum 
Graecarum  Oratio.' 

Of  his  letters,  Edward  Grant,  his  bio- 
grapher, Avho  Avas  a  sizar  of  St.  John's  College 
in  1563,  and  afterAA-ards  head-master  of 
AVestminster  School,  published  a  selection, 
Avith  a  Aery  full  life  in  Latin,  and  several  of 
his  Latin  poems,  under  the  title  of '  Familia- 
rium  Epistolarum  libri  tres  magna  orationis 
elegantia  conscripti,  nunc  denuo  emendati  et 
aucti,'  in  1576.  The  book  Avas  dedicated  to 
Queen  Elizabeth,  and  Avas  republished  in  IjOU- 
don  in  1578  and  1590,  at  Hanover  in  1 602  and 
1610,  and  at  Nuremberg  in  1611.  In  170.'i 
AVilliam  Elstob  published  a  neAV  and  much 
enlarged  edition  at  Oxford  under  the  tith; 
'  Rogeri  Aschami  Epistolarum  libri  quatuor : 
accessit  Joannis  Sturmii  aliorumque  ad 
Aschamum  Anglosque  alios  eruditos  Epistf)- 
larum  liber  unus.'  A  number  of  Ascham's 
English  letters  Avere  printed  for  the  first 
time  in  AVhittaker's  '  Richmondshire '  in 
1823  (i.  265-90). 

Of  collected  editions  of  Ascham's  English 
Avorks,  James  Bennet  issued  the  first  in  a 
single  volume  in  1771.  Besides  the  three 
English  books,  many  letters  are  added,  and 
a  life  by  Dr.  Johnson  is  prefixed,  in  Avhich  he 
states  (p.  xxi)  that  Ascham  'Avas  scarcely 
known  as  an  author  in  his  own  language  till 
Mr.  Upton  published  his  "  Scholemaster  " '  in 
1711.  A  second  collected  edition,  limited 
to  250  copies,  appeared  in  1815,  edited  bv 
J.  E.  Cochrane.  In  1864-5  Dr.  Giles  pulj- 
lished,  in  three  volumes,  the  completest  edi- 
tion of  the  kind.  It  included  295  Latin 
and  English  letters,  many  of  which  Avere 
printed  for  the  first  time  from  British  AIu- 
seum  and  Cambridge  manuscripts,  besides 
six  letters  of  Giles  Ascham  from  the  Lans- 
downe  MSS.  and  Grant's  Latin  life.  The 
references  to  Ascham's  letters  in  this  article 
are  to  the  numbers  given  them  in  Dr.  Giles's 
collection. 

[Materials  for  Ascham's  life  are  abundanr. 
Grant's  Oratio  de  Vita  etObitu  Rogeri  Aschami, 
published  with  an  Epistola  Dedittitoria  to  Eliza- 
beth in  1576,  is  the  original  source,  and  with 


Asgill 


159 


Asgill 


\schjim'8  many  letters  gives  very  detailed  in- 
iurmation.  The  notice  in  Cole  MS.  Athen. 
Cantab,  i.  13  is  of  little  value.  Dr.  .Tohnson 
chiefly  depended  on  Grant,  and  Hartley  Col  eriilge's 
sketch  of  Ascham  in  his  Worthies  of  Yorkshire 
and  Lancashire  is  a  loose  translation  of  the 
Oratio.  His  letters  are  little  utilised  by  either 
of  these  writers.  Dr.  Katterfeld,  in  Roger  As- 
cham, sein  Leben  iind  seine  Werke,  1879,  gives  a 
A'ery  full  and  scholarly  account  of  Ascham.  See 
also  Cooper's  Athen.  Cantab,  i.  263-8;  Cooper's 
Annals  of  Cambridge;  Baker's  Hist,  of  St. 
-luhn's  College;  Biog.  Brit. ;  Fuller's  Worthies; 
Jlayor's  edition  of  the  Scholemaster.] 

S.  L.  L. 


ASGILL,  Sir  CHARLES  (1762  or  1763- 
1  >^'23),  general,  was  the  only  son  of  the  first 
Sir  Charles  Asgill,  who  had  risen  from  a 
<!erksliip  to  a  partnership  in  a  bank ;  was 
alderman  1749-77;  sheriff  and  knighted 
1 752 ;  lord  mayor  1757 ;  baronet  1761 ;  and 
<lied  15  Sept,  1788.  The  son  entered  the  army 
on  27  Feb.  1778,  as  ensign  in  the  1st  foot 
guards,  and  became  lieutenant  in  the  same 
ri'giment  with  the  rank  of  captain  on  3  Feb. 
1781.  In  t  hat  year  he  was  ordered  to  America, 
joined  the  army  under  the  Marquis  of  Corn- 
wallis,  and  on  the  capitulation  of  York  Town, 
\'irginia,  in  the  following  October,  he  was 
taken  prisoner.  Some  months  afterwards,  a 
Captain  Huddy,  an  officer  in  the  American 
army,  was  taken  prisoner  by  some  American 
loyalists,  and,  in  retaliation  for  the  death  of  a 
loyalist  named  Philip  White,  was  hanged  by  a 
party  under  the  command  of  Captain  Lippin- 
cot.  On  this  coming  to  the  ears  of  Washmg- 
ton,  he  demanded  of  the  British  general.  Sir 
1  Itmry  Clinton,  that  he  should  give  up  Lippin- 
cot.  Sir  Henry,  in  reply,  disavowed  and  re- 
probated the  act '  with  unmeasured  severity,' 
but  declined  to  give  up  Lippincot,  and  re- 
ferred the  matter  to  a  court  martial.  On 
this,  Washington  directed  that  a  British 
captain  should  be  taken  by  lot  from  among 
the  prisoners  to  suffer  death,  should  Lip- 

fincot  not  be  executed,  and  wrote  to  Sir 
lenry  to  that  effect.  The  lot  fell  on  Asgill. 
The  court  martial  which  tried  Lippincot 
accjuitted  him,  on  the  gi-ound  that  the  guilt 
'>f  the  act  rested  mainly  on  the  Board  of 
Associated  Loyalists  at  S'ew  York,  the  pre- 
sident of  which  had  verbally  ordered  Lip- 
pincot to  execute  the  prisoner.  Sir  Henry 
sent  the  proceedings  of  the  court  martial  to 
Washington,  who,  '  considering  the  ground 
taken  by  the  British  commander  in  dis- 
avowing and  censuring  the  act,  added  to 
the  irresponsible  nature  of  Lippincot's  con- 
duct,' was  inclined  to  release  Captain  Asgill 
(Spark's  Life  of  Washington,  p.  352).  When 
Asgill's  mother  heard  what  had  hannened. 


heard  what  had  happened, 


she  sent  a  pathetic  appeal  to  the  Comte  de 
Vergennes,  the  French  prime  minister,  en- 
treating him  to  intercede  in  behalf  of  lier 
son.  The  Comte  laid  the  matter  before 
Louis  XVI.  and  his  queen,  and,  directed  by 
them,  sent  an  urgent  appeal  to  Washington, 
who  forwarded  the  letter  to  the  American 
Congress.  On  7  Nov.  an  act  was  passed  by 
Congress  releasing  Asgill,  who  at  once  re- 
turned on  parole  to  England. 

On  the  death  of  his  father  in  1788,  Asgill 
succeeded  to  the  baronetcy,  and  in  the  same 
year  he  married  Sophia,  daughter  of  Admiral 
Sir  Charles  Ogle,  Kt.  Soon  aftenvards  he 
was  appointed  equerry  to  the  Duke  of  York, 
and  on  3  March  1790  was  promoted  to  a 
company  in  the  Guards  with  the  rank  of 
lieutenant-colonel.  Towards  the  end  of 
1793  he  was  ordered  to  the  Continent, 
where  he  joined  the  army  of  the  Duke  of 
York,  served  through  the  campaign  in  Flan- 
ders and  the  retreat  through  Holland,  and 
aftei-wards  returned  to  England.  On  26 
Feb.  1795  he  was  promoted  to  the  rank  of 
colonel ;  to  that  of  brigadier  on  the  staff  of 
Ireland  in  1797 ;  and  to  that  of  major-general 
on  1  Jan.  1798,  during  Avhich  year  he  was 
actively  engaged  in  suppressing  the  rebel- 
lion. On  9  May  1800  he  was  appointed 
colonel  of  the  46th  foot,  and  placed  in  com- 
mand of  the  garrison  of  Dublin,  and  occa- 
sionally in  that  of  the  camp  of  instruction 
formed  on  the  Cnrragh.  He  obtained  the 
rank  of  lieutenant-general  on  1  Feb.  1805, 
the  colonelcy  of  the  85th  foot  in  Oct.  1806, 
and  that  of  the  11th  foot  on  25  Feb.  1807, 
for  which  regiment  he  raised  a  second  bat- 
talion. He  remained  on  the  staff  till  1812, 
and  was  promoted  to  the  rank  of  general  on 
4  June  1814,  He  died  in  1823,  leaving  no 
issue,  and  the  baronetcy  then  became  extinct, 

[Gentleman's  Mag.  vol. xciii. part  ii.  pp.  274-5 ; 
Gordon's  History  of  the  Rise,  I'rogress,  and  Es>- 
tablishment  of  the  Independence  of  the  United 
States  of  America,  vol.  iv.  pp.  248,  249,  284-291 ; 
Spark's  Life  of  Washington,  p.  350  ;  Irving's 
Life  of  Washington,  vol.  iv.  p.  422  ;  IlamiUou's 
History  of  the  Republic  of  the  United  States 
of  America,  vol.  ii.  p.  282  ;  Spark's  Diplomatic 
Correspondence,  vol.  xi.  pp.  105,  128,  140;  An- 
nual Register,  vol.  xxvi.  pp.  241-245  of  tlie 
'  Chronicles.']  A.  S.  B. 

ASGILL,  JOHN  (1059-1738),  an  eccen- 
tric writer,  wa>8  born  at  Hanley  Castle, 
Worcestershire,  and  baptised  25  March  1659 
(Notes  and  Queries,  4th  ser.  v,  569).  He 
became  a  student  of  the  Middle  Temple  in 
1686,  and  was  called  to  the  bar  in  1692. 
He  was  patronised  by  Eyre,  one  of  Wil- 
liam Ill's  judges,  and  became  the  friend 
and  executor  of  Dr,  Barbon,  speculator  and 


Asgill 


160 


Asgill 


author  [see  Baebon,  Nicholas].  As  Bar- 
bon's  heir,  Asgill  acquired  an  interest  in  the 
borough  of  Bramber.  Barbon  selected  As- 
gill for  his  executor,  it  is  added,  in  order  that 
his  debts  might  never  be  paid— a  fact  which 
Asgill  announced  to  the  creditoi's,  adding 
that  he  should  religiously  observe  his  friend's 
wishes.  He  naturally  got  into  difficulties. 
In  1696  he  published  a  pamphlet,  suggested 
by  theabortiAe scheme  of  the  land  bank, pro- 
posing the  issue  of '  another  species  of  money 
than  gold  or  silver,'  or  in  other  words  a  kind 
of  assif/nats.  In  1698  he  published  another 
pamphlet,  advocating  a  registry  of  titles  of 
lands  in  a  quaint  mixture  of  scriptural  and 
legal  arguments.  The  next  year  appeared  his 
best  known  work,  an  argument  to  prove  that 
death  was  not  obligatory  upon  Christians. 
Asgill  was  just  starting  for  Ireland,  where 
the  act  for  resuming  to  the  public  the  for- 
feited estates  which  had  been  given  away  by 
William  was  providing  work  for  lawyers.  As- 
gill's  printers  had  thought  him  mad,  and  the 
reputation  was,  as  he  says,  useful  to  him  in 
Ireland  by  increasing  his  notoriety.  He  ob- 
tained business  enough  to  encourage  him  to  a 
speculative  purchase.  He  bought,  in  1708,  the 
forfeited  life-interest  in  certain  estates  of  the 
second  Lord  Kenmare,  an  adherent  of  James 
II.  About  the  same  time,  presumably,  he  mar- 
ried Kenmare's  eldest  daughter,  Avho  had  been 
brought  up  as  a  protestant  by  her  grandmother. 
He  was  consequently  elected  member  for 
Enniscorthy  in  the  Irish  House  of  Commons, 
but  got  into  ruinous  entanglements.  The 
liouse  ordered  his  pamphlet  on  death  to  be 
l)urnt  by  the  hangman,  and  a  fortnight  after- 
wards (11  Oct.  1703)  expelled  him  and  de- 
clared him  incapable  of  sitting  again.  The 
guardian  of  Lord  Kenmare's  children  com- 
plained in  a  petition  to  the  house  that  As- 
gill had  bought  the  estates  as  agent  for  the 
children  and  now  refused  to  convey  them. 
The  petition  was  rejected  (10  Nov.  1703),  but 
Asgill  seems  to  have  got  nothing  but  trouble 
from  his  purchase.  A  catholic,  he  tells  us 
{Postscript  to  Defence  upon  his  Expulsion^,  be- 
came protestant  enough  to  be  qualified  as 
*  leasetaker  '  for  some  of  the  land,  and  then 
got  Asgill  outlawed  in  Ireland  on  an  action 
for  debt,  to  prevent  him  suing  for  rent,  and 
ne^er  paid  any  rent  afterwards.  Asgill  re- 
turned to  England,  where  he  liad  been  elected 
member  for  Bramber  in  October  1702.  He 
sat  in  the  next  parliament  from  October  1705, 
served  on  several  committees,  and  obtained  an 
act  of  relief  (14  Feb.  1705-6)  for  not  having 
paid  at  the  right  time  an  instalment  of  the 
purchase  money  for  the  Kenmare  estates. 
On  the  dissolution  of  1707  he  was  arrested 
for  debt  of  near  10,000/.  *at  the  procure- 


ment,' he  says,  of  ColonelJohn  Rice,  thou 
the  debt  was  due  to  otlier  persons ;  and  bei 
returned  to  the  next  parliament,  petitior 
for  his  release.  After  an  elaborate  inves 
gation  of  precedents  by  a  committee,  t 
House  ordered  his  release  ;  but  another  co 
mittee  was  appointed  to  examine  his  boo 
and  on  18  Dec.  1707  the  book  Avas  ordei 
to  be  burnt,  and  Asgill,  having  appeared 
his  place  and  made  his  defence  (published 
1712),  Avas  expelled. 

Asgill  declares  that  the  Irish  difficult 
were  the  real  cause  of  his  expulsion,  thou 
the  story  is  not  clear.  Colonel  Rice,  forme: 
in  James's  army,  had  obtained,  in  1705-6 
sum  of  11,000/.  in  debentures  on  the  forfeit 
estates  for  his  services  at  the  capitulation 
Limerick  in  preventing  the  regiment  Avh 
he  had  commanded  under  James  from  taki 
foreign  service.  He  pledged  part  of  tin 
debentures  to  various  persons,  and  invest 
part  in  the  purchase  of  some  of  the  lands 
Avhich  Asgill  had  invested  his  money.  Co 
plaints  having  been  made,  a  commission  ai 
appointed  to  force  Rice  to  account  for  the  su 
A  report  Avas  made  by  the  commission,  a 
Asgill  petitioned  the  house,  after  his  exp 
sion,  to  take  it  into  consideration.  A  d 
Avas  appointed  for  the  purpose,  but  after 
peated  adjournments  the  business  seems 
have  fallen  through  at  the  end  of  the  sessii 
The  report,  preserved  at  the  House  of  Lor 
shows  that  Asgill  and  the  guardian  of  K( 
mare's  children  had  couAeyed  certain  lar 
and  woods  to  tAvo  persons  named  Matthe 
and  Wetton,  in  consideration  of  debentu 
for  2,500/.  handed  over  by  Rice.  Asgill  sj 
that  Matthews  and  Wetton  had  prosecut 
him,  and  that  he  AA^as  accused  of  a  breach 
trust,  though  the  Irish  House  of  Commc 
had  rejected  the  accusation  as  ridiculo 
The  facts  seem  to  be  unascertainable.  A 
gill  surrendered  to  his  creditors  and  pass 
the  rest  of  his  life  in  the  Fleet  or  within  t 
rules  of  the  King's  Bench.  He  lost  his  w 
some  time  between  1707  and  1712 ;  but 
retained  his  vivacity  to  the  last,  and  si 
ported  himself  by  Avriting  pamphlets  a 
drawing  legal  papers.  He  was  commor 
called  '  translated  Asgill,'  as  claiming  to  ha 
been  '  translated '  Avithout  dying,  but  fina 
died  in  his  eightieth  year,  though  report 
to  be  near  one  hundred,  in  November  173i 

Asgill's  seriousness  in  the  pamphlet 
death  was  doubted  at  the  time.  A  Germ 
traveller  in  1710  (Offenbach's  Merkwiird, 
Heisen,  ii.  200)  gives  a  report  that  it  \^ 
Avritten  in  answer  to  a  lady's  challenge 
show  his  skill  in  maintaining  paradoxes.  T 
book  itself  indicates  no  want  of  sinceri 
though  some  ludicrous  phrases   were   vc 


Asgill. 


i6i 


Ash 


unfairly  wrested  by  the  committee  of  the 
English  House  of  Commons  to  colour  the 
charge  of  blasphemy.     It  interprets  the  re- 
lations between  God  and  man  by  the  techni- 
cal rules  of  English  law.     Death  being  the 
penalty  imposed  by  Adam's  sin,  and  Christ 
having  satisfied   the   law,   death  could   no 
longer  be  legally  inflicted,  and  all  who  claim 
their  rights  will  be  exempt.    Asgill  professes 
that,  having  claimed  his  discharge,  he  expects 
*  to  make  his  exit  by  way  of  translation.'  The 
book  is  written  in  pithy  detached  sentences. 
Coleridge  declares  that  there  is  no  '  genuine 
Saxon  English'  finer  than  Asgill's;  thinks 
his  irony  often  finer  than  Swift  s ;  and  calls 
him  '  a  consummate  artist  in  the  statement 
of  his  case.'     The  praise  seems   excessive,  ! 
though  not  groundless ;  but  we  may  accept  j 
Coleridge's  conclusion  that  Asgill  was  a  hu- 
morist  who  did  not  himself  know  how  far 
he  was  serious.    Full  extracts  may  be  found  j 
in  Southey's  '  Doctor.'     In  recent  years  As-  j 
gill  found  a  disciple  in  a  Mr.  Tresham  Gregg,  I 
an   Irish  clergyman,  who  republished   the 
pamphlet  with  some  introductory  notes. 

Asgill's  pamphlet  on  Registration,  with  a 
sequel,  is  published  in  the  collection  of  State 
Tracts  for  the  reign  of  William  III  (ii. 
693,  704).  His  chief  MT-itings  are :  1.  '  An 
Argument  proving  that  according  to  the  co- 
\  enant  of  eternal  life  revealed  in  the  Scrip- 
tures, man  may  be  translated  from  hence 
into  that  eternal  life  without  passing  through 
death,  although  the  human  nature  of  Christ 
himself  could  not  so  be  translated  until 
he  had  passed  through  death,'  London,  1700. 
2.  *  Mr.  Asgill's  Defence  upon  his  Expulsion 
from  the  House  of  Commons  of  Great  Britain 
in  1707,'  London,  1712.  3.  '  The  Metamor- 
phosis of  Man  by  the  Death  and  Resurrection 
of  Jesus  Christ  from  the  Dead,' London,  1727. 

4.  '  De  Jure  Divino,  or  an  assertion  that  the 
title  of  the  House  of  Hanover  to  the  succes- 
sion of  the  British  monarchy  (on  failure  of 
issue  from  her  present  majesty)  is  a  title 
hereditaiy  and  of  divine  institiition,'  1710. 

5.  *  Asgill  upon  Woolston,'  1730 ;  and  other 
trifling  pamphlets. 

[Article  in  Biographia  Britannica,  founded  on 
:i  MS.  Life  of  Asgill  by  his  intimate  friend,  Mr. 
A. ;  .Journals  of  the  Irish  House  of  Commons, 
October  and  November  1703  ;  Lords  and  Com- 
mons Journals  from  December  1705  to  April 
1708;  MS.  Report  in  the  House  of  Lords; 
Lodge's  Peerage  of  Ireland  (by  Archdall),  vii. 
•57;  Compleat  History  of  Europe  for  1707; 
Fraser's  Magazine  for  Augast  1871  ;  Asgill's  De- 
fence (as  above) ;  Asgill's  Argument  to  prove  that 
death  is  not  obligatory  on  Christians,  with  me- 
moir and  notes  by  Rev.  Tresham  D.  Gregg, 
187-5  ;  Coleridge's  Literary  Remains  (1836),  ii. 

VOL.  II. 


390;  Coleridge's  Table-Talk.  30  .April  1832,  and 
15  May  1833;  Southey's  Doctor,  chaps.  172, 
731.]  L.  S. 

ASH,  JOHN,  LL.D.  (1724  P-1779), 
lexicographer,  was  born  in  Dorsetsliire  about 
1724.  He  studied  for  the  ministry  at  Bristol, 
under  Folltett ;  became  pastor  of  the  baptist 
church  at  Lough  wood,  Dorsetshire,  and  while 
there  contributed  to  periodicals.  He  settled 
in  the  ministry  at  Pershore,  Worcestershire, 
1746,  as  the  result  of  a  compromise  between 
different  parties  in  the  congregation.  He 
obtained  the  degree  of  LL.D.  from  Scotland, 
1774,  and  died  at  Pershore  in  March  or  April 
1779,  aged  55.  He  was  author  of  '  Intro- 
duction to  Lowth's  English  Grammar,' 1766; 
*  New  and  Complete  Dictionary  of  the  English 
Language,'  2  vols.  1775,  2nd  edition  1795 
(incoi"porates  most  of  Bailey's  collection  of 
canting  words,  and  many  provincial  terms, 
with  no  nice  discrimination :  best  known  for 
the  blunder  under  '  curmudgeon,'  which 
Johnson  derived  from  ccpw  m^chant,  on  the 
authority  of  an  '  unknown  cori'espondent ;' 
Ash  gives  it  as  '  from  the  French  cwur  un- 
known, mechant  correspondent ')  ;  '  Senti- 
ments on  Education,'  2  vols.  1777  ;  Sermon, 
1778 ;  *■  Dialogues  of  Eumenes.' 

[Funeral  Sermon,  by  Dr.  John  Evans;  and 
Walter  Wilson's  Manuscripts  at  Dr.  Williams's 
Library.]  A.  G. 

ASH,  JOHN  (1723-1798),  physician, 
was  bom  in  Warwickshire,  and  educated  at 
Trinity  College,  Oxford  ;  was  B.A.  in  1743, 
M. A.  in  1746,  M.B.  in  1750,  and  M.D.  in  1754. 
He  settled  at  Binningham,  and  soon  acquired 
I  a  large  practice.  The  general  hospital  at 
I  Binningham  was  founded  chiefly  through 
I  his  influence,  and  he  was  its  first  physician. 
While  actively  engaged  in  practice  he  be- 
!  came  affected  with  temporary  mental  de- 
I  rangement,  for  which  it  is  said  he  found  a 
cure  in  the  study  of  mathematics  and  botany. 
He  was  admitted  a  candidate  of  the  Royal 
College  of  Physicians  22  Dec.  1786,  and  in 
the  following  year  resigned  his  office  in 
Birmingham  and  removed  to  London.  He 
became  fellow  of  the  College  of  Physicians 
22  Dec.  1787,  and  afterwards  practised  with 
success  in  London.  He  filled  the  offices  of 
censor  of  the  college  in  1789  and  1793  ;  was 
Harveian  orator  in  1790,  Gulstonian  lec- 
turer in  1791,  and  Croonian  lecturer  in  1793. 
He  died  18  June  1798,  and  was  buried  in 
Kensington  church.  His  portrait,  by  Sir 
Joshua  Reynolds,  is  preserved  in  the  hospital 
at  Birmingham,  and  was  engraved  by  Barto- 
lozzi  in  1791. 

Dr,  Ash  is  described  as  a  man  of  great 
skill  in  his  profession,  and  of  considerable 


Ashburne 


162 


Ashburnham 


general  attainments.  He  was  the  founder 
of  a  social  and  literary  club,  called  the 
Eumelian,  from  a  punning  allusion  to  his 
own  name  (Greek  evfieXias  or  more  correctly 
evfififXirjs,  i.e.  with  an  ashen  spear,  referred 
to  in  BosweU's  '  Life  of  Johnson,'  note  to 
the  last  chapter),  and  was  a  fellow  of  the 
Royal  Society.  He  wi-ote  :  1.  '  Experiments 
and  Observations  to  investigate  by  Chemical 
Analysis  the  properties  of  the  Mineral  Waters 
of  Spa,  Aix,'  &c.  12mo,  London,  1788. 
2.  Oratio  Harveiana,  4to,  1790. 

[Gent.  Mag.  vol.  Ixviii.  1798;  Biog.  Diet,  of 
Useful  Knowledge  Society,  article  by  Gr.  E. 
Paget,  M.D.  (from MS.  communications) ;  Munk's 
Eoll  of  College  of  Physicians,  ii.  378.] 

J.  F.  P. 

ASHBURNE,  THOMAS  de.  [See 
Thomas.] 

ASHBURNHAM,  JOHN  (1603-1671), 
royalist,  was  the  eldest  son  of  Sir  John 
Ashburnham  by  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Sir 
Thomas  Beaumont.  Sir  John  died  in  1620, 
having  wasted  his  estate,  and  leaving  his 
family  in  penury.  But  within  two  years  his 
heir  had  so  far  repaired  their  broken  fortune, 
that  (says  the  epitaph  in  Ashburnham  church, 
Sussex)  '  there  were  none  of  them  but  were 
in  a  condition  rather  to  be  helpful  to  others 
than  to  want  support  themselves.' 

Elizabeth  Beaumont  was  of  the  same  family 
as  Lady  Villiers,  mother  of  the  Duke  of  Buck- 
ingham, and  under  Buckingham's  patronage 
began  the  court  career  of  John  Ashburnham. 
In  1627  he  was  already  well  known  to  the 
king,  who  styles  him  '  Jack  Ashburnham '  in 
his  letters  to  the  duke.  The  murder  of  Buck- 
ingham in  August  1628  did  not  injure  the 
fortunes  of  his  prot6g6,  who  was,  in  November 
of  the  same  year,  '  sworn  into  the  place  of 
groom  of  the  bedchamber.'  The  Calendars 
of  State  Papers  contain  ample  evidence  that 
he  and  his  friend,  the  secretary  Nicholas, 
omitted  few  of  the  many  opportunities  given 
them  by  their  position  at  court  to  enrich 
themselves  by  money-lending  or  by  the  pur- 
chase of  land  at  easy  rates.  In  1638  the  Star- 
chamber  fine  of  two  thousand  marks,  inflicted 
on  Sir  Walter  Ijong  and  his  brother,  was  as- 
signed to  Ashburnham  '  in  satisfaction  of  so 
much  due  from  his  majesty  to  him,'  and  in 
December  of  the  next  year  a  warrant  under 
the  privy  seal  enabled  him  to  regain  his  an- 
cestral estate  of  Ashburnham,  which  had  be- 
come a  ruinous  burden  to  its  actual  possessors. 
If  the  dates  assigned  in  the  printed  calendars 
be  correct,  Ashburnham  had  not  obtained  the 
favour  of  this  warrant  until  six  years  after  his 
petition  for  it.  His  friends,  Nicholas  and 
Goring,  were  'very  careful  of  his  interest'  (as 


he  himself  acknowledges),  in  promoting  h 
appointment  as  '  provided '  to  the  army  the 
in  preparation  for  Scotland  (January  1640 
Their  success  prevented  his  election  for  Ha; 
tings  when  the  commons  were  sununoned  i 
April,  only  to  be  dissolved  in  May ;  but  li 
was  returned  for  that  place  in  Novembe: 
when  the  failure  of  the  war,  the  necessities  c 
the  king,  and  the  exasperation  of  the  peopli 
had  rendered  inevitable  the  meeting  of  anotht 
— the  Long — parliament.  No  speech  of  hi 
is  recorded,  but  liis  name  frequently  occui 
as  on  committees,  or  as  a  teller  on  division! 
during  the  earlier  sessions  of  that  assembl;; 
As  time  went  on,  his  two  functions  of  membc 
of  parliament  and  servant  of  the  king  becam 
incompatible,  and  when  his  attendance  o 
his  master  prevented  his  obeying  the  sun 
mons  of  the  house,  he  was  proceeded  agains 
for  contempt  (6  May  1642).  The  king  wrot 
a  letter  to  the  commons  in  his  justificatior 
but  the  house  maintained  its  prior  right  t 
the  obedience  of  its  member.  Ashburnhar 
was  '  discharged  and  disabled  '  (5  Feb.  1643 
his  estate  was  sequestrated  (14  Sept.),  and  hi 
wife's  petition  for  some  allowance  for  hi 
children  was  rejected.  He  became  the  tret 
surer  and  paymaster  of  the  king's  army.  Fc 
the  next  three  years  his  name  occurs  in  seven 
negotiations  for  peace.  He  was  one  of  tli 
commissioners  at  Uxbridge  (1644),  and  on 
of  the  four  appointed  to  lay  the  king's  pre 
posals  before  parliament  (December  1645 
When  Fairfax  prepared  to  besiege  Oxford,  an 
Charles  determined  upon  flight,  Ashburnhai 
and  Dr.  Hudson  were  the  sole  attendants  c 
the  king  in  the  perilous  journey  to  the  Scotc 
camp.  Hudson  was  released,  and  his  trouble 
life  was  ended  by  his  barbarous  murdt 
(6  June  1648).  Ashburnham  was  positivel 
commanded  by  the  king  to  fly  before  coi 
firmation  of  the  order  to  send  him  up  t 
London  as  a  delinquent  could  be  receivec 
He  got  safely  to  Holland,  and  thence  to  tli 
queen  at  Paris.  In  1647  the  king's  fortun 
seemed  upon  the  turn.  The  army  had  take 
possession  of  him  at  Holmby,  had  treated  hii 
with  respect,  and  allowed  him  '  to  have  Avhii 
servants  about  him  he  pleased.'  Ashburi 
ham  resumed  his  attendance  on  his  mast€ 
at  Hampton  Court.  But  the  army  leadei 
changed  their  tone.  Cliarles  was  haunted  b 
the  dread  of  assassination.  He  Avas  constant! 
receiving  warnings,  anonymous  and  avowee 
that  his  murder  was  resolved  upon.  At  Asl: 
burnham's  suggestion  he  made  proposals  t 
the  Scotch  commissioners  for  his  sudden  joui 
ney  to  London  and  personal  treaty  with  th 
parliament.  But  the  arrangement  fell  througl 
the  commissioners  dreading  the  responsibility 
Charles,  resolved  to  stay  no  longer  in  Hamj 


Ashburnham 


163 


Ashburnham 


ton  Court  and  impatient  to  be  gone,  com- 
manded Ashburnham  and  his  other  confidants, 
Sir  John  Berkeley  and  Legge,  to  propose  some 
place  for  him  to  go  to.  Ashburnham  men- 
tioned Sir  John  Oglander's  house  in  the  Isle 
of  Wight  as  a  place  where  the  king  might  be 
concealed  till  the  disposition  of  the  governor 
of  the  island,  Colonel  Robert  Hammond,  could 
be  ascertained.  If  Hammond  were  not  to  be 
trusted,  the  fugitive  could  secretly  take  ship 
for  France.  There  was  nothing  impracticable 
in  the  plan,  but  its  success  depended  upon 
keeping  the  I'oyal  whereabout  from  the  know- 
ledge of  Hammond,  until  the  governor  had 
fully  engaged  himself  to  respect  the  king's 
liberty  of  action.  This  pai'ticular  was  ne- 
glected, and  the  secret  divulged  by  Berke- 
ley. The  governor,  having  given  assurances 
of  loyalty,  was  taken  to  the  house  wherein 
Charles  was  awaiting  the  result  of  the  inter- 
view. When  informed  of  his  approach,  the 
king  exclaimed,  '  ()  Jack,  thou  hast  undone 
me  ! '  The  foreboding  was  true,  llefusing 
the  desperate  offer  of  Ashburnham  to  make 
all  safe  by  killing  Hammond,  Charles  again 
became  virtually  a  prisoner. 

His  share  in  this  transaction  exposed  Ash- 
burnham to  the  suspicions  of  the  royalists, 
and  his  explanation,  printed  in  1648,  was  of 
necessity  so  guarded  as  to  be  ineft'ective.     A 
full  narrative  draAvn  up  by  him  and  shown 
to  many  of  his  contemporaries — Clarendon 
among  the  rest — remained  unpublished  until 
1830,  when  his  descendant,  Lord  Ashburn- 
ham, printed  it  with  full  elucidation,  and  ac- 
companied it  with  a  complete,  caustic  com- 
mentary on  all  the  passages  wherein  Clarendon 
has  made  mention  of  the  writer.     The  repu- 
tation of  Ashburnham  is  cleared,    and  the 
treachery  and  malevolence  of  the  noble  his- 
torian are  exposed  with  unsparing  severity. 
Ashburnham  was  parted  from  his  master  by 
order  of  the  parliament  1  Jan.  1648,  was  im- 
prisoned in  Windsor  Castle  (May),  and  when 
the  second  civil  war  broke  out  was  exchanged 
for  Sir  William  Masham.     He  was  not  al- 
lowed to  attend  the  king  during  the  ti'eaty  at 
Newport  (August),  and  was  included  among  j 
the  delinquents  who  were  to  expect  no  par-  j 
don  (13  Oct.).     His  position  after  the  kings  ! 
death  was  unenviable.     He  had  acquired  an 
•estate  by  his  second  marriage  with  the  Dow- 
ager Lady  Poulett  (1649),  and  Charles  II 
gave  him  permission  to  stay  in  England  to 
preserve  it.     The  loyal  party  suspected  his  , 
fidelity,  and  (March  1650)  in  a  memorial  to  j 
the  king  asked  whether  they  might  trust  him.  j 
He  was  harassed  by  the  victors.     He  was  j 
sued  for  debts  contracted  for  the  late  king,  i 
He  was  forced  to  compoimd  for  one  half  of  ! 
his  estate,  an  unparalleled  severity.     He  was  I 


I  bound  in  heavy  securities  to  appear,  when 
required,  before  the  council  of  state.  His 
private  journeys  were  licensed  by  a  'pass' 
from  the  same  authority.  For  three  years  he 
was  so  persecuted  by  committees  to  discover 
who  had  lent  the  king  money  during  the  wars 
that  '  I  had  scarce  time  to  eat  my  bread.' 
'Five  years  more,'  he  continues,  '  were  spent 
in  close  imprisonment  at  London,  and  three 
banishments  to  Guernsey  Castle,  the  cause 
being  for  sending  money  to  his  majesty.'  In 
a  list  of  the  Tower  prisoners  furnished  by 
Colonel  Barkstead  (2  June  1654), '  John  Ash- 
burnham '  appears  as  prisoner  for  high  trea- 
^  son ;  but  this  is  probably  a  slip  for  *  William,' 
who  was  at  that  time  in  custody  for  com- 
plicity in  the  plot  of  Gerard  and  Vowel. 
John's  case  was  (27  Dec.  1655)  referred  to 
,  the  major-generals  of  the  counties  where  his 
estate  lay.  At  the  Kestoration  Ashburnham 
came  back  to  his  old  place  of  gi'oom  of  the 
bedchamber.  Of  his  zeal  thei'ein  Pepys  makes 
a  half-pathetic  record  (2  Sept.  1667),  recall- 
.  ing  Shakespeare's  '  Adam '  and  '  the  goodly 
'  service  of  the  antique  world.'  The  same 
j  authority  elsewhere  mentions  him  as  '  a 
!  pleasant  man,  one  Avho  hath  seen  much  of 
the  world  and  more  of  the  court.'  Of  the 
,  Hampton  Court  business,  Pepys  notes  that, 
'  after  solemnly  charging  each  other  with  its 
I  failure,  and  being  publicly  at  daggers  drawn 
about  it,'  Ashburnham,  Berkeley,  and  Legge 
*  are  now  the  best  friends  in  the  world.'  Be- 
sides his  place  Ashburnham  received  what 
acknowledgment  of  his  loyalty  the  royal 
treasury,  impoverished  by  many  claimants, 
could  aftbrd.  He  was  (September  1661 )  the 
head  of  a  commission  to  inquire  into  the 
abuses  in  the  post  office.  His  house  at  Chis- 
wick,  with  its  contents,  was  purchased  by  the 
king  for  the  Duke  of  Monmouth,  of  whom 
(January  1665)  he  was  made  one  of  the  guar- 
dians. His  loans  to  Charles  I  were  paid  by 
grants  of  crown  leases,  but  his  schemes  for 
the  acquisition  of  land  do  not  appear  to  have 
run  so  smoothly  as  in  the  former  reign.  The 
dean  and  chapter  of  Exeter  are  menaced 
(November  1662)  with  the  royal  displeasure 
if  they  can-y  out  their  projected  lease '  to  John 
Ashburnham  or  to  any  other.'  He  and  his 
brother  AVilliam  shared  in  an  enterprise  for 
reviving  the  manufacture  of  tapestry  at  Mort- 
lake  (March  and  April  1667).  John  Ashburn- 
ham died  in  1671.  His  gi-andson  was  raised 
to  the  peerage  in  1689.  His  portrait  by  My- 
tens  has  been  engraved  as  a  frontispiece  to 
the  volumes  published  by  his  descendant  and 
quoted  above. 

[Narrative,  edited  by  Lord  Ashburnham,  1830; 
Calendars  of  State  Papers,  Domestic] 

R.  C.  B. 
M  2 


Ashburnham 


164 


Ashby 


ASHBURNHAM,  WILLIAM  (d.  1679), 
royalist,  was  tlie  younger  brother  of  John. 
He  was  member  for  Lndgershall  in  both  the 
parliaments  held  in  1640,  and  in  1644  was 
governor  of  Weymouth,  which  place  he 
kept  four  months  for  the  king.  Ten  years 
later  (3  June  1654)  he  was  arrested  and  ex- 
amined on  the  charge  of  complicity  in  that 
plot  to  murder  the  Protector  for  which  Gerard 
and  Vowel  afterwards  suffered.  He  does  not, 
however,  appear  to  have  been  sent  before  the 
high  court  of  justice.  After  the  Restoration 
he  was  made  cofterer  of  the  household.  He 
was  freqviently  a  fellow-guest  and  a  sharer  in 
treasury  business  with  Pepys,  who  styles  him 
an  'experienced  man  and  a  cavalier.'  His 
*  odd  stories '  are  duly  noted,  and  there  was 
one  touching  the  lease  of  Ashburnham  House 
from  the  dean  and  chapter  of  Westminster, 
wherein  the  '  devilish  covetousness '  of  Dr, 
Busby  was  commemorated. 

[The  Tryal  of  Colonel  Ashburnham,  London 
(3  Jime),  1654,  4to;  Pepys's  Diary,  ed.  Bright, 
iv.  323.]  K.  C.  B. 

ASHBURTON,  Lord.     [See  Baking.] 

ASHBURTON,  Lokd.     [See  Dukiv-ing.] 

ASHBTJRY,  JOSEPH  (1638-1720),  actor 
and  theatrical  manager,  born  in  London  in 
1638,  of  good  family,  was  educated  at  Eton, 
and  entered  the  army.  Quartered  in  Ireland 
when  the  protectorate  of  Richard  Cromwell 
came  to  an  end,  he  was  one  of  the  officers 
who  were  dismissed  under  the  rSgime  of  the 
revived  Rump  Parliament,  and  he  was  also 
one  of  those  who,  in  the  royalist  interest, 
seized  Dublin  Castle  in  the  December  of 
1659.  At  the  Restoration  lie  was  rewarded 
by  the  lieutenancy  of  a  company  of  foot 
which  Charles  II  granted  to  the  city  of 
Dublin,  and  the  new  lord-lieutenant,  the 
Duke  of  Ormond,  made  Ashbury  in  1662  one 
of  the  gentlemen  of  his  retinue  and  deputy 
master  of  the  revels.  In  1682  he  became 
master  of  the  revels  and  patentee.  The  duties 
or  privileges  of  the  latter  post  seem  to  have 
been  nominal,  since  for  years  the  only  play- 
house in  Dublin,  the  Smock  Alley  or  Orange 
Street  Theatre,  had  been  closed.  But  Ash- 
bury, whose  first  wife  was  the  sister  of  an 
actor,  seems  at  this  time  to  have  turned  his 
attention  to  professional  acting  and  to  have 
given  instructions  in  the  art  with  eminent 
success.  About  1674  both  he  and  Mrs.  Bet- 
terton  are  mentioned  as  teaching  the  Prin- 
cess Anne,  afterwards  queen,  to  play  Se- 
mandra  in  Lee's  '  Mithridates,'  when  acted 
at  Whitehall  by  persons  of  high  rank  (cf.  Miss 
STEiCKLAirD's  Queens  of  England  (1852), 
vii.  16).     When,  in  celebration  of  the  over- 


tliroAV  of  the  Stuart  cause  in  Ireland, '  Othello  ^ 
was  acted  (December  1691)  at  Dublin  by  ama- 
teui's,  most  of  them  officers  of  the  garrison^ 
Ashbury,  who  superintended  the  perform- 
ance and  played  lago,  is  spoken  of  as  the  only 
professional  actor  among  the  performers. 
About  the  same  time  he  engaged  in  London 
a  company  which  included  Wilks,  and  at- 
tempted to  revive  the  drama  in  Ireland  by 
reopening  the  theatre  in  Orange  Street  with 
'Othello'  on  23  March  1692.  By  skilful 
management  and  by  encouraging  promising 
histrionic  talent — Booth  and  Quin  were  in- 
troduced by  him  to  the  boards — Ashbury  se- 
cured for  the  Dublin  stage  a  great  reputation. 
He  himself  was  an  excellent  actor,  and  his 
second  wife,  also  an  actress,  gave  him  ma- 
terial assistance.  Colonel  Careless  in  the 
'  Committee,'  and  Don  Quixote  were  among 
his  best  parts.  In  his  78th  year  he  continued 
to  act  with  success,  and  he  survived  to  the 
age  of  82,  dying  in  the  summer  or  autumn  of 
1720. 

[Chetwood's  General  History  of  the  Stage 
(1749) ;  Hitchcock's  Historical  View  of  the  Irish 
Stage  (1788) ;  Genest's  Account  of  the  English 
Stage  (1832),  vol.  x. ;   Carte's  Ormond  (1736).] 

F.  E. 

ASHBY,  GEORGE  {d.  1475),  poetical 
writer,  was  born  about  1390.  Little  is  known 
of  him  till  late  in  life,  when  he  appears  ta 
have  owned  an  estate  named  '  Breakspeares ' 
in  Harefield,  Middlesex,  and  to  have  been 
clerk  of  the  signet,  first  to  Henry  VI  from 
the  beginning  of  his  reign,  and  afterwards 
to  Margaret  of  Anjou,  in  whose  service  he 
evidently  travelled  abroad.  His  earliest  ex- 
tant poem,  written  in  English  and  preserved 
in  manuscript  at  Trinity  College,  Cambridge 
(R.  3,  19),  describes  him  as  a  prisoner 
in  the  Fleet,  and  begins  with  a  '  prohemium 
vnius  Prisonarii.'  Ashby  there  says  that  he 
has  been 

"Wrytyng  to  theyr  sygnet  full  fourty  yere 
As  well  beyond  the  see  as  on  thys  syde. 

A  former  owner  of  the  book  has,  from  internal 
evidence,  assigned  its  production  and  its 
author's  imprisonment  to  1463.  Ashby  was 
perhaps  confined  in  the  Fleet  at  the  time  by 
the  Yorkist  conquerors  of  Henry  VI,  who 
was  deposed  in  1461.  Subsequently  the 
poet  would  seem  to  have  directed  the 
education  of  the  young  Prince  Edwai'd, 
Henry  VI's  son,  until  his  murder  in  1471. 
For  his  use  Ashby  prepared  two  English 
poetical  ti-eatises — one  entitled  'De  Activa 
Pollecia  Principis,'  which  opens  with  an 
address  to  '  Maisters  Gower,  Chaucer,  and 
Lydgate,'  and  the  second  called  *  Dicta  et 


Ashby 


165 


Ashby 


Opiniones  Diversonim  Philosopliorum,'  with 
translations  into  English  verse.  Both  these 
compositions,  Ashhy  states,  were  produced 
when  he  had  attained  the  age  of  eighty. 
The  manuscripts  of  these  poems  passed  from 
the  library  of  Jolin  More,  bishop  of  Norfolk 
about  1700,  to  the  Cambridge  University 
Libraiy,  where  they  are  still  preserv^ed.  Ac- 
cording to  Warton,  Ashby  was  likewise  the 
translator  into  English  of  several  'French 
manuals  of  devotion,'  ascribed  by  Robert 
Copland  to  Andrew  Chertsey  in  his  prologue 
to  Chertsey's  *  Passyon  of  our  Lord  Jesu 
Christ '  (printed  by  Wynkyn  de  Worde  in 
1520) :  but  no  positive  authority  is  given  for 
this  statement.  None  of  Ashby's  works  are 
known  to  have  been  printed. 

Ashby  died  on  20  Feb.  1474-5,  and  was 
buried  at  Harefield.  The  inscription  on  a 
brass  to  the  memoiy  of  himself  and  his  wife 
in  the  church  there  has  been  printed  in 
Nichols's  '  Collectanea  Topographica  et  Ge- 
nealogica'  (v.  182).  Ashby  left  a  son  John, 
who  died  in  1496.  A  grandson  George  was 
clerk  of  the  signet  to  Henry  VII  and 
Henry  VIII,  and  died  on  5  March  1514-5. 

[Ritson's  Bibliographica  Poetica,  p.  43;  Cat. 
of  MSS.  in  Cambridge  University  Library,  iv. 
299 ;  AVarton's  History  of  English  Poetry  (ed. 
Hiizlitt),  iv.  76  ;  Nichols's  Collectauea  Topogra- 
phica et  Genealogicii,  v.  128-138;  information 
from  W.  Aldis  Wright,  Esq.]  S.  L.  L. 

ASHBY,     GEORGE     (1724-1808),    a 
learned   antiquary  and  sometime  president 
of  St.  John's  College,  Cambridge,  was  born 
in  Red  Lion  Street,  Clerkenwell,  in  1724. 
Educated   at   Croydon,   Westminster,    and 
Eton,  he  entered  St.  John's  College,  Cam- 
bridge, on  30  Oct.  1740,  and  took  the  degree  of 
B.A.  in  1744,  of  M.A.  in  1748,  when  he  was 
admitted  fellow  of  St.  John's,  and  of  B.D.  in 
1756.    He  was  presented  by  a  relative  to  the 
rectoiy  of  Hungerton,  in  Leicestershire,  in 
1754,  and  in  1759  to  that  of  Twyford  in  the 
same  county ;  he  held  both  benefices  in  con- 
junction  till   1767,  when  he   resigned  the 
former,  and  in  1769  he  gave  up  the  latter  on 
his  election  to  the  presidency  or  vice-master- 
ship of  St.   John's   College.     About  1775, 
when  he  became  a  fellow  of  the  Society  of 
Antiquaries,  he  appears  to  have  resigned  his 
official  connection  with  Cambridge,  where 
he  supported  academic  reform  too  vigorously 
to  obtain  further  preferment.     Among  other 
changes,  he  advocated  the  right  of  the  fellows 
to  maiTy.     At  the  same  time  he  accepted  the 
college  living  of  Barrow  in  Suffolk,  to  which 
Dr.  Ross,  the  bisliop  of  Exeter,  an  intimate 
friend  and  patron  of  Ashby,  added  the  rectory 
of  Stansfield  in  1780.     In   1793  his  sight 


began  to  fail,  and  shortly  afterwards  he  be- 
came totally  blind.  He  died  of  paralysis  at 
Barrow  on  12  June  1808,  and  was  buried  in 
the  parisli  church,  whei-e  a  monument  was 
erected  to  his  memory. 

Although  Ashby  published  little,  his 
varied  learning  was  the  admiration  of  the 
best  known  literary  antiquaries  of  the  last 
century,  all  of  whom  he  reckoned  among  his 
friends.  He  was  intimate  for  some  years  with 
the  poet  Gray,  and  portions  of  his  voluminous 
correspondence  with  Bishop  Percy,  Richard 
Gough,  Jolm  Nichols,  William  Herbert,  and 
the  Rev.  James  Granger,  have  been  printed 
in  Nichols's  'Illustrations  of  Literature '  (vii. 
385  et  seq.)  and  in  Granger's '  Letters.'  Very 
various  are  the  antiquarian  topics  he  there 
deals  with ;  in  one  letter  he  proposes  an  emen- 
dation of  a  line  in  '  Hamlet,'  m  another  he 
points  out  en-ors  in  the  '  Biogi'aphia  Britan- 
nica,*  which  he  had  i*ead  from  end  to  end, 
and  in  a  third  he  discusses  some  vexed 
questions  of  numismatics.  He  was  a  regular 
contributor  to  the  '  Gentleman's  Magazine  ; ' 
he  added  notes  to  Nichols's  '  Literary  Anec- 
dotes '  under  the  initials  of  T.  F.  (Dr.  Tay- 
lor's Friend) ;  he  gi'eatly  aided  Nichols  in  his 
'  History  of  Leicestershire,'  to  which  he  con- 
tributed an  elaborate  essay  on  the  Roman 
Milliary  at  Leicester  (i.  pp.  cix-clviii) ; 
and  he  gave  material  assistance  to  Daines 
Barrington,  when  preparing  his  '  Observa- 
tions on  the  Statutes.'  In  the  '  Archa3olo- 
gia '  (iii.  165)  appears  a  dissertation  by  him 
on  a  coin  of  Nei'\'a  newly  discovered  at  Col- 
chester. Some  volumes  of  his  manuscript 
collections,  together  with  numerous  letters 
on  antiquarian  themes,  are  preserved  among 
the  Cole,  the  Egerton,  and  the  Additional 
Manuscripts  at  the  British  Museum.  They 
include  interesting  notes  on  archery,  an  essay 
on  parish  registers,  and  extracts  and  notes  on 
old  English  and  French  plays,  of  which  the 
English  plays  are  mainly  early  sixteenth- 
century  interludes.  His  valuable  library, 
which  was  bequeathed  to  Thomas  Lyas,  his 
amanuensis,  was  sold  soon  after  his  death  to 
a  bookseller  at  Bury,  and  was  rapidly  dis- 
persed. 

[Gent.  Mag.  Ixxviii.  653  ;  Nichols's  Literary 
Anecdotes,  i.  577-8;  Baker's  Hist,  of  St. 
John's  College  (ed.  Mayor),  vols.  i.  ii. ;  Cole 
MSS.  20,  41,  &e.  ;  Egerton  MSS.  2371  f.  240, 
2374  ff.  287-92;  Addit.  MSS.  22596  f.  95, 
29790  ff.  926,  1006-136,  29793.]         S.  L.  L. 

ASHBY,  HARRY  (1744^1818),  an 
eminent  writing-engraver,  bom  April  17, 1744, 
at  Wotton-under-Edge,  Gloucestershire,  was 
apprenticed  to  a  clockmaker  in  that  town, 
who  also  engraved  dial-plates,  spoons,  and 


Ashby 


1 66 


Ashby 


tankards.  Here  Ashby  imbibed  a  taste  for 
engraving.  On  the  temiination  of  his  ap- 
prenticeship he  removed  to  London,  where, 
following  the  bent  of  his  inclination  for  writ- 
ing-engTaving,  he  entered  into  an  engagement 
with  Mr.  Jefferies,  geographer,  of  Charing 
Ci'oss,  his  principal  employment  being  to  en- 
grave titles  for  maps  and  charts.  Subsequently 
his  services  Avere  secured  by  Mr.  Spilsbury, 
writing-engraver,  of  Russell  Court,  Drury 
Lane,  to  whose  business  he  eventually  suc- 
ceeded, and  whose  widow  he  married.  Ashby 
Avas  much  employed  by  proA'incial,  colonial, 
and  foreign  bankers,  to  engraAe  notes  and  bills, 
in  the  execution  of  AA-hich  he  displayed  rare 
skill  and  ingenuity.  Some  able  penmen  also 
gave  scope  to  his  higher  qualifications  as  an 
engraver  of  specimens  of  calligraphy.  Among 
the  works  for  Avhich  he  engi'aAed  the  plates 
are  Hodgkin's  *  Calligraphia  Grseca,'  1794 ; 
Milns' '  Penman's  Repository,'  1796 ;  Hodg- 
kin's '  Specimens  of  Greek  Penmanship,'  1804; 
Genery's  *  Geographical  and  Commercial 
Copies,'  1805  ;  Langford's  '  Beauties  of  Pen- 
manship,' 1826  (?)  ;  and  some  of  the  plates  in 
Tomkins's  '  Beauties  of  AVriting,'  1809.  In  his 
later  years  Mr.  Ashby  lived  m  retirement  at 
Exning,  Suffolk,  where  he  died  Aug.  31, 1818. 

[MS.  Addlt.  19095  f.  102,  19170  f.  4;  Gent. 
Mag.  Ixxxviii.  283-285  ;  Europ.  Mag.  Ixxiv.  207, 
208  ;  Annual  Biog.  v.  306,  307.]  T.  C. 

ASHBY,  Sir  JOHN  {d.  1693),  admiral, 
a  native  of  Lowestoft,  and  presumably  a 
follower  of  Sir  Thomas  AUin,  was,  in  1665, 
appointed  lieutenant  of  the  AdAenture,  and 
in  October  1668  captain  of  the  Deptford 
ketch.  From  that  time  onward  he  seems  to 
haA'e  served  witliout  intermission,  and  in  Sep- 
tember 1688  was  appointed  to  the  Defiance, 
a  third-rate  Aessel.  The  revolution  made  no 
change  in  his  position,  and,  still  in  command 
of  the  Defiance,  he  led  the  van  of  the  fleet  in 
the  battle  of  Bantiy  Bay  [see  Hekbekt, 
Arthur],  1  May  1689.  For  his  good  service 
on  this  occasion  Captain  Ashby  was  knighted, 
and  presented  by  the  king  with  a  gold  Avatch 
set  with  diamonds.  In  July  he  was  made 
rear-admiral  of  the  blue,  and  the  following 
year  he  was  A'ice-admiral  of  the  red,  in  the 
fleet  under  Lord  ToiTington  oft"  Beachy 
Head  on  30  June.  After  Torrington's  dis- 
grace the  command  of  the  fleet  was  assigned 
to  a  committee  of  three — Richard  Haddock, 
Killigrew,  and  Ashby — who  hoisted  their 
joint  flag  on  board  the  Royal SoAereig-n, and, 
together  with  a  body  of  land  foi'ces  under 
the  Earl  of  Marlborough,  reduced  Cork  and 
Kinsale.  In  1691  the  command  w^as  given 
to  Admiral  Russell,  Avitli  Avliom  Sir  John 
Ashby  serA'ed  as  A"ice-admiral  of  the  red,  and 


the  next  year  as  admiral  of  the  blue  ;  in  that 
rank  he  commanded  the  rear  of  the  fleet  at 
Barfleur  on  19  May,  and,  by  taking  timely 
advantage  of  a  slight  shift  of  wind,  placed 
the  French  in  such  a  position  that  they  would 
be  forced  either  to  surrender  or  fly.  They 
scattered  and  fled ;  some  to  La  Hogue, 
where  they  AN'ere  burnt  by  Russell ;  some  to 
Cherbourg,  where  they  were  burnt  by  Dela- 
A^all ;  and  many  through  the  Race  of  Alder- 
ney,  Avhere  none  of  the  English  pilots  would 
Aenture  to  take  the  pursuing  ships  under 
Ashby.  They  thus  got  safely  into  St.  Malo, 
where  they  were  blockaded  through  the  rest 
of  the  summer.  In  England  there  w^as  a 
strong  feeling  that  more  might  haA'e  been 
done,  and  on  19  Nov,  Sir  John  Ashby  Avas 
called  to  the  bar  of  the  House  of  Commons 
to  render  an  account  of  his  conduct :  but  Avith 
his  OAvn,  and  Russell's  further  explanation} 
the  house  expressed  itself  satisfied  {Pari. 
Hist.).  The  following  year,  1693,  the  com- 
mand Avas  again  put  in  commission,  in  which, 
however,  Ashby  had  no  part.  When  the 
fleet  sailed,  he  remained  at  Portsmouth,  pos- 
sibly on  account  of  his  health,  for  on  12 
July  he  died.  He  Avas  buried  in  the  first 
instance  at  Portsmouth ;  but  his  body  Avas 
aftei'Avards  removed  to  LoAvestoft,  where 
there  is  a  mural  monument  to  his  memory. 

[Charnock's  Biographia  Navalis,  i.  302  ;  Brit. 
Mus.  MSS.  Add.  19098,  p.  418.]  J.  K.  L. 

ASHBY,  RICHARD  (1614-1680),  a 
Jesuit,  whose  real  name  was  Thimelby,  was 
the  fifth  son  of  Richard  Thimelby,  Esq.,  of 
Imham,  Lincolnshire,  by  his  wife  Maiy, 
daughter  of  EdAvard  Brookesby,  Esq.,  grand- 
daughter of  Lord  Vaux  of  Harrowden.  He 
was  bom  in  Lincolnshire  in  1614,  entered  the 
Society  of  Jesus  in  1632,  and  was  professed 
of  the  four  voavs  in  1646.  After  having- 
taught  philosophy  and  theology  at  Liege  for 
sixteen  years,  he  was  sent  on  the  English 
mission  about  1648,  and  laboured  chiefly  in 
his  natiAe  county.  He  was  rector  of  the 
house  for  novices  at  Watten,  near  St.  Omer, 
from  1666  till  1672,  when  he  was  appointed 
rector  of  St.  Omer's  College.  His  death  oc- 
curred at  St.  Omer  on  7  Jan.  (or  September) 
1680. 

Father  Ashby  was  the  author  of :  1,  '  Pur- 
gatory Surveyed,  or  a  particular  account  of 
the  happy,  yet  thrice  unhappy,  state  of  the 
souls  there  ;  also  of  the  singular  charity  and 
Avays  to  relieve  them.  And  of  the  devotion 
of  all  ages  for  the  souls  departed,  with  twehe 
excellent  means  to  prevent  purgatory  andtlu' 
resolution  of  many  curious  and  important 
points,'  Paris,  1663,  8a'0  ;  reprinted,  with  a 
preface,  by  Father  W,  H.  Anderdon,  London, 


Ashdowne 


167 


Ashe 


1874.  It  is  a  translation  from  Father  Estienne 
Binet.  2. 'Remarks on Stillingfleet.'  South- 
well gives  the  title  in  Latin  as  follows  :  *  Ob- 
servationes  generales  in  Librum  Doctoris 
Stilling-fieti,  cum  vindicatione  S.  Ignatii  et 
Sociorum  eius  k  foedis  maculis  quibus  eos  ille 
aspergit/  London,  1672,  4to. 

[Preface  to  Anderdon's  edition  of  Purgatory 
■Surveyed  ;  Oliver's  Collections  8.  J.  47  ;  Foley's 
Kecords,  ii.  643,  v.  597,  vii.  768;  Southwell's 
Bibl.  Script orum  Soc.  Jesu,  718  ;  Backer's  Bibl. 
des  Ecrivains  de  la  Compagnie  de  Jesus  (1869), 
i.  300.]  T.  C. 

ASHDOWNE,  AVILLL^M  (1723-1810), 
unitarian  preacher,  was  born  at  Tunbridge 
Wells  in  1723,  where  his  father,  a  tradesman, 
was  pastor  of  the  Genei'al  Baptist  (otherwise 
Unitarian)  Society,  meeting  at  Mount 
Ephraim  (W.  Wilson,  Vainous  Comjrega- 
tions,  ii.,  art.  '  Dover  '  in  MS.).  Becoming  a 
probationer  for  the  ministry,  William  Ash- 
downe removed  to  Dover  in  1757,  married 
the  daughter  of  the  Rev.  Robert  Pyall,  pastor 
of  the  General  Baptist  Church  {Monthly  Re- 
pository, v.  258) ;  and  on  Pyall's  death  in 
1759  he  took  his  pulpit,  occupying  it  without 
pay  for  twenty-two  years.  In  1781  he  was 
elected  pastor,  with  the  Rev.  Stephen  Phil- 
pott  as  his  associate ;  and  though  he  preached 
but  seldom  m  his  later  years,  he  filled  this 
position  till  his  death,  2  April  1810,  aged 
87.  His  publications  are  :  1.  'On  the  True 
Character  of  John  the  Baptist,'  published 
anonymously,  the  signature  being  '  By  an 
Impartial  Hand,' 1757.  2.  '  The  Distinction 
between  the  Ordinary  and  Extraordinary 
Gifts  of  the  Holy  Spirit,'  also  anonymous, 
and  with  the  same  signature,  1767.  3.  '  A 
Dissertation  on  St.  John  iii.  5,'  1768.  4.  '  A 
Scripture  Key  to  the  Evangelists,'  1777. 
5.  '  On  Baptism,'  1784.  6.  '  The  Unitariau, 
Arian,  and  Trinitarian  Opinions  Examined,' 
1789.  7.  '  Satan,'  1794.  8.  '  Two  Letters  to 
the  Bishop  of  LlandafF,'  1798.  The  last  six 
Avorks  bear  Ashdowne's  name,  and  at  the 
end  of  the  '  Unitarian  '  is  a  list  of  his  publica- 
tions, which  were  printed  chiefly  at  Canter- 
bury. 

[Monthly  Review,  June  1757,  p.  285  ;  Monthly 
Repository,  v.  480  ;  Kippis's  Doddridge's  Lec- 
tures, ii.  175  note,  390  note.]  J.  H. 

ASHE,  JOHN  (1671-1735),  dissenting 
minister,  was  son  of  a  grocer  at  Tideswell, 
Derbyshire.  After  being  taught  at  Chester- 
field by  Mr.  Foxlow,  at  Wirks worth  by  Mr. 
Ogden,  he  was  sent  in  1688  to  Mr.  Frank- 
land's  dissenting  academy  at  Rathmilo.  He 
was  chaplain  for  a  time  to  Lady  Sarah 
Houghton  of  Houghton  Tower,  Lancashire, 


but  returned  to  the  Peak  and  was  a  minister 
at  Ashford.  He  published  an  account  of 
the  life  of  his  uncle,  the  Rev.  William  Bag- 
shaw, '  the  Apostle  of  the  Peak '  ( 1 704) ;  a  few 
sermons  ;  and  prepared  for  the  press  eleven 
volumes  of  sermons,  of  which  only  one  ap- 
peared. A  life  of  Ashe  was  published  by 
John  Clegg,  presbyterian  minister  of  Chapel- 
en-le-P'rith,  in  1736. 

[Lysons's  Magna  Britannia,  v.  74-5  ;  Glover's 
History  of  Derbyshire,  pt.  i.  vol.  i.,  Append, 
p.  105.] 

ASHE,  JONATHAN  {fl.  1813),  a  ma- 
sonic Avriter,  was  born  at  Limerick  in  1766, 
entered  Trinity  College,  Dublin,  26  March 
1783,  took  B.A.  degree  in  ordinary  course, 
and  became  D.D.  in  1808.  Very  little  is 
known  of  him  except  that  he  commenced 
and  perfected  his  masonic  studies  in  Dublin. 
While  in  Binstol  in  1813  he  published  a  work 
entitled  *  The  Masonic  Manual,  or  Lectures 
on  Freemasonry,  containing  the  Instructions, 
Documents,  and  Discipline  of  the  Masonic 
Economy,'  and  asserts  in  the  introduction 
that  he  'plainly  and  completely  tells  the 
craft  its  eternal  and  temporal  obligations, 
and  affords  the  uninitiated  a  fair  review  and 
estimate  of  masonry.'  This  work  was  dedi- 
cated to  the  Duke  of  Sussex,  then  grand 
master  of  the  order.  In  many  portions  it  is 
a  mere  copy  of  William  Hutchinson's  '  Spirit 
of  Masonry,'  published  in  1775. 

Ashe's  work  was  edited,  with  annotations 
and  remarks  by  the  Rev.  George  Oliver,  D.D., 
in  1843,  and  again  in  1870  bv  the  Rev.  John 
Edward  Cox,  D.D. 

[Ashe's  Works ;  Mackenzie's  Royal  Masonic 
Cyclopaedia.]  J.  W.-G. 

ASHE,  ROBERT  HOADLEY  (1751- 
1826),  divine,  boi-n  about  1751,  was  son  of  a 
prebendary  of  Winchester,  educated  at  Pem- 
broke College,  Oxford,  compounded  for  M.A. 
1793,  andB.D.andD.D.1794,andfrom  1775  to 
1826  he  held  the  living  of  Crewkerne,  Somer- 
setshire. He  took  the  name  of  Hoadley 
upon  inheriting  a  property  from  his  aunt, 
who  had  married  a  son  of  Bishop  Hoadley. 
He  edited  in  1787  a  volume  of  poetical  trans- 
lations by  '  Master  John  Browne  of  Crew- 
kerne, a  boy  of  twelve  years  old,'  and  in  1799 
published  a  letter  to  Dr.  Milner,  author  of 
the  history  of  Winchester,  vindicating  Bishop 
Hoadley  from  Milner's '  false  and  illiberal  as- 
persions.' He  died  on  3  May  1826.  Several 
letters  of  his  are  printed  in  Nichols's  *  Illus- 
trations.' 

[Nichols's  Illustrations,  v.  729-49  ;  Gent.  Mag. 
xcvi.  pt.  ii.  p.  181.] 


Ashe 


i68 


Ashe 


ASHE,  ST.  GEORGE  (1658  ?- 1718), 
Irish  bishop,  descended  from  a  Wiltshire 
family  which  had  settled  in  Ii'eland,  was 
born  at  lloscommon,  educated  at  Dublin,  and 
became  a  fellow  of  Trinity  College  in  1679. 
During  the  Revolution  he  left  the  country, 
and  was  chaplain  to  Lord  Paget,  the  am- 
bassador of  William  III  at  Vienna.  He 
returned,  and  became  provost  of  Trinity  in 
his  thirty-fourth  year  in  1692.  He  was  made 
bishop  of  Cloyne  in  1695  ;  was  translated  to 
Clogher  in  1697,  and  to  Derry  in  1716-17. 
He  died  at  Dublin  27  Feb.  1717-18,  and  left 
his  mathematical  books  to  Trinity  College. 
He  published  three  sermons  and  contributed 
some  papers  upon  modes  of  geometrical 
demonstration  and  observations  on  natural 
phenomena  to  the  Royal  Society,  of  which  he 
was  a  fellow  {Phil.  Transactions,  Nos.  116, 
162,  164,  171,  176,  220,  228,  243).  He  also 
succeeded  Molyneux  as  secretary  to  the  Irish 
Philosophical  Society.  He  is  best  known 
from  his  intimacy  with  Swift,  who  was  his 
pupil  at  Trinity  College,  and  who  became 
his  lifelong  friend.  Frequent  references  to 
him  in  the '  Joui'nal  to  Stella '  show  that  Swift 
was  his  constant  correspondent,  and  con- 
sulted him  on  many  matters  of  business.  He 
was  one  of  three  brothers  ;  Tom  Ashe,  the 
eldest,  was  a  squire  with  an  estate  of  1,000/. 
a  year  in  Meath ;  Dillon  Ashe,  a  clergyman, 
was  vicar  of  Finglas  from  1694  to  17 1 6,  when 
he  was  succeeded  by  the  poet  Parnell.  All 
three  were  friends  of  Swift,  and  joined  in 
his  favourite  amusement  of  making  execrable 
puns  at  Lord  Pembroke's  viceregal  court ; 
their  slang  language  constructed  of  puns 
being  called  Castilian  (Forster,  Life  of 
Sicift,  p.  191).  Dillon  seems  to  have  been 
an  imdignified  and  claret-loving  priest. 
Swift  says  that  '  Dilley's '  red  face  will 
*  whiz '  in  the  Bath  waters ;  and  that  the 
rabble  will  say,  *  There  goes  a  drunken  par- 
son,' and,  'which  is  worse,  will  sav  true' 
{Journal  to  Stella,  10  April  1711).  The 
bishop  was  a  man  of  high  character ;  Addi- 
son was  charmed  with  him:  and  Sir  A. 
Fountaine  said  to  Swift  that  there  was  not  a 
bishop  in  England  with  half  his  wit.  He 
was  intimate  with  Hester  Johnson  (Stella) ; 
the  younger  Sheridan  says  {Life  of  Swift, 
p.  280),  on  the  authority  of  Mrs.  Sican,  that 
Ashe,  at  Swift's  desire,  inquired  'into  the 
cause  of  Stella's  melancholy  in  1716,  and 
performed  the  marriage  ceremony  which  was 
the  consequence  of  her  explanation.  The 
statement  that  Swift  and  Stella  were  mari'ied 
by  Ashe  in  1716  is  also  made  by  Lord  OiTery, 
by  Dr.  Johnson  on  the  authority  of  Dr. 
Madden,  and  by  Monck  Berkeley  on  the  au- 
thority of  his  grandmother,   the   widow  of 


Bishop  Berkeley.  The  bishop  was  travelling 
on  the  continent  as  tutor  to  Ashe's  only  son, 
St.  George  Ashe,  from  1715  to  1720.  He 
could  hardly  have  received  the  statement 
from  Ashe  himself;  and  it  is  still  doubtful 
whether  the  marriage  took  place.  It  is  plain, 
however,  that  Ashe  was  one  of  Swift's  most 
trusted  and  valued  friends,  and  had  the 
confidence  of  Stella. 

[Ware's  Bishops  of  Ireland  (ed.  Harris) ; 
Swift's  Works;  Forster's  and  Craik's  Lives  of 
Swift.]  L.  S. 

ASHE,  SIMEON  {d.  1662),  a  noncon-^ 
formist  divine,  was  educated  at  Emmanuel  '/ 
College,  Cambridge.  He  began  his  ministra- '' , 
tion  in  Staffordshire,  but  was  soon  ejected 
from  his  living  on  account  of  his  refusal  to  read 
the 'Book  of  Sports'  and  to  conform  to  other  cy  ^mu 
ceremonies.  On  his  dismissal  Sir  John  Bur- 
goyne  befriended  him  and  allowed  him  the 
use  of  an  '  exempt '  church  at  Wroxhall ;  and 
he  was  afterwards  under  the  protection  of 
Lord  Brook.  When  the  civil  war  broke  out, 
he  became  chaplain  to  the  Earl  of  Man- 
chester; and  in  1644  joined  with  William 
Goode,  another  chaplain  of  the  Earl  of  Man- 
chester, in  writing  a  pamphlet  entitled  *  A 
particular  Relation  of  the  most  Remarkable 
C)ccurrences  from  the  United  Forces  in  the 
North.'  This  was  followed  by  another 
pamphlet,  for  which  Ashe  alone  was  respon- 
sible, entitled  '  A  True  Relation  of  the  most 
Chiefe  Occurrences  at  and  since  the  late 
Battell  at  Newbery.'  The  writer's  object  in 
both  cases  was  to  vindicate  the  conduct  of 
his  patron.  In  Vicars's  '  Parliamentary 
Chronicle '  there  is  a  letter  of  his,  describing 
the  proceedings  of  the  Earl  of  Manchester  in 
reducing  several  garrisons  after  the  battle  of 
Marston  Moor.  At  the  close  of  the  war  he 
received  the  living  of  St.  Austin,  and  was 
also  one  of  the  Cornhill  lecturers.  Although 
he  had  joined  the  side  of  the  parliament,  Ashe 
was  strongly  opposed  to  the  extreme  party 
of  the  Cromwellians ;  and  when  the  time 
was  ripe  for  the  restoration  he  was  among 
the  divines  who  went  to  Breda  to  meet 
Charles  II.  He  died  a  few  days  before  the 
passing  of  the  Act  of  Conformity,  and  was 
buried  on  24  Aug.  1662.  Had  he  lived  to 
see  the  passing  of  the  act,  he  would  have 
vacated  his  living.  Ashe  was  a  man  of  some 
property,  and  while  he  held  the  living  of  St. 
Austin,  his  house  was  always  open  to  his 
clerical  brethren.  Walker  charges  him  witli 
exercising  severity  against  the  conforming 
clergy. 

Ashe  was  the  author  of  several  sermons, 
among  which  may  be  mentioned:  1.  'A 
Sermon  on  Ps.  ix.  9,'  preached  before  the 


Ashe 


169 


Ashford 


House  of  Commons  on  30  March  1642. 
2.  '  A  Sermon  before  the  House  of  Lords,' 
26  Feb.  1644.  3.  '  A  Funeral  Sermon  on 
tlie  Death  of  the  Countess  of  Manchester,' 
12  Oct.  I608,  &c.  He  also  edited  some 
treatises  of  John  Ball,  the  puritan  divine, 
J.  Brinsley,  Ralph  Robinson,  and  others. 

[Calamy's  Nonconformist's  Memorial,  ed.  1802, 
i.  94-96  ;"Neal's  Hist,  of  the  Puritans,  ed.  1822, 
iv.  344 ;  Rcliquiie  Baxterianas  ed.  Sylvester, 
pt.  ii.  430.]  A.  H.  B. 

ASHE  or  ASH,  THOMAS  (/.  1600- 
1618),  legal  writer,  was  entered  a  student  of 
Gray's  Inn  in  1574,  was  called  to  the  bar 
24  .Tan.  1682-3,  and  became  pensioner  of  his 
inn  17  Oct.  1597.  He  was  the  author  of  the 
following  works  :  1.  '  Abridgment  des  touts 
les  cases  reportez  alarge  per  Monsieur  Plow- 
den  .  .  .  compose  &  digest  par  T.  A  [she],' 
1600  ?  of  which  another  edition  appeared  in 
1607.  2.  '  'EnuiKfia :  et  table  generall  a 
les  annales  del  ley  per  quel  facilementtroveres 
touts  les  cases  contenus  in  yceux  ;  queux  con- 
cerne  le  exposition  des  statutes  per  equitie,' 
1609  ;  with  an  appendix  of  cases  reported  by 
G.  Dalison  and  G.  Bendloes,  in  Queen  Eliza-  ! 
beth's  reign.  3.  'Le  Primer  Volume  del  ; 
Promptuaire ;  ou  repertory  de  les  annales  et  | 
plusors  auters  livi'es  del  common  ley  Dengle-  \ 
terre,'  1614.  4.  '  Fasciculus  florum ;  or  a  | 
Handfull  of  Flowers  gathered  out  of  the 
severall  bookes  of  the  Right  Honorable  Sir  E. 
Coke,'  1618.  '  A  Generall  Table '  to  Coke's 
reports,  issued  in  1652,  has  been  attributed 
to  Ashe,  but  if  that  be  so,  its  late  date  shows 
it  to  have  been  published  posthumously. 

[Foster's  Register  of  Admissions  to  Gray's 
Inn,  p.  18;  Brit.  Mus.  Cat.]  S.  L.  L. 

ASHE,  THOMAS  (1770-1835),  novelist 
and  miscellaneous  writer,  traced  his  descent 
from  the  younger  branch  of  a  family  whose  an- 
cestors accompanied  William  the  Conqueror 
to  England.  A  cadet  of  this  younger  branch 
sei-ved  with  William  of  Orange  in  Ireland, 
and  obtained  one  of  the  forfeited  Irish  estates. 
Ashe  was  the  third  son  of  a  half-pay  officer, 
and  was  born  at  Glasnevin,  near  Dublin,  15 
•Tuly  1770.  He  received  a  commission  in 
the  83rd  regiment  of  foot,  which,  however, 
was  almost  immediately  afterwards  dis- 
banded, whereupon  he  Avas  sent  to  a  count- 
ing-house at  Bordeaux.  There  he  suffered  a 
short  imprisonment  for  wounding  in  a  duel  a 
gentleman  whose  sister  he  had  seduced,  but, 
the  wound  not  proving  fatal,  the  prosecution 
was  not  persisted  in.  Returning  to  Dublin, 
he  was  appointed  secretary  to  the  Diocesan 
and  Endowed  Schools  Commission,  but,  get- 
ting into  debt,  resigned  his  office  and  retired 


to  Switzerland.  He  then  spent  several  years 
in  foreign  travel,  living,  according  to  his  own 
account  (Memoirs  and  Confessions,  3  vols. 
1815),  in  a  free  and  unconstrained  fashion, 
and  experiencing  a  somewhat  chequered  for- 
tune. Besides  recording  in  his  '  Memoirs ' 
liis  impressions  of  the  countries  he  visited, 
he  publislied  separately  *  Travels  in  Ame- 
rica in  1806,'  1808 ;  '  Memoirs  of  Mammoth 
and  other  Bones  found  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
Ohio,'  1806;  and  *  A  Commercial  and  Geo- 
graphical Sketch  of  Brazil  and  Madeira,' 1812. 
He  was  also  the  author  of  several  novels,  in- 
cluding the  'Spirit  of  the  Book,'  1811,  4th 
edition  1812  ;  the  '  Liberal  Critic,  or  Henry 
Percy,'  1812:  and  tlie  'Soldier  of  Fortune,' 
1816.  In  his  later  years  Ashe  was  in  rather 
indigent  circumstances.  He  died  at  Bath 
17  Dec.  1835. 


[Ashe's  Memoirs,  1815.] 


T.  F.  H. 


ASHFIELD,  EDMUND  (Jl.  1680-1700), 
a  portrait-painter,  descended  from  a  good 
family,  was  a  pupil  of  .Joseph  Michael  Wright. 
He  worked  both  in  oil  and  in  crayons,  but  ex- 
celled most  in  the  latter  method.  Vertue  men- 
tions a  neatly  painted  head  by  him  of  Sir  John 
Bennett,  aftei-vi'ards  Lord  Ossulston.  He 
appears  to  have  been  also  a  copyist,  for  there 
are  at  Burghley  House  portraits  of  Frances, 
Countess  of  Warwick,  and  of  Mary,  Lady 
Herbert,  afterwards  Duchess  of  Richmond 
and  Lennox,  after  Van  Dyck,  which  are 
finished  with  extreme  delicacy.  His  crayon 
drawings  were  highly  finished,  and  charac- 
terised by  the  harmonious  blending  of  the 
tints,  of  which  he  multiplied  the  number  and 
variety,  black  and  white  only  having  hitherto 
chiefly  been  employed,  the  paper  forming 
the  middle  tint.  He  practised  from  about 
1680  to  1700,  about  which  time  he  died.  He 
was  the  instructor  of  E.  Lutterell,  whose 
works  in  crayons  are  superior  to  those  of  his 
master. 

[Walpole's  Anecdotes  of  Painting,  ed.  Wor- 
num,  ii.  475  ;  Redgrave's  Dictionary  of  Artists 
of  the  English  School,  1878 ;  Wiiagen's  Trea- 
sures of  Art  in  Great  Britain,  iii.  408.] 

R.  E.  G. 

ASHFORD,  WILLIAM  (1746  P-1824), 
landscape  painter,  was  born  at  Birmingham. 
In  1764  he  went  to  Ireland  and  settled  in 
Dublin.  At  first  lie  held  a  situation  under 
Mr.  Ward  in  the  ordnance  department  of  that 
city.  He  abandoned  it,  however,  for  art. 
He  contributed  to  the  early  exhibitions  of  the 
Incoi-porated  Society  of  Artists  in  London, 
and  in  1783  and  1 790  to  the  Royal  Academy. 
At  tliis  time  he  lived  in  London,  and,  in  con- 
junction with  Dominic  Serres,  R.A.,  made  a 


Ashhurst 


170 


Ashley 


public  exhibition  of  his  works.  The  Royal 
Hibernian  Academy  was  incoi-porated  in 
1823,  and  Ashford  was  its  first  president. 
His  work  Avas  at  one  time  highly  esteemed, 
but  he  died  neglected.  His  early  pictures, 
many  of  which  were  ably  engraved  by  Thomas 
Milton,  preserve  the  manner  of  Claiide.  In 
the  committee-room  of  the  Dublin  Society 
there  is  a  fine  example  of  his  style ;  another, 
'  Orlando  under  the  Oak,'  is  in  the  Hibernian 
Gallery,  and  there  are  five  in  the  Fitzwilliam 
Museum  at  Cambridge.  Anthony  Pasquin, 
writing  1794,  remarks  on  his  work :  '  He 
amused  himself  in  his  leisure  hours  with 
stvidying  drawing  and  painting,  which  he  suc- 
ceeded in  so  far  as  to  justify  his  becoming  a 
professor.  This  gentleman  is  more  happy  in 
his  trees  and  his  foregrounds  than  his  figures 
and  skies,  the  former  of  which  are  too  inac- 
curate, and  the  latter  have  too  green  a  hue.' 
In  later  life  he  retired  to  Sandymont,  near 
Dublin,  wliere  he  died  17  April  1824,  aged  78. 
[Nagler's  Kiinstler-Lexicon,  ed.  1872;  Eed- 
grave,  Dictionary  of  Artists  of  Eng.  School ; 
Cooper,  New  Biog.  Diet.,  1873  ;  Pasquin,  An 
Authentic  History  of  the  Professors  of  Painting, 
Sculpture,  and  Architecture,  who  have  practised  in 
Ireland,  p.  40 ;  Taylor,  Origin  and  Progress  of  the 
Fine  Arts  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland;  Lavice, 
Revue  des  Musees  d'Angleterre,  p.  154.]     E.  K. 

ASHHURST.     [See  Ashtjrst.] 

ASHLEY,  Sir  ANTHONY  (1551-1627), 
clerk  of  the  privy  council,  was  descended 
from  an  ancient  family  which  had  settled, 
from  the  time  of  Henry  VI,  at  Wimbome 
St.  Giles,  in  Dorsetshire.  Of  Ashley's  early 
career  we  have  no  information ;  but  we  gather 
from  his  epitaph  that  he  added  to  his  studies, 
probably  pursued  at  Oxford,  the  usual  ac- 
complishments of  a  gentleman  of  the  period, 
namely,  martial  exercises  and  a  mastery  of 
several  languages  acquired  in  foreign  travel. 
He  certainly  became  clerk  of  the  council  be- 
fore 1588.  The  earliest  account  of  his  seriices 
in  that  office  known  to  us  is  to  be  found  among 
the  *  State  Papers  '  (Domestic  series),  under 
date  of  12  Nov.  1588,  where  we  find  him  at  II- 
ton,  drawing  up,  by  order  of  the  council,  '  A 
Schedule  of  the  Names,  etc.  of  the  Spaniards 
on  board  the  St.  Peter  the  Gresit  (one  of  the 
ships  of  the  armada),  driven  into  Hope  Bay, 
near  Salcombe.'  Early  in  1589  he  received 
instructions  from  Ijord  Burghley  to  assist  and 
*  be  in  company  with  Sir  John  Norris  and 
Sir  Fi-ancis  Drake  in  their  journey  towai'ds 
Spayne '  {Lansd.  MS.  104,  46).  An  account 
of  this  expedition  is  given  by  Camden.  About 
this  period  probably  he  received  the  grant  of 
the  office  of  clerk  of  the  castle  and  county 
court  of  York.      We  next  hear  of  him  at 


Oxford,  where,  with  seventeen  others,  he  re- 
ceived the  degree  of  M.A.  on  the  occasion  of 
the  queen's  visit,  27  Sept.  1592  (Nichols's 
Prog,  of  Eliz.).  Perhaps  his  most  distin- 
guished foreign  service  was  that  of  secretary 
for  war  in  the  famous  'honourable  voyage 
unto  Cadiz.'  On  this  occasion,  in  June  1596, 
he  received  the  honour  of  knighthood,  with 
others,  at  the  hands  of  the  two  '  Lordes- 
generall '  of  the  expedition.  Lord  C.  Howard 
and  the  Earl  of  Essex  (IlAKLtiXT,  i.  617). 
Like  all  other  men  in  high  positions  he  was 
not  without  enemies.  On  3  Feb.  1611,  more 
than  a  year  after  he  had  resigned  his  public 
offices,  rewarded  by  two  pensions,  he  was 
summoned  before  the  Star-chamber  to  answer 
charges  that  could  not  be  sustained  by  those 
Avho  preferred  them.  His  services  were  never 
wholly  dispensed  with  or  forgotten,  as  he  was 
made  a  baronet  by  King  James  I,  3  July 
1622  (Nichols's  Prog.  James  I,  iv.  771). 
By  Nichols  he  is  credited  with  having  been 
the  first  to  introduce  cabbages  into  England. 
Sir  Anthony  Ashley  died  in  London,  pro- 
bably at  his  house  in  Holborn,  13  Jan.  1627, 
aged  76  years,  and  was  buried  at  Wimborne 
St.  Giles,  where  his  fine  monument  is  pre- 
served. He  was  twice  man-ied,  first  to  the 
only  daughter  of  P.  Okeover,  Esq.,  of  Staf- 
fordshire ;  second,  to  Dame  Phillipa  Sheldon, 
a  kinswoman  of  G.  Villiers,  Duke  of  Buck- 
ingham, who  survived  him.  By  the  marriage 
of  his  daughter  and  heiress  with  Sir  J. 
Cooper,  Bart.,  the  grandson  of  Sir  Anthony 
Ashley  became  the  first  Earl  of  Shaftesburj-. 
Ashley  was  undoubtedly  the  author  of  an 
important  naval  work,  although  the  identity 
of  Ashley,  its  writer,  and  Ashley,  the  clerk 
of  the  council,  has  not  been  previously 
pointed  out.  Four  years  before  the  defeat 
of  the  Spanish  armada  in  1588  there  was 
published,  in  Holland,  the  first  known  col- 
lection of  '  Sea  Charts '  for  sailors,  afterwards 
known  as  a '  waggoner,'  the  title  of  which  was : 
'  Spieghel  der  Zee^aardt  vande  naA-igatie  der 
Westersche  Zee,'  by  Lucas  Janz  Waghenaer, 
Le3'den,1584,folio.  It  would  appear  that  in  the 
following  year  Lord  Charles  Howard,  of  Ef- 
fingham, lord  admiral  of  England,  drew  the  at- 
tention of  the  privy  council  to  the  work,  which 
met  a  great  want  of  our  early  seamen  under 
the  Tudors.  The  work  being '  esteemed  by  the 
chief  personages  of  the  grave  counsell  worthy 
to  be  translated  and  printed  into  a  language 
familiar  to  all  nations,'  the  task  of  translating 
it  into  English  from  the  Dutch  was  commit- 
ted into  the  hands  of  Anthony  Ashley.  The 
title  of  the  work  in  its  English  di'ess  runs 
thus  :  '  The  Mariners  Mirrour  ...  of  Naviga- 
tion, First  made  and  set  fourth  in  divers  exact 
Sea  Charts  by  that  famous  Navigator  Luke 


Ashley 


171 


Ashley 


Wagenar  of  Enchuisen,  and  now  fitted  with 
necessarie  additions  for  the  use  of  English- 
men by  Autliony  Ashley.  Heerin  also  may 
be  understood  the  exploits  lately  atchived 
by  the  riglit  Honorable  L.  Admiral  of  Eng- 
land witii  her  Ma*'"  Navie,  and  some  former 
services  done  by  that  worthy  knight  S' 
Fra.  Drake,'  fol.  London,  1688.  The  ex- 
ploits of  the  lord  admiral  referred  to  his 
pursuit  of  the  armada  up  the  Channel  into 
the  Noith  Sea ;  the  services  of  Sir  Francis 
Drake  relate  to  '  The  Voyage  to  Cadiz  in 
1587/  mentioned  by  Hakluyt,  1599,  vol.  ii. 
pt.  2,  p.  121.  The  book  was  dedicated  by 
Anthony  Ashley  to  Sir  Christopher  Hat- 
ton,  the  then  newly  appointed  lord  chancel- 
\ov,  his  friend  and  patron,  whose  arms  and 
crest  adorn  the  work.  In  the  dedication  the 
author  apologises  for  the  delay  in  its  publi- 
cation '  by  reason  of  my  daylie  attendance  on 
your  L.  and  the  rest  of  my  Lordes  of  her 
Maisties  most  Honourable  privie  counsell ; ' 
which  words  serve  to  show  beyond  all  dis- 
pute that  the  clerk  of  the  council  and  the 
author  of  the  '  Mariners  Mirrour '  are  one 
and  the  same  person.  One  letter  from  Ash- 
ley to  Cecil  is  printed  by  Strype  in  his  '  Me- 
morials.' Among  the  Cecil  MSS.  at  Hat- 
field are  three  series  of  thirty-five  letters 
from  Ashley  to  the  Earl  of  Essex,  Cecil,  and 
others,  ranging  from  26  Sept.  1591  to  12  Dec. 
1600,  temp.  Elizabeth,  and  from  13  April 
1603  to  1  July  1615,  temp.  James  I. 

[Biog.  Diet.  Soc.  D.  U.  K.  1842;  Camden's 
Annales,  ii.  10;  Hakluyt's  Voyages.  1599,  i. 
617  ;  Hutchins's  Hist,  of  Dorset,  3rd  ed.  vol.  iii. ; 
Nichols's  Prog.  Eliz.  iii.  160  ;  ibid.  James  I, 
iv.  771 ;  Strype's  Annals,  iv.  288  ;  Wood's  Fasti 
Oxon.  1813,  i.  161  ;  Lansd.  MH.  104,  46;  Hist. 
MSS.  Comm.  third,  fifth,  and  sixth  Keports, 
appendices  ;  Notes  and  Queries  (3rd  series),  xii. 
(4th  series),  i.]  C.  H.  C. 

ASHLEY,  CHARLES  JANE  (1773- 
1843),  third  son  of  John  Ashley  [see  Ash- 
LKY,  John,  1734  .P-1805],  was  well  known 
for  many  years  as  a  performer  on  the  violon- 
cello, and  also  for  some  time  can-ied  on  the 
Covent  Garden  oratorios  with  his  brother. 
On  2  May  1811  he  was  elected  secretary  of 
the  Royal  Society  of  Musicians,  of  which  he 
had  been  a  member  since  4  May  1794.  In 
the  latter  part  of  his  life  he  was  for  some 
seasons  manager  of  the  Tivoli  Gardens  at 
Margate,  where  he  died  on  29  Aug.  1843. 

[Gent.  Mag.  for  1843;  Records  of  Roy.  Soc. 
of  Musicians.]  W.  B.  S. 

ASHLEY,      GENERAL      CHARLES 

(1770P-1818),  eldest  son  of  John  Ashley 
[see  Ashley,  John,  1734  ."-1805],  obtained 
some   celebrity  as  a  violinist.      He  was  a 


Eupil  of  Giardini  and  Rarthelemon,  and  with 
is  three  brothers  took  part  in  the  Handel 
commemoration  in  1784,  on  which  occa-sion 
the  young  musicians  distinguished  themselves 
by  nailing  the  coat  of  an  Italian  violinist  to 
his  seat  and  filling  his  violin  with  halfpence, 
proceedings  of  which  he  complained  so  loudly 
that  George  III  sent  to  the  orchestra  to  find 
out  what  occasioned  the  disturbance.  G.  C. 
Ashley  led  his  father's  orchestra  at  the 
Covent  Garden  oratorios,  of  which,  after 
John  Ashley's  death,  he  becamejoint  ma- 
nager with  his  brother  Charles  Jane.  He 
became  a  member  of  the  Royal  Society  of 
Musicians  3  April  1791  {Records  of  Boy. 
Soc.  of  Mudciam).  On  2  March  1804  he 
married  a  Miss  Chandler,  and,  having  no 
family  and  an  independent  fortune,  shortly 
afterwards  retired  from  his  profession.  He 
died  at  King's  Row,  Pimlico,  on  21  Aue. 
1818.  «  '  '  S 

[Gent.  Mag.  for  1818  ;  Burney's  Commemo- 
ration of  Handel,  1786.]  W.  B.  S. 

A  SHLEY,  JOHN  (1734 .'=-1805),  was  the 
father  of  a  remarkable  family  of  musicians 
who  flourished  towards  the  end  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century.  He  became  a  member  of 
thr  Royal  Society  of  Musicians  7  April  1765. 
At  the  Handel  commemoration  in  1784  he 
was  assistant  conductor  to  Joali  Bates.  On 
the  same  occasion  the  double  bassoon  was 
played  by  a  *  Mr.  Ashley  of  the  Guards,'  who 
is  sometimes  supposed  to  have  been  the  same 
individual,  but  was  more  probably  another 
member  of  the  family,  possibly  his  brother 
Jane,  who  was  born  in  1740  and  died  at 
Westminster  on  5  April  1809.  John  Ashley 
in  1795  undertook  the  management  of  the 
oratorio  concerts  at  Covent  Garden.  He 
died  in  Abingdon  Street,  Westminster,  on 
2  March  1805,  where  also  his  wife  died  on 
22  Dec.  1809,  aged  75.  Richard  Ashley 
(1775-1830),  one  of  John  Ashley's  sons,  was 
a  performer  on  the  violin,  but  he  does  not 
seem  to  have  made  any  mark  as  a  musician. 
He  became  a  member  of  the  Royal  Society 
of  Musicians  17  April  1796,  and  died  in 
October  183G. 

[Gent.  Mag.  for  1805;  Burney's  Commemora- 
tion of  Handel,  1786;  Gardiner's  Music  and 
Friends,  1838  ;  Records  of  Roy.  Soc.  of  Musi- 
cians.] W.  B.  S. 

ASHLEY,  JOHN  JAMES  (1772-1815), 

second  son  of  John  Ashley  [see  Ashley, 
John,  1734  ?-1  805],  a  pupil  of  Schroeter, 
was  for  several  years  organist  at  Covent 
Garden  Theatre.  He  was  one  of  the  most 
successful  singing  masters  of  his  day,  some 
of  his   most   celebrated   pupils   being  Mrs. 


Ashley 


172 


Ashmole 


Vaughan,  Mrs.  Salmon,  and  Charles  Smith. 
lie  composed  some  pianoforte  music  and  a 
few  sets  of  songs.  He  became  a  member  of 
the  Royal  Society  of  Musicians  5  Aug.  1792, 
and  died  on  5  Jan.  1815. 

[Gent.  Mag.  for  1815;  Kecords  of  Roy.  vSoc. 
of  Musicians.]  W.  B.  S. 

ASHLEY,  ROBERT  (1565-1641),  a  mis- 
cellaneous writer  of  the  reign  of  Elizabeth 
and  James  I,  is  called  by  Wood,  in  his 
'  Athenae  Oxonienses,'  '  an  esquire's  son  and 
AV'iltshire-man  born,'  and  from  notes  on 
his  life,  written  by  himself,  to  be  found  in  the 
^  ^  Sloane  MSB.  in  the  British  Museum  {Addit.  ■ 
^^^•MiS.  No.  fllOo),  it  seems  that  he  was  born  at 
^'  Damerham,  on  the  confines  of  the  counties 
of  Wiltshire,  Hampshire,  and  Dorset,  seven 
miles  from  Salisbury;  that  his  father  was 
Anthony  Ashley,  or  Astley,  of  a  knightly 
family  in  Dorset,  and  his  mother  Dorothy 
Lyte,  of  Lytes  Carey,  in  Somerset.  He  fur- 
ther tells  us  that  when  a  boy  he  delighted 
in  reading  '  Bevis  of  Hampton,'  '  Guy  of 
Warwick,  '  Valentine  and  Orson,'  '  Arthur 
and  the  Knights  of  the  Round  Table,'  and 
aftenvards  the  '  Decameron  of  Boccace  '  and 
the  *  Heptameron  of  the  Queen  of  Navarre.' 
He  was  at  school  under  Hadrian  Saravia,  at 
Southampton.  Wood  says  he  became  a  fel- 
low commoner  of  Hart  Hall  in  1580,  and 
does  not  speak  of  his  being  a  member  of  any 
other  college  in  Oxford ;  but  from  liis  auto- 
biogi'aphy  it  appears  that  he  was  of  Alban 
Hall  and  also  of  Magdalen  College.  He 
left  the  university  without  a  degree,  and 
was  called  to  the  bar  by  the  Middle  Temple. 
His  mind  was  too  mercurial  for  law,  and  he 
gave  himself  to  the  study  of  Dutch,  French, 
Spanish,  and  Italian.  '  Finding  the  practice 
of  law,'  says  Wood,  *  to  have  ebbs  and  tides, 
he  applied  himself  to  the  learning  of  the 
languages  of  our  neighbours,  to  the  end  that 
he  might  be  partaker  of  the  Avisdom  of  those 
nations,  having  been  many  years  of  this 
opinion,  that  as  no  one  soil  or  territory 
yieldeth  all  fruits  alike,  so  no  one  climate  or 
region  affordeth  all  kind  of  knowledge  in 
full  measure.'  In  the  preface  to  his  '  Alman- 
sor '  he  speaks  of  having  been  in  the  library 
of  the  Escurial,  where,  he  says,  he  saw  a 
glorious  golden  library  of  Arabian  books.  He 
lived  for  many  years  in  the  Middle  Temple, 
where  he  died,  without  issue,  Oct.  1641.  He 
was  buried  in  the  Temple  Church,  and  gave 
many  books  to  the  Temple  Library. 

His  principal  works  are  '  Urania,'  in  Latin 
verse,  London,  1589,  4to,  translated  from 
the  French  of  Du  Bartas ;  '  The  Interchange- 
able Course,'  1594,  fol.,  translated  from  the 
French  of  Louis   le   Roy ;  *  Almansoi",   the 


learned  and  victorious  King  that  conquered 
Spain,  his  Life  and  Death,'  London,  1627, 
4to,  translated  from  the  Spanish ;  *  Relation 
of  the  Kingdom  of  Cochin-China,  containing 
many  admirable  rarities  and  singularities  of 
that  country,'  London,  1633,  4to,  translated 
from  the  Italian  of  Christ.  Barri ;  '  David 
Persecuted,'  ti-anslated  from  the  Italian  of 
Malvezzi,  London,  1637. 

[Biog.  Brit. ;  Watt's  Bibl.  Brit. ;  Brit.  Miis. 
Catal. ;  Wood,  Ath.  Oxon.  ed.  Bliss,  iii.  19^ 
Bibl.  Univ.  dos  Voyages,  v.  109.]  J.  M. 

ASHMOLE,  ELIAS  (1617-1692),  'the 

freatest  virtuoso  and  curioso  that  ever  was 
nown  or  read  of  in  England  before  his  time,' 
was  born  at  Lichfield  23  May  1617.  His 
father,  though  following  the  trade  of  a  saddler, 
was  a  man  of  good  famih',  who  had  seen 
much  service  in  Ireland.  His  mother,  whose 
maiden  name  was  Bowyer,  was  nearly  related 
to  James  Pagitt,  a  baron  of  the  exchequer. 
A  boyish  intimacy  with  Pagitt's  son  procured 
Ashmole's  reception  into  the  judge's  family 
after  having  received  a  fair  education  at 
Lichfield  grammar  school,  and  as  a  chorister 
in  the  cathedral.  Through  the  patronage  of 
Baron  Pagitt  he  became  a  solicitor  in  1638, 
'  and  had  indifferent  good  practice.'  In  the 
same  year  he  married  Eleanor  Mainwaring, 
of  Smallwood  in  Cheshire,  who  died  suddenly 
in  1641.  In  1642,  having  embraced  the  royal- 
ist side  in  the  civil  war,  he  left  London  and 
retired  into  Cheshire,  and  in  1644  was  ap- 
pointed by  the  king  commissioner  of  excise 
at  Lichfield.  Business  connected  with  this 
employment  brought  him  to  Oxford,  where 
he  was  long  detained  soliciting  the  royalist 
parliament  assembled  in  that  city.  He  there 
made  the  acquaintance  of  Captain  (afterwards 
Sir)  George  Wharton,  Avho  procured  him  a 
commission  in  the  ordnance,  and  imbued  him 
with  the  love  of  astrology  and  alchemy  which, 
next  to  his  antiquarianism,  became  the  lead- 
ing feature  of  his  intellectual  character.  He 
entered  himself  at  Brasenose  College,  and 
studied  physics  and  mathematics ;  but  about 
the  end  of  the  year  became  commissioner  of 
excise  at  Worcester,  to  which  he  soon  added 
the  employments  of  captain  of  horse  and 
comptroller  of  the  ordnance.  In  July  1646 
Worcester  surrendered  to  the  parliament,  and 
Ashmole  again  retired  into  Cheshire.  In 
October  he  came  to  London  and  mixed  much 
in  astrological  circles,  becoming  acquainted 
with  Lilly  and  Booker,  and  finding  himself 
a  guest  at  'the  mathematical  feast  at  the 
White  Hart.'  He  was  also  one  of  the  earliest 
English  Freemasons,  having  been  initiated 
in  or  about  1640,  in  which  year  the  first 
formal  meeting  of  the  body  in  England  was 


Ash  mole 


173 


Ashmole 


held.  His  marriage  must  have  been  prudent 
or  his  employments  profitable,  for  about  this 
time  '  it  pleased  God  to  put  me  in  mind 
that  I  was  now  placed  in  the  condition  I 
had  ahvays  desired,  wliich  was  that  I  might 
be  enabled  to  live  to  myself  and  studies  with- 
out being  forced  to  take  pains  for  a  livelihood 
in  tlie  world.'  This  did  not,  however,  pre- 
vent his  seeking  to  improve  his  fortunes  still 
further  by  marriage  with  a  lady  twenty  years 
older  than  himself,  the  widow  of  three  hus- 
bands, the  mother  of  grown-up  sons,  and  in 
all  probability  a  relative  of  his  first  wife.  On 
1  March  1647  '  I  moved  the  Lady  Main  waring 
in  the  way  of  marriage,  and  received  a  fair 
answer,  though  no  condescension.'  In  July 
the  ladj-'s  second  son,  disapproving  of  the 
match,  '  broke  into  my  cluimber,  and  had  like 
to  have  killed  me.'  He  was  not  deterred,  how- 
ever, from  prosecuting  his  suit,  the  progi'ess 
of  which  is  amusingly  recorded  in  his  diary. 
At  length,  on  16  Nov.  1649,  his  perseverance 
was  triumphant,  and  he '  enjoyed  his  wife's  es- 
tate, though  not  her  company  for  altogether;' 
and  notwithstanding  family  jars,  subpoenas, 
sequestrations,  and  frequent  sicknesses,  all 
faithfully  noted,  he  vigorously  pushed  for- 
ward his  studies  in  astrology,  chemistry,  and 
botany.  In  16.50  he  edited  an  alchemical 
work  by  Dr.  Dee,  together  with  an  anony- 
mous tract  on  the  same  subject,  under  the 
anagram  of  James  IlasoUe.  In  1652  he 
published  the  first  volume  of  his  '  Theatmm 
Chemicum,'  a  collection  of  ancient  metrical 
treatises  on  alchemy.  I  le  procured  his  friend 
Wharton's  deliverance  from  prison,  and  made 
him  steward  of  the  estates  in  Berkshire 
which  he  had  acquired  by  his  second  marriage. 
He  also  formed  the  acquaintance  of  Master 
Backhouse,  a  venerable  Uosicrucian,  who 
called  him  son  [see  Dackhousk,  Martin], 
and  '  opened  himself  very  freely  touching  the 
gi-eat  secret ; '  as  well  as  that  of  John  Tra- 
descant,  keeper  of  the  botanic  garden  at  Chel- 
sea, an  intimacy  which  has  indirectly  con- 
tributed more  than  anything  else  to  his  ce- 
lebrity with  posterity.  He  studied  Hebrew, 
engraving,  and  heraldry,  and  manifested  in 
every  way  an  insatiable  curiosity  for  know- 
ledge, justifying  Seldeu's  opinion  of  him  as 
one  '  affected  to  the  furtherance  of  all  good 
learning.'  On  1.3  May  16o3  Backhouse  '  told 
me,  in  syllables,  the  true  matter  of  the  phi- 
losopher's stone,  which  he  l)equeathed  to  me 
as  a  legacy.'  But  Ashmole  has  omitted  to 
bequeath  it  to  us.  His  domestic  troubles 
came  to  a  head  in  October  1657,  when  his 
wife's  petition  for  a  separation  and  alimony, 
though  fortified  by  eight  hundred  sheets  of 
depositions,  was  dismissed  by  the  court,  and 
she  returned  to  live  with  him.     The  Restora- 


tion marks  a  great  turning-point  in  his  life. 
His  loyalty  had  entitled  him  to  Charles  II's 
favour,  and  being  introduced  to  the  king  by 
no  less  influential  a  person  than  Chiffinch,  he 
was  appointed  Windsor  herald,  *  and  had 
Hemy  VlII's  closet  assigned  for  my  use.' 
From  this  time  antiquarian  pursuits  predomi- 
nated with  him,  and  we  hear  comparatively 
little  of  astrology,  in  which,  however,  he  never 
lost  his  belief  or  interest,  and  nothing  of  al- 
chemy. His  favour  at  court  continued  to 
grow,  and  places  were  showered  upon  him. 
He  successively  became  commissioner,  comp- 
troller, and  accountant-general  of  excise,  and 
held  at  the  same  time  the  employments  <jf 
commissioner  for  Surinam,  and  comptroller 
of  the  White  office.  He  was  about  this  time 
engaged  in  litigation  with  the  widow  of  his 
old  friend  Tradescant,  who  had  bequeathed 
his  museum  to  him.  A  friendly  arrangement 
was  at  length  concluded,  and  Ashmole  be- 
came possessed  of  the  curiosities  which  formed 
the  nucleus  of  the  institution  by  which  he  is 
best  remembered.  In  1668  his  wife  died,  and 
in  the  course  of  the  same  year  he  maiTied  a 
much  younger  lady,  the  daughter  of  his  friend 
the  herald  Dugdale.  All  this  time  he  was 
diligently  engaged  upon  his  great  work,  the 
'  Institution,  Laws,  and  Ceremonies  of  the 
Order  of  the  Garter,'  which  was  published  in 
1672,  and  brought  him  many  tokens  of  honour 
both  from  his  own  and  foreign  countries.  It 
is  certainly  a  noble  example  of  antiquarian 
zeal  and  research.  He  soon  afterwards  re- 
tired from  his  post  as  Windsor  herald,  re- 
ceiving a  pe'lision  of  four  hundred  pounds 
secured  upon  the  paper  duty  ;  and  he  subse- 
quently declined  the  appointment  of  Garter 
king-at-arms  in  favour  of  his  father-in-law, 
Sir  William  Dugdale.  In  1677  he  determined 
to  bestow  the  museum  he  had  inherited  from 
Tradeaijant,  with  his  own  additions  to  it, 
upon  the  university  of  Oxford,  on  condition 
of  a  suitable  building  being  provided  for  its 
reception.  The  gift  was  accepted  on  these 
terms,  and  the  collection  was  removed  to  Ox- 
ford upon  the  completion  of  the  building  in 
1682,  Dr.  Plot  being  appointed  curator.  Ac- 
cording to  Anthony  j\  Wood  the  curiosities 
filled  twelve  wagons.  Ashmole  quaintlv 
notes  in  his  diary,  17  Feb.  1683 :  *  The  last 
load  of  my  rarities  was  sent  to  the  barge,  and 
this  afternoon  I  relapsed  into  the  gout.'  In 
1 685  he  was  invited  to  represent  his  native 
city  in  parliament,  but  desisted  from  his  can- 
didature to  gratify  James  II.  In  1690  he 
was  magnificently  entertained  by  the  univer- 
sity of  Oxford,  which  had  conferred  upon  him 
the  degi-ee  of  M.D.,  and  to  which  he  ulti- 
mately bequeathed  his  library,  invaluable  as 
regards  manuscripts,  but  greatly  damagetl  in 


Ashmole 


174 


Ashpitel 


printed  books  by  a  fire  at  the  Temple  in  1679, 
which  had  also  destroyed  his  collection  of 
medals.  lie  closed  his  industrious  and  pro- 
sperous life  ou  18  May  1692,  and  is  interred 
in  South  Lambeth  church  under  a  black 
marble  slab  with  a  Latin  inscription,  promis- 
ing that  his  name  shall  endure  as  long  as  his 
museum. 

The  Aslimolean  Mrtseum,  though  really 
formed  by  Tradescant,  has  indeed  secured  its 
donor  a  celebrity  which  he  could  not  have 
obtained    by    his   writings.     AshmoLe   was 
nevertlieless  no  ordinary  man.     His  industry 
was  most  exemplary,  he  was  disinterestedly 
attached  to  the  pursuit  of  knowledge,  and  his 
antiquarian  researches,  at  all  events,  were 
guided  by  great  good  sense.     His  addiction 
to  astrology  was  no  mark  of  weakness  of 
judgment  in  that  age ;  he  can  hardly  have 
been  more  attached  to  it  than  Dryden  or 
Shaftesbury,  but  he  had  more  leisui-e  and 
perseverance  for  its  pursuit.     Alchemy  he 
seems  to  have  quietly  dropped.     He  appears 
in  his  diary  as  a  man  by  no  means  unfeeling 
or  ungenerous,  constant  and  affectionate  in 
his  friendships,  and  placable  towards  his  ad- 
versaries.    He   had   evidently,   however,   a 
very  keen  eye  to  his  own  interest,  and  ac- 
quisitiveness was  his  master  passion.     His 
munificence,  nevertheless,  speaks  for  itself, 
and  was  frequently  exercised  on  unlooked-for 
occasions,  as  when  he  erected  monuments  to 
his  astrological  friends,  Lilly  and   Booker. 
He  was  also  a  benefactor  to  his  native  city. 
Ashmole's  principal  work  is  his  '  Listitu- 
tion,  Tjaws,  and  Ceremonies  of  the  Order  of 
the  Garter,'  London,  1672,  one  of  those  books 
which  exhaust  the  subject  of  which  they 
treat,  and  leave  scope  only  for  supplements. 
The  edition  of  1693  is  a  mere  reprint ;  but  in 
1715  a  new  edition  was  published  under  the 
title  of  'The  History  of  the  Order  of  the 
Garter,'  with  a  continuation  by  T.  Walker. 
'  The  Antiquities  of  Berkshire,  with  a  par-  j 
ticular  account  of  the  Castle,  College,  and 
Town  of  Windsor,'  was  published  in  1719,  j 
and  again  in  1736.    It  consists  merely  of  Ash-  i 
mole's  notes  during  his  official  visitation  as 
herald,  and  the  genealogical  papers  transcribed 
by  him ;  but  these  form  together  a  very  co- 
pious collection.     It  is  prefaced  by  a  memoir 
of  the  author.     His  own  memoirs,  drawn  up 
by  himself  by  way  of  diary,  were  published 
in  1717,  and  reprinted  along  with  the  auto- 
biography of  his  friend  Lilly  in  1774.     They 
are  a  quaint  and  curious  record,  narrating 
matters  of  great  personal  importance  to  him 
in  the  same  dry  style  as  the  most  trivial  par- 
ticulars of  his  numerous  ailments :  how  he 
cured  himself  of  an  ague  by  hanging  three 
spiders  about  his  neck,  and  how  on  the  ever- 


memorable  14  Feb.  1677  'I  took  cold  in  my 
right  ear.'  His  alchemical  works  are  merely 
editions  or  reprints,  and  the  only  one  of  im- 
portance isthe'TheatrumChemicum'  (1652), 
which  contains  twenty-nine  old  English 
poems  on  the  subject,  some  very  curious. 
The  extent  of  Ids  collections  in  genealogy, 
lieraldry,  local  and  family  history,  astrologv, 
and  alchemy,  may  be  estimated  from  the  ad- 
mirable catalogue  of  Mr.  W.  H.  Black  and 
the  index  by  Messrs.  Macray  and  Gough  (Ox- 
ford, 1845-66). 

[The  principal  authority  for  Ashmole's  life  is 
his  own  diary.  A  brief  memoir  is  prefixed  to  his 
Antiquities  of  Berkshire.  See  also  Wood's  Atlie- 
nse  Oxon.  (Bliss),  iii.  354-64;  Allen's  History  of 


Lambeth,  pp.  124,  393-8;  and  the  list  of  papers 
relating  to  him  in  the  Indes 
Ashmolean  MSS.,  pp.  8-9.] 


relating  to  him  in  the  Index  to  the  Catalogue  of       '^M 


E.G. 

ASHMORE,  JOHN  .(^.  1621),  was  the 
first  who  attempted  a  translation  into  Eng- 
lish of  selected  odes  of  Horace.  In  1621  he 
published  '  Certain  selected  Odes  of  Horace 
Englished,  and  their  Arguments  annexed.' 
To  the  translations  are  added  a  number  of 
epigrams  and  anagrams.  The  translations 
show  considerable  facility  of  versification, 
and  are  by  no  means  devoid  of  grace ;  but 
the  translator's  choice  is  for  longer  measures, 
and  there  is  a  want  of  light  lyi-ic  speed. 
Samuel  Pullein,  in  a  copy  of  Latin  elegiacs 
prefixed  to  the  translations,  is  enthusiastic 
about  his  friend's  achievement : — 
Flaccus  adest,  eadem  mens  est  et  carminis  idem 
Sensus  :  forma  eadem  est  ingeniique  decus. 

Many  of  the  epigrams  and  anagrams  are  ad- 
dressed to  distinguished  pei'sonages,  such  as 
Charles,  Prince  of  Wales,  George  "^'illiers. 
Marquis  of  Buckingham,  and  Sir  Francis 
Bacon.  In  others  the  writer  puns  vilely  on 
the  names  of  private  friends.  One  epigi-am 
is  addressed  '  Ad  insignem  Poetam,  D.  Ben. 
Johnson.'  From  many  references  throughout 
the  book  to  the  Fairfaxes  and  others,  it 
appears  that  the  author  was  a  native  of 
llipon  in  Yorkshire. 

[Corser's     Collectanea     (Chetham     Soc),     i. 
66-70.]  A.  H.  B. 

/ASHPITEL,  ARTHUR  (1807-1869), 
architect,  tlie  son  of  William  Hurst  Ash- 
pitel, was  born  in  Hackney.  In  boyhood 
he  had  an  accident  which  made  him  a 
cripple  for  life.  He  was  trained  by  his 
father  to  the  architect's  profession,  and  in 
1842  he  began  work  on  his  own  account.  He 
built  the  church  of  St.  John's  at  Blackheatli, 
and  that  of  St.  Barnabas  at  Homerton,  as 
well  as  many  other  buildings.  In  1850  he 
entered  into  partnership  with  Mr.  AVhichcord, 


Ashpitel 


175 


Ashtoii 


and  was  then  for  some  years  engaged  in 
large  practice.  His  health  failed,  and  in 
1854  he  left  England  with  Duvid  lloberts, 
K.A.,  for  a  travelling  companion,  and  lived 
for  some  time  at  Rome.  As  a  result  of  his 
studies  in  that  city  he  exhibited  a  drawing 
at  the  Royal  Academy,  a  '  Restoration  of 
Ancient  Rome,'  and  another  called  'Rome 
as  it  is.'  Latterly  Mr.  Ashpitel  retired  from 
active  practice  and  occupied  himself  as  a 
dilettante  in  literarj-  work.  He  contributed 
pajiers  on  various  cathedrals  to  the  Archaeo- 
logical Association,  and  some  articles  to 
the  '  Encyclopi^dia  Britannica.'  He  was  a 
good  scholar  and  linguist,  and  these  quali- 
fications made  him  (a  tory  of  the  old 
school)  able  to  write  some  tolerably  eftective 
political  pamphlets  and  squibs  in  verse. 
Scnne  translations  andwrs  desocicte  from  his 
pen  appeared  in  the  'Owl'  and  attracted 
some  attention.  Mr.  Ashintel  died  on 
18  Jan.  1869,  having  left  a  valuable  collec- 
tion of  vases  and  books  to  the  Society  of 
Antiquaries,  and  his  two  drawings  of  Rome 
to  the  nation.  These  latter  form  pai-t  of  the 
collection  at  South  Kensington. 

[Builder,  30  Jan.  1869  ;  Kedgrave's  Dictionary 
of  Artists  of  the  English  School.]  E.  R. 

ASHPITEL,  WILLIAM  HURST  (1 77(>- 
1852),  architect,  was  a  pupil  of  Daniel  Asher 
Alexander.  He  assisted  his  master  in  the 
designs  for  the  London  Docks,  and  in  the 
execution  of  the  works  connected  with  that 
undertaking.  Afterwards  a  pupil  of  John 
Rennie,  he  was  largely  concerned  in  the 
Kennet  and  Avon  canal,  and  in  the  work  of 
tunnelling  under  the  town  of  Bath.  Later 
he  was  in  partnership  with  James  Savage, 
and  then  last  in  practice  on  his  own  account. 
Amongst  other  buildings  he  designed  Sir 
Charles  Talbot's  house  at  Deeydene.  He 
left  his  profession  rather  early  m  life,  and 
died  20  April  1852. 

[Dictionary  of  Architectural  Publication  So- 
ciety.] E.  R. 

ASHTON,  CHARLES  (1665-1752),  a 
distinguiijhed  scholar  and  divine,  was  born 
on  25  May  1665,  at  Bradway,  in  the  parish 
of  Norton,  Derbyshire.  He  was  admitted  to 
Queens'  College,  Cambridge,  on  18  May  1682, 
took  the  degi-ee  of  B.A.,  and  on  30  April 
1687  was  elected  to  a  fellowship.  After 
serving  for  a  time  as  chaplain  to  Bishop 
Patrick,  he  was  presented  on  10  March 
1698-9  to  the  living  of  Rattenden,  in  Essex, 
which  he  exchanged  in  the  following  June 
for  a  chaplainship  at  Chelsea  Hospital.  On 
3  July  1701  he  was  collated  to  a  prebendal 
stall  in  Ely  Cathedral,  and  was  elected  on  the 


next  day  to  the  mastei-ship  of  Jesus  College, 
Cambi'idge,  both  offices  being  vacant  by  tlie   - 
deat  h  of  Dr.  Say  well.     In  the  same  year  he 
took  the  degree  of  D.D.,  and  in  1702  was 
elected   vice-chancellor    of    the   university. 
His  life  was  spent  in  scholarly  seclusion,  and 
he    seldom   left    Cambridge,    except    when 
his    attendance  was   required  at  Ely.      He 
died  in  March  1752,  at  the  age  of  87,  and 
was  buried  in  the  college  chapel.     Ashton's 
published  works  are  not  numerous.    He  con- 
tributed to  Wasse's  '  Bibliotheca  Literaria,' 
1724,  an  article,  '  Tully  and  Iliitius  recon- 
ciled as  to  the  time  of  Caesar's  going  to  the 
African  war; '  also  an  emendation  of  a  pas- 
sage of  Justin  Martyr.     Reading's  editions 
of  Origen  'De  Oratione '  (1728)  and'His- 
toriiB  Ecclesiasticje  Scriptores '   (1746)  are 
said  to  have  been  in  great  part  the  work  f)f 
Ashton.     '  His  edition  of  Ilierocles's  excel- 
lent commentary  on  the   golden  verses   of 
Pythagoras  is  without  his  name,  or,  it  should 
rather  be  said,  with  another  person's,  R.  W. 
(Warren).    .    .    .    Mr.    AVakefield   also   has 
particularly  noticed   a   Tertullian  as  being 
replete  with  notes  by  Dr.  Ashton.     I  have 
also  myself  perused  a  dictionary  marked  in 
the  same  manner'  (Dyke,  Jlist.  of  Univ.  of 
Camb.,  1814,  ii.  80).     In  1768  appeared  an 
edition  of  Justin  Martyr's  *  Apologias  '  pre- 
])ared  by  Frederick  Keller,  fellow  of  Jesns 
College,  from  papers   that  Dr.  Ashton  left 
at   his   death.      All   Ashton's   manuscripts 
had   been   bequeathed   to   Keller.     Bowyer 
Avrites  :  *  The  Bishop  of  Ely  has  advised  him 
(Keller)  to  ask  leave  of  the  Bishop  of  Lon- 
don to  inscribe  Tertullian's  Apology,  which 
the  doctor  left  to  his  lordship.  .  .  .  Ashton 
destroyed  all  his  sermons ;  for  the  Bishop  of 
London  inquired  after  some  he  had  heard 
preached,  which  were  not  found.'    Among 
the    Cole   MSS.    in    the    British    Museum 
there  are  transcripts  of  some  of  Ashton's 
letters   to   Dean   Sloss  (vol.  xxx.) ;    of  his 
additions  to  Sherman's  '  History   of  Jesus 
College  '  (vol.  xlii.)  ;  and  of  his  large  '  Col- 
lections relating  to  the  University.'   In  Chis- 
hull's' Antiquitates  Asiaticae '  (1728)  Ashton 
showed  much  acuteness  in  restoring  satis- 
factorily  a   comipt    inscription   to   Jupiter 
Urios. 

[Nichols's  Literary  Anecdotes,  i.  262,  271,  iv. 
226,  227,  viii.  502',  ix.  '66 ;  Dyer's  Hist,  of 
Canibr.  Univ.  ii.  80;  Cole  MSS.  vols,  xxx.,  xlii., 
li. ;  Add.  MS.  6396.  There  is  a  good  account 
ofAshtonbyJ[ohn]H[ill]B[iirton]inS.D.U.K. 
Biographical  Dictionary.]  A.  H.  B. 

ASHTON,  EDAVARD  {d.  1658),  was  a 
colonel  in  the  army.  He  was  deeply  impli- 
cated in  the  plot  against  the  lord  protector 


Ashton 


176 


Ashton 


feet  on  foot  by  Ormond  and  other  agents  of 
Charles  II  in  1658,  and  for  complicity  in 
which  Sir  H.  Slingsby  and  Dr.  Ilewet  snf- 
fered.  Ashton's  part  was  to  set  fire  to  the 
city,  throw  open  all  the  prisons,  and  seize  all 
moneys  and  plate  at  the  goldsmiths',  but  it 
was  to  be  '  death  for  any  to  touch  any  man's 
private  goods.'  He  was  tried  with  six  of 
his  fellow-conspirators  before  the  commis- 
sioners of  the  high  court  of  justice,  was  found 
guilty,  and  on  7  July  I608  was  hanged,  drawn, 
and  (piartered  in  '  Tower  Street,  London, 
over  against  Mark  Lane  end.'  Four  of  his 
fellow  conspirators  suffered  similar  penalties 
in  different  parts  of  the  city. 

[Mercurius  Politicus  for  the  year  1658,  No.  423 
(No.  48  in  Brit.  Mas.  Catalogue) ;  Clarendon's 
Hist.  XT.  102.]  G.  V.  B. 

ASHTON,  HENRY  (1801-1872),  archi- 
tect, born  in  London,  was  a  pupil  of  Sir 
Robert  Smirke.  Afterwards,  and  till  death, 
he  was  employed  by  Sir  .Jeffrey  Wyattville. 
He  erected  the  stables  at  Windsor  and  the 
kennels  at  Frogmore.  About  1831  he  was 
employed  by  the  King  of  Holland  to  build 
the  summer  palace  at  the  Hague.  He  was 
the  architect  of  the  improvements  in  Victoria 
Street,  and  designed  the  thoroughfare  which 
connects  Belgravia  with  the  Houses  of  Par- 
liament. Some  of  the  best  examples  of  his 
work  are  found  in  ^'ictoria  Street.  He  ex- 
hibited many  designs  at  the  Academy.  *  His 
work  possessed  many  good  characteristics — 
good  in  construction,  simple  yet  tastefvd  in 
its  design  and  proportions.'  In  competition 
*  for  some  of  the  most  important  works  of 
his  dav  '  he  was  not  successful.  He  died  on 
18  March  1872. 

[Redgrave's  Dictionary  of  Painters  of  the 
English  School.]  E.  E. 

ASHTON,  HUGH  {d.  1522),  archdeacon 
of  York,  was  a  yoimger  son  of  one  of  the  Lan- 
cashire families  of  Ashton.  He  attracted  the 
notice  of  the  Lady  INlargaret,  countess  of 
Derby,  who  made  him  comptroller  of  her 
household.  It  has  been  conjectured  on 
that  account  that  he  belonged  to  the  West 
Lancashire  Ashtons,  and  perhaps  to  that 
branch  settled  at  Penketh,  in  the  parish  of 
Prescot;  but  nothing  certain  is  known  as 
to  his  origin.  He  commenced  M.A.  at  Ox- 
ford 13  Oct.  1507,  but  soon  after  had  a 
grace  from  Cambridge  to  enter  the  canon 
law.  He  subsequently  became  canon  and 
prebendary  in  St.  Stephen's,  Westminster, 
1509  ;  preiaendary  of  Strensall,  in  the  church 
of  York,  1515;  archdeacon  of  Winchester, 
1511  (resigned  in  1519);  archdeacon  of  Corn- 
wall,   1515 :   archdeacon   of   West    Riding, 


York,  1516.  Before  1511  he  was  rector 
Grasmere,  Ambleside,  and  he  Avas  also  red 
of  Barnake,  Lichfield.  In  1522  he  was  i 
stituted  rector  of  Burton  Latimer,  Northan 
tonshire.  He  had  been  one  of  the  executf 
of  the  will  of  his  early  patroness,  and  li 
her  was  interested  in  the  fortunes  of  ' 
John's  College,  Cambridge.  Baker  sav 
*  The  last  chapel  was  Mr.  Hugh  Ashtoii 
well  known  by  his  monument  and  his  reb 
upon  it,  a  thing  then  much  in  fashion,  a: 
must  be  forgiven  to  the  humour  of  the  a< 
It  has  long  since  lost  the  face  of  religi(. 
Many  years  after  its  desecration,  in  Dr.  Bea 
time,  it  was  restored  to  sacred  use ;  but  t 
times  coming  on  Avhen  little  regai-d  was  h 
to  sacred  things,  and  less  to  sacred  places, 
was  again  desecrated,  and  has  not  since  be 
restored  to  such  uses  as  the  other  two  chap* 
yet  standing  have  been.  It  may,  'tis  hope 
one  day  recover  the  right ;  and  might 
choose  my  place  of  sepulture  I  would  lay  n 
body  there,  that  as  I  owe  the  few  comfort .« 
enjoy  to  Mr.  Ashton's  bounty,  so  I  might  n 
be  separated  from  him  in  my  death.'  This  is  1 
allusion  to  Ashton's  foundations.  The  buil 
ing  accounts  are  given  by  Cooper  and  May< 
Whilst  at  Cambridge  he  was '  very  serviceabl 
in  the  business  of  the  college ;  but  having 
be  away  a  gi'eat  deal  he  made  up  for  his  no 
residence  by  his  benefactions.  *  What  w 
wanting  in  that  more  public  capacity  ] 
made  up  and  supported  in  his  private  static 
by  founding  four  fellows,  who  were  his  cha 
lains,  and  as  many  scholars,  together  with  { 
annual  dirge  to  be  observed  for  him  on  tl 
day  of  his  interment.'  According  to  Bake 
who  followed  the  inscription  on  his  tomb  ; 
Y'^ork,  and  copied  in  Queen  Mary's  reign  \ 
Dr.  Bullock,  then  master  of  St.  John's,  1 
died  23  Xoa-.  1522,  but  Cooper  and  May 
state  that  his  will  was  dated  7  Dec.  152 
and  proved  9  March  following.  '  Hie  siti 
est,'  runs  the  inscription,  '  Hugo  Ashtc 
archidiaconus  Ebor.,  qui  ad  Christianai  r 
ligionis  augmentum  socios  2  ex  Lancastr 
totidemque  scolares,  sociumque  et  scholare: 
Eboracensis  sociumque  et  scholarem  Di 
nelmensis  dioecesis  oriundos,  suis  impens 
pie  instituit,  atque  singulis  a  se  institut 
sociis  consuetum  sociorum  stipendium  solid 
40  adauxit.  Obiit  nono  cal.  Decemb.  an.  Dii 
1522.'  It  is  impossible  to  reconcile  this  dai 
with  that  of  the  will.  Ashton's  Lancasliii 
foundations  were  made  available  to  cand 
dates  from  the  entire  diocese  of  Cheste 
There  was  an  inscription  in  the  hospital  ( 
St.  Leonard's  at  York  recording  Ashton 
gift  of  a  window.  In  addition  to  the  pros 
tribute,  some  eulogistic  verses,  occasioned  b 
a  portrait  of  Ashton,  were  written  by  P>ake 


Ashton 


177 


Ashton 


who  bequeathed  tlie  picture  to  Dr.  Newcome, 
master  of  St.  John's. 

[C(X)per's  Athena'  Cantal)rigienses,and  Mem.  of 
3Iargiirot,  Countess  of  Richmond ;  Baker's  His- 
tory of  St.  John's  College;  Le  Neve's  Fasti; 
W,  A.  Abram,  in  Pink's  Ijanciusliire  and  Cheshire 
Antiquarian  Notes,  Leigh,  1883,  p.  106.] 

W.  E.  A.  A. 

ASHTON,    Sir  JOHN    de  {Jl.   1370), 
military  commander,  was  the  son  of  Thomas 
de  Ashton,  who  had  distinguished  himself 
at  the  battle  of  Nevill's  Cross.     The  dates 
of  his  birth  and  death  are  unknown,  but  in 
1370  he  figured  as  the  hero  of  one  of  those 
picturesque   incidents   which  Fi^oissart   de- 
lighted to  describe.     Lord  Berners  has  thus 
translated  the  passage :    '  The  lande  of  the 
Lord  of  Coucy  abode  in  peace,  for  ther  was 
nother  man  nor  woman  that  had  any  hurt, 
the  value  of  a  penny,  yf  they  sayd  they  be- 
longed to  the  lorde  of  Coucy.     And  so  at  last 
the  englysslimen  came  before  the   cyte   of 
noyon,  the  whiche  was  well  furnished  with 
men  of  warre  ;  ther  the  englysshmen  taiyed, 
and  aproched  as   near  as  they  might,  and 
aduysed  to  se  yf  any  maner  of  assaut  might 
preuayle  them  or  not,  and  there  they  sawe 
that  the  towne  was  well  aparelled  for  defence. 
And  sir  Robert  Canoll  was  loged  in  the  ab- 
bey of  Dolkens,  and  his  people  about  him ; 
and  on  a  day  he  came  before  the  cyte,  raynged 
in  maner  of  batayle,  to  se  yf  they  of  the 
garyson  and  comontie  of  the  towne  wolde 
yssue  out  and  fight  or  not ;  but  they  had  no 
wyU  so  to  do.     There  was  a  scottysh  knyght 
dyde  there  a  goodly  feate  of  armes,  for  he  de- 
parted fro  his  company,  his  speare   in  his 
hande,  mounted  on  a  good  horse,  his  page  be- 
hynde  hym,  and  soo  came  before  the  barryers ; 
this  knyght  was  called  sir  Johan  Assueton, 
a  hardy  man  and  a  couragious  ;  whan  he  was 
before  the  barryers  of  Noyon  he  lighted  afote, 
and  sayd  to  his  page,  Holde,  kepe  my  horse 
and  departe  nat  hens ;  and  so  went  to  the 
banyers.     And  within  ye  barryers  ther  were 
good  knightes,  as  sir  Johan  of  Roy,  sir  Laun- 
celot  of  Lowrys,  and  a  x.  or  xii.  other,  who 
had  great  marueyle  what  this  sayde  knight 
wolde  do.     Than  he  sayd  to  them,  Sirs,  I  am 
come  hyder  to  se  you,  I  se  well  ye  wjdl  nat 
yssue  out  of  your  barryers,  therfore  I  wyll 
entre  and  I  can,  and  will  proue  my  knyght- 
hode  agajTist  yours :  wyn  me  and  ye  can ; 
and  therwith  he  layed  on  rounde  about  hym, 
and  they  at  hym,  and  thus  he  alone  fought 
against  them  more  than  an  hour,  and  dyd 
hurt  two  or  thre  of  the  ;  so  that  they  of  the 
towne  on  the  walles  and  gerettes  stode  styll 
and  behelde  them,  and  had  great  pleasure  to 
regarde  his  valiatnesse,  and  dyde  him  no  hurt, 

VOL.  II. 


the  whiche  they  might  haue  done,  if  they  hadde 
lyst  to  haue  shotte  or  cast  stones  at  hym 
and  also  the  frenche  knightes  charged  them 
to  let  hym  and  them  alone  togyder.  So  long 
they  fought  that  at  last  his  page  came  nere 
to  the  barryers,  and  spake  in  his  language 
and  sayd.  Sir,  coe  away,  it  is  tyme  for  you  to 
depart,  for  your  company  is  departyng  hens : 
the  knight  herde  him  well,  and  then  gaue  a 
two  or  thre  strokes  about  him,  and  so,  armed 
as  he  was,  he  lept  out  of  the  barryers,  and 
lepte  upon  his  horse,  without  any  hurt,  be- 
hynde  his  page,  and  sayd  to  the  frenchmen, 
Adue,  sirs,  I  thank  you,  and  so  rode  forthe  to 
his  owne  company ;  the  whiche  dede  was 
moche  praysed  of  many  folkes '  (Froissart, 
1812  edit.  i.  417).  The  term '  Scottish  knight ' 
is  somewhat  perplexing,  and  has  led  Mr. 
Johnes  to  suppose  that  one  of  the  Setons  is 
meant ;  but  Froissart  applies  the  term  gene- 
rally to  all  who  were  in  that  army,  although 
Sir  Robert  Canoll — that  is.  Sir  Robert 
KnoUes — was  of  Cheshire  birth.  Sir  John 
Ashton  was  knight  of  the  shire  for  his  native 
county  in  the  parliament  of  Westminster  in 
1389.  He  married  Margaret,  daughter  of 
Perkin  Legh  of  Lyme,  and  was  succeeded  in 
the  lordship  of  Ashton  by  his  son.  Sir  John, 
who  was  drowned  at  Norham. 

[Froissart;  Baines's  Lancashire ;  Axon's  Lan- 
cashire Gleanings.]  W.  E.  A.  A. 

ASHTON,  Sir  JOHN  de  (d.  1428),  sene- 
schal of  Bayeux,  was  the  son  of  Sir  John  de 
Ashton  and  his  wife,  Margary  Legh.  He  was 
one  of  forty-six  esquires  who  were  summoned 
to  attend  the  grand  coronation  of  Henry  TV, 
in  honour  of  which  event  they  were  solemnly 
admitted  to  the  order  of  the  Bath.  He  served 
in  the  parliament  of  1413  asknightof  the  shire 
for  Lancashire.  In  1416  he  was  with  the  Duke 
of  Clarence  at  the  taking  of  Bayeux,  and  was 
entrusted  by  the  king  with  the  office  of  sene- 
schal of  the  city.  There  is  in  the  'Foedera'a 
document  sent  to  him  by  Henry  IV  from 
Falaise,  commanding  him  to  give  special 
protection  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  religious 
houses.  He  was  also  captain  of  Iladupais 
and  bailiiF  of  Constance.  He  was  twice 
married  and  left  many  children,  of  whom 
the  most  distinguished  were  Sir  Thomas  de 
Ashton,  the  alchemist,  and  Sir  Roger  de  Ash- 
ton, of  Middleton.     Sir  John  died  in  1428. 

[Baines's  Lancashire;  Rymer's  Foedera,  vii. 
186,  504,  626,  630,  589,  614,  x.  61.  91,  xiii.  712  ; 
Axon's  Lancashire  Gleanings.]      W.  E.  A.  A. 

ASHTON,  JOHN  {d.  1691),  Jacobite  con- 
spirator, was  clerk  of  the  closet  to  Mary  of 
Modena,  the  wife  of  James  H,  and,  after  the 
revolution  of  1688,  showed  himself  ardently 


Ashton 


T78 


Ashton 


devoted    to    the    interests    of    his    exiled 
master  and  mistress.     He  appears  to  have  j 
held  a  commission  of  captain  or  major  in  the  ! 
army,  and  to  have  been  an  intimate  friend 
of  Dr.  Thomas  Cartwright,  who  was  bishop 
of  Chester  from  1686  to  1689,  and  a  zealous 
supporter  of  the  Stuart  dynasty  (cf.  Cart- 
avright's  Diary,  pub.  by  Camden  Soc).   By 
religion  Ashton  was  a  protestant,  and  late 
in  1690  he  attended  a  meeting  of  protestant 
Jacobites,  at  which  it  was  resolved  to  invite 
Louis  XIV   to   forcibly  restore  .Tames  II. 
Viscount  Preston  undertook  to  visit  St.  Ger- 
mains  with  the  papers   requisite  to  obtain 
support  for  the  conspiracy,  and  Ashton  pro- 
mised to  arrange  the  journey  and  bear  him 
company.     He  and  a  young  friend,  Major 
Elliott,  hired  a  boat  at  London  to  convey 
themselves  and  Lord  Preston  to  France,  but 
the  owner,  whose  suspicions  were  roused  by 
their  injunctions  of  secrecy,  gave  information 
to  the  government,  and  on  31  Dec.  1690, 
when  Preston,  Ashton,  and  Elliott  embarked 
with  their  treasonable  papers  about  them 
at  the  Tower,  they  were  narrowly  watched, 
were  arrested  off  Tilbury,  and  a  few  hours 
later  brought  back  to  Whitehall.     On  Ash- 
ton's  person  alone  incriminating  documents 
were    found.      The    three    prisoners    were 
brought  to  trial  a  fortnight  later,  but  each 
was   tried    separately.     Ashton,   who   was 
described  in  the  indictment  as  '  late  of  the 
parish  of  St.  Paul's,  Covent  Garden,'  declared 
that  he  was  about  to  visit  France  toleani  from 
the  exiled  queen  how  she  proposed  to  settle 
certain  unpaid  debts  with  her  London  trades- 
men, for  many  of  which  he,  as  her  late  clerk, 
was  held  responsible,  and  he  called  witnesses 
in  support  of  his  assertion.     All  the  conspi- 
rators were,  however,  condemned  to  death, 
and  Ashton,  upon  whom  alone  the  sentence 
was   executed,  was  hanged   at  Tyburn   on 
28  Jan.  1690-1.     Several  nonjuring  clergy- 
men attended  liim  after  his  conviction,  and 
were  present  with  him  at  the  gallows,  where 
he  behaved  with  exemplary  fortitude.   Before 
his  death  he  handed  to  the  sheriff  a  paper 
declaring  himself  a  protestant,  and  happy  in 
losing  his  life  in  James  IPs  service,  from 
whom  he  had  received  favoui'S  *  for  sixteen 
years  past.'    This  document,  which  well  ex- 
emplified the  depth  of  the  sincerity  of  .Tames's 
supporters    in   England,  was   published   in 
England,  France,  and  Holland,  and  greatly 
alarmed  the  autliorities.     An  answer  to  it 
was  written  anonymously  by  Dr.  Edward 
Fowler,  bishop  of  Gloucester,   who  repre- 
sented Ashton's  paper  as  the  manifesto  of 
the  Jacobite  party,  and  tried  to  confute  in 
detail  his  arguments  against  the  lawfulness 
of  William  Ill's  accession  to  the  throne : 


the  bishop's  pamphlet  evoked  a  reply  in  the 
*  Loyal  Traitor,'  an  elaborate  defence  of  Asli- 
ton  by  a  Jacobite. 

Ashton's  widow,  whose  maiden  name  was 
Rigby,  after  her  husband's  death  sought 
refuge  at  St.  Germains  with  her  son,  upon 
whom  James  II  conferred  a  baronetcy.  But 
her  protestantism  did  not  commend  itself 
to  the  exiled  court,  and  Mrs.  Ashton  was 
harshly  used  on  her  refusal  to  become  a 
Roman  Catholic.  She  died  in  1694,  and  her 
body  was  sent  to  England  for  burial  (  Viev 
of  the  Court  of  St.  Germains  (1696),  in  Ilar- 
leian  Miscellany,  vi.  395). 

[State  Trials,  xii.  64.5  et  seq. ;  Luttrell's 
Brief  Relation  of  State  Affairs,  vols.  ii.  iii. ; 
Burnet's  History  of  my  own  Time,  iv.  121 
(Oxford  edit.)  ;  Maciiulay,  iii.  723,  727,  iv.  16-8  ; 
Brit.  Mus.  Cat. ;  Ashton's  paper  is  printed  in 
Tindal's  Continuation  of  Eapin's  History  of 
England  (i.  171),  in  the  State  Trials,  and  in  Dr. 
Fowler's  pamphlet.]  S.  L.  L. 

ASHTON,  PETER  (Jl.  1646),  translated 
into  English,  in  1546,  the  *  Turcicarum  renuu 
Commentarius  '  of  Paulus  Jovius,  under  the 
title  of  '  A  Shorte  Treatise  upon  the  Turkes 
Chronicles,  compyled  by  Paulus  Jovius, 
byshop  of  Niicenie,  and  dedicatedto  Charles  V, 
Emperour.  Drawen  out  of  the  Italyen  tong 
in  to  Latyne  by  Franciscus  Niger  Bassia- 
nates.  And  translated  out  of  Latyne  into 
Englysh  by  Peter  Ashton.'  In  the  dedica- 
tory epistle  to  Sir  Rafe  Sadler  the  transla- 
tor informs  us  that  he  has  '  studyed  rather 
to  use  the  most  plavn  and  famylier  English 
speche  the  ether  Chancers  wordes  (which  by 
reason  of  antiqviitie  be  almost  out  of  use)  or 
els  inkhom  termes  (as  they  call  them)  which 
the  common  people  for  lacke  of  Latin  do  not 
undei'stand.' 

[Ames's  Typographical  Antiquities  (ed.  Dili- 
din),  iii.  488-9.]  A.  H.  B. 

ASHTON,  Sir  RALPH  de  (Jl.  1460- 
1483),  an  officer  of  state  under  Edward  TV, 
was  the  half-brother  of  Sir  Thomas  de  Ash- 
ton the  alchemist  [see  Ashton  or  Assheton, 
Sir  Thomas  iiii,Ji.  1446],  and  the  son  of  the 
vVshton  mentioned  by  Froissart  [see  Ashton, 
Sir  John  de,  ^.  1370].  His  mother  was 
Margaret,  daughter  of  Sir  John  Byron  of 
Clayton.  In  liis  seventeenth  year  he  was  one 
of  the  pages  of  honour  to  Henry  VI,  and  at 
the  same  early  age  he  married  Margaret,  tlie 
heiress  of  the  Bartons  of  Middleton,  and  bf- 
came  the  founder  of  the  family  that  held  tlie 
lordship  there  until  the  last  century,  when 
it  passed  by  the  female  line  to  the  holders  of 
the  Suffield  peerage.  Ralph  Ashton  was  a 
man  of  influence,  and  in  the  reign  of  Ed- 


Ashton 


179 


Ashton 


■ward  IV  he  held  various  offices.  lie  was 
sheriff  of  Yorkshire,  and  for  his  courage  at 
the  battle  of  Iluttonfield  he  was  made  a 
knight  banneret.  When  his  commander,  the 
Duke  of  Gloucester,  became  llichard  III,  he 
rewarded  Sir  Ralph's  adhesion  to  the  Yorkist 
cause  by  extensive  grants  of  land.  In  1483 
he  was  appointed  vice-constable  of  England 
and  lieutenant  of  the  Tower.  The  date  of 
his  death  is  imknown,  but  he  is  traditionally 
said  to  have  been  shot  at  Ashton-under- 
Lyne,  and  the  yearly  ceremony  known  as  the 
■*  Riding  of  the  Black  Lad  '  is  regarded  as  a 
commemoration  of  that  event.  There  is  a 
very  full  rent-roll  or  custumal  of  the  manor 
•of  Ashton  in  1422,  in  which  the  various 
names  and  obligations  of  the  tenants  are  set 
forth.  Ralph  Ashton  is  mentioned  in  a  pas- 
sage which  Dr.  Hibbert-Ware  has  explained 
with  much  ingenuity,  though  not  with  abso- 
lute certainty.  According  to  this,  corn  mari- 
gold {Chrysanthemum  segetum)  gi'ew  so  ex- 
tensively in  the  low  wet  land  about  Ashton 
as  to  be  inimical  to  the  crops,  and  the  lord  of 
the  manor  had  an  annual  inspection  and 
levied  fines  on  those  tenants  on  whose  lands 
it  was  seen.  This  power,  delegated  to  Ralph 
Ashton  and  his  brother  Robert,  is  said  to 
have  been  made  the  pretext  of  such  tyrannical 
exactions  that  on  one  of  these  visitations  the 
tenants  rose  in  desperation  and  the  '  Black 
Knight '  was  slain.  Others  hold  that  it  was 
whilst  exercising  in  the  northern  parts  his 
despotic  powers  as  vice-constable  that  he  ex- 
cited the  terror  expressed  in  the  legendary 
rhyme  :■ — 

Sweet  Jesu,  for  thy  mercy's  sake         * 
And  for  thy  bitter  passion, 

Save  us  from  the  axe  of  the  Tower, 
And  from  Sir  Kalph  of  Ashton. 

The  effigy  of  the  Black  Knight  is  still  pa- 
raded through  the  town  of  Ashton  on  Easter 
Monday. 

[Hibbert-Ware's  Customs  of  a  Manor  in  the 
North  of  England,  Edinburgh,  1822,  and  again 
by  the  Chetham  Society,  vol.  Ixxiv. ;  Rymer's 
Foedera,  xi.  715,  xii.  118,  205,  268;  Axon's 
Lancashire  Gleanings.]  W.  E.  A.  A. 

ASHTON,  Sir  ROBERT  de  {d.  1385), 
•civil,  military,  and  naval  officer  under  Ed- 
ward III,  was  of  the  great  northern  family 
•of  Ashton  or  Assheton,  of  Ashton-under- 
Lyne,  in  the  county  of  Lancaster.  The  house 
<;laims  descent  from  Emma,  the  daughter  of 
Albert  de  Gresley,  the  first  baron  of  Man- 
chester; she  married  Orm,  the  son  of  Ail- 
ward,  and  received  from  her  father  as  a  dowry 
a  portion  of  the  lands  he  had  received  from 
Roger  of  Poictou.  From  this  union,  probably 
•of  Norman  heiress  and  Saxon  thane,  descended 


Sir  John  Ashton,  who  was  twice  married. 
The  date  of  the  birth  of  his  son  Robert  is  not 
known,  nor  are  there  records  of  his  career 
until  we  find  him,  in  1324,  a  member  of  the 
parliament  of  Westminster,  and  afterwards 
occupying  positions  of  great  importance  and 
trust.  In  1 3o9  he  was  governor  of '  Guynes ' 
near  Calais ;  in  1362  he  was  lord  treasixrer 
of  England;  in  1368  he  had  the  custody  of 
the  castle  of  Sandgate  near  Calais  with  the 
lands  and  revenue  tbereto  belonging;  in  1369 
he  was  admiral  of  the  Narrow  Seas;  in  1372 
he  was  justiciary  of  Ireland ;  and  in  1 373again 
lord  treasurer  of  England  and  king's  cham- 
berlain. In  1375  he  became  chancellor  of 
the  exchequer,  and  held  that  office  until  the 
death  of  Edward  III  in  1377,  when  he  was 
succeeded  by  Simon  de  Bureley.  The  new 
king  did  not  discard  his  father's  old  servant, 
and  in  1380  Ashton  was  appointed  constable  of 
Dover  and  warden  of  the  Cinque  Ports,  lie 
died  at  Dover  Castle  9  Jan.  1384-5,  and  was 
buried  in  the  church  there,  to  which  he  had 
previously  presented  a  large  bell.  He  was 
twice  maiTied.  By  his  first  wife,  Elizabeth, 
whose  surname  is  not  known,  he  left  a  son, 
Thomas,  and  a  daughter,  Eleanor.  His  second 
wife  was  the  widow  of  Lord  Matthew  de 
Gomey,  and  after  Ashton's  death  married  Sir 
John  Tiptoft,  knt.,  and  died  in  1417.  Such 
are  the  scanty  details  of  the  career  of  a  man 
Avho,  going  from  a  then  remote  and  little- 
known  district,  achieved  distinction  alike  in 
court  and  camp,  by  land  and  by  sea. 

[Rymer's  Foedera,  3rd  edit.  752,  820,  822, 
824,  844,  845,  862,  924,  930,  942,  977,978,  979, 
990, 1010,  1052,  1062, 1069, 1076,  1077;  Bainess 
Hist,  of  Lancashire  ;  Axon's  Lancashire  Glean- 
ings.] W.  E.  A.  A. 

ASHTON,  THOMAS  DE  (/.  1346),  war- 
rior, was  the  son  and  heir  of  Sir  Robert  de 
Ashton,  and  it  is  remarkable  that,  although 
the  chief  recorded  event  of  his  life  shows  him 
to  have  been  a  man  of  conspicuous  military 
courage,  he  does  not  appear  to  have  received 
the  honour  of  knighthood,  or  to  have  been  em- 
ployed in  any  of  the  offices  in  which  his  father 
haddistinguished  himself.  Whilst  Edward  III 
was  fighting  in  France,  David,  king  of  Scot- 
land, entered  Northumberland  with  a  force 
estimated  at  50,000  men,  and  wasted  and 
pillaged  the  country  as  far  as  Durham.  Queen 
Philippa,  the  heroic  wife  of  Edward  III, 
marched  against  the  invaders  with  a  force 
of  about  12,000,  whom  she  encouraged  to 
the  unequal  conflict.  Battle  was  joined  at 
Neville's  Cross,  near  Durham,  17  Oct.  1346, 
and  the  result  was  a  decisive  victory  for  the 
English.  Thomas  de  Ashton,  who  fought 
under  Lord  Neville,  captured  the  royal  stan- 

X  2 


Ashton 


i8o 


Ashton 


tlard  of  Scotland.  Shortly  after  King  David 
was  made  prisoner  by  John  de  Coupland, 
variously  described  as  a  Lancashire  esquii'e 
and  as  a  Northumberland  gentleman,  who  was 
knighted  when  the  king  returned  from  France, 
but  Ashton  was  still  an  esquire  when,  in  1385, 
he  formed  one  of  the  retinue  of  John  of  Gaunt 
in  his  expedition  to  Spain.  William  de  Ash- 
ton, doctor  of  laws,  wlio  was  also  with  '  the 
serene  prince,  Lord  John,  king  of  Castile  and 
Leon,'  was  his  uncle. 

[Baines's  Lancashire;  Eymer's  Fcedera,  vii. 
490,  xi.  28  ;  Axon's  Lancashire  Gleanings.] 

W.  E.  A.  A. 

ASHTON  or  ASSHETON,  Sir  THO- 
MAS DE  {Jl.  1446),  alchemist,  bom  in  1403, 
was  the  son  and  heir  of  Sir  John  de  Ashton, 
of  Ashton-under-Lyne  [see  Ashton,  Sir 
John  de],  who  died  in  1428.  Permission 
was  granted  by  Henry  VI  to  Sir  Thomas  to 
transmute  the  precious  metals,  and  on  7  April 
1446  a  special  order  was  issued  {Rot.  Pat.  2, 
No.  14),  encouraging  two  Lancashire  knights, 
Ashton  and  Sir  Edmund  de  Traiford,  to 
pursue  their  experiments  in  alchemy,  and 
forbidding  any  subject  of  the  king  to  mo- 
lest them.  Sir  Thomas  married  Elizabeth, 
daughter  of  Sir  John  Byron,  by  whom  he 
had  eleven  children.  The  eldest  son,  John, 
was  knighted  before  the  battle  of  North- 
ampton, 10  July  1460,  and  died  in  1608. 

[Fuller's  Worthies  (ed.  NichoUs),  i.  555 ;  Bio- 
graphia  Britannica ;  Foster's  Lancashire  Pedi- 
grees ;  Bainess  History  of  Lancashire  (ed.  flar- 
land),  i.  133.] 

ASHTON,  THOMAS  {d.  1578),  school- 
master, was  educated  at  Cambridge,  where 
he  graduated  B.A.  in  1559-60,  and  M.A. 
in  1563.  He  was  elected  a  fellow  of  Tri- 
nity College  in  that  university,  entered  into 
orders,  and  in  1562  was  appointed  the  first 
head  master  of  Shrewsbury  school,  whici 
he  raised  to  a  high  position ;  there  being, 
while  he  presided  over  it,  as  many  as  290 
scholars  at  a  time.  Among  his  pupils  were 
the  illustrious  Sir  Philip  Sidney  and  Sir  Fulke 
Greville,  Lord  Brooke.  Camden,  in  his 
'  Britannia,'  remarks  that  '  Shrewsbury  is  in- 
habited both  by  Welsh  and  English,  who 
speak  each  other's  language ;  and  among  other 
things  greatly  to  their  praise  is  the  grammar 
school  founded  by  them,  the  best  filled  in  all 
England,  whose  flourishing  state  is  owing  to 
provision  made  by  its  head  master,  the  ex- 
cellent and  worthy  Thomas  Ashton.'  At 
Whitsuntide  1568  a  noble  stage  play,  in  which 
Ashton  was  the  principal  actor,  was  performed 
at  Shrewsbury  in  connection  with  the  school. 
It  lasted  all  the  holidays,  and  was  attended 


by  a  large  number  of  people,  including  several 
noblemen  and  many  gentry  residing  in  the 
neighbourhood.  Soon  afterwards,  however, 
in  the  same  year  Ashton  resigned  the  master- 
ship of  the  school.  About  October  1574  he 
was  sent  to  Ireland  to  Walter,  Earl  of  Essex, 
who  despatched  him  to  parley  with  Tyrlogh 
Lynogh,  and  subsequently  employed  him  in 
confidential  communications  with  the  queen 
and  the  privy  council  of  England.  The  same 
nobleman  by  will  gave  him  40Z.  a  year  for 
life,  and  he  was  one  of  the  feofiees  of  the 
earl's  estates.  Ashton  returned  to  England 
in  1575.  One  of  his  latest  acts  was  to  visit 
Shrewsbury,  where  he  preached  a  farewell 
sermon  to  the  inhabitants.  The  *  godlie 
Father,'  as  he  is  styled  in  a  contemporary 
manuscript,  then  returned  to  Cambridge,  in 
or  near  which  town  he  died  a  fortnight  later, 
in  1578. 

[Camden's  Britannia,  ed.  Gough,  ii.  399 ; 
Owen  and  Blakeway's  Shrewsbury,  i.  353,  365, 
384  ;  The  Devcreiix  Earls  of  Essex,  i.  77,  78,  88, 
106,  107,  ii.  485,  486;  Mmxlin's  State  Papers, 
776 ;  Cooper's  Athenae  Cantiib.  i.  396,  567  ;  Car- 
lisle's Grammar  Schools,  ii.  375.]  T.  C. 

ASHTON,  THOMAS,  D.D.  (1716-1775), 
divine,  son  of  Dr.  Ashton,  usher  of  the  Lan- 
caster grammar  school,  was  born  in  1716.. 
After  being  educated  at  Eton,  he  proceeded 
in  1733  to  King's  College,  Cambridge,  where 
he  made  the  acquaintance  of  Horace  Wal- 
pole.  He  is  the  '  Thomas  Ashton,  Esq.,  tutor 
to  the  Earl  of  Plymouth,'  to  whom  Walpole 
addressed  his  Epistle  from  Florence  (Dodslet, 
Poems,  iii.  75).  In  a  letter  to  Richard  West, 
dated  4  May  1742,  Walpole  speaks  in  high 
terms  of  Ashton's  success  in  the  pulpit :  '  He 
has  preached  twice  at  Somerset  Chapel.  .  .  . 
I  am  sure  you  would  approve  his  compo- 
sitions, and  admire  them  still  more  when 
you  heard  him  deliver  tliem '  {Letters,  ed. 
Cunningham,  i.  161).  In  less  than  a  month 
West  was  dead ;  and  in  a  letter  to  Sir  Horace 
Mann,  dated  30  June  1742,  Walpole  encloses 
an  elegy  on  his  death  by  Ashton.  For  some 
time  Ashton  held  the  living  of  Aldingham, 
Lancashire  ;  in  May  1 749  he  was  presented 
to  the  rectory  of  Sturminster  Marshall  in 
Dorsetshire ;  and  in  1752  to  the  rectory  of 
St.  Botolph,  Bishopsgate.  Meanwhile  his 
acquaintance  with  Walpole  had  come  to  an 
end.  Writing  to  Sir  Horace  Mann  on  25  July 
;  1750,  Walpole  says :  'I  believe  you  have  often 
heard  me  mention  a  Mr.  Ashton,  a  clergyman, 
who,  in  one  word,  has  great  preferments  and 
owes  everything  upon  earth  to  me.  I  have 
long  had  reason  to  complain  of  his  behaviour; 
in  short,  my  father  is  dead,  and  I  can  make 
no  bishops.    He  has  at  last  quite  thrown  oflT 


Ashurst 


i8i 


Ashurst 


the  mask,  and  in  the  most  direct  manner, 
against  my  will,  has  written  against  my 
friend  Dr.  Middleton.  ...  I  have  forbid  him 
my  house'  {Letters,  ii.  216).  Cole  {MS. 
Athence)  mentions  that  Ashton  owed  his 
Eton  fellowship  to  Walpole's  influence.  In 
1759  Ashton  took  the  degree  of  D.D. ;  in 
December  1760  he  married  a  Miss  Amyand; 
and  in  May  1762  was  elected  preacher  at 
Lincoln's  Inn,  which  office  he  resigned  in 
1764.  lie  died  on  1  March  1775,  after '  having 
for  some  years  sui'vived  a  severe  attack  of 
the  palsy.' 

Ashton  was  the  author  of  a  number  of 
sermons,  among  which  may  be  mentioned  'A 
Sermon  on  the  Rebellion,'  1745 ;  a  '  Thanks- 
giving Sennon  '  on  the  close  of  it  in  1746 ;  a 
'  Sermon  preached  before  the  House  of  Com- 
mons '  on  30  Jan.  1762  ;  a  '  Spital  Sermon ' 
at  St.  Bride's  on  Easter  Wednesday  of  the 
same  year.  These,  with  others,  were  col- 
lected in  a  volume  of  '  Sermons  on  several 
Occasions,'  1770, 8vo.  Prefixed  to  this  volume 
is  a  mezzotint  portrait  of  Ashton  from  a  paint- 
ing by  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds.  In  1754  he  had 
an  altercation  with  a  methodist  minister  of 
the  name  of  Jones,  to  whom  he  addressed 
'  A  Letter  to  the  Rev.  Thomas  Jones,  intended 
as  a  rational  and  candid  answer  to  his  ser- 
mon preached  at  St.  Botolph,  Bishopsgate.' 
He  also  wrote  some  pamphlets  against  the 
admission  of  aliens  to  Eton  fellowships. 

[Nichols's  Literary  Anecdotes,  iii.  88-90 ; 
Walpole's  I^etters,  ed.  Cunningham,  i.  161,  184, 
ii.  216-17  ;  Cole's  MS.  Athense.]        A.  H.  B. 

ASHURST,  HENRY  (1614  .P-1  680),  a 
Avealthy  and  benevolent  merchant  of  London, 
noted  for  his  gifts  of  money  to  pious  or  chari- 
t  able  purposes,  the  founder  of  the  family  of  As- 
hurstorAshhurst  of  Waterstock,  Oxfordshire, 
was  descended  from  an  old  Lancashire  family, 
seated  at  Ashurst,  in  the  township  of  Dgi- 
ton  and  parish  of  Wigan,  distant  five  miles 
north-west  of  that  town.  His  father,  Henry, 
a  justice  of  the  peace,  is  described  as  a  wise 
and  ^ious  gentleman,  zealous  for  the  reformed 
religion  in  a  part  of  the  count  rywhereRoman 
catholics  abounded.  His  mother  was  one  of 
the  Bradshaws  of  Bradshaw,  near  Bolton. 
Of  the  sons  of  this  marriage  William  en- 
gaged in  politics,  becoming  M.P.  for  Newton, 
Lancashire,  in  1641,  and  for  the  county  in 
1654;  John  became  a  colonel  in  the  civil 
war ;  and  Henry,  born  about  1614,  entered 
into  trade;  all  being  very  zealous  in  the 
interests  of  the  parliamentarians  and  presby- 
terians.  A  daughter,  Mary,  became  the  wife 
of  Dr.  Theophilus  Howortli,  of  Manchester. 
Henry  was  apprenticed  at  the  age  of  fifteen 
to  a  London  draper ;  and  his  prospects  were 


much  advanced  by  a  loan  of  300/.  from  the 
Rev.  James  Iliet,  of  Croston,  Lancashire, 
and  by  his  marriage  with  Judith  Reresby. 
He  became  a  successful  merchant,  entered 
the  common  council,  and,  though  ejected  in 
1662,  subsequently  became  an  alderman.  In 
1667  he  was  living  at  Lauderdale  House, 
but  at  the  time  of  his  death,  which  occurred 
in  November  1680,  he  is  called  of  Hackney. 
He  had  the  intimate  acquaintance  of  Henry 
Newcome,  of  Manchester,  Richard  Baxter, 
who  preached  his  funeral  sermon,  Matthew 
and  Philip  Henry,  and  others  ;  and  the  writ- 
ings of  all  these  divines  abound  in  refer- 
ences to  him.  His  charities  to  his  Lanca- 
shire countiymen  were  very  extensive  :  he 
allowed  needy  ejected  ministers  in  that 
county  100/.  per  annum,  and  liberally  re- 
lieved the  widows  of  ministers.  He  was 
deeply  interested  in  Elliot's  missionary 
eftbrts  in  North  America,  and  that  apostle 
to  the  Indians  termed  him  his  worthy  and 
true  friend.  Ashurst  acted  as  treasurer  for 
the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gos- 
pel, was  a  trustee  of  Boyle's  Lecture,  and 
was  a  great  patron  of  religious  literature. 
Baxter  describes  him  as  *  the  most  exem- 
plai-y  person  for  eminent  sobriety,  self-denial, 
piety,  and  charity  that  London  could  glory 
of,  as  far  as  public  observation,  and  fame, 
and  his  most  intimate  friends  could  testify.' 
His  son  Henry,  also  a  tried  friend  of  Bax- 
ter's, became  a  baronet ;  he  was  the  builder 
of  Waterstock.  The  second  son,  William, 
was  knighted  in  1689,  and  was  lord  mayor 
of  London  in  1693.  Each  brother  received 
20/.  by  bequest  of  Robert  Boyle. 

[Dugdale'is  Visitation  of  Lancashire,  p.  9 ; 
Burke's  Visitation  of  Seats,  ii.  11  ;  Baxter's 
Funeral  Sermon,  London,  1681,  4to  ;  Sylvester's 
Reliquiae  Baxterianae,  ii.  290,  iii.  17,  189;  Le 
Neve's  Kniglits,  414  ;  Newcome's  Autobiography 
and  Diary ;  Matthew  Henry's  Life ;  Life  of 
Antony  a  Wood,  8vo,  157-8.]  J.  E.  B. 

ASHURST,  JAMES  {d.  1679),  divine, 
whose  christian  name  was  unknown  to  Ca- 
lamj^  and  Palmer,  was  vicar  of  Arlesey,  in 
Bedfordshire,  and  had  been  episcopally  or- 
dained, but  he  could  not  comply  with  the  new 
impositions  of  the  Act  of  Uniformity,  and 
hence  quitted  his  living.  He  was  very  old, 
and  his  vicarage  slender.  Samuel  Browne, 
the  judge  [q.  v.],  was  one  of  his  parishioners, 
and  a  great  friend.  'The  whole  parish,'  says 
Palmer  (after  Calamy),  'was  well  affected 
towards  him  for  his  worthy  behaviour  amongst 
them,  and  was  entirely  under  the  influence  of 
the  judge  .  .  .  and  so,  though  he  was  legally 
silenced,  he  continued  in  his  church  a  non- 
conformist.  He  read  part  of  the  morning  and 


Ashurst 


182 


Ashurst 


evening  service,  viz.  the  confession,  scripture- 
hymns,  the  creed,  and  some  of  the  collects. 
He  was  a  considerable  scholar  and  a  hard 
student  to  the  last ;  greatly  esteemed  and 
loved  by  all  sober  persons  who  knew  him,  for 
liis  extraordinary  piety,  humility,  meekness, 
self-denial,  and  integrity.  His  contempt  of 
the  world  and  contentedness  on  a  very  small 
income  were  very  remarkable.  He  took  for 
his  small  tithes  just  what  his  parishioners 
were  pleased  to  give  him.'  From  the  register- 
book  of  births,  deaths,  and  marriages  of  the 
parish  of  Arlesey,  it  is  found  that  Ashurst 
became  vicar  between  27  Oct.  1631  and  4  Oct. 
1632,  and  that  he  was  married  to  'Mary 
Baldocke,  relict  of  Daniel  Baldocke,'  on 
20  Nov.  1660.  The  same  register  informs  us 
that  'James  Ashurst,  minister,  was  buried 
December  y*  16, 1679  '  ('  buried  in  woolen '). 
His  neighbour,  Head,  of  HenloAv,  preached 
his  funeral  sermon. 

[Palmer's  Nonconf.  Memorial  (1802),  i.  281 ; 
local  researches  at  Arlesey.]  A.  B.  G. 

ASHURST  or  ASHHURST,  WILLIAM 

HENRY  (1725-1807),  judge,  belonged  to  the 
Lancashire  family,  the  Ashhursts  of  Ashhurst 
or  Ashurst.    One  of  his  ancestors  was  Henry 
Ashurst,  the  philanthropist  [q.v.],  andanother 
Avas  lord  mayor  of  London  in  1693.    Sir  Wil- 
liam Ashurst  was  bom  at  Ashhurst,  near 
Wigan,  26  Jan.  1725,  and  was  educated  at 
Charterhouse.   He  was  admitted  of  the  Inner 
Temple  on  19  Jan.  1750.  He  practised  for  some 
years  as  a  special  pleader ;  and  Mr.  Justice 
Buller  was  one  of  his  pupils.    He  was  called 
to  the  bar  on  8  Feb.  1754,  and  was  made  a  Ser- 
jeant in  1770.  On  25  June  of  the  same  year,  on 
the  removal  of  Sir  AVilliam  Blackstone  to  the 
Common  Pleas,  he  succeeded  him  as  a  judge 
of  the  King's  Bench,  in  which  court  Lord 
Mansfield  then  held  undisputed  sway.     Mr. 
Justice  Ashurst's  judgments,  which  are  re- 
])orted  in  Loifts   and   Douglas's  '  Reports ' 
and  Chitty's  'Practice  Cases,'  are  remark- 
able for  their  clearness  and  good  sense.     A 
contemporary  writer  thus  describes  his  quali- 
ties as  a  judge  :  '  Sir  William  Ashurst  is  a 
man  of  liberal  education  and  enlarged  notions. 
His  language  has  no  peculiar  neatness  nor 
brilliancy,  but  it  is  perspicuous,  pointed,  and 
clear.    He  reasons  logically,  and  knows  well 
how  to  winnow  the  chaff  and  eloquence  from 
argument  and  law.'     Mr.  Justice  Ashurst 
is   best  remembered  by  his   charge  to  the 
grand  jury  of  Middlesex  on  10  Nov.  1792. 
The  charge  was  delivered  shortly  after  the 
massacres  of  September  in  France,  and  at  a 
time  when  the  name  of  refonn  had  become 
odious  to  a  multitude  of  Englishmen.     Mr. 
Justice  Ashurst,   giving  expression  to  the 


fears  of  the  hour  respecting  the  French  revo- 
lution, attacked  as  '  absurd,  nonsensical,  and 
pernicious '  the  doctrines  of  its  English  ad- 
mirers. '  There  is  no  nation  in  the  world 
that  can  boast  of  a  more  perfect  system  of 
government  than  that  under  which  we  live. 
.  .  .  I  trust  that  your  minds  will  be  im- 
pressed with  these  ideas,  and  that  you  will  be 
assiduous  in  supporting  our  present  form  of 
government.'  This  charge  was  printed  by  the 
Society  for  preserving  Liberty  and  Property 
against  Republicans  and  Levellers  as  an 
opportune  Avarning  to  the  nation.  It  called 
forth  several  replies,  one  of  the  best-known 
being  a  pamphlet  '  Justice  to  a  Judge.'  It 
also  elicited  from  Bentham  one  of  his  most 
incisive  pamphlets,  '  Truth  versus  Ash- 
hurst,' which  was  written  in  1792,  but  was 
not  printed  until  August  1823.  Bentham's 
strictures  are  somewhat  too  sweeping.  Sir 
William  Ashurst  was  an  admirer  of  what 
Bentham  tenns  in  this  pamphlet '  the  rubbish ' 
of  the  common  law.  But  he  co-operated  in 
some  degree  with  Mansfield  in  introducing  ai 
spirit  of  equity  into  its  administration.  His 
personal  appearance  is  recorded  in  the  lines 
attributed  to  Erskine — 

Judge  Ashhurst  with  his  lanthorn  jaws 
Throws  light  upon  the  English  laws. 

Being  highly  esteemed  as  a  lawyer.  Sir  Wil- 
liam Ashurst  was  twice  one  of  the  com- 
missioners entrusted  with  the  great  seal, 
which  he  held  from  9  April  1783  to  23  De- 
cember of  the  same  year  and  from  15  June 
1792  to  28  Jan.  1793,  On  9  June  1799  he 
resigned  his  office,  and  retired  to  his  house 
at  Waterstock,  in  Oxfordshire,  where  he 
died  on  5  Nov.  1807. 

[Foss's  Judges,  viii.  234  ;  Bentham's  Works, 
V.  231;  Strictures  on  the  Lives  and  Characters- 
of  the  most  Eminent  Lawyers  (1790),  p.  71  ; 
Baines's  History  of  Lancashire,  ii.  187.] 

J.   M-L. 

ASHURST,  WILLIAM  HENRY  (1792- 
1855),  solicitor,  was  born  in  London  11  Feb. 
1792.  His  father  had  led  an  aimless  exist- 
ence, under  the  impression — due  to  rumours 
about  his  infancy  and  his  likeness  to  the 
eminent  judge  of  the  name — that  he  would 
be  some  day  recognised  as  belonging  to  a 
distinguished  family.  William  Henry's  per- 
ception of  his  father's  weakness  stimulated 
his  spirit  of  independence.  After  some  edu- 
cation at  a  dame  school  he  entered  a  solici- 
tor's office,  where  his  employer  rewarded  hi» 
industry  by  giving  him  his  articles.  He  gained 
a  good  practice  as  a  solicitor,  though  his  mar- 
riage at  the  age  of  nineteen  compelled  him  to 
increase  his  income  by  copying  work  at  night 
and  by  writing  for  the  press.     He  read  much. 


Ashurst 


183 


Ashwell 


and  for  a  time  belonged  to  a  small  sect  called 
*  Freethinkini;^  Christians.'  lie  ceased  to  be  ' 
H  member  of  any  sect,  though  he  I'egarded  his 
]M)litical  principles  as  the  logical  outcome  of 
tlie  doctrine  of  human  brotherhood.  He 
was  much  influenced  by  the  political  writ- 
ings of  Paine  and  Franklin.  He  was  an  en- 
thusiastic radical,  spending  both  money  and 
labour  to  advance  the  cause.  His  house  was 
one  of  the  first  to  announce  upon  its  walls 
that  it  would  pay  no  taxes  till  the  Reform 
Bill  (of  1832)  was  passed.  He  was  an  active 
member  of  the  common  council,  and,  as  under- 
sheriff  for  one  year,  witnessed  an  execution, 
which  intensified  his  hoiTor  of  capital  punish- 
ment. In  1832  he  published  the  '  Coi*poration 
Register,'  advocating  reforms  in  the  city,  and 
especially  in  the  court  of  aldermen.  He  took 
an  active  part  in  the  agitation  against  church 
rates.  He  refused  to  pay  them  himself.  He 
published  pamphlets  in  1835, 1837,  and  1839, 
denouncing  the  imprisonment  of  Mr.  Childs 
at  Bungay,  supporting  an  agitation  in  South- 
wark,  and  attacking  a  petition  for  the  im- 
prisonment of  John  Thoroughgood,  who  had 
refused  to  pay  at  Chelmsford.  He  also  con- 
ducted the  well-known  Braintree  case  to  a 
successful  result. 

Ashurst  supplied  the  funds  and  the  labour 
of  procuring  the  evidence  in  favour  of  Row- 
land Hill's  scheme  of  postal  reform  when  be- 
fore the  parliamentary  committee.  He  was 
a  Avarm  supporter  of  co-operation,  and  for 
a  time  can-ied  on  the  '  Spirit  of  the  Age,' 
founded  under  Robert  Owen's  influence,  till 
lie  disapproved  of  the  spirit  in  which  it  was 
written.  The  friendship  with  Owen  remained 
unbroken.  Ashurst  defended  many  men  whom 
he  believed  to  have  been  the  victims  of  in- 
justice or  oppression,  amongst  others  Mr.  G.  J. 
Holyoake  on  his  imprisonment  in  1842,  who 
afterwards  owed  much  to  his  friendship. 

He  was  an  outspoken  advocate  of  the  po- 
litical and  social  equality  of  the  sexes.  He 
brought  up  his  daughters  in  habits  of  inde- 
pendent thought  and  action.  When  asked 
why  he  had  taken  up  the  cause  of  women's 
rights,  he  would  say  that  he  had  seen  a  girl  tried 
for  child-murder,  who  had  been  betrayed  by 
a  man,  was  convicted  by  men,  sentenced  by 
a  man,  and  hanged  by  a  man.  '  It  made  me 
think.'  The  cause  represented  his  strongest 
convictions. 

The  opening  of  Mazzini's  letters  in  1844 
led  to  a  friendship  Avith  Ashurst.  In  1861 
and  1852  Ashurst  was  a  founder  of  the  society 
of  the '  Friends  of  Italy  '  and  of  the  '  People's 
International  League.'  He  cordially  wel- 
comed many  of  the  refugees  at  that  time.  He 
was  a  warm  admirer  of  American  institutions 
and  of  the  principles  of  the  Declaration  of  In- 


dependence. He  had  long  been  a  friend  of 
Garrison,  Lucretia  Mott,  and  other  abolition- 
ists. He  paid  a  visit  to  America,  and  saw 
Garrison  in  his  home.  His  health  suft'ered 
from  the  journey,  and  broke  down  completely 
on  the  death  of  his  wife  soon  after.  He  died 
on  13  Oct.  1855. 

[Private  information.] 

ASHWAEDBY,  .JOHN  (^.  1392),  a 
follower  of  Wyclifte,  is  described  by  Tanner 
{Biblioth.  Brit.-Hib.  p.  53),  no  doubt  by  an 
inference  from  his  surname,  as  a  Lincolnshire 
man.  He  became  fellow  of  Oriel  College, 
Oxford,  'master  of  theology,'  and  vicar  of  St. 
Mary's  church.  Attaching  himself  to  Wy- 
cliffe's  party,  he  appears  to  have  been  active 
in  preaching,  lecturing,  and  writing,  as  an 
opponent  specially  of  the  mendicant  orders, 
and  he  engaged  in  controversy  with  the 
I  Carmelite,  Richard  Maydeston,  a  chaplain 
1  of  John  of  Gaunt.  In  spite  of  this,  however, 
he  filled  the  office  of  '  commissary '  or  vice- 
chancellor  of  the  university  in  1392  (Wood, 
Fasti  O.Ton.  p.  33). 

[The  sole  authority  for  Ashwardby's  biography' 
with  the  exception  of  the  particular  last  men- 
tioned, is  Bishop  Bale,  in  his  Script.  lUustr. 
Catal.,  cent.  vi.  85,  and  in  an  autograph  notice 
in  one  of  the  blank  leaves  of  the  Fasciculus 
Zizaniorum,  MS.  Bodl.  e  Mas.  86  f.  55,  col.  1. 
The  former  contains  a  list  of  Ashwardby's  writ- 
ings, none  of  which  are  otherwise  known.] 

;  E.  L.  P. 

ASHWELL,      ARTHUR      RAW^SON 

(1824-1879),  canon  residentiary  and  princi- 
pal of  the  Theological  College,  Chichester, 
was  born  at  Cheyne  Walk,  Chelsea.  In  1843 
he  entered  at  Trinity  College,  Cambridge, 
and  in  1846  was  elected  foundation  scholar 
of  Cains  College.  In  1847  he  graduated  as 
fifteenth  wTangler,  and  in  1848  he  received 
holy  orders,  and  became  curate  of  Speldhurst, 
Kent.  In  the  following  year  he  return3d  to 
Cambridge  as  curate  of  St.  Mary  the  Less, 
in  order  that  he  might  study  theology  under 
the  direction  of  the  late  Professor  Blunt. 
In  1851  he  was  appointed  vice-principal  of 
St.  Mark's  College,  Chelsea,  and  in  1853, 
partly  through  the  instrumentality  of  Canon 
Butler  of  Wantage,  he  was  appointed  by 
Bishop  Wilberforce  principal  of  the  newly- 
founded  Oxford  Diocesan  Training  College 
at  Culham.  Here  he  remained  for  several 
years,  and,  besides  his  work  in  the  college, 
assisted  the  bishop  in  organising  a  system  of 
diocesan  inspection.  In  1854  he  married 
Miss  Elizabeth  Fixsen,  of  Blackheath,  who 
survives  him.  In  1862 his  health  compelled 
him  to  retire  to  lighter  work,  and  for  two 


Ashwell 


184 


Ashwell 


years  he  was  minister  of  Holy  Trinity  Church, 
Conduit  Street,  Hanover  Square;  but  in 
1865  he  returned  to  his  old  occupation,  ac- 
cepting the  principalship  of  the  Training 
College,  Durham.  The  fame  of  his  success 
at  Durham  led  Bishop  Durnford,  an  entire 
stranger  to  him,  to  otfer  him  in  1870  the 
principalship  of  the  Tlieological  College, 
Chichester,  with  a  canonry  attached,  and  he 
also  held  for  a  short  time  the  rectory  of  St. 
Martin's  (1871-5),  and  that  of  St.  Andrew's 
(1872-5),  in  that  city.  Canon  Ashwell  was 
active  in  literature.  In  1864  he  became 
editor  of  the  *  Literary  Churchman,'  which 
office  he  held  for  twelve  years,  when  he  be- 
came (1876)  editor  of  tlie  *  Church  Quarterly 
Iteview,'  and  a  little  while  before  his  death 
he  also  resumed  the  editorship  of  the  '  Lite- 
rary Churchman.'  To  both  these  periodicals 
he  was  a  regular  contributor.  He  was  also 
a  contributor  to  the  third  series  of  '  Tracts 
for  the  Christian  Seasons ; '  and  he  wrote  oc- 
casionally for  the  'Quarterly  Review'  and 
the  '  Monthly  Packet.'  He  was  also  in  great 
request  as  a  preacher  in  his  own  cathedral 
and  elsewhere.  He  was,  moreover,  a  frequent 
reader  and  speaker  at  church  congresses,  and 
an  effective  conductor  of  mission  services. 
It  is  no  wonder  that  his  constitution  was 
impaired  by  this  excessive  work,  and  that  he 
succumbed  to  an  attack  of  congestion  of  the 
lungs,  which  prematurely  cut  short  a  most 
active  and  useful  life  on  23  Oct.  1879.  A 
window  and  a  lectern  in  Chichester  Cathe- 
dral perpetuate  his  memory  in  a  spot  of 
which  he  had  been  a  distinguished  ornament. 

Canon  Ashwell  achieved  reputation  as  a 
writer,  a  preacher,  and  a  teacher.  Some  of 
liis  periodical  essays  excited  much  attention. 
His  articles  upon  Dr.  Farrar's  '  Life  of  Christ' 
in  the  second  number  of  the  '  Church  Quar- 
terly Review,'  and  upon  the  '  State  of  the 
Church '  in  the  July  number  of  the  '  Quarterly 
Review,'  1874,  excited  much  interest.  His 
article  on  Samuel  Wilberforce  in  the  April 
number,  1874,  of  the  same  Review  was  the 
main  cause  of  his  being  asked  to  write  the 
bishop's  life  ;  and  several  of  his  educational 
articles  attracted  unusual  attention.  His 
longest  consecutive  work  was  the  first  volume 
of  the  'Life  of  Bishop  Wilberforce  '  (1880). 

As  a  preacher  Canon  Ashwell  was  ex- 
tremely acceptable,  especially  among  the 
more  thoughtful  and  educated  congregations. 
His  little  volume  of  printed  sermons,  en- 
titled *  God  in  Nature,'  is  full  of  striking  and 
original  ideas,  expressed  tersely  and  inci- 
sively, and  evidently  with  a  view  to  arrest 
or  even  force  attention. 

As  a  trainer,  first  of  future  schoolmasters, 
and  then  of  future  clergymen,  Canon  Ash- 


well made  his  influence  deeply  felt.  His 
clear,  epigrammatic  style  was  the  very  style 
to  command  the  attention  of  young  men. 
He  was  a  very  strict  disciplinarian,  and  the 
kindest  of  friends  and  counsellors  to  all 
pupils  who  sought  his  aid  in  confidence,  as 
many  of  them  have  testified  to  the  present 
writer.  Canon  Ashwell  was  a  staunch  and 
very  definite  English  churchman.  Besides 
the  writings  already  mentioned,  he  published 
'The  Schoolmaster's  Studies'  (1860),  'The 
Argument  against  Evening  Communions ' 
(1875),  'Lectures  on  the  Holy  Catholic 
Church'  (1876),  and  ' Septuagesima  Lec- 
tures '  (1877),  all  small  works. 

[Canon  Ashwell's  writings,  psissim ;  obituary 
notices  in  the  Church  Quarterly  Review  an<l 
Literary  Churchman ;  information  from  the 
Rev.  Prebendary  Teulou,  Rev.  S.  J.  Eales,  Rev. 
Canon  Gregory,  Rev.  Canon  Butler,  Rev.  Pre- 
bendary W.  R.  W.  Stephens,  and  Miss  C.  M. 
Yonge.]  J.  H.  0. 

ASHWELL,  GEORGE  (1612-1695), 
Anglo-catholic  controversialist,  bom  in  tlie 
parish  of  St.  Martin  Ludgate,  8  Nov.  1612, 
was  the  son  of  Robert  Ashwell,  of  Har- 
row. He  was  a  scholar  of  Wadham  College, 
Oxford,  1627  ;  graduated  B.A.  4  Dec.  1632, 
M.A.  1635,  and  became  fellow  of  his  college. 
He  was  tutor  in  the  family  of  Thomas  Leigh, 
a  nonconformist,  but  his  own  sympathies 
were  of  another  sort.  He  was  the  friend  of 
Heylin,  who  wrote,  at  his  suggestion,  on 
'  Parliament's  Power  in  Laws  for  Religion,' 
which  was  published  in  1645.  He  was  made 
B.D.  on  23  June  1646,  and  became  chaplain 
to  Sir  Anthony  Cope,  lord  of  the  manor  of 
Hanwell,  Oxfordshire.  On  the  death  of  Dr. 
Robert  Harris,  1658,  he  succeeded  him  in 
the  rectory  of  Hanwell,  where  he  died  on 
8  Feb.  1694-5.  He  published:  1.  ' Fides  Apo- 
stolica,  or  a  Discourse  asserting  the  received 
authors  and  authority  of  the  Apostles'  Creed 
.  .  .  with  a  double  appendix,  the  first  touch- 
ing the  Athanasian,  the  second  touching  the 
Nicene  Creed,'  1653  (this  was  attacked  by 
Baxter,  in  his  '  Reformed  Pastor,'  1656,  for 
I  which  Baxter  expresses  regret  in  his '  Catho- 
'  lick  Theologie,'  1675).  2.  '  Gestus  Eucha- 
risticus,  or  a  Discourse  concerning  the  Ges- 
ture at  the  receiving  of  the  Holy  Eucharist,' 
1663  (dedicated  to  his  patron,  Sir  A.  Cope). 

3.  '  De  Socino  et  Socinianismo  Dissertatio,' 
1680  (suggested  by  the  wide  diffusion  of 
English  translations  of  Socinian  books,  and 
remarkable  for  its  high  tribute  to  the  genius 
and  character  of  Lelio  and  Fausto  Sozzini). 

4.  '  De  Ecclesia  Romana  Dissertatio,'  1688 
(this  and  the  foregoing  were  portions  of  a 
much  larger  work  in  manuscript, '  De  Judice 


Ashwell 


'8s 


Ashwood 


Controversiarum  et  Catholica;  Veritatis  Re- 
gula ;'  they  were  published  at  the  suggestion 
of  Dr.  Gilbert  Ironside,  warden  of  Wadham). 
&.  '  The  History  of  llai  Eb'n  Yockdan,  an 
Indian  Prince,  orthe  Self-taught  Philosopher,' 
1686,  at  the  end  of  wliich  is  '  Theologia  lluris 
...  or  the  book  of  Nature  leading  us  by 
certain  degrees  to  the  knowledge  and  worship 
of  the  God  of  Nature.'  The  'ifokdan  fiction 
was  trjinslated  by  Ashwell  from  Edward 
Pococke's  Ijatin  version  from  the  Arabic  of 
Abii  Bakr  ibn  Al-Tufail  (Abvi  Jafar)  ;  it  is 
remarkable  as  having  supplied  Robert  Bar- 
clay {Apology,  prop.  v.  vi.  §  xxvii.)  with  a 
proof  of  his  doctrine  of  the  Inner  Light : 
the  passage  was  withdrawn  by  the  Society 
of  Friends,  1779.  Ashwell  left  behind  him  in 
manuscript,  '  An  Answer  to  [Hew  Nevill's] 
Plato  Kedivivus.' 

[Wood's  AthenjE  Ox.  (Eliss),ii.  911-2;  Smith's 
Catalogue  of  Friends'  Books.]  A.  G, 

ASHWELL,  JOHN  {d.  1541  ?),  prior  of 
Newnham  Abbey,  in  Bedfordshire,  best 
known  for  his  opposition  to  the  principles  of 
the  Reformation,  was  a  graduate  of  Cam- 
bridge University.  In  1504  it  is  probable 
that  Ashwell,  who  was  then  a  bachelor  of 
divinity,  became  rector  of  Mistley  in  Essex, 
and  held  in  subsequent  years  the  benefices 
of  Littlebury  and  Halstead  in  the  same 
county.  In  1515  we  know  him  to  have  been 
appointed  chaplain  to  Lord  Abergavenny's 
troops  in  France  (Brewek's  Letters  of  Hem-y 
VIII,  ii.  part  i.  137),  and  six  years  later  a 
prebendal  stall  in  St.  Paul's  Cathedral  was 
conferred  upon  him.  He  became  prior  of 
Newnham  Abbey  about  1527.  In  the  same 
year  he  addressed  a  secret  letter,  written 
partly  in  Latin  and  partly  in  English,  to 
John  Longland,  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  bit- 
terly complaining  of  the  heretical  opinions 
lield  by  George  Joye,  a  bold  advocate  of 
Lutheranism,  with  whom  lie  had  lived  on 
terms  of  great  intimacy  [see  Jote,  George], 
The  epistle  unhappily  fell  into  Joye's  hands, 
and  the  reformer  withdrew  to  Strasburg  to 
escape  the  effects  of  the  bishop's  displea- 
sure. There,  however,  he  published  Ash- 
well's  letter,  together  with  an  elaborate  reply 
to  all  the  charges  preferred  against  him. 
The  pamphlet,  of  which  very  few  copies 
are  now  extant,  bears  the  title  '  The  Letter 
whyche  Johan  Ashwell,  Priour  of  Newn- 
liam  Abbey  besydes  Bedforde,  sente  secretly 
to  the  Byshope  of  Lyncolne  in  the  yeare  of 
our  Lord  MDXXVII.  Where  in  the  sayde 
Priour  accuseth  George  Joye,  that  tyme 
l)eyng  felow  of  Peter  College  in  Cambridge 
of  fower  opinions  ;  with  the  Answere  of  the 
sayde  George  unto  the  same  opinions,'    The 


colophon  runs :  '  At  Strazburge  10  daye  of 
June.  Thys  lytell  boke  be  dely  vered  to  Johan 
Asliwell  at  Newnham  Abbey  besyde  Bed- 
forde with  spede.'  One  of  the  most  singular 
passages  in  the  book  is  Ashwell's  earnest  en- 
treaty to  the  bisliop  '  that  no  creature  maye 
know  that  I  or  any  of  mine  do  shew  you  of 
these  thinges,  for  then  I  shal  leusse  the  favor 
of  many  in  my  contree ' — a  passage  clearly 
showing  that  the  Reformation  in  England 
was  eagerly  expected  by  the  prior's  neigh- 
bours. A  second  edition  of  the  pamphlet  was 
published  by  Joye  at  Antwerp  in  1581 .  Ash- 
well apparently  somewhat  modified  his  opi- 
nions with  the  times,  and  in  1534  he  was 
among  the  first  to  take  the  oath  of  supremacy 
to  Henry  VIII  as  head  of  the  church.  But 
he  appeal's  to  have  resigned  the  post  of  prior 
of  Newnham  before  1539,  when  the  monas- 
teries Avere  finally  dissolved.  His  death  took 
place  shortly  before  23  Aug.  1541,  when  the 
prebendal  stall  in  St.  Paul's  Cathedral,  which 
he  had  held  for  twenty  years,  was  declared 
vacant  and  filled  up. 

[Cooper's  Athense  Cantabrig.  i.  59  and  530  ; 
Rymer's  Fcedera,  xiv.  507;  Le  Neve's  Fasti 
Ecclesiae  Angliciinse,  ii.  386 ;  Dugdale's  Monas- 
ticon,  ed.  Caley  and  Ellis,  vi.  373  ;  Newcourt, 
Ecclesia-sticum  Parochiale  Londinense  (1710), 
i.  149,  ii.  299,  394 ;  Brit.  Museum  Catal. ;  Re- 
trospective Review  (new  series)  ii.  96-102.] 

S.  L.  L. 

ASHWOOD,  BARTHOLOMEW  (1622- 
1680),  puritan  divine,  was  '  a  WarAvickshire 
man,'  son  of  a  clergyman  of  the  same  name 
(who  matriculated  at  Magdalen  College, 
Oxford,  in  1591,  also  as  a  WarAvickshire 
man,  aged  13,  and  proceeded  M.A.  in  1601). 
He  became  a  batter  or  commoner  of  St. 
Alban's  Hall  in  the  latter  end  of  1638,  aged 
16  years,  and  so  was  bom  1621-2.  But 
Anthony  a  Wood  informs  us  :  '  Having  been 
puritanically  educated,  he  Avas  translated, 
after  some  continuance  in  the  said  hall,  to 
Exeter  College,  and  there  put  under  a  tutor 
puritanically  then  esteem'd,  and  took  one 
degree  in  arts  as  a  member  of  that  college, 
and  Avas  soon  beneficed  and  became  a  man  of 
the  times.'  His  *  benefice '  Avas  Bickleigh, 
Devonshire,  and  he  is  enrolled  by  Walker  as 
one  of  the  '  loyalist  suflTerers '  (p.  182)  of  that 
])arish.  Walker  assumes  that  he  'died  under 
the  usurpation,'  i.e.  the  Commonwealth.  But 
he  lived  to  form  one  of  the  '  two  thousand  ' 
by  being  '  ejected  '  in  1002  from  Axminster 
in  Devonshire.  He  continued  to  preach  for 
many  years,  in  spite  of  the  severe  restrictions 
imposed  on  nonconformists  In  his  old  age  he 
seems  to  have  been  left  in  sore  straits,  and 
died  'about  1680.'  His  three  books  are: 
(1)  '  The  Heavenly  Trade,  or  the  Best  Mer- 


Ashwood 


i86 


Ashworth 


chandizing,  the  only  way  to  live  well  in  j 
impoverishing  Times,  a  Discourse  occasion'd  i 
from  the  Decay  of  earthly  Trades  and  visible  j 
Wasts  of  practical   Piety  in  the  Days  we 
live  in,  offering  Arguments   and  Counsells  | 
to  all,  towards  a  speedy  Kevival  of  dying 
Godliness,'  &c.  (1679)  ;  (2)  '  The  Best  Ti-ea-  \ 
sure,  or  the  Way  to  be  truly  Kich,  being  } 
a  Discourse  on  Ephesians  iii.  8,  wherein  is  j 
opened  and  commended  to  Saints  and  Sin- 
ners the  personal  and  purchased  Riches  of 
Christ  as  the  best  Treasure  to  be  possessed' 
(1681);  and  (3)  'Groans  for  Sin'  (1681). 
llarely   to  be   met  with  now,  they  prove 
him   to  have  been   a  thinker   of  consider- 
able   originality,   not   without    touches    of 
graceful  imaginativeness.     Dr.  John  Owen 
wrote  an   admirable  preface   to  the   'Best 
Treasure.' 

[Calamy  and  Palmer's  Nonconf.  Mem.  (1802), 
ii.  3;  Reynolds's  Life  of  John  Ashwood ;  Walker's  j 
Suiferings  ;  Wood's  Athense  (Bliss),  iii.  1272-3.] 
^  A.  E.G. 

ASHWOOD,  JOHN  (1657-1706),  non-  , 
conformist  minister,  was  born  at  Axminster  : 
in  1657,  and  was  the  son  of  Bartholomew 
Ashwood  [q.v.].     In  his  youth  he  was  ex-  j 
tremely  delicate.     He  was  educated  by  his  i 
father,  and  admitted  '  as  a  member  of  his 
father's  church.'     Soon  after  he  was  sent  to  i 
London,  where  he  was  received  into  the  family  I 
of  the  learned  Theophilus  Gale,  who  acted  as  , 
his  instructor.   Before  he  began  to  preach  he 
taught  a  school  at  Axminster,  and  afterwards 
at  Chard.    Being  driven  from  the  latter  as  I 
a  conscience-ruled  nonconformist  by  high- 
church  intolerance,  he  determined  along  with 
some  friends  to  emigrate    to    Carolina  in 
January  1683,  but  was  prevented  by  a  sudden  . 
attack  of  smallpox.   He  then  appears  to  have 
resided  successively  at  Hminster,  Haveland,  ' 
and  Buckland,  until  he  received  a  '  call '  to 
Exeter,  where,  his  biogi-apher  tells  us,  he  was  ! 
'  a  vigilant  and  faithful  minister  for  about 
the  space  of  ten  years.'     He  subsequently 
returned  to  London.     For  about  two  years 
he  was  evening  lecturer  at  Spitalfields,  and 
morning  preacher  at  Hoxton,  when  he  re- 
ceived a  *  call '  from  a  congregation  at  Peck- 
ham,  Surrey.  He  died  there  on  22  Sept.  1706. 
His  *  Life '  was  for  long  a  favourite  fireside 
companion   among   devout   nonconformists, 
circulating  as  a  chap-book,  viz.  '  Some  Ac- 
count of  the  Life,  Character,  and  Death  of 
the  Rev.  Mr.  John  Ashwood,'  by  Thomas 
Reynolds  (1707).     Added  to  the  '  Account ' 
are  two  very  admirable  sermons  *  preached 
a  little  before  he  died.' 

[Authorities  given  under  Baetholomew  Ash- 
wood ;  Eeynolds's  Account  of  Life.]   A.  B.  G . 


ASHWORTH,    CALEB,    D.D.  (1722- 

1775),  dissenting  tutor,  was  born  at  Clough- 
Fold,  Rossendale,  Lancashire,  in  1722.  The 
date  rests  on  Palmer's  statement  that  he  was 
'but  fifty-three  years  of  age'  at  death,  and 
the   monumental    inscription   given 


on    . —       -  .      ^   .       ^ 

Baker's  '  Northamptonshire '  (i.  332).     His 
father,  Richard  Ashworth,  who  died  in  1751, 
aged  eighty-four,  was  a  lay  preacher  among^ 
the  Particular  Baptists ;  he  had  three  sons 
— Thomas,  Particular   Baptist   minister   at 
Heckmondwike ;  Caleb ;  and  John,  General 
Baptist  minister,  colleague   of  Dr.   James- 
Foster     (Pope's     '  modest    Foster '),    who 
preached  his  funeral  sermon  in  1742.   Caleb 
was  originally  a  carpenter ;  he  probably  was 
not  in  sympathy  with  his  father  s  views,  and 
thus  did  not  at  first  turn  to  the  ministry. 
He  was  afterAvards  educated  for  the  inde- 
pendent ministry,  under  Doddridge,  at  North- 
ampton, where  he  first  took  up  his  quarters 
jn  1739 ;  and  settled  at  Daventiy  in  1746, 
originallyas  assistant  to  James  Floyd.  Under 
Doddridge's    will   the   management  of   the 
t  academy  was  left  to  Ashworth,  and,  as  the 
:  Northampton  congregation  did  not  elect  him 
their  minister,  he  removed  it  to  Daventiy  in 
!  1752.     He  obtained  the  degree  of  D.D.  from 
i  Scotland  in  1759.     He  had  married  a  Miss- 
Hemings,  by  whom  he  had  three  sons  and 
i  three    daughters.      His    son  John   entered 
i  Daveutry  academy  in  1760,  but  became  a 
i  grazier.     Ashworth  died  on  18  July  1775. 
Under  him    Daventiy   academy  became    a 
chief  seat  of  culture  among  the  liberal  in- 
I  dependents  and  presbyterians,  who  at  that 
time  were  closely  fused,  and  partook  of  the 
same  type  of  theology  and  church  polity.     A 
:  list  of  his  students  may  be  found  in  '  Monthly 
I  Repository,'  1822.     His  most  distinguished 
scholar  was  Priestley,  who  says  that  Ash- 
'  worth  took    '  the   orthodox   side    of    every 
question'  in  theology  and  philosophy,  the 
sub-tutor,  Samuel  Clark,  'that  of  heresy.^ 
Doddridge's  plan  of  refen-ing  to  authors  ou 
all  sides  of  every  question,  and  requiring  his 
students  to  give  an  account  of  them,  was 
faithfully  pursued  by  his  successors,  with  the 
result  of  much  independence  of  judgment. 
A  pupil  (Rev.  T.  Thomas,  in  Month.  Rep., 
1814,  p.  79)  says :  '  Under  Dr.  Doddridge 
there  was  a  more  popular  exterior;  under 
Dr.  Ashworth  a  more  disciplined  interior.*^ 
The  defect  of  the  academy  was  the  neglect 
of  languages  [see  Alexander,  John,  1736- 
1765],  biblical  criticism,  and  ecclesiastical 
history ;  its  staple  was  dogmatics  and  philo- 
sophy,  including   psychology   (then   called 
pneumatology),   ethics,  and  physics.     Ash- 
worth published  for  his  academy  a  Hebrew 
Grammar,  and  a  treatise  on  '  Plane  Trigo- 


Ashworth 


187 


Ashworth 


nometry ; '  for  his  congi-egation,  a  book  of 
'  Tunes ; '  and  Funeral  Sermons  for  Br.  Isaac 
Watts  J  749,  Rev.  James  Floyd  1759,  and 
llev.  S.  Clark,  his  coadjutor,  1770. 

[Funeral  Sermon,  by  Rev.  Samuel  Palmer, 
1775;  Monthly  llepository,  1813,  1822;  Priest- 
ley's Autobiography,  incorporated  in  Rutt's  Me- 
moirs and  Correspondoncc  of  Priestley,  1831.] 

A.  G. 

ASHWORTH,  SiK  CHARLES  {d.  1832), 
niivjor-general,  was  appointed  ensign  in  the 
()8th foot  in  1798;  lieutenant  in  1799;  captain 
Hoth  foot  in  1801  ;  major  6th  West  India 
regiment  in  1808 ;  major  62nd  foot  in 
1808 ;  a  lieutenant-colonel  with  the  Portu- 
guese army  in  1810;  and  served  as  brigadier- 
general  at  the  battles  of  Vittoria,  Pyrenees, 
Nivelle,  Nive,  and  St.  Pierre,  where  he  was 
badly  wounded.  He  took  part  in  the  combat 
of  Buenza  and  succeeding  engagements,  for 
which  he  was  honoured  with  a  cross,  and 
allowed,  14  Nov.  1814,  to  accept  the  order 
of  the  Tower  and  Sword  from  the  Prince 
Regent  of  Portugal.  He  attained  the  rank 
of  colonel  in  1814,  and  major-general  in 
1825;  was  nominated  a  companion  of  the 
Bath  in  1815;  a  knight  commander  on  the 
occasion  of  the  coronation  of  AVilliam  I\' 
in  September  1831 ;  and  died  at  Hall  Place, 
St,  John's  Wood,  on  13  Aug.  1832. 

[Gentleman's  Mag.  vol.  cii.  part  ii.  p.  187  ; 
Na  pier's  History  of  the  Peni  nsiilar  War,book  xxiii . 
vol.  vi.  p.  396.]  A.  S.  B. 

ASHWORTH,  HENRY  (1785-1811), 
lieutenant  in  the  navy,  was  born  in  London, 
December  1^85.  In  November  1799  he 
entered  on  board  the  38-gun  frigate  Hussar, 
under  the  immediate  patronage  of  the  first 
lieutenant,  and  four  years  later  was  serving 
as  midshipman  on  board  the  same  ship  when 
slie  was  lost  on  the  Saintes,  near  Brest,  on 
8  Feb.  1804.  Whilst  prisoner  of  war,  Mr. 
Ashworth  made  several  remarkable  attempts 
to  recover  his  freedom ;  and  at  last,  having 
escaped  from  Bitche  in  December  1808,  he 
succeeded  in  passing  through  Germany  to 
Trieste,  where  he  got  on  board  the  English 
frigate  L'Unite.  In  the  October  following 
he  was  promoted  to  be  a  lieutenant,  and  was 
sening  in  that  rank  in  the  Centaur  of  74 
guns,  on  the  coast  of  Spain,  when  the  French 
took  Tarragona,  on  28  June  1811,  and  drove 
a  number  of  the  panic-stricken  inliabitants, 
literally,  into  the  sea.  Lieutenant  Ashworth 
had  command  of  one  of  the  boats  sent  to 
rescue  these  drowning  wretches,  and,  whilst 
so  employed,  received  a  wound,  of  which 
he  died  a  month  later,  at  Minorca,  25  July 
1811.  ^ 


[His  very  curious  evasions  and  adventures  as 
a  midshipman  in  company  with  a  master's  mate 
named  O'Brien,  are  recounted  at  very  full  length 
in  the  Naval  Chronicle,  vols,  xxviii.-xxxi.,  and 
xxxiii.,  and  must  be  considered  as,  to  a  great  ex- 
tent, the  original  of  the  well-known  episode  in 
'  Peter  Simple.']  J.  K.  L, 

ASHWORTH,  HENRY  (1794-1880), 
friend  of  Cobden  and  vigorous  supporter  of 
the  Anti-Corn  LaAv  League,  was  born  at 
Birtwistle,  near  Bolton,  Lancashire,  on 
4  Sept.  1794,  and  coming  of  quaker  parentage 
was  in  due  course  sent  to  Ackworth  school. 
After  leaving  that  famous  academy  of  the 
Friends  he,  in  partnership  with  his  brother 
Edmund,  managed  their  extensive  mills  at 
Turton,  where  they  distinguished  themselves 
by  their  careful  provision  for  the  well-being 
of  those  whom  they  employed,  and  for  whose 
benefit  they  established  excellent  schools, 
library,  and  reading  room.  Ashworth  was 
a  staunch  nonconformist,  and  resolutely 
refused  to  pay  church  rates.  He  was  a 
founder  of  the  Anti-Corn  Law  League,  and 
was  one  of  its  warmest  supporters  both  by 
money  and  personal  influence  and  exeilion. 
He  had  made  Cobden's  acquaintance  in  1837, 
and  was  ever  after  his  firm  friend.  In  1840 
he  was  one  of  a  deputation  that  waited  upon 
Lord  Melbourne  to  urge  the  repeal  of  the 
corn  laws.  *  Y'ou  know,'  said  the  premier, 
'  that  to  be  impracticable.'  Sir  Robert  Peel 
was  equally  unpleasant.  In  answer  to  Mr. 
Ashworth's  plea  that  the  import  of  food 
should  not  be  restricted  in  order  to  uphold 
rents,  Sir  James  Graham  called  out,  '  Why, 
you  are  a  leveller ! '  and  asked  whether  he 
was  to  infer  that  the  labouring  classes  had 
some  claim  to  the  landlords'  estates.  The 
prosperous  manufacturer  was  naturally  some- 
what startled  at  this  unexpected  phrase,  and 
protested  against  its  injustice.  In  dismissing 
the  deputation  Sir  James  told  them  that  if 
the  corn  laws  were  repealed  great  disasters 
would  fall  upon  the  country,  the  land  would 
go  out  of  cultivation,  church  and  state  could 
not  be  upheld,  the  national  institutions  would 
be  reduced  to  their  elements,  and  the  houses 
of  the  leaguers  would  be  pulled  about  their 
ears  by  the  people  they  were  trying  to  excite. 
In  1843,  in  company  with  Bright  and  Cob- 
den, he  visited  Durham,  Northumberland, 
Cuijiberland,  and  East  Lothian,  to  obtain  in- 
formation as  to  the  position  of  agi-icultiu*e, 
and  they  were  sometimes  mentioned  as  the 
A  B  C  of  the  league  gone  to  study  farming. 
Mr,  John  Bright,  speaking  at  the  opening 
banquet  at  the  Manchester  Town  Hall  in 
1877,  described  a  visit  in  company  with 
Ashworth  and  others  to  the  ruins  of  Tan- 
tallon  Castle :  *  As  we  walked  amongst  those 


Ashworth 


1 88 


Ashworth 


ruins,  my  friend  Mr.  Henry  Ashworth  said, 
with  a  look  of  sadness  almost,  "  How  long 
will  it  be  before  our  great  warehouses  and 
factories  in  Lancashire  are  as  complete  a  ruin 
as  this  castle  ?  "  I  have  thought  of  that 
scores  of  times  since,  and  I  thought  of  it  then 
with  sadness,  as  I  think  of  it  now.  One 
thing  is  certain :  if  ever  they  come  to  ruin 
they  will  never  be  so  picturesque  a  ruin  as  is 
the  ruin  of  Tantallon  Castle.'  At  the  great 
meeting  held  in  Manchester  23  Dec.  1845, 
Ashworth  proposed  that  260,000/.  should 
he  raised  for  the  purpose  of  the  agitation. 
Their  strenuous  and  zealous  efforts  were 
crowned  with  success,  the  corn  laAvs  were 
repealed,  and  the  final  meeting  of  the  league 
was  held  in  the  Manchester  Town  Hall 
on  2  July  1846.  Ashworth  gave  valued 
assistance  to  Cobden  in  the  negotiation  of 
the  French  treaty.  His  most  important  work 
is  '  Recollections  of  Richard  Cobden  and  the 
Anti-Corn  Law  League '  (two  editions,  Lon- 
don 1876  and  1881),  which  is  full  of  important 
historical  and  biographical  matter.  Ash- 
worth defended  Cobden  at  the  great  indigna- 
tion meeting  held  in  Manchester  after  the 
lamentable  incident  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, when  Peel,  who  was  harassed,  unwell, 
and  suffering  from  the  depression  brought  on 
by  the  murder  of  Thomas  Urummond,  charged 
the  leader  of  the  league  with  connivance  at 
assassination.  The  accusation  was  eagerly 
repeated  by  excited  partisans. 

Ashworth's  action  in  connection  with  the 
Anti-Com  Law  League  is  that  by  which 
he  will  be  remembered,  but  during  a  long  life 
he  was  a  steady  advocate  of  peace,  retrench- 
ment, and  reform.  In  addition  to  the  work 
named  he  wrote :  1.  *  Statistical  Illustrations 
of  Lancaster,'  1842.  2.  '  A  Tour  in  the 
United  States  and  Canada,'  1861.  3.  An  ac- 
count of  the  '  Preston  Strike '  of  1853,  and 
some  pamphlets.  He  was  a  member  of  the 
Society  of  Friends,  but  had  a  most  unquakerly 
passion  for  the  gun,  which  he  used  with  great 
dexterity  on  the  moors.  His  hardy  frame 
and  careful  life  gave  him  unusual  advantages, 
so  that  at  eighty  he  was  as  sure  in  his  aim 
as  at  twenty.  He  made  several  continental 
tours,  and  in  February  1880  left  his  house, 
The  Oaks,  Turton,  to  winter  in  Italy,  as  he 
had  usually  done  for  some  years.  Whilst 
travelling  from  Rome  he  caught  a  chill,  and 
at  Florence  was  laid  up  with  Roman  fever, 
and,  after  about  two  weeks'  illness,  he  died 
at  Florence,  17  May  1880. 

[Ashworth's  Recollections  of  Cobden,  with  a 
portrait  of  the  author ;  Prentice's  History  of  the 
League ;  Morley's  Life  of  Cobden  ;  Manchester 
Guardian,  19  May  1880  ;  Times,  20  May  1880  ; 
Academy,  1880,  i.  401.]  W.  E.  A.  A. 


ASHWORTH,  JOHN  (1818  -  1875), 
preacher,  manufacturer,  and  author,  was 
born  on  8  July  1813  at  the  hamlet  of  Cut- 
gate  near  Rochdale,  and  was  the  eighth  child 
of  his  parents,  who  were  poor  woollen  weavers. 
He  has  himself  told  the  story  of  his  mother 
manufacturing  a  '  bishop '  (pinafore)  for  him 
out  of  a  pack-sheet,  from  which  all  her  exer- 
tions could  not  wash  away  the  indelible  word 
'  Wool,'  which  therefore  formed  his  breast- 
plate. The  poverty  of  the  family  was  further 
embittered  by  the  intemperance  of  the  father, 
who,  however,  reformed  later  in  life.  John 
Ashworth  had  no  more  education  than  could 
be  gleaned  at  a  Sunday  school,  and  he  mar- 
ried before  he  was  twenty.  The  union,  how- 
ever imprudent,  was  a  happy  one,  but  he  and 
his  first  wife  had  years  of  struggle  with 
poverty  and  care.  His  position  somewhat 
improved,  and  in  1851,  when  visiting  the 
Great  Exhibition,  he  formed  the  resolution  of 
founding  a  chapel  for  the  destitute  in  Roch- 
dale, but  the  proposal  was  so  much  dis- 
couraged by  his  friends  that  he  abandoned  it 
for  a  time,  and  did  not  put  it  into  execution 
imtil  1858.  As  minister  of  this  chapel  he 
was  brought  into  close  contact  with  thu 
poorfest  people  of  a  great  factory  town.  He 
was  a  vigorous  preacher  of  the  orthodox  type, 
and  understanding  the  people's  way  of  life, 
and  speaking  a  language  which  they  under- 
stood, he  gathered  a  great  congregation.  He 
was  a  liberal  in  politics,  a  staunch  teetotaller, 
and  an  uncompromising  advocate  for  the 
Maine  Law  and  the  observance  of  the  Sunday 
after  a  rigid  puritanical  fashion.  He  visited 
the  United  States  and  the  Holy  Land,  and 
for  many  years  had  a  busy  life  as  preacher, 
manvifacturer,  lecturer,  and  author.  He  wrote 
'  Walks  in  Canaan '  and  *  Back  from  Canaan,' 
and  had  begTin  an  account  of  his  '  Rambles 
in  the  New  World'  when  death  overtook 
him ;  but  his  chief  work  was  *  Strange  Tales,' 
followed  after  a  time  by  a  similar  gathering 
of  '  Simple  Records.'  These  were  printed  as 
separate  tracts,  and  have  had  a  circulation 
that  is  to  be  counted  by  millions.  Some  have 
been  translated  into  Welsh,  French,  Dutch, 
Russian,  and  Spanish.  Yet  the  publisher  to 
whom  the  first  one  was  offered  only  under- 
took to  print  it  on  being  guaranteed  from 
any  risk.  These  narratives  have  no  literarv 
polish,  but  are  good  examples  of  plain  straight- 
forward narrative,  and  are  interesting  for  the 
glimpses  they  give  of  the  life  of  the  poor  of 
the  manufacturing  districts.  They  mostly 
relate  incidents  that  had  come  to  his  know- 
ledge during  his  work  amongst  the  poor.  The 
accuracy  of  one  was  challenged,  but  for  most 
of  them  sufficient  vouchers  could  be  adduced. 
Ashworth's  intimate  knowledge  of  the  class 


Aske 


189 


Aske 


he  describes  gives  his  'Strange  Tales'  a 
value  to  which  most  *  religious  tracts '  have 
no  claim.  Asliworth  died  on  26  Jan.  187o, 
and  was  followed  to  his  grave  in  the  Rochdale 
cemetery  by  a  processsion  of  those  amongst 
whom  lie  had  laboured. 

[Ashworth's  own  w-ritings  ;  Caiman's  Life  and 
T>abours  of  Johii  Ashwortb,  2nd  edit.  (Manchester, 
1875).]  W.  E.  A.  A. 

ASKE,  ROBERT  {d.  1537),  lead.^r  of 
the  insurrection  called  the  *  Pilgi-imagf^  of 
Grace,'  was  of  an  old  Yorkshire  family, 
which  took  its  name  from  Aske,  in  Rich- 
mondshire,  though  the  branch  to  which  he 
belonged  had  been  long  settled  at  Aughton, 
in  the  East  Riding  (Whitaker's  Richmond- 
shire,  i.  117 ).  Of  his  personal  history  nothing 
is  known  apart  from  that  movement,  except 
that  he  was  an  attorney  and  fellow  of  Gray's 
Inn.  It  appears,  by  papers  in  the  Record 
Office,  that  he  had  at  least  two  brothers, 
John  and  Christopher,  who  were  to  some  ex- 
tent compromised  by  his  proceedings.  The 
rebellion  which  brought  him  into  so  much 
notoriety  began  in  Lincolnshire  in  October 
1536.  In  the  beginning  of  that  year  parlia- 
ment had  passed  an  act  for  tho  suppres- 
¥\ox\  of  those  monasteries  whose  revenues 
fell  below  200/.  a  year.  Some  months  later 
a  book  had  been  published  by  authority 
affecting  the  received  doctrine  of  the  Sacra- 
ments, and  injunctions  had  been  issued  for 
the  abrogation  of  a  number  of  old  holidays. 
Tliese  things  touched  at  once  the  faith,  the 
privileges,  and  the  social  life  of  the  people 
generally ;  while  another  statute,  called  the 
Statute  of  Uses,  bore  hard  upon  the  gentiy, 
and  the  increase  of  taxation  was  an  addi- 
tional subject  of  complaint.  The  first  out- 
break was  at  Louth,  in  Lincolnshire,  where 
the  commissioners  for  the  subsidy  had  ar- 
ranged to  sit  in  the  beginning  of  October. 
Here  the  leaders  were  Dr.  ^Mackerel,  prior  of 
Barlings,  and  one  who  called  himself  Captain 
'  Cobbler.  The  number  who  followed  them 
was  reckoned  at  twenty  thousand.  But  the 
Earl  of  Shrewsbury  caused  them  to  disperse, 
exhibiting  an  answer  to  their  complaints 
from  the  king,  showing  that  none  of  the 
things  objected  to  had  been  done  without  the 
sanction  of  ])arliament. 

The  Lincolnshire  rising,  howevei',  had 
scarcely  been  quelled  when  another,  and  a 
far  more  serious  one,  broke  out  in  Yorkshire, 
and  here  Aske  took  the  lead.  The  malcon- 
tents displayed  banners  with  a  picture  of 
Christ  upon  the  cross,  and  on  the  other  side 
of  a  chalice  and  Avafer,  They  took  prisoners 
Lord  Darcy  and  the  Archbishop  of  York, 
and  compelled  them  (not  unwillingly,  as  it 


was  generally  believed)  to  swear  fidelity  to 
the  common  cause.  Even  a  herald  sent  to 
them  in  the  king's  name  was  compelled  to 
kneel  before  Aske  at  Pomfret,  who  forbade 
him  to  read  the  proclamation  with  which  he 
was  charged,  and  said  that  he  himself  and 
his  company  would  go  up  to  London  and 
have  all  the  vile  blood  removed  out  of  the 
king's  council.  The  whole  north  of  England 
seemed  to  be  as  one  man  in  this  matter,  and 
the  lords  sent  by  the  king  to  put  down  the 
rebellion  would  fain  have  temporised.  But 
no  terms  could  be  arranged,  and  a  day  of 
battle  was  agreed  upon,  which  was  to  be  27 
October,  the  eve  of  St.  Simon  and  St.  Jude. 
The  result,  had  it  taken  place,  might  pro- 
bably have  been  a  slaughter  not  inferior  to 
that  of  the  bloody  field  of  Towton.  But  a 
rain  which  fell  the  night  before  swelled  all 
the  rivers,  and  made  the  tiniest  streams  im- 
passable, so  that  the  armies  could  not  aj)- 
proach  each  other.  Meanwhile  the  king  had 
been  prevailed  on,  as  a  matter  of  prudence, 
to  send  a  conciliatory  message,  promising 
pardon  and  a  hearing  for  all  grievances, 
which,  when  announced,  had  the  best  effect. 
The  rebels  at  once  disbanded  and  returned 
to  their  homes. 

At  Christmas  general  pardons  were  sent 
down  into  the  north,  according  to  the  king's 
promise ;  and  Aske  came  up  to  London, 
being  expressly  invited  by  the  king  to  de- 
clare to  him  personally  the  causes  of  com- 
plaint. He  was  received  by  Henry  with 
marked  attention  and  courtesy,  and  on  his 
return  into  the  north  took  with  him  assu- 
rances calculated  to  pacify  the  minds  of  the 
community.  The  king  promised  that  he  him- 
self would  shortly  visit  the  countiy,  cause  a 
parliament  to  be  held  at  York,  and  bring  his 
queen,  Jane  Seymour,  thither  to  be  crowned. 
These  pledges  were  not  more  than  sufficient ; 
for  a  new  insurrection  in  the  east  of  York- 
shire had  broken  out  in  January  under  Sir 
Francis  Bigod,  which  Aske  and  Lord  Conyers 
contrived  to  set  at  rest.  Aske  received  the 
king's  thanks  for  his  conduct  in  this  matter, 
and  it  might  have  appeared  that  he  had 
fairly  won  his  pardon.  But  the  country  was 
still  in  an  anxious  and  unsettled  state  ;  and 
whether  or  no  Aske  himself  had  done  any- 
thing once  more  to  forfeit  the  king's  favour, 
he  was  in  May  a  prisoner  in  the  Tower  of 
London.  He  was  arraigned  at  Westminster 
before  a  special  commission,  along  with  a 
number  of  others  who  had  joined  in  the 
rebellion,  and  sentenced  to  be  hanged,  drawn, 
and  quartered.  More  than  a  month  elapsed 
before  the  sentence  was  carried  out,  and  the 
king  determined  that  the  leading  rebels 
should  suffer  in  the  districts  where  they  had 


Askew 


190 


Askew 


raised  commotions.  On  28  June,  accord- 
ingly, Lord  Hussy,  Sir  Robert  Constable, 
and  Aske  were  carried  on  horseback  from  the 
Tower  into  the  north.  Hussy  Avas  be- 
headed at  Lincoln,  Constable  was  hanged  in 
cliains  at  Hull,  and  Aske  suffered  the  like 
fate  within  the  city  of  York. 

On  a  tower  of  the  church  of  Augliton,  in 
the  East  Riding,  is  a  rather  ambiguous  in- 
scription below  a  shield :  '  Christofer  le 
second  filz  de  Robert  Ask  ch'r  oblier  ne  doy 
A°  D'i  1536.'  This,  as  Pegge  remarks,  might 
be  translated, '  I,  Christopher,  the  second  son 
of  Robert  Ask,  knight,  ought  not  to  forget  the 
year  of  our  Lord  1536.'  But  it  may  be,  as 
he  also  suggests,  that  the  tower  itself  is  sup- 
posed to  speak :  '  I  ought  not  to  forget 
Christopher,'  and  that  1536  is  to  be  read 
merely  as  the  date  of  the  inscription  (Allen's 
County  of  York,  ii.  231).  Under  any  cir- 
cumstances it  is  a  very  striking  memorial  of 
that  terrible  year.  This  Christopher  may 
liave  been  the  brother,  and  Sir  Robert  Ask 
the  father,  of  the  insurgent.  They  were 
certainly  near  relations. 

[Hall's  Chronicle ;  Wriotliesley's  Chronicle ; 
State  Papers ;  Unpublished  Papers  in  the  Record 
Office.]  J.  G. 

ASKEW,  ANNE  (1521-1546),  protest- 
ant  martyr,  was  the  second  daughter  of  Sir 
William  Askew,  or  Ayscough,  knight,  who  is 
generally  stated  to  be  of  Kelsey  in  Lincoln- 
shire. But  according  to  family  and  local 
tradition  she  was  born  at  Stallingborough, 
Jiear  Grimsby,  where  the  site  of  her  father's 
liouse  is  still  pointed  out.  The  Askews 
Avere  an  old  Lincolnshire  family,  and  the 
consciousness  of  this  fact  may  have  had 
something  to  do  with  the  formation  of  Anne's 
<!haracter.  She  was  higlily  educated  and 
much  devoted  to  biblical  study.  When  she 
stayed  at  Lincoln  she  was  seen  daily  in  the 
cathedral  reading  the  Bible,  and  engaging 
the  clergy  in  discussions  on  the  meaning 
of  particular  texts.  According  to  her  own 
Account  she  was  superior  to  them  all  in 
iirgument,  and  those  who  wished  to  answer 
lier  commonly  retired  without  a  word. 

At  a  time  Avhen  she  was  probably  still  a 
girl  a  marriage  was  arranged  by  her  parents 
for  her  elder  sister,  who  was  to  be  the  wife 
of  one  Thomas  Kyme  of  Kelsey.  It  was 
one  of  those  feudal  bargains  which  were  of 
constant  occurrence  in  the  domestic  life  of 
those  days.  But  the  intended  bride  died 
before  it  was  fulfilled,  and  her  father,  *  to 
save  the  money,'  as  we  are  expressly  told, 
caused  Anne  to  supply  her  place  against  her 
own  will.  She  accordingly  married  Kyme, 
and  had  two  children  by  him.     But  having, 


as  it  is  said,  offended  the  priests,  her  hu; 
band  put  her  out  of  his  house,  on  which  sin 
for  her  part,  was  glad  to  leave  him,  and  wji 
supposed  to  have  sought  a  divorce.  Whetlu 
it  was  with  this  view  that  she  came  to  Loi 
don  does  not  appear;  but  in  March  154 
she  underwent  some  examinations  for  heresy 
of  which  she  herself  has  left  us  an  accouni 
first  at  Sadler's  Hall  by  one  Christopht 
Dare,  then  before  the  lord  mayor  of  Londoi 
Avlio  committed  her  to  the  Counter,  and  aftei 
Avards  before  Bishop  Bonner  and  a  numbe 
of  other  divines.  It  is  unfortunate  that  w 
have  no  other  record  of  these  proceeding 
than  her  own,  which  though  honest  was  uii 
doubtedly  one-sided,  and  is  not  likely  to  hav 
been  improved  in  the  dii-ection  of  impartialit 
by  having  been  first  edited  by  Jolin  Bah 
afterwards  bishop  of  Ossor}',  during  his  exil 
in  Germany. 

'Ilie  subject  on  Avliich  she  lay  under  su.' 
pieion  of  heresy  was  the  sacrament.  Tb 
severe  Act  of  the  Six  Articles,  passed  som 
years  before,  had  produced  such  a  crop  r 
ecclesiastical  prosecutions  that  parliamen 
had  been  already  obliged  to  restrict  its  opern 
tion  by  another  statute,  and  Henry  Vll 
himself  at  the  end  of  this  very  year  though 
it  well  to  deliver  an  exhortation  to  parlia 
ment  on  the  subject  of  christian  charity.  I: 
such  a  state  of  matters  Anne  Askew  ha' 
little  chance  of  mercy.  It  is,  hoAvevei 
tolerably  clear,  notwithstanding  the  glos 
Avliich  Bale,  and  Fox  after  him,  endeavours 
to  put  upon  it,  that  one  man  who  sincere! 
tried  to  befriend  her  was  tlie  much-abuse< 
Bishop  Bonner.  He  did  his  utmost  to  con 
quer  her  distrust  and  get  her  to  talk  Avitl 
him  familiarly,  promising  that  no  advantag 
should  be  taken  of  uuAvary  words ;  and  ht 
actually  succeeded  in  extracting  from  her 
perfectly  orthodox  confession  (according  t 
the  standard  then  acknowledged),  with  wliic 
he  sought  to  protect  her  from  further  moles 
tation.  But  Avhen  it  was  read  over  to  hei 
and  she  was  asked  to  sign,  although  she  hai 
acknowledged  every  word  of  it  before,  insteai 
of  her  simple  signature  she  added,  *  I,  Ann 
Askew,  do  believe  all  manner  of  tilings  con 
tained  in  the  faith  of  the  Catholic  Cliurcl 
and  not  otherwise.'  The  bishop  was  quit 
disconcerted.  In  Anne's  own  words,  *h 
flung  into  his  chamber  in  a  great  fury,'  H 
had  told  her  that  she  might  thank  others 
and  not  herself,  for  the  favour  he  had  show: 
Iwr,  as  she  was  so  well  connected.  Now  sh 
st't'ined  anxious  to  undo  all  his  efforts  on  he 
behalf.  Dr.  Weston,  however  (afterward 
Queen  Clary's  dean  of  Westminster),  con 
trived  at  this  point  to  save  her  from  her  ow 
indiscretion,  representing  to  the  bishop  tha 


Askew 


191 


Askew 


>lie  had  not  taken  sufficient  notice  of  the 
reference  actually  made  to  the  church  in  the 
written  form  of  the  confession,  and  thought 
she  was  supplying  an  omission.  Tlie  bishop 
was  accordingly  persuaded  to  come  out  again, 
and  after  some  further  explanations  Anne 
was  at  length  liberated  upon  sureties  for  her 
forthcoming  whenever  she  should  be  further 
called  in  question.  She  had  still  to  appear 
Ijefore  the  lord  mayor,  and  did  so  on  1 3  June 
following,  when  she  and  two  other  persons, 
<me  being  of  her  own  sex,  were  an*aigned 
under  the  act  as  sacramentaries ;  but  no 
witnesses  appeared  against  her  or  either  of 
the  others,  except  one  against  the  man,  and 
they  were  all  three  acquitted  and  set  at 
liberty. 

The  accusers  of  Anne  had  for  the  time 
been  put  to  silence,  but  unfortunately  within 
a  year  new  gi-ounds  of  complaint  were  urged, 
and  she  was  examined  a  second  time  before 
the  council  at  Greenwich.  Her  opinions 
meanwhile  seem  to  have  been  growing  more 
decidedly  heretical,  and  her  old  assurance 
in  the  face  of  learned  disputants  was  stronger 
than  ever.  She  was  first  asked  some  ques- 
tions about  her  husband,  and  refused  to  reply 
except  before  the  king  himself.  She  was 
then  asked  her  opinion  of  the  sacrament, 
and,  being  admonished  to  speak  directly  to 
the  point,  said  she  would  not  sing  a  new 
song  of  the  Lord  in  a  strange  land.  Bishop 
Gardiner  told  her  she  spoke  m  parables.  She 
replied  that  it  was  best  for  him,  for  if  she 
showed  him  the  open  truth  he  would  not 
accept  it.  He  then  told  her  that  she  was  a 
parrot,  and  she  declared  herself  ready  to 
suiFer  not  only  rebuke  but  evei*ything  else 
at  his  hands.  She  had  an  answer  ready  for 
each  of  the  council  that  examined  her.  In- 
deed, she  sometimes  seemed  to  be  examining 
them,  for  she  asked  the  lord  chancellor  him- 
self how  long  he  would  halt  on  both  sides. 

Nevertheless,  she  was  more  closely  ques- 
tioned this  time  than  she  had  been  the  year 
before.  She  was  five  hours  before  the  council 
at  Greenwich,  and  was  examined  again  on 
the  following  day,  being  meantime  conveyed 
to  Lady  Garnish.  On  the  following  Sunday 
she  was  very  ill  and  desired  to  speak  with 
Latimer,  but  was  not  allowed.  Yet  in  the 
t'xtremity  of  her  illness  she  was  sent  to 
Xewgate  in  such  pain  as  she  had  never 
suffered  in  her  life.  But  worse  awaited  her. 
( )n  Tuesday  following  she  was  conveyed  from 
Newgate  to  the  sign  of  the  Crown,  where  Sir 
Richard  Rich  endeavoured  to  persuade  her  to 
abandon  her  heresy.  Dr.  Shaxton,  also,  late 
bishop  of  Salisburj-,  urged  her  to  make  a  re- 
cantation, as  he  had  just  lately  done  himself, 
but  all  to  no  purpose.   Rich  accordingly  sent 


her  to  the  Tower,  where  a  new  set  of  in- 
quiries were  addressed  to  her,  for  it  seems 
some  members  of  the  council  suspected  that 
she  received  secret  encouragement  from  per- 
sons of  great  influence.  She  denied,  how- 
ever, that  she  knew  any  man  or  woman  of 
her  sect,  and  explained  that  during  her  last 
year's  imprisonment  in  the  Counter  she  had 
been  maintained  by  the  efforts  of  her  maid, 
who  '  made  moan '  for  her  to  the  prentices  in 
the  street,  and  collected  money  from  them. 
She  did  not  know  the  name  of  any  one  wlio 
had  given  her  money,  but  acknowledged 
that  a  man  in  a  blue  coat  had  given  Tier 
ten  shillings,  and  said  it  was  from  my  ladv 
Hertford,  More  than  this  even  the  raclc 
could  not  get  from  her,  which  by  her  own 
statement  afterwards  (if  we  may  trust  a 
narrative  which  could  scarcely  in  such  a  case 
have  been  actually  penned  by  herself)  was 
applied  by  Lord  Chancellor  Wriothesley 
himself  and  Sir  Richard  Rich,  turning  the 
screws  with  their  own  hands.  Yet  even 
after  being  released  from  this  torture  she 
'  sat  two  long  hours  reasoning  with  my  lord 
chancellor  upon  the  bare  floor,'  but  could  not 
be  induced  to  change  her  opinion. 

So  far  we  have  followed  the  account  given 
as  that  of  the  sufferer  herself.  But  it  should 
be  noticed  that  on  18  June  1546  she  was 
arraigned  for  heresy  at  the  Guildhall  along 
with  Dr.  Shaxton  and  two  others,  all  of 
whom  confessed  the  indictment,  and  were 
sentenced  to  the  fire.  Dr.  Shaxton  and  one 
of  the  others  recanted  next  day,  and  it  was 
either  that  day  or  a  few  days  later  that 
Anne  Askew  was  racked  in  the  Tower.  On 
16  July  she  and  three  others  guilty  of  the 
same  heresy  were  brought  to  the  stake  in 
Smithfield,  she  being  so  weak  from  the  tor- 
ture she  had  already  undergone  that  she 
had  to  be  carried  in  a  chair.  She  was  tied 
to  the  stake  by  a  chain  round  the  waist  which 
supported  her  body.  On  a  bench  under  St. 
Bartholomew's  Church  sat  Lord  Chancellor 
Wriothesley,  the  Dukes  of  Norfolk  and  Bed- 
ford, the  lord  mayor,  and  others,  to  witness 
the  shameful  tragedy ;  and,  to  complete  the 
matter.  Dr.  Shaxton,  who  liad  so  recently  re- 
canted the  same  heresy,  was  appointed  to 
preach  to  the  victims.  Anne  still  preserved 
her  marvellous  self-possession,  and  made 
passing  comments  on  the  preacher's  words, 
confirming  them  where  she  agreed  with  him, 
and  at  other  times  saying  '  There  he  missef  h 
and  speaketh  without  the  book.'  After  the 
sermon  the  martyrs  began  to  pray.  The 
titled  spectators  on  the  bench  were  more 
discomposed,  knowing  that  there  was  some 
gunpowder  near  the  faggots,  which  they 
feared  might  send  them  flying  about  their 


Askew 


192 


Askew 


ears.     But  the  Earl  of  Bedford  reassured  1 
them.     The  gunpowder  was  not  under  the  ' 
faggots,  but  laid  about  the  bodies  of  the  \ 
victims  to  rid  them  the  sooner  of  their  pain,  j 
Finally  Lord  Chancellor  Wriothesley  sent 
Anne  Askew  letters  with  an  assurance  of 
the  king's  pardon  if  she  Avould  even  now 
recant.    She  refused  to  look  at  them,  saying 
she  came  not  thither  to  deny  her  Master.   A 
like  refusal  was  made  by  the  other  sufferers.  1 
ITie  lord  mayor  then  cried  out  *  Fiat  justitia ! ' 
and  ordered  the  fire  to  be  laid  to  the  feggots. 
Soon  afterwards  all  was  over.     Anne  is  said 
by  Bale  to  have  been  twenty-five  years  old 
when  she  suflfered.    She  must  therefore  have 
})een  bom  in  the  year  1521. 

There  cannot  be  a  doubt  that  the  memory 
of  this  woman's  sufferings  and  of  her  extra- 
ordinary fortitude  and  heroism  added  strength 
to  the  protestant  reaction  under  Edward  VT. 
The  account  of  her  martyrdom  published  by 
Bale  in  Germany,  Strype  tells  us,  was  publicly 
f^vposed  to  sale  at  Winchester  in  1.549,  in 
reproach  of  Bishop  Gardiner,  who  was  be- 
lieved (whether  justly  or  not  is  another 
miestion)  to  have  been  a  great  cause  of  her 
death.  '  Four  of  these  books,'  says  Strype 
( Memorials  of  Cranmer,  294),  *  came  to  that 
liishop's  own  eyes,  being  then  at  Winchester; 
they  had  leaves  put  in  as  additions  to  the 
book,  some  glued  and  some  nnglued,  which 
])robably  contained  some  further  intelligences 
that  the  author  had  gathered  since  his  first 
writing  of  the  book.  And  herein  some  re- 
flections were  made  freely,  according  to  Bale's 
talent,  upon  some  of  the  court,  not  sparing 
Paget  himself,  though  then  secretary  of  state.' 
We  ought  certainly  to  make  some  allowance 
for  bias  in  testimony  that  could  be  manipu- 
lated after  such  a  mshion,  but  we  need  not 
be  sparing  in  sympathy  for  the  devoted 
sufferer. 


[Bale's  two  tracts,  viz.  'The First  Examinacyon 
of  Anne  Askewe,'  and '  The  Lattre  Examinacyon,' 
lioth  printed  at  Marburg  in  Hesse,  the  former 
ill  NovemLer  1546,  the  second  in  January  1547. 
The  contents  of  the  second,  Bale  says,  he  '  received 
in  copy  by  certain  Dutch  merchants  coming  from 
thence,'  who  had  been  present  at  her  execution. 
Bale's  Scriptores;  Foxes  Acts  and  Monuments; 
Strype's  Eccl.  Memorials,  I.  i.  698 ;  Wriothesley's 
Chronicle  (Camden  Soc.).]  .T.  G. 

ASKEW,  ANTHONY,  M.D.  (1722- 
1772),  was  bom  at  Kendal,  Westmoreland, 
and  was  the  son  of  Dr.  Adam  Askew,  a  well- 
known  physician  of  Newcastle.  Anthony 
Askew  went  from  Sedbergh  school  to  the 
grammar  school  at  Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 
a?id  thence  to  Emmanuel  College,  Cam- 
bridge, where  he  took  his  degree  of  M.B.  in 


1745.  '  He  told  me,'  says  Dr.  Parr,  *  that  he 
received  part  of  his  education  from  Richard 
Dawes  of  Newcastle,  and  described  the  terror 
j  which  he  felt  at  seeing  a  schoolmaster  whose 
name  was  a  fiopfjioXvKeiov  in  the  North  of 
England.'  In  those  days  the  birch  was  al- 
lowed, and  the  father  of  Anthony  is  said  to 
have  stipulated  with  Dawes  that  his  son 
should  be  only  liable  to  strictly  limited  cas- 
;  tigation. 

Being  intended  for  the  medical  profession, 

j  Askew   studied   for  one    year    at   Leyden. 

J  Alexander  Carlyle,  who  met  him  there,  says 

:  that  he  had  come  to  collate  manuscripts  of 

I  -^schylus,  and  describes  him  as  having  some 

j  drollery,    but    little   sense   {Autobiography, 

p.  174).     He  then  \'isited  Hungary,  Athen.s, 

Constantinople,  Italy,  and  other  countries.  By 

the  purchase  at  home  and  abroad  of  a  great 

i  number  of  valuable  books  and  manuscripts 

i  he  laid  the  foundation  of  the  extensive  library, 

I  the  Bibliotheca  Askeviana.    He  commenced 

Practice  at  Cambridge  in  1750,  in  which  year 
e  took  his  degree  of  M.D.,  and  afterwards 
established  himself  in  London.  He  had  a 
good  practice,  and  was  physician  to  St.  Bar- 
tholomew's and  to  Christ's  Hospitals,  and 
Registrar  of  the  CoUege  of  Physicians.  He 
was  man-ied  twice,  the  second  time  to  Eliza- 
beth Halford,  *  a  woman,'  says  Dr.  Parr,  *  of 
celestial  beauty  and  celestial  virtue,'  by 
whom  he  left  twelve  children.  He  died  at 
Ilampstead,  27  Feb.  1772. 

He  is  far  better  known  as  a  classical 
scholar  than  as  a  physician.  He  helped  to 
develope  the  taste  for  curious  manuscripts, 
scarce  editions,  and  fine  copies.  Of  the  clas- 
sical attainments  of  Askew  Dr.  Parr,  his 
friend,  speaks  in  high  praise. 

Askew  appears  to  have  contemplated  a  new 
edition  of  yEschylus,  for  a  complete  collec- 
tion of  the  various  published  editions  of  this 
author  was  found  in  his  library,  some  copies 
of  which  were  enriched  with  manuscript 
notes  by  himself.  In  1746,  while  a  medical 
student  at  Leyden,  he  put  forth  a  specimen  of 
this  intended  edition,  m  a  small  quarto  pam- 
phlet, 'Novie  Editionis  Tragcediarum  ^schyli 
specimen,  curante  Antonio  Askew,  1746.' 
This  was  dedicated  to  Dr.  Mead.  It  con- 
tained only  twenty-nine  lines  of  the  '  Eume- 
nides'  (563-591,  Schiitz  ed.),  accompanied 
with  variae  lectiones.  In  Butler's  edition  of 
^schylus  most  of  Askew's  collections  were 
made  use  of,  and  a  volume  in  his  handwriting, 
which  contained  a  collation  of  five  codices, 
is  referred  to  as  Askew's.  Bishop  Blomfield 
discovered  the  volume  to  be  a  transcript  from 
one  in  the  handwriting  of  Peter  Needham, 
and  takes  notice  of  the  fact  in  the  prefaces 
to  his  editions  of  the  '  Prometheus '  and  the 


Askew 


193 


Aspinall 


*  Seven  against  Thebes'  in  terms  little  compli- 
mentary to  the  learning  or  honesty  of  AskeAV. 
Askew's  house  was  crowded  with  books  up 
to  the  gan-ets.  The  collection  was  chiefly 
classical,  and  it  was  its  possessor's  aim  to 
have  every  edition  of  a  Gi'eek  author.  The 
sale  of  his  library  lasted  twenty  days  in  the 
year  1775,  and  produced  3,993^.  Os.  6d.  The 
principal  purchasers  were  Dr.  Hunter,  Mr. 
Cracherode,  the  British  Museum,  and  the 
kings  of  England  and  of  France.  The  sale 
of  Askew's  manuscripts  did  not  take  place  till 
1785.  Amongthelotswere  the  manuscripts  of 
Mead  and  Taylor.  An  appendix  to  Scapula's 
Lexicon,  edited  by  Dr.  Chas.  Burney  in  1789, 
is  described  as  taken  *  e  codice  manuscripto 
olim  Askeviano.'  A  verbal  index  to  Aris- 
tophanes, by  Jolin  Caravella,  an  Epirote, 
published  at  Oxford  in  1822,  is  one  of  a 
series  formerly  in  Askew's  library.  John 
Caravella  was  Dr.  Askew's  librarian. 

Askew's  regard  for  Mead  was  great;  he 
engaged  Roubiliac  to  execute  his  friend's 
bust  in  marble.  Like  Mead,  he  received 
many  visitors,  among  them  Archbishop  Mark- 
ham,  Sir  William  Jones,  Dr.  Farmer,  Dr. 
Samuel  Parr,  and  Demosthenes  Taylor.  With 
the  last  he  was  very  intimate,  and  subse- 
quently became  his  executor.  As  Askew  had 
travelled  in  the  East,  he  was  conjectured  to 
be  learned  in  all  the  oriental  tongues,  and 
in  accordance  with  this  remarkable  hypo- 
thesis a  Chinese,  named  Chetqua,  was  on  one 
occasion  brought  to  him.  It  is  said  that 
Askew  made  himself  very  agreeable  to 
Chetqua,  but  Chetqua  did  not  understand 
him,  nor  did  he  understand  Chetqua.  The 
Chinaman  was,  however,  sutHciently  grateful 
to  Askew  to  make  a  model  of  him  in  his 
robes  in  unbaked  potter's  clay,  coloured, 
about  a  foot  high.  This  model  may  be  seen 
in  the  College  of  Physicians,  to  which  it  was 
given  by  Sir  Lucas  Pepys,  who  mamed 
Askew's  daughter.  In  the  same  college  is 
tlie  gold-headed  cane  which  RadclifFe  gave  to 
Mead,  Mead  to  Askew,  and  which,  after  pass- 
ing through  the  hands  of  Pitcairn  and  Baillie, 
was  finally  placed  by  Joanna  Baillie  in  its 
present  domicile.  He  is  the  author  of  a  manu- 
script volume  of  Greek  inscriptions,  now  pre- 
served among  the  Burney  MSS.  in  the  British 
]\Iuseum.  An  engi'aved  portrait  of  Askew  is 
given  in  the  2nd  volume  of  Dibdin's  enlarged 
edition  of  Ames's '  Typographical  Antiquities.' 

[Watt's Bibl.  Brit. ;  Brit.  Mus.  Catal. ;  Nichols's 
Lit.  Anec.  3,  494 ;  Dibdin,  Bibliom.  p.  515 ; 
Hirschung,  Hist.-Lit.  Handb.  i.  65;  Cantab. 
Grad,  p.  12.]  J.  M. 

ASKEW,  EGEON  (b.  1576),  divine, 
was  a  native  of  Lancashire.     His  family  was 

VOL.    II. 


originally  of  Mulcaster,  in  Cumberland,  and 
subsequently  of  Kirby  Ireleth,  in  North  Lan- 
cashire, at  which  latter  place  one  Thomas 
Askew,  M.A.,  was  instituted  vicar  in  1606. 
At  the  age  of  seventeen  Egeon  Askew  became 
a  student  of  the  university  of  Oxford ;  he  was 
B.A.  AprU  1597,  chaplain  of  Queen's  Col- 
lege 1598,  and  M.A.  June  1600.  About  the 
time  of  the  accession  of  James  I,  having  the 
reputation  of  a  noted  preacher,  he  was  minister 
of  Greenwich,  Kent.  He  was  the  author  of 
one  book  only,  which  was  entered  by  George 
Bishop  on  the  registers  of  Stationers'  Hall 
27  March  1605,  said  to  be  by  Egeon  Acton 
Askew,  of  Queen's  College.  This  work  is 
made  up  of  college  sermons,  and  is  somewhat 
scarce.  When  Dr.  Bliss  edited  Wood,  there 
was  no  copy  in  the  Bodleian  Library ;  and 
the  copy  which  Wood  saw  is  wrongly  de- 
scribed, being  made  into  two  books,  after  his 
manner.  It  Avas  entitled  '  Brotherly  Recon- 
cilement ;  preached  in  Oxford  for  the  Amnion 
of  some,  and  now  published  with  larger  me- 
ditations for  the  vnitie  of  all  in  this  churcli 
and  common-wealth.  With  an  apologie  of 
the  use  of  the  Fathers  and  secular  learning  in 
sei'mons.'  Lond.  4to,  1605.  The  dedication 
to  King  James  is  dated  from  Greenwich, 
27  April  that  year.  The  book  shows  traces 
of  very  wide  reading,  the  margins  being  filled 
with  references  to  ancient  authorities.  Hence 
Wood  described  him  as  'a  person  as  well 
read  in  the  fathers,  commentators,  and  school- 
men, as  any  man  of  his  age  in  the  uniA'ersity.' 
The  second  portion  of  the  book  is  in  strict 
keeping  with  the  style  of  composition  in 
Avhich  he  indulged ;  it  is  a  discussion  'whether 
Humanitie,  i.e.  anything  beside  the  words  of 
scripture,  be  lawful  quoad  esse  or  quoad  gra- 
dum  at  all,  as  some  deny,  or  only  against 
adversaries,  as  some  hold,  in  sermons  acade- 
mical or  popular.'  It  is  not  known  when 
or  Avhere  Askew  died.  Evelyn  assured  Wood 
that  he  did  not  die  at  Greenwich. 

[Wood's  Athen.  Oxon.  (Bliss),  i.  756  ;  Fasti, 
i.  274,  285.]  J.  E.  B. 

ASPINALL,  JAMES  {d.  1861),  miscel- 
laneous Avriter  and  popular  preacher,  had  first 
under  his  care  a  church  in  Cheshire,  about 
fifteen  miles  from  Manchester.  He  then  be- 
came curate  of  Rochdale,  where  he  remained 
for  five  years.  He  afterwards  resided  at  Li- 
A-erpool,  and  in  1831  was  the  incumbent  of  St. 
Luke's,  where  he  preached  a  remarkable  ser- 
mon called  '  The  Crisis,  or  the  Signs  of  the 
Times  with  regard  to  the  Churcli  of  England,' 
He  then  went  to  live  in  Lincolnshire,  on 
the  banks  of  the  Trent,  and  in  1844  he  was 
rector  of  Althorpe,  a  place  which  he  held 
till  his  death.     On  26  Jan.  of  that  year  he 

0 


Aspinwall 


194 


Aspinwall 


delivered  an  address  at  the  ffreat  free-trade 
meeting,  held  at  Hull,  at  which  Bright  and 
Cobden  both  spoke.  In  1853,  after  the  cele- 
brated Roscoe  centenary  at  Liverpool,  he 
published  '  Roscoe's  Library,  or  Old  Books 
and  Old  Times,'  dedicated  to  the  Earl  of 
Carlisle,  '  the  representative  of  the  intelli- 
gence of  the  aristocracy  and  of  the  aristo- 
cracy of  intelligence.'  In  this  little  work  he 
holds  up  Roscoe  as  an  example  to  the  youth 
of  the  Mechani(^s'  and  Literary  Institutes 
throughout  the  country,  in  whom  he  felt  a 
profound  interest.  Aspinall  had  great  sym- 
pathy with  the  free-trade  party,  and  gene- 
rally with  the  educational  movements  of  his 
time.  This  is  perhaps  due  in  a  great  mea- 
sure to  the  acquaintance  he  made  with  the 
Avorking-class  operatives  at  Rochdale  at  the 
commencement  of  his  clerical  career.  He 
was  domestic  chaplain  for  a  period  of  over 
tliirty  jears  to  the  Right  Hon.  Lord  Clon- 
brock.  On  17  Jan.  1861,  when  J.P.  for 
Lindsey,  he  married,  at  West  Butterwick, 
Annie,  widow  of  W.  Hunter,  Esq.,  of  the 
Ings,  E.  Butterwick,  On  15  Feb.  of  the  same 
ytjar  he  died.  His  works,  besides  those  al- 
ready mentioned,  consist  of  various  sermons, 
parish,  doctrinal,  and  practical. 

[C.  W.  Sutton's  Lancashire  Autliors,  p.  5  ;  The 
Hull  Eoekingham,  27  Jan.  1844;  Catal.  Brit. 
JMus. ;  Gent,  Mag.,  third  series,  vol.  x.  pp.  202, 
467.]  J.  M. 

ASPINWALL,    EDWARD,    D.D.    {d. 

1732),  a  polemical  divine,  received  his  edu- 
cation at  Cambridge,  and  was  appointed  chap- 
lain to  the  Earl  of  Radnor.  Afterwards  he 
became  sub-dean  of  the  Chapel  Royal,  and 
in  1729  was  instituted  prebendary  of  West- 
minster. He  is  the  author  of  a  *  Preserva- 
tive against  Popery,'  1715,  and  an  'Apology, 
being  a  series  of  Arguments  in  Proof  of  the 
Christian  Religion,'  1731.  The '  Apology '  is 
prefaced  by  an  address  '  To  all  Impartial 
Freethinkers,'  in  which  the  author  states: 
'  I  have  made  it  my  sincere  and  labour'd  con- 
cern to  divest  myself  of  every  bias  or  influ- 
ence that  interest  or  blind  passion  might 
bring  upon  me,  to  the  end  that  my  mind, 
being  (I  think)  perfectly  disingag'd  from  all 
partial  and  unworthy  motives,  might  remain 
absolutely  free  to  determine  itself  by  solid 
reason  in  the  choice  of  reveal'd  religion.' 
The  arguments  are  clearly  put,  and  the 
language  is  in  the  main  temperate.  But 
whde  he  is  willing  to  tolerate  free  discussion 
in  religious  matters,  the  author  protests 
against  his  opponents'  use  of  the  weapon  of 
ridicule.  'Let  all  men,'  he  says  (p.  12), 
'  have  an  unbounded  freedom  to  express  their 
sentiments  for  or  against  religion;  but  let 


their  words  and  writings  stand  clear  of  any 
scurrilous  reflections,  sneer,  or  sarcasm  against 
it,  or  let  the  author  be  severely  chastis'd  by 
publick  authority.'  His  arguments  are  chiefly 
directed  against  Antony  Collins,  the  well- 
known  deist.  Aspinwall  died  on  3  Aug, 
1732, 

[Le  Neve's  Fasti  Ecclesise  Anglicanse,  ed. 
Hardy,  iii.  365 ;  Gent.  Mag.  ii.  929.] 

A.  H.  B. 

ASPINWALL,  WILLIAM  (Jl.  1648- 
1662),  one  of  the  nonconforming  ministers 
ejected  in  1662,  was  of  the  Lancashire  As- 
pinwalls,  and  so  has  a  gleam  on  his  name  in 
relation  to  Spenser's  '  Rosalind '  (Grosakt's 
Who  was  Rosalind?  in  his  edition  of  Spenser's 
Works,  iii.  pp.  cvi-cvii).  He  was  of  Magdalen 
College,  Cambridge,  and  had  for  tutor  Joseph 
Hill.  He  proceeded  B.A.,  but  having  ob- 
tained orders,  went  no  further.  His  first 
living  was  Maghull,  in  Lancashire.  In  the 
Lancashire  '  Harmonious  Consent '  of  1648, 
which  denounces  '  endeavours  used  for  the 
establishing  an  universal  toleration,'  his  name 
appears  ('  William  Aspinwal,  preacher  of 
God's  word  at  Mayhall')  in  a  long  list  of 
signatories,  headed  by  '  Richard  Ileyricke, 
warden  of  Christ  Colledg  in  Manchester,'  and 
including  Hollingworth,  Alexander  Hor- 
rocks,  John  Angier,  and  indeed  the  foremost 
ministers  of  the  county  and  time.  These 
men  had  come  to  persuade  themselves  that 
'  the  establishing  of  a  toleration  would  make 
us  [the  English  people]  become  the  abhorring 
and  loathing  of  all  nations.'  [See  under 
Angier,  John.] 

Aspinwall  left  his  cure  in  1655-6  to  be 
ordained  at  Mattersey,  Nottinghamshire,  and 
was  in  that  year  inducted  to  Mattersey,  in 
the  church  at  Claworth,  in  the  same  county, 
along  with  a  more  notable  man,  John  Crom- 
well, B.A.,  and  two  others  (Le  Neve's  FaMi 
Eeclesice  Anglicans,  ed.  Hardy,  ii.  35).  He 
was  ejected  by  the  Act  of  Uniformity  in 
1662.  Upon  his  ejection  he  turned  fai-mer 
at  Thm-nsco,  in  Yorkshii'e.  There  was  'a 
good  house,'  and  it  became  a  nonconform- 
ist meeting-place.  Two  other  ejected  mi- 
nisters, Tricket  and  Grant,  sojourned  with 
him.  Whether  farming  did  not  prosper,  or 
the  usual  persecution  drove  him  away,  is 
uncertain,  but  in  a  short  time  he  is  traced 
once  more  in  his  native  Lancashire,  There 
Calamy  states  he  died ;  but  Samuel  Palmer 
(Nonconf.  Mem.  iii.  99)  corrects  this,  and 
gives  extracts  from  a  letter  dated  Cocker- 
mouth,  16  April  1724,  by  which  it  would 
seem  that  he  became  minister  of  a  '  dissent- 
ing congregation '  in  that  town.  The  old 
presbyterian  congregation  there  was  after- 


Aspland 


195 


Aspland 


wards  merged  in  the  'congregational,'  but 
in  Lewis's  *  History  of  the  Congregational 
Ohurch,  Cockermouth,  being  Selections  from 
its  own  Records'  (1870),  Aspinwall's  name 
nowhere  occurs:  nor  have  recent  inquiries 
succeeded  in  finding  the  slightest  memorial 
of  him  in  Cockermouth,  although  the  ex- 
istence of  the  presbyterian  church  there 
lias  been  thoroughly  verified.  Unluckily 
the  date  of  his  death  is  not  given.  The  fol- 
lowing book'-,  were  published  by  him :  1.  *  A 
Discourse  o  the  Principal  Points  touching 
Baptism,  so  far  as  Scripture  Light  directs.' 
2.  '  The  Legislative  Power  Christ's  Peculiar 
Prerogative.'  3.  *  A  Presage  of  sundry  Sad 
Calamities  yet  to  come.'  4.  '  The  Abrogation 
of  the  Jewish  Sabbath  or  the  Sabbath  of  the 
7th  Day  of  the  Week.'  Palmer  is  strangely 
inaccurate  in  the  following  addition  to  Ca- 
lamy :  '  There  is  a  small  folio  volume  of 
sermons  on  the  whole  Epistle  of  Paul  to 
Philemon,  with  the  name  of  William  Aspin- 
wall  prefixed,  which  the  editor  supposes  to 
be  by  the  same  person.  It  is  a  valuable 
work'  (Nonconf.  Mem.  iii.  100).  '  Valiiable' 
certainly ;  but  it  does  not  consist  of  '  ser- 
mons,' and  the  author  was  not  Aspinwall, 
but  William  Attersoll  [q.  v.].  Our  William 
Aspinwall  (as  also  Peter  Aspinwall,  of  Hea- 
ton,  Lancashire)  is  sometimes  confounded 
Avith  William  Aspinwall,  the  ejected  mi- 
nister of  Formby,  who  afterwards  conformed, 
AS  well  as  with  a  contemporary  quaker  divine 
(of  the  same  names)  who  had  been  persecuted 
in  New  England,  and  wrote  vehemently  of 
Lis  wrongs  and  tenets. 

[Halley's  Lancashire,  its  Puritanism  and  Non- 
conformity, 1872,  p.  370;  Tillinghast's  Elijah's 
Mantle  or  Remains,  1658,  book-catalogue  at  end.] 

A.  B.  G. 

ASPLAND,  ROBERT  (1782-1845),  uni- 
tai-ian  divine,  son  of  Robert  Aspland  by  his 
second  wife,  Hannah  Brook,  was  born  at 
AVicken,  Cambridgeshire,  13  Jan.  1782.  His 
first  schooling  was  obtained  at  the  Soham 
grammar  school  under  John  Aspland,  a  rela- 
tive. In  his  twelfth  year,  1794,  he  was 
placed  first  at  Islington,  then  at  Highgate, 
and  in  August  1795  was  sent  to  Well  Street, 
Hackney,  where  he  stayed  till  midsummer 
1797.  in  April  1797  Aspland  was  publicly 
baptised  at  the  baptist  chapel,  Devonshire 
S<]^uare,  and  was  elected  to  a  Ward  scholar- 
ship at  the  Bristol  Academy  as  a  student  for 
the  baptist  ministiy.  He  was  placed  in  No- 
vember under  the  Rev.  Joseph  Hughes  (after- 
wards founder  of  the  Bible  Society),  then 
residing,  not  in  the  academy,  but  at  Batter- 
sea,  in  charge  of  a  small  baptist  congrega- 
tion. Staying  at  Battersea  only  a  few  months, 


but  long  enough  to  give  his  tutor  reasons  for 
doubting  the  '  soundness '  of  his  doctrine, 
Aspland  went  liome  to  Wicken  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1798,  becoming  popular  there  and  in 
the  adjacent  villages  as  the  boy-preacher,  and 
reached  Bristol  on  31  July  to  find  himself  as- 
signed to  Dr.  Ryland,  the  theological  tutor. 
He  proceeded  in  due  course,  October  1799, 
to  Marischal  College,  Aberdeen ;  but,  his  *  un- 
soundness '  becoming  more  and  more  mani- 
fest, he  was  excised  from  membership  at 
the  chapel  at  Devonshire  Square  29  Oct. 
1800,  and  he  quitted  the  university  and 
relinquished  his  scholarship  at  the  same 
moment. 

Aspland  at  this  juncture  was  oifered  a 
share  in  a  trade.  He  knew  a  prosperous 
dealer  in  artists' colours  in  St.  Martin's  Lane, 
London,  whose  daughter,  Sara  Middleton,  he 
afterwards  married  ;  and  taking  a  part  in  his 
future  father-in-law's  business  in  the  week, 
he  devoted  his  Sundays  to  preaching  for  any 
London  preacher  in  want  of  sudden  help. 
Amongst  the  pulpits  thus  opened  to  him  was 
that  of  the  General  Baptists  (otherwise  Uni- 
tarians) in  Worship  Street,  City ;  the  pastor 
of  this  church,  the  Rev.  John  Evans,  recom- 
mended him  to  the  General  Baptists  at  New- 
port, Isle  of  Wight,  then  unprovided  with  a 
minister;  Aspland  visited  them  17  April  1801 , 
and  was  requested  to  remain.  His  marriage 
followed  in  May ;  he  became  secretary  to  the 
South  Unitarian  Society  in  1803;  he  pub- 
lished a  sermon,  entitled  'Divine  Judgments,' 
in  1804 ;  and  he  left  Newport  Februai-y  1805 
to  take  charge  of  a  larger  congregation  at 
Norton,  Derbyshire.  Passing  through  Lon- 
don on  his  way  thither,  however,  he  was  in- 
vited to  be  minister  at  the  Gravel  Pit  chapel, 
Hackney;  and  merely  going  to  Derbyshire 
till  he  could  be  honourably  I'eleased  from  his 
engagement  there,  he  returned  to  Hackney 
for  7  July  1805,  taking  possession  on  that 
day  of  a  pulpit  whicji  he  retained  for  forty 
years. 

Aspland  established,  or  aided  in  the  esta- 
blishment of,  several  unitarian  periodicals  and 
societies.  The  first  of  these  was  the  '  Monthly 
Repository,' containing  biographical  sketches, 
theological  disquisitions,  political  criticism, 
&c.  This  Aspland  edited,  and  he  had  the 
opening  number  ready  for  February  1 806.  In 
the  same  month  he  was  instrumental  in  esta- 
blishing the  Unitarian  Fund,  with  himself  as 
secretary.  He  took  an  additional  secretaryship 
in  1809,  when  he  succeeded  in  forming  the 
Christian  Tract  Society.  In  1810  he  brought 
out  '  A  Selection  of  Psalms  and  Hymns  for 
Unitarian  Worship,'  used  subsequently  in  his 
own  chapel,  though  not  without  some  oppo- 
sition.    In  181 1  he  became  one  of  the  trustees 

0  2 


Aspland 


196 


Aspland 


of  Dr.  Williams's  charities,  and  was  active 
in  opposing  the  alteration  of  the  Toleration 
Act.  In  1812  he  was  a  member  of  the  com- 
mittee of  the  Protestant  Society  for  the  Pro- 
tection of  lleligious  Liberty,  being  one  of  a 
deputation,  in  that  capacity,  which  had  an 
interview  with  Perceval  11  May,  only  two 
hours  before  he  was  shot.  In  1813  Asp- 
land set  up  the  Hackney  Academy  at  Dur- 
ham House  for  training  unitarian  ministers ; 
he  was  helping  also,  by  letters  of  expostula- 
tion, by  sermons  delivered  and  printed,  in 
the  agitation  for  an  act  to  relieve  from  cer- 
tain penalties  persons  who  impugn  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Holy  Trinity.  The  act  received 
the  royal  assent  21  July.  In  1814  Aspland 
brought  out  '  British  Pulpit  Eloquence,'  and 
some  sermons  of  his  own.  In  1815  he  es- 
tablished the  '  Christian  Reformer,  or  New  '• 
Evangelical  Miscellany,'  a  work  the  editor-  ! 
ship  of  which  he  never  relinquished.  In  the  ! 
July  of  1817  he  formed  the  Non-con  Club  | 
at  his  own  house,  Talfourd,  Southwood 
Smith,  W,  J.  Fox,  and  Walter  AVilson 
being  among  the  members ;  and  on  18  De- 
cember of  the  same  year  he  was  at  Hone's 
side  in  the  court  of  King's  Bench,  Guild- 
hall, finding  authorities  and  furnishing  hints 
for  his  six  hours'  speech  of  defence,  and  he  had 
previously  been  to  Hone  in  prison,  providing 
him  with  books  from  Dr.  Williams  s  library, 
so  that  the  defence  might  be  prepared. 

In  1818  Aspland  was  compelled  by  ill- 
health  to  relinquish  his  unitarian  academy 
and  the  secretaryship  of  the  Unitarian  Fund. 
On  his  recovery  in  1819,  he  brought  about  the 
formation  of  the  Association  for  protecting 
the  Civil  Rights  of  Unitarians ;  and  that 
being  the  year  of  the  conviction  of  R.  Carlile 
for  publishing  Paine's  '  Age  of  Reason,'  Asp- 
land was  engaged  in  some  controversy  on  the 
subject  in  the  columns  of  the  '  Times.'  In 
1821  he  became  trustee  of  the  Presbyterian 
Fund,  drawing  up  likewise  the  '  Christians' 
petition  to  pai'liament  against  the  prosecution 
of  unbelievers,'  and  being  active  in  sending  it 
all  over  the  country  for  signature,  till  it  was 
])resented  to  parliament,  1  July  1828,  by 
Joseph  Hume.  In  1825  Aspland  worked  at 
the  fusion  of  the  three  societies,  the  Unita- 
rian Association,  the  Unitarian  Fund,  and 
the  Unitarian  Book  Society,  into  one  body, 
the  British  and  Foreign  Unitarian  Associa- 
tion. In  1826  he  broke  off  liIs  connection 
with  the  '  ^Monthly  Repository  '  after  an  un- 
remunerative  editorship  of  twenty-one  yeai's ; 
and  in  1827  4ie  edited  the  '  Test  Act  Reporter ' 
till,  on  the  bill  for  the  repeal  of  the  Cor- 
poration and  Test  Acts  passing,  9  May 
1828,  the  publication  was  no  longer  needed. 
Aspland  also  presented  and  read  an  address 


to  the  throne  on  28  July  1830,  and  another 
on  the  accession  of  Victoria  in  1837. 

He  was  also  secretary  to  the  British  and 
Foreign  Unitarian  Association  from  1835  to 
1841,  and  retained  the  acting  editorship  of  the 
'  Clxristian  Reformer'  till  1844.  His  health 
beginning  to  fail  in  1843,  he  was  provided 
with  an  associate  in  his  pastorate.    On  4  Feb. 

1844  he  preached  for  the  last  time,  and  after 
being  confined  to  his  liouse  for  many  months, 
he  died  30  Dec.  1845,  aged  63.  Aspland  pub- 
lished many  Sermons,  a  Catechism,  Prayers, 
Tracts  for  the  People,  and  other  works,  a 
complete  list  of  which  is  given  in  his  '  Me- 
moirs'  (pp.  607-611). 

[Memoirs  of  the  Life,  Works,  and  C(n'respon- 
dence  of  the  Kev.  Robert  Aspland  of  Hackney,, 
by  R.  Brook  Aspland,  M.A. ;  Christian  Refor- 
mer, 1846,  ii.  103-108.]  J.  H. 

ASPLAND,  ROBERT  BROOK  (1805- 
1869),  unitarian  divine,  son  of  Robert  Asp- 
land [see  Aspland,  Robert],  was  born  at 
Newport,  Isle  of  Wight,  19  Jan.  1805.  He 
was  placed  first  with  Mr.  Potticary  of  Black- 
heath  (where  Disraeli  was  his  schoolfellow), 
next  with  Mr.  Evans  of  Tavistock,  then  at 
Glasgow  University,  where  he  gi'aduated  as 
M.A.  in  1822,  and  lastly  at  Manchester 
College,  York,  finishing  his  studies  in  1826. 
Crook's  Lane,  Chester,  was  his  first  chapel, 
whither  he  went  in  August  1826.  He  left 
in  1833  to  be  co-pastor  Avith  Dr.  Lant  Car- 
penter at  Lewin's  Mead  chapel,  Bristol,where, 
on  21  October  of  that  year,  he  married  Jane 
Hibbert,  and  established  a  boarding-school. 
In  1836  he  moved  to  Dukinfield  ;  in  1858  to- 
Hackney.  He  took  up  the  editorship  of  the 
'  Christian  Reformer '  on  his  father's  death, 

1845  (keeping  it  till  the  publication  ceased 
in  1863).  In  1846  he  was  made  one  of  the 
secretaries  of  Manchester  College  (holding 
the  post  till  1857).  In  1850  he  collected 
from  the  *  Christian  Reformer '  memoirs  of 
his  father's  life.  Some  smaller  publications 
also  came  from  his  pen.  *  A  Brief  Memoir 
of  the  Rev.  Paul  Cardale,'  extracted  from  the 
'  Christian  Reformer,'  1852  ;  some  Sermons, 
and  'Paul  Best,  the  Unitarian  Confessor,' 
1853;  and  'Mr.  Richard  Frankland  and  Dr. 
Henry  Sampson,'  reprinted  in  pamphlet  form, 
1862.  Brook  Aspland  became  secretary  to 
the  British  and  Foreign  Unitarian  Associa- 
tion in  1859 ;  he  was  helped  by  a  colleague 
in  1867,  and  having'  fallen  into  a  precarious 
state  of  health,  he  died  suddenlv  21  June 
1869,  aged  65. 

[In  Memoriam,  Notices  of  the  Life  of  the  late 
Rev.  R.  B.  Aspland,  M.A.  (Dr.  Williams's  Li- 
brary) ;  the  Inquirer,  3  July  1869.]  J.  H. 


Aspley 


197 


Aspull 


ASPLEY,  WILLIAM  (Jl.  1588-1637), 
stationer  and  printer,  son  of  William  Aspley, 
clerk  deceased,  late  of  liaiston  (?),  Cumber- 
land, was  apprenticed  to  George  Bishop  for 
nine  years  from  5  Feb.  1588,  and  admitted 
a  freeman  of  the  Stationers'  Company  on 
11  April  1597.  lie  lived  at  tlie  sign  of  the 
Tiger  s  Head  in  St.  Paul's  Churchyard,  and 
afterwards  at  the  Parrot.  The  first  appear- 
ance of  the  name  of  Shakespeare  in  the 
registers  is  in  connection  with  Aspley  and 
Andrew  Wise,  who  obtained  license  23  Aug. 
1600  for  'Much  Ado  about  Nothing'  and 
the  second  part  of  *  Henry  IV,'  *  wrytten  by 
master  Shakespere '  (Arber,  Transcript,  iii. 
170).  They  were  printed  by  V.  S.  for  the  two 
booksellers.  It  is  worth  noticing  that  while 
both  the  quartos  have  '  Shakespeare  '  on  their 
title-pages  the  name  is  transcribed  as  above. 
Aspley  dealt  largely  in  plays,  as  maybe  seen  by 
the  numerous  licenses  obtained  by  him  down 
to  1627,  when  his  business  appears  to  have 
declined.     In  1637  he  was  made  warden. 

[Arber's  Transcript  of  the  Stationers'  Regis- 
ters, ii.-iv. ;  Ames's  Typogr.  Antiq.  ed.  Herbert, 
iii.  1384.]  H.  R.  T. 

ASPLIN,  WILLIAM  (1687-1758),  theo- 
logical writer,  was  born  in  1686-7,  was 
educated  at  Trinity  College,  Oxford,  and,  on 
taking  his  B.A.  degree  in  1707,  removed  to 
St.  Alban's  Hall,  and  became  vice-principal. 
He  was  ordained  in  1709,  became  chaplain 
to  a  regiment,  and  in  1717  vicar  of  Banbury. 
In  1721  he  became  vicar  of  Horley,  and  in 
1733  vicar  of  Burthorpe,  Gloucestershire. 
He  died  1758.  He  married  Mary,  daughter 
of  John  Myster,  of  Ilorton,  Oxfordshire. 
Asplin  was  a  man  of  considerable  learning, 
and  corresponded  with  Dr.  John  Ward,  the 
Gresham  professor  of  rhetoric,  on  matters 
relating  to  archaeological  lore  and  natui'al 
history.     His  works  are : 

1.  'Alkibla.  A  Disquisition  upon  W^or- 
shiping  towards  the  East.  Wherein  are  con- 
tain'd  the  General  Antiquity,  the  Rise,  and 
Reasonableness  of  this  Religious  Ceremony 
in  the  Gentile  World :  It's  early  Adoption 
into  the  Church  of  Christ ;  with  a  Free  and 
Impartial  Examination  of  the  Reasons  as- 
signed for  it  by  the  Antient  P'athers.  By  a 
Master  of  Arts  of  the  University  of  Oxford.' 
Ijondon,  1728,  8vo.  With  a  dedication  to  Sir 
Richard  Steele.  The  second  part,  dedicated 
to  Lord  Chancellor  King,  appeared  in  1735, 
'With  a  serious  and  impartial  Examination 
of  the  Reasons  assign 'd  for  the  Practice' 
of  worshipping  towards  the  east  '  by  our 
Modern  Divines :  in  order  to  obviate  Super- 
stition in  our  Publick  Devotion,  to  remove 
from  it  all  Party-Distinction,  and  unneces- 


sary Objections,  and  to  assert  the  Principles 
of  the  Reformation;  by  reducing  the  Cere- 
monies of  Churchmen  to  the  Standard  of 
the  Church.  To  which  are  prefix'd.  Some 
Thoughts  by  way  of  Preface  concerning  tlie 
proper  Use  of  Ridicule  in  Controversies  stil'd 
Religious.'  A  second  edition  of  both  the 
parts  appeared  in  1740.  An  answer  was 
published  by  the  Rev.  John  Andrews,  vicar 
of  South  Newington,  Oxfordshire,  under  the 
title  of '  The  Kebla :  or,  a  Defence  of  East- 
ward Adoration,' London,  2  parts,  1728-9; 
and  this  in  turn  was  '  dissected '  in  '  The 
Anatomy  of  the  Kebla,  by  a  true  Son  of  the 
Church  of  England,'  1729.  Perhaps  it  may 
not  be  superfluous  to  mention  that  Mbla 
is  an  Arabic  word  which  signifies  a  turning, 
2.  'The  Impertinencesof  Modern  Antiquaries 
display'd;  or  a  Refutation  of  Mr.  Wise's  Letter 
to  Dr.  Mead  concerning  the  "  White  Horse," 
&c.'     London,  no  date,  4to. 

[Beesley's  Hist,  of  Banbury,  513  ;  Bigland's 
Collections  relating  to  the  County  of  Gloucester, 
i.  546;  MS.  xVddit.  6210  ff.  1-11,  6226  p.  42; 
Gent.  Mag.  xlviii.  221,  305 ;  Rawlinson  MSS.  fol. 
16,  98;  Cat.  Lib.  Impress.  Bibliothecae  Bodleianae 
(1843);  Cat.  of  Oxford  Graduates.]        T.  C. 

ASPULL,  GEORGE  (1813-1832),  musi- 
cian, born  at  Manchester  in  June  1813,  was 
the  ninth  of  ten  sons  of  Thomas  Aspull,  a  mer- 
chant who  had  failed  in  business  and  gained 
his  living  by  teaching  music  and  playing  the 
violin.  George  Aspull  began  to  learn  the 
piano  under  his  father's  instruction  on  1  Feb. 
1821,  and  soon  made  such  rapid  progress 
that  he  both  played  and  sang  at  a  concert  in 
January  1822.  In  Februarv'  of  tht;  following 
year  Kalkbrenner,  having  heard  him  play  at 
Liverpool,  advised  his  father  to  take  him  to 
London,  which  was  accordingly  done  in 
April.  Here  he  played  to  Clementi,  who 
was  struck  by  the  extraordinary  genius  and 
poetry  of  his  playing,  although  at  this  time 
he  was  so  small  that  he  generally  stood  at 
the  piano.  Aspull  soon  became  quite  the 
rage  in  London.  On  20  Feb.  1824  he  went 
to  Windsor  to  play  before  George  IV,  and 
he  gave  numerous  concerts  which  attracted 
large  audiences.  At  a  concert  at  Brighton 
he  played  (for  the  first  time  in  England) 
Weber's  '  Concertstiick.'  In  April  1825  As- 
pull and  his  father  went  to  Paris,  where 
they  met  Hummel  and  Moscheles.  On  his 
return  he  began  a  series  of  concert  tours  in 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  which  lasted, 
almost  without  intermission  to  the  end  of  his 
life.  On  dementi's  death  in  1 832  Aspull  came 
up  to  London  to  attend  the  funeral,  on  which 
occasion  he  caught  a  cold  which  eventually 
caused  his  death.     In  spite  of  his  illness  he 


Asser 


Asser 


played  at  Chesterfield  and  Newark,  and  then 
drove  up  to  London  in  an  open  gig  to  attend 
concerts  given  hy  John  Field,  Moscheles, 
and  Mendelssohn.  He  Avas  able  to  go  to 
the  first  of  these  concerts,  but  his  illness 
increased  so  alarmingly  that  he  was  imme- 
diately afterwards  taken  to  Tunbridge  Wells, 
where  he  was  prostrated  by  fever.  Becoming 
slightly  better  he  Avas  brought  back  to  Lon- 
don and  then  taken  to  Leamington,  but  he 
gradually  sank  and  died  on  Sunday,  19  Aug. 
1832.  He  was  buiied  at  Nottingham.  Be- 
sides his  performances  on  the  piano,  AspuU 
used  to  sing  at  his  concerts,  being  possessed 
of  a  sweet,  if  not  very  powerful,  tenor  voice. 
Kossini — who  heard  him  more  than  once — ■ 
advised  that  he  should  not  sing  much,  '  for 
his  soul  is  too  much  for  his  body.'  He  wrote 
a  small  amount  of  pianoforte  music  and  some 
songs ;  these  were  pviblished  after  his  death  by 
his  father,  together  with  a  prefatory  memoir 
and  a  charming  portrait  of  the  ill-fated  boy. 

[The  Posthumous  Works  of  George  Aspull, 
1837 ;  the  Harmonicon,  vol.  ii. ;  article  by  E. 
Taylor  in  S.D.U.K.  Dictionaiy.]        W.  B.  S. 

ASSER  (d.  909?),  bisliop  of  Sherborne 
and  author  of  the '  Life  of  Alfred  the  Great,' 
was  a  monk  of  St.  David's  (Menevia),  and 
related  to  Bishop  Novis  of  that  see.  Ac- 
cording to  Giraldus  Cambrensis  (Itiner. 
Camb.),  Asser  was  at  one  time  bishop  of 
St.  David's,  but  the  statement  rests  on  no 
contemporary  authority.  Like  Grimbald  and 
John, '  the  Old  Saxon,'  Asser,  who  had  a  high 
reputation  for  learning,  was  invited  by  Alfred 
about  885  to  enter  his  household.  He  appears 
to  have  been  encouraged  to  accept  the  invi- 
tation by  his  felloAv-monks,  who  had  recently 
suffered  from  the  hostility  of  Hemeid,  king 
of  South  Wales,  and  hoped  to  secure,  through 
Asser,  .Alfred's  protection.  The  monk  and 
the  king  met  in  the  first  instance  at  Dene, 
near  Chichester.  Asser  refused  to  leaA^e  his 
home  permanently,  but  promised  to  reply  to 
.Alfred's  offer  after  six  months.  On  his 
journey  to  "Wales  he  fell  sick  at  Winchester, 
where  he  remained  for  a  year  and  a  week. 
JElfred  sent  for  him  again  on  his  recovery, 
and  an  arrangement  Avas  made  between  them, 
by  Avhich  Asser  A\'as  to  spend  six  months  of 
each  year  in  .Alfred's  household  and  six 
months  in  his  own  country.  His  first  A'isit 
extended  to  eight  months,  and  Asser  regularly 
studied  with  the  king  throughout  that  period. 
Before  Asser's  departure  .Alfred  presented 
his  tutor  Avith  the  minsters  or  monasteries 
(monasteria)  of  Amesbury  (?  Congresbury) 
and  BanAvell,  a  silk  pall,  and  as  much  incense 
as  a  strong  man  could  carry.  In  later  years 
Asser  received  a  grant  of  Exeter  and  all  its 


district  in  Saxon-land  and  Cornwall,  and 
before  900  he  seems  to  haA^e  become  bishop 
of  Sherborne.  He  signs  many  charters  be- 
tween 900  and  904  as  bishop  of  Sherborne 
(Kemble's  Cod.  Dipl.  335,  337,  1077,  1083, 
1087).  In  Alfred's  introduction  to  his  trans- 
lation of  Gregory's  '  Pastorale  '  he  refers  to 
'  Asser,  my  bishop ; '  and  since  the  book  is 
dedicated  to  Wulfsige,  AA'hom  Mr.  Thomas 
Wright  identified  with  a  preceding  bishop  of 
Sherborne,  it  has  been  inferred  that  Asser 
Avas  a  bishop  before  his  appointment  to  Sher- 
borne. This,  howcA'er,  is  open  to  question. 
According  to  the  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle^ 
Asser  died  in  910,  but  909  is  the  date  given 
by  Stubbs  in  his  '  Registrum  Anglicanum.' 

Asser's  '  Life  of  Alfred '  ('  De  Rebus  gestis 
.(4illfredi  Magni')  consists  of  (1)  a  chronicle 
of  English  history  between  849  and  887^ 
largely  draAvn  from  an  early  Aversion  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle,  and  (2)  a  personal 
and  original  narratiAe  of  Alfred's  career 
down  to  887.  Throughout  are  signs  of  the 
author's  Celtic  birth.  The  English  are  in- 
A'ariably  called  Saxons,  and  Celtic  names  of 
places  are  often  preferred  to  the  English  or 
Latin  ones.  But  Avith  Asser's  '  Life,'  as  it  is 
commonly  met  with,  have  been  interpolated 
passages  from  later  and  untrustworthy  works. 
The  authentic  Asser  is  preserved  almost  in- 
tact in  only  one  edition,  that  of  1722,  which 
was  printed  from  a  tenth-century  Cottonian 
MS.  (Otho  A.  xii.),  imfortunately  destroyed 
by  fire  in  1731.  Florence  of  Worcester 
borrowed  freely  from  the  authentic  Asser, 
although  he  never  mentions  Asser's  work  by 
name,  and  copied  him  in  many  places  word 
for  word.  From  the  late  additions,  and  not 
from  Asser's  work  in  its  authentic  shape,  are 
drawn  the  famous  stories  of  the  burning 
of  the  cakes,  the  references  to  St.  Neot,  and 
the  foundation  by  JElfred  of  the  imiversity  of 
Oxford.  Florence  of  Worcester  makes  no 
mention  of  these  legends.  Thomas  Wright, 
in  his '  Biog.  Literaria,'  questioned  the  authen- 
ticity of  any  part  of  the  Avork  attributed  to 
Asser ;  but  his  arguments  liaAe  been  refuted 
by  Pauli  and  Lappenberg. 

The  editio  princeps  of  Asser's  *  Annales ' 
was  issued  by  Archbishop  Parker  in  1572. 
It  presents  the  '  Life  '  Avith  a  Aariety  of  in- 
terpolations. In  Camden's  '  Anglica '  (Frank- 
fort, 1003),  Parker's  errors  are  not  corrected, 
and  a  long  episode  is  introduced  from  a 
SaA'ilian  manuscript,  which  had  been  recently 
tampered  with,  detailing  Grimbald's  mythical- 
connection  with  Oxford.  Francis  Wise's 
edition,  published  at  Oxford  in  1722,  gives 
Asser's  Avork  in  the  most  authentic  form 
attainable,  and  in  Petrie's '  Monumenta  Hist. 
Brit.'  (1848)  Wise's  edition  is  followed. 


Assheton 


199 


Assheton 


[Asser's  De  KebusGestis  is  the  main  authority. 
Asser's  authorship  of  the  Life  is  impugned  by 
Mr.  Thomas  Wright  in  the  '  Archaeologia,'  xxix., 
and  in  the  'Biograph.  Brit.  Lit.'  The  whole 
question  is  very  thoroughly  discussetl  by  Pauli 
in  the  introduction  to  his  '  Life  of  jElfred  the 
Great,'  and  by  T.  D.  Hardy  in  the  introduction 
to  Petrie's  Monumenta.] 

ASSHETON.     [See  Ashton.] 

ASSHETON,  NICHOLAS  (1590-1625), 
a  comitry  squire  who  lived  at  Downham, 
near  Clitberoe,  Lancashire,  is  noteworthy 
on  account  of  a  brief  diary  which  he  left 
illustrating  the  character  of  the  country  life 
of  that  part  of  West  Lancashire  which  is 
associated  with  the  poet  Spenser.  He  be- 
longed to  a  branch  of  the  Assheton  family 
of  Sliddleton,  in  the  same  comity,  and  was 
the  son  of  Richard  Assheton,  of  Downham. 
He  probably  had  his  education  at  Clithe- 
roe  grammar  school  ;  he  married  Frances, 
daughter  of  Richard  Greenacres,  of  Wors- 
ton,  near  Downham;  and  he  died  16  April 
1625,  leaving  issue.  His  journal,  which  ex- 
tends from  2  May  1617  to  13  March  1619, 
records  his  intercourse  with  his  tenants  and 
neighboiu-s,  with  all  their  'businesses,  sports, 
bickerings,  carousings,  and  (such  as  it  was) 
religion.'  It  includes  some  interesting  notices 
of  James  I's  visit  to  Lancashire  in  August 
1617,  when  the  petition  which  originated  the 
'  Book  of  Sports '  was  presented  to  that  king 
(Nichols's  Progresses,  iii.  396-403).  The 
original  journal  has  been  lost.  It  was  first 
printed  by  Rev.  T.  D.  Whitaker  in  his  '  His- 
tory of  Whalley.'  It  was  next  edited  in 
1848  by  Canon  Raines,  in  vol.  xiv.  of  the 
Chetham  Society  series,  from  the  third  or 
1818  edition  of  *  Whalley,'  and  was  accom- 
panied by  some  excellent  notes  and  an  account 
of  the  Assheton  family.  In  1876  the  diary 
was  re-edited  in  the  fourth  edition  of '  AVhal- 
ley,'  ii.  122-142.  Harrison  Ainsworth  intro- 
duced Assheton  into  his  novel  of  the  '  Lan- 
cashire Witches,'  book  ii.  chap,  iii.,  as  *a 
type  of  the  Lancashire  squire  of  the  day,' 
but  both  Whitaker  and  the  novelist  were 
mistaken  in  considering  him  a  puritan. 

[Assheton's  Diary,  as  above.]  J.  E.  B. 

ASSHETON,  WILLIAM  (1641-1711), 
divine,  was  bom  at  Middleton,  Lancaslure, 
in  the  year  1641.  His  father,  who  was  rector 
of  the  parish,  was  one  of  the  ancient  knightly 
family  of  the  place.  After  a  preliminary  edu- 
cation at  a  private  country  school  he  entered 
Rrasenose  3  July  1658,  where  he  is  said  by 
Wood  to  have  had  a  presbyterian  tutor,  and  to 
have  been  an  attendant  at  the  religious  meet- 
ings held  at  the  house  of  old  Bessie  Hampton, 


a  laundress,  whose  piety  was  not  of  the  anti- 
quary's pattern.  Wood  hints  that  his  changt* 
of  views  was  due  to  the  Restoration  ;  but  it 
is  surely  hypercriticism  to  discuss  the  consis- 
tency of  a  youth  of  eighteen,  which  would  be 
Assheton's  age  at  the  Restoration.  He  gained 
a  fellowship  of  his  college  in  1663,  when  ho 
was  B.A.  Having  entered  holy  orders  and 
taken  his  master's  degree,  he  became  a  fre- 
quent preacher.  James,  duke  of  Ormond,  who 
was  chancellor  of  the  university,  appointed 
him  chaplain,  and  in  that  capacity  he  sensed 
both  in  England  and  Ireland.  He  had  the 
degree  of  D.D.  in  1673,  'at  which  time,'  Wood 
is  careful  to  remind  us,  '  he  had  nine  terms 
granted  to  him  by  virtue  of  the  said  chan- 
cellor's letters.'  Next  month  he  had  the  pre- 
bend of  Knaresborough  in  the  church  of  York. 
The  interest  of  his  patron  procured  him  the 
livings  of  St.  Antholin's,  London,  and  Beck- 
enham,  Kent,  where  he  settled  in  1676.  A 
few  years  before  his  death  he  was  solicited  to 
become  master  of  his  college,  but  advancing 
age  and  infirmity  forbade  his  acceptance.  He 
died  at  Beckenham  in  September  1711,  and 
is  buried  in  the  chancel  of  that  church.  He 
was  a  voluminous  writer,  and  by  no  means 
free  from  the  prejudices  and  superstitions  of 
his  own  time ;  yet  in  one  respect  he  was 
keensighted  beyond  his  time,  and  the  mo- 
dem system  of  life  insurance  must  own  him 
as  a  forerunner. 

His  writings  are:    1.  'Toleration  Disap- 
proved,'Oxford,  1670;  thereweretwo  editions 
in  the  same  year,  one  of  which  was  anony- 
mous  (B.M.),   Oxford,   1671   (B.M.),  1736 
(B.M,).     2.  '  Danger  of  Hypocrisie,'  London, 
1673  (B.M.).     3.   'Seasonable  Apology  for 
the  Honours  and  Revenues  of  the  Clergy' 
(Judicium  Carolinum),  London,  1674,  1676 
(B.M.).     4.  '  The  Cases  of  Scandal  and  Per- 
secution,' London,  1674  (B.M.  and  1676) ; 
this  was  answered  by  Baxter.    5.  '  The  Royal 
Apology,'   London,  1684   (B.M.).     6.    'An 
Admonition  to  a  Deist,' London,  1685,  anony- 
mous (B.M.).     7.  '  A  Seasonable  Vindication 
of  their  Present   Majesties,'  1688.     8.  '  An 
Explanation  of  his  Reasons  for  taking  the 
Oath  of  Allegiance  to  William  and  Mary.' 
9.  '  Country  Parson's  Admonition  to  his  Pa- 
rishioners  against   Popery,'   London,    1686, 
1689,  1706  (B.M.).     10.  '  A  Defence  of  the 
:  Plain  Man's  Reply  to  the  Catholick  Mission- 
I  aries,'  London,  1688  ;  two  editions  with  some 
variations  in  the  title.     11.  'The  Substance 
I  of  a  late  Conference  with  M.  S.  concerning 
j  (1)  the  Rudeness  of  Atheistical  Discourse ; 
I  (2)  the  Certainty  and  Eternity  of  Hell  Tor- 
I  ments ;  (3)  the  Truth  and  Authority  of  the 
I  Holy    Scriptures,'    London,    1690    (B.M.). 
12.  '  Discourse  against  Blasphemy,'  London, 


Assheton 


Assheton 


1691,  1694  (B.M.).  13.  '  Discourse  against 
Drunkenness,'  London,  1692.  14.  *A  Dis- 
course against  Swearing  and  Cursing,'  Lon- 
don, 1692 ;  these  three  were  published  at 
twopence  each,  in  order  that  they  might  be 
extensively  circulated  as  an  aid  to  the  royal 
proclamation  for  the  reformation  of  manners. 
15.  'Directions  in  order  to  the  Suppression 
of  Debauchery  and  Prophaneness,'  London, 
1693.  16.  '  Conference  with  an  Anabaptist,' 
pt.  i.,  London,  1694;  this  was  the  worthy 
cliurchman's  move  against  a  baptist  meeting 
which  had  arisen  in  his  parish,  but  it  did  not 
flourish,  and  its  removal  or  dissolution  saved 
him  from  the  necessity  of  further  argumen- 
tation. 17.  '  A  Short  Exposition  of  the  Pre- 
liminary Questions  and  Answers  of  the  Church 
Catechism, being  an  introduction  to  aDefence 
of  Infant  Baptism,'  London,  1694  (B.M.). 

18.  '  Discourse  concerning  a  Death-bed  Re- 
pentance,' London,  1696  (B.M.),  1765  (B.M.), 
1800  (B.M.),  1802  (B.M.),  1807  (B.M.)  ;  this 
is  said  to  have  been  preached  before  Queen 
Mary,  and  after  her  death  enlarged  and  dedi- 
cated to  the  king.  It  was  reprinted  in  1872 
with  Baxter's  'Call   to   the   Unconverted.' 

19.  '  Theological  Discourse  of  Last  Wills  and 
Testaments,' London,  1696 (B.M.).  20.  'Sea- 
sonable Vindication  of  the  Blessed  Trinity, 
collected  from  the  works  of  Tillotson  and  Stil- 
lingfleet,' London,  1697  (B.M.).  21.  'Method 
of  Daily  Devotion,'  London,  1697  (B.M.). 
22.  '  Brief  State  of  the  Socinian  Controversy, 
collected  from  the  works  of  Isaac  Barrow,' 
London,  1698.  23.  '  The  Plain  Man's  Devo- 
tion,' London,  1689,  1698.  24.  '  A  Full  Ac- 
count of  the  Rise,  Progress,  and  Advantages 
of  Dr.  Assheton's  Proposal,  as  now  improved 
and  managed  by  the  Company  of  Merpers, 
London,  for  the  benefit  of  widows  of  clergy- 
men and  others  by  settled  jointures  and  an- 
nuities at  the  rate  of  thirty  per  cent.,  Lon- 
don, 1699  (B.M.),  1700  (B.M.),  1710  (B.M.), 
1711  (B.M.),  1713  (B.M.),  1724  (B.M.). 
25.  'Sermon  preached  before  the  Sons  of 
the  Clergy,'  London,  1699.  26.  'Sermon 
preached  before  the  Hon.  Society  of  the 
Natives  of  Kent,'  London,  1700  (B.M.). 
27.  '  Vindication  of  the  Immortality  of  the 
Soul,'  London,  1703.  28.  '  Brief  Exhorta- 
tion to  the  Holy  Communion,' London,  1705, 
1775  (B.M.).  "29.  '  Method  of  Devotion  for 
Sick  and  Dying  Persons,'  London,  1706 
(B.M.),  2nd  ed.  1745.  30.  'The  Possibility 
of  Apparitions,'  by  a  Divine  of  the  Church  of 
England,  London,  1706  (B.M.)  ;  this  book 
has  an  interesting  place  in  literary  history, 
for  it  was  occasioned  by  Defoe's  fabricated 
story  of  the  appearance  of  the  ghost  of  Mrs. 
Veal.  31.  '  Occasional  Prayers  from  Taylor, 
Cosins,  Ken,  &c.,  and  a  collection  of  Hymns,' 


London,  1708.  32.  '  A  Seasonable  Vindi- 
cation of  the  Clergy,  by  a  Divine  of  the 
Church,'  London,  1709.  33.  '  Directions  for 
the  Conversation  of  the  Clergy,  collected 
from  Stillingfleet,'  London,  1710.  In  the 
above  list  such  writings  of  Assheton's  as  are 
in  the  British  Museum  are  indicated  by  the 
letters  B.M.  attached  to  them. 

Assheton  was  more  a  compiler  than  an 
original  writer.  He  was  a  man  of  learning, 
'readily  subscribed  to  the  publishing  all  criti- 
cal, learned,  and  laborious  works,'  and  had  a 
good  library,  the  duplicates  from'  which  he 
gave  for  the  use  of  ministers  in  Wales  and 
in  the  highlands  of  Scotland.  He  dealt  easily 
with  his  parishioners  on  the  sore  point  of 
tithes,  preached  regularly,  kept  hospitality, 
and,  though  trying  to  live  peaceably,  was  not 
afraid  to  rebulie  those  whose  conduct  seemed 
to  deserve  it.  It  is  noted  as  a  sign  of  his 
moderation  that  he  did  not  set  up  a  coach 
until  the  ill-health  of  his  wife  required  it. 
At  one  time  he  preached  extemporaneously, 
but  afterwards  resorted  to  written  discourses, 
because  on  one  occasion  a  woman  swooned 
in  his  congregation,  and  the  commotion  so 
upset  the  good  man  that  he  was  unable  to 
recover  the  thread  of  his  thoughts. 

Assheton's  scheme  for  providing  annui- 
ties for  the  'widows  of  the  clergy  and 
others '  was  the  earliest  attempt  in  England 
on  a  large  scale  in  the  direction  of  modern 
life  insurance.  His  plan  was  offered  in  vain 
to  the  Coi-poration  of  the  Sons  of  the  Clergy, 
and  to  the  Bank  of  England,  but  was  even- 
tually adopted  by  the  Mercers'  Company  in 
1 698.  Its  failure  was  due  to  the  then  incom- 
plete Jcnowledge  of  vital  statistics .  Something 
like  a  scale  was  formed.  Married  men  under 
thirty  were  allowed  to  subscribe  but  100^. ; 
under  forty  they  might  not  subscribe  more 
than  500/.  ;  imder  sixty  they  were  limited  to 
300/.'  '  W' hen  this  was  commenced,'  says 
Francis,  'it  was  considered  a  very  notable 
plan.  It  was  thought  that  it  would  prove  a 
good  business  speculation ;  and  on  consider- 
able sums  being  subscribed  the  corporation 
rejoiced  greatly.  It  wassoon  discovered,  how- 
ever, that  the  undertaking  was  founded  on  a 
mistake ;  so  the  first  breach  of  faith  was  in 
lowering  the  annuity.  This  proved  insuffi- 
cient, and  the  company  became  unable  to 
meet  their  engagements.  They  had  fixed 
payments  to  their  annuitants  at  the  rate  of 
thirty  per  cent.,  and  now  they  saw  their  funds 
almost  annihilated  by  the  error.  •  At  last  they 
stopped  payment  altogether ;  but  the  distress 
was  so  acute  that,  recollecting  one  or  two 
forced  loans  they  had  made  to  the  monarchs 
of  England  in  the  troublous  times  of  old,  they 
petitioned  parliament  in  1747  for  assistance. 


Astbury 


20I 


Astell 


Their  tale  was  a  pitiable  one :  *  At  Michael- 
mas 1745  they  found  themselves  indebted  to 
the  said  cliarities  and  their  other  creditors 
1  (X),0(X)/. ;  they  were  liable  for  present  annui- 
ties to  the  extent  of  7,620/. ;  for  annuities  in 
expectancy,  1 ,000/.  a  year ;  the  whole  of  their 
income  being  4,100/.'  The  parliamentary 
aid  amounted,  according  to  Price,  to  3,000/. 
per  annum,  and  thus  they  were  enabled  to 
meet  their  engagements. 

[Watt's  Life  of  Dr.  Assheton,  London,  1714, 
]iiographia  Britannica,  ed.  Kippis,  London.  1747 ; 
Wood's  Athense  Oxon.  ed.  Bliss,  iv.  606  ;  General 
Catalogue,  British  Mu.seum  ;  Traneis's  Annals 
and  Anecdotes  of  Life  Assurance,  London,  1853  ; 
Walford's  Insurance  Cyclopaedia  (a  full  account 
is  to  be  given  under  the  -word '  Mercers'  Company,' 
■which  has  not  yet  been  published) ;  Price  on  Re- 
versionary Payments,  London,  1812.] 

W.  E.  A.  A. 

ASTBURY,  JOHN  (1688P-1743),  potter, 
was  a  clever  mechanic,  who  introduced  him- 
self disguised  as  an  idiot  to  the  Avorks  of 
two  brothers  named  Elers,  of  Niimberg,  who 
had  settled  at  Bradwell,  Staftbrdshire,  about 
1690.  He  discovered  the  secrets  of  their 
manufacture  of  red  ware,  and,  obtaining  his 
discharge  on  pretence  of  sickness,  set  up  a 
rival  establishment  at  Shelton,  also  in  the 
potteries.  He  introduced  the  use  of  Bideford 
pipeclay,  and  in  1720,  happening  to  notice 
an  ostler  blowing  powder  from  a  red-hot 
flintstone  pulverised  into  the  eyes  of  a  horse 
as  a  remedy,  hit  upon  the  application  of  cal- 
cined flint  in  pottery,  which  gi-eatly  im- 
proved his  ware.  He  died  in  1743,  aged  55, 
as  his  tombstone  in  Stoke  churchyard  testi- 
fies, having  made  a  fortune,  and  leaving 
several  sons.  One  of  these,  Thomas,  had  be- 
gun business  at  Lane  Delph  in  1725,  and  was 
the  first  English  manufacturer  of  cream- 
coloured  ware.  Samuel  Astbury,  also  a 
potter,  a  brother  of  John  Astbuiy,  married 
Elizabeth,  the  sister  of  Thomas  Wedgewood, 
father  of  Josiah  Wedgewood,  and  was  in 
1744  one  of  the  witnesses  to  the  deed  of 
Josiah's  apprenticeship  to  potteiy-making. 
"Wedgewood's  latest  biographer  attributes  his 
success  to  his  adoption  of  the  important  in- 
ventions described  above,  with  which  she 
credits  Samuel  Astbury.  Possibly  Samuel 
Astbury  contributed  to  John's  improvements 
of  his  art,  but  there  seems  no  reason  for 
doubting  that  it  was  John  and  not  Samuel 
who  was  their  discoverer. 
^  [Jewitt's  Ceramic  Art  in  Great  Britain,  passim ; 
Kliza  Meteyard's  Life  of  Josiah  Wedgewood,  i. 
140-56  ;  Marryatt's  History  of  Pottery,  194-5  ; 
Chaffers's  Marks  on  Pottery  and  Porcelain,  pp. 
€92-3 ;  Shaw's  History  of  Staffordshire  Potte- 
ries, pp.  119-30,  141.] 


ASTELL,  MARY(1668-1731),authore88, 

was  the  daughter  of  a  merchant  at  New- 
castle-upon-lyne.  Her  uncle,  a  clergyman, 
obserA'ing  her  excellent  abilities,  undertook 
to  educate  her  himself.  She  passed  the  first 
twenty  years  of  her  life  at  Newcastle;  she 
then  settled  in  London,  and  afterwards  at 
Chelsea,  where  she  was  a  neighbour  and  ac- 
quaintance of  Dean  Atterbury.  She  was 
the  intimate  friend,  to  the  end  of  her  life,  of 
the  excellent  Lady  Elizabeth  Hastings,  and 
the  esteemed  cori-espondent  of  Norris  of 
Bemei'ton. 

Maiy  Astell  is  now  chiefly  known  as  the 
authoress  of  a  '  Serious  Proposal  to  Ladies ' 
(1694).     It  was  published  anonymously  'by 
a  Lover  of  her  Sex  ; '  but  the  authorship  ap- 
pears to  have   been   an   open   secret.     The 
proposal  was,  in  her  own  words,  '  to  erect  a 
monastery^  or,  if  you  will  (to  avoid  giving 
offence  to  the  scrupidous  and  injudicious  by 
names  which,  the'  innocent  in  themselves, 
have  been  abus'd  by  superstitious  practices), 
we  will  call  it  a  ReUr/ious  Reth'ement,  and 
such  as  shall  have  a  double  aspect,  being  not 
only  a  retreat  from  the  world  for  those  who 
desire  that  advantage,  but  likewise  an  insti- 
tution and  previous  discipline  to  fit  us  to  do 
the  greatest  good  in  it.'     There  were  to  be 
'  no  vows  or  irrevocable  obligations,  not  so 
much  as  the  fear  of  reproach  to  keep  the 
ladies  longer  than  they  desired.'     It  was  to 
be  conducted  strictly  on  the  principles  of  the 
church  of  England  ;  the  daily  services  were 
to  be  performed  '  after  the  cathedral  manner, 
in  the  most  affecting  and  elevating  way  ; ' 
the  '  Holy  Eucharist  was  to  be  celebrated 
every  Lord's  day  and  holy  day ; '  there  was 
to  be  'a  course  of  solid,  instructive  preaching 
and  catechizing,'  and  the  inmates  were  to 
*  consider  it  a  special  part  of  their  duty  to 
observe  all  the  fasts  of  the  church.'     But  it 
was  intended  quite  as  much  for  mental  as  for 
moral  and  religious  training ;  or,  rather,  the 
two  were  to  go  hand  in  hand,  for  '  ignorance 
and  a  narrow  education  lay  tlie  foundation 
of  vice.'     The   proposal,  she   tells  us,  met 
with  a  favourable  reception  from  '  the  graver 
and  wiser  part  of  the  world,'  and  therefore 
she  published  in  1697  a  second  part,  much 
longer  than  the  first,  '  wherein  a  method  is 
offered  for  the  improvement  of  their  minds ; ' 
and  this  she  dedicated  to  the  Princess  of 
Denmark,   afterwards    Queen    Anne.     The 
proposal,  hoAA-ever,  met  Avith  unmerited  ob- 
loquy from  more  than  one  quarter.     '  A  cer- 
tain gi-eat  lady,'  supposed  by  some  to  liaAe 
been  the  Princess  Anne  herself,  by  others  the 
Lady  Elizabeth  Hastings,  was  so  attracted 
by   the   scheme    that   she   purposed  giving 
1 0,000/.  tOAvards  the  erection  of  a  *  sort  of 


Astell 


Astell 


college  for  the  education  and  improvement  of 
the  female  sex,  and  as  a  retreat  for  those 
ladies  who,  nauseating  the  pai-ade  of  the 
world,  might  here  find  a  happy  recess  from 
the  noise  and  hurry  of  it.  But  the  design 
coming  to  the  ears  of  Bishop  Burnet,  he 
immediately  went  to  that  lady,  and  so  power- 
fully remonstrated  against  it,  telling  her  it 
would  look  like  preparing  a  Avay  for  popish 
orders,  and  would  be  reputed  a  nimnery, 
that  he  utterly  frustrated  that  noble  design ' 
(Ballard).  The  alarm  was  surely  un- 
founded. Mrs.  Astell  observes  with  perfect 
truth,  in  the  *  conclusion '  of  her  second 
part :  '  They  must  either  be  very  ignorant  or 
very  malicious  who  pretend  that  we  woidd 
imitate  foreign  monasteries,  or  object  against 
VIS  the  inconveniences  that  tliey  are  subject 
to.  A  little  attention  to  what  they  read 
might  have  convinced  them  that  our  insti- 
tution is  rather  academical  than  monastic^ 
However,  the  project  fell  to  the  ground ; 
but  not  without  drawing  upon  its  well-in- 
tentioned proposer  a  still  more  unmerited 
and,  unfortunately,  a  more  widely  circulated 
aspersion.  In  tlie  32nd  number  of  the 
'  Tatler '  appeared  what  the  annotator  of  the 
edition  of  1797  justly  terms  a  '  gi'oss  misre- 
presentation '  of  Mrs.  Astell  under  the  name 
of  '  Madonella.'  There  is  not  a  shadow  of 
foundation  for  the  insinuation  against  Mrs. 
Astell's  personal  character,  and  the  account 
of  the  proposed  college  betrays  a  profound 
ignorance  of  the  whole  scheme  which  that 
good  lady  projected.  The  slander  was  re- 
peated in  the  o9th  and  63rd  numbers  of  the 
same  periodical ;  and  in  the  latter  it  is  stated 
(no  doubt  with  the  intention  of  turning  the 
whole  aiFair  into  ridicule)  that  Mrs.  Manley, 
authoress  of  that  vile  work,  the  '  New  Ata- 
lantis,'  was  to  be  the  directress  of  the  new 
institution.  The  whole  story  would  be  un- 
worthy of  mention,  were  it  not  that  it  ap- 
peared in  so  famous  a  paper  as  the  '  Tatler,' 
and  that  the  gTeat  names  of  Swift  and  Addi- 
son are  supposed  to  be  connected  with  the 
writing  of  it.  '  Madonella '  is  called  '  Pla- 
tonne,'  but  the  next  point  to  be  noticed  in 
her  literary  career  is  her  controversy  with 
one  of  the  most  distinguished  of  English 
Platonists,  John  Norris,  of  Bemerton,  about 
one  of  the  pivot  doctrines  of  Platonism,  the 
pure  love  of  God.  She  again  wrote  anony- 
mously, but  her  name  was  soon  discovered. 
If  Mrs.  Astell  met  with  unmerited  obloquy 
for  her  '  Serious  Proposal,'  the  balance  was 
partly  redressed  by  the  extravagant  eulogy 
which  her  antagonist,  and  editor  of  the 
*  Letters,'  lavished  upon  her.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  the  '  Letters  '  are  full  of  pertinent  in- 
quiries, and  prove  the  writer  to  have  been, 


at  any  rate,  a  very  intelligent  woman.  In 
1705  Mrs.  Astell  published  an  octavo  volume 
entitled '  The  Christian  lleligion,  as  professed 
by  a  Daughter  of  the  Church  of  England,' 
which  gives  a  clear  exposition  of  Church 
teaching,  according  to  the  type  of  the  great 
Caroline  divines ;  it  strongly  advocates  the 
doctrine  of  non-resistance,  and  protests 
strongly  against  Romanism.  It  was  pub- 
lished anonymously,  but  everybody  knew" 
who  the  '  Daughter  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land '  was.  Another  anonymous  work,  en- 
titled 'Occasional  Communion'  (1705),  is 
attributed  to  Mrs.  Astell  by  Dean  Hickes^ 
who  describes  it  as  being  'jvistly  admired  so- 
mucli.'  As  its  title  implies,  it  deals  with 
what  was  the  burning  question  of  tlie  day. 
In  1706  we  find  her  engaged  in  a  controversy 
with  her  neighbour,  Dean  Atterbury,  who 
sends  her  '  Ilemarlis '  to  his  friend  Smal- 
ridge, '  taking  them  to  be  of  an  extraordinary 
nature,  considering  they  come  from  the  pen 
of  a  woman  ; '  '  had  she,'  he  adds,  '  as  much 
good  breeding  as  good  sense,  slie  would  be 
perfect.  She  attacks  me  very  home.'  She 
also  wrote  against  Locke's  '  lleasonableness 
of  Christianity,'  against  Tillotson's  famous 
sermon  on  the  eternity  of  hell  torments,  and 
against  a  sermon  of  Dr.  White  Kennett,  and 
on  each  occasion  proved  herself  an  acute 
controversialist.  Henry  Dodwell  speaks  of 
her  as  '  that  admirable  gentlewoman,  Mrs. 
Astell,'  and  she  deserved  the  title :  for  her 
life  was  blameless,  and  her  wi-itings  show 
that  her  abilities  and  attainments  were  con- 
siderably above  the  average,  though  she  may 
not  have  been  so  extraordinary  a  genius  as 
her  admirers  imagined. 

[Mrs.  Astell's  Works,  passim ;  Ballard's  Me- 
moirs of  British  Ladies,  &c. ;  Folkestone  Wil- 
liams's Memoirs  and  Correspondence  of  Bisliop 
Atterbury.]  J.  H.  0. 

ASTELL,  WILLIAM  (1774-1847),  an 
eminent  director  of  the  East  India  Company, 
was  the  second  son  of  Godfrey  Thornton,  a 
director  of  the  Bank  of  England.  He  assumed 
the  name  of  Astell  instead  of  Thornton  in 
1807.  He  was  elected  a  member  of  the 
court  of  directors  of  the  East  India  Com- 
pany in  1800,  and  in  the  same  year  took  his 
seat  in  the  House  of  Commons  as  conservative 
member  for  Bridgewater,  which  borough  he 
represented  during  six  successive  parliaments* 
He  subsequently  sat  for  the  county  of  Bedford 
until  the  day  of  his  death.  Being  a  director  of 
the  East  India  Company  for  the  unprecedented 
period  of  forty-seven  years,  he  filled  the  offices 
of  chairman  and  deputy-chairman  several 
times,  and  was  actively  engaged  in  the  dis- 
cussion and  settlement  of  most  of  the  many 


Astle 


203 


Astle 


important  questions  bearing  upon  Indian 
administration  which  arose  during  that 
lengthened  period.  He  was  chairman  of  the 
court  at  the  commencement  of  the  negotia- 
tions between  that  body  and  the  government 
which  preceded  the  enactment  of  the  East 
India  Company's  Charter  Act  of  1833.  Al- 
though at  first  opposed  to  the  abolition  of 
the  monopoly  which  the  company  enjoyed 
in  respect  of  its  trade  with  China,  Astell 
eventually  acquiesced  in  the  settlement  of 
the  question  made  by  Lord  Grey's  govern- 
ment. As  chairman  again  in  1844  he  took 
a  leading  part  in  the  recall  of  Lord  Ellen- 
borough,  whose  policy  as  governor-general 
he  considered  to  be  highly  detrimental  to 
the  good  government  of  that  country.  He 
was  averse  to  annexation,  unless  clearly  re- 
quired for  the  safety  of  the  British  posses- 
sions, and  was  a  staunch  advocate  of  the 
policy  of  respecting  the  religious  feelings  of 
the  natives  of  India. 

Astell  was  a  deputy-lieutenant  of  the 
county  of  Bedford,  lieutenant-colonel  of  the 
Bedfordshire  militia,  and  colonel  of  the  Royal 
East  India  volunteers.  He  was  also  chair- 
man of  the  Russia  company  and  of  the  Great 
Northern  railway,  besides  filling  other  im- 
portant offices  in  the  city  of  Eondon. 

[India  Office  Records ;  Annual  Register,  1847.] 

A.  J.  A. 

ASTLE,  THOMAS  (1735-1803),  anti- 
quary and  palijeographer,  was  bom  on  22  Dec. 
1736  at  Yoxall  on  the  borders  of  Needwood 
Forest  in  Staffordshire,  and  was  the  son  of 
Daniel  Astle,  keeper  of  the  forest,  a  descend- 
ant of  an  old  family  of  the  county.  He  was 
in  early  youth  articled  to  an  attorney,  but 
having  more  taste  for  antiquarian  pursuits 
did  not  follow  up  his  profession,  and  went  to 
London,  where  he  was  employed  to  make 
an  index  to  the  catalogue  of  the  Harleian 
MSS.,  printed  in  1759,  2  vols,  folio.  He 
was  elected  a  fellow  of  the  Society  of  Anti- 
quaries in  1763,  and  about  the  same  time 
gained  the  notice  of  the  Right  Hon.  George 
Grenville,  then  first  lord  of  the  treasury  and 
chancellor  of  the  exchequer,  who  employed 
him  in  the  arrangement  of  papers  and  other 
matters  which  required  a  knowledge  of  an- 
cient handwriting,  and  nominated  him,  with 
Sir  Joseph  Ayloft'e  and  Dr.  Ducarel,  as  mem- 
bers of  a  commission  to  superintend  the  regu- 
lation of  the  public  records  at  Westminster. 
On  the  death  of  the  two  colleagues,  Mr.  Top- 
ham  was  substituted,  and  he  and  Astle  were 
removed  under  Pitt's  administration.  The 
same  persons  were  appointed  by  royal  com- 
mission in  1764  to  superintend  the  method- 
ising of  the  records  of  state  and  council  pre- 


served in  the  State  Paper  Office  at  Whitehall. 
In  1765  Astle  was  made  receiver-general  of 
sixpence  in  the  pound  on  the  civil  list,  and 
on  18  Dec.  of  the  same  year  he  married  the 
only  daughter  and  heiress  of  the  Rev.  Philip 
Morant,  the  historian  of  Essex.  In  1766  he 
was  admitted  a  fellow  of  the  Royal  Society, 
and  in  the  same  year  he  was  consulted  by  a 
committee  of  the  House  of  Lords  on  the 
subject  of  printing  the  ancient  records  of 
parliament.  He  suggested  the  employment 
of  his  father-in-law  in  this  work,  and  suc- 
ceeded him  upon  his  death  in  1770.  The 
preparation  of  the  text  and  notes  of  the  edi- 
tion of  the  'Rotuli  Parliamentorum  ut  et 
petitiones  et  placita  in  Parliamento,  etc. 
[1278-1503],'  London,  1767-77,  6  vols,  folio, 
was  undertaken  by  Morant  and  John  Top- 
ham  down  to  2nd  Henry  VI,  and  after  that 
period  by  Topham  and  Astle.  Dr.  John 
Strachey  saw  the  volumes  through  the  press. 
'The  Will  of  Henry  VII'  was  reproduced 
by  Astle  in  1775  from  the  original  in  the 
chapter  house  at  Westminster,  with  an  in- 
teresting preface.  After  the  death  (1775)  of 
Henry  Rooke,  chief  clerk  of  the  Record  Office 
in  the  Tower,  Astle  was  appointed  to  his 
place ;  and  on  the  decease  of  Sir  John  Shelley, 
keeper  of  the  records,  in  1783,  obtained  the 
higher  office.  Astle  was  an  efficient  and 
zealous  keeper,  as  is  proved  by  his  additions 
to  the  collections  under  his  charge,  and  the 
indexes  he  caused  to  be  made.  A  '  Catalog^ie 
of  the  MSS.  in  the  Cottonian  Library  .  .  . 
with  an  account  of  the  damage  sustained  by 
fire  in  1731  and  a  catalogue  of  the  charters 
preserved '  was  published  by  Samuel  Hooper 
in  1777,  with  a  dedication  *  To  T.  Astle, 
Esq.,  to  whom  I  am  indebted  for  the  MSS. 
from  which  the  following  work  is  printed.' 
He  had  no  literary  connection  with  the '  Will 
of  King  Alfred'  (1788)  usually  said  to  have 
been  translated  by  him.  Sir  Herbert  Croft 
was  the  editor  of  this  work ;  the  translation 
and  most  of  the  notes  were  furnished  by  the 
Rev.  Owen  Manning. 

In  1784  appeared  Astle's  chief  work,  *  The 
Origin  and  Progress  of  Writing,'  a  most  im- 
portant contribution  to  the  English  literature 
of  palaeography.  The  oriental  part,  is  of 
course  quite  out  of  date  now,  but  the  chap- 
ters devoted  to  mediaeval  handwriting  are 
still  of  use  to  the  student,  as  they  are  based 
upon  the  author's  personal  investigations. 
The  numerous  plates,  which  greatly  enhance 
the  value  of  the  work,  are  well  engi-aved  by 
Pouncey.  In  1800  a  royal  commission  was 
appointed  to  carry  out  the  recommendations 
of  a  select  committee  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons which  had  inquired  into  the  state  of 
the  records.   Astle  was  consulted  throughout 


Astle 


204 


Astle 


this  inquiry,  and  presented  a  report  on 
the  documents  at  the  Tower.  Astle  was  a 
member  of  sundry  foreign  academies  and  a 
trustee  of  the  British  Museum.  lie  travelled 
on  several  occasions  upon  the  continent  with 
literary  objects.  Upon  the  death  of  Morant 
in  1770  he  came  into  possession,  through 
Mrs.  Astle,  of  his  father-in-law's  library  of 
books  and  manuscripts  as  well  as  of  a  con- 
siderable fortune.  Astle  had  long  been  an 
industrious  seeker  after  literary  rarities,  and 
eventually  brought  together  the  most  re- 
markable private  collection  of  manuscripts 
in  the  countiy.  He  carried  on  an  extensive 
correspondence  and  freely  placed  his  great 
knowledge  and  wonderful  collection  at  the 
disposition  of  his  friends.  Dr.  Percy  acknow- 
ledges his  help  while  investigating  ballad 
literature.  He  was  a  conductor  of  '  The 
Antiquarian  Repertory,'  and  contributed  to 
the  '  Archaeologia '  and  '  Vetusta  Monu- 
menta'  of  the  Society  of  Antiquaries.  In 
the  latter  appeared  his  valuable  contribu- 
tion on  unpublished  Scottish  seals,  in  conse- 
quence of  a  committee  of  the  society  having 
been  directed  to  investigate  the  subject.  The 
editorship  of  the  '  Taxatio  Ecclesiastica  ' 
and  the '  Calendarium  Rotulorum  Patentium ' 
(Record  Commission,  1802,  2  vols,  folio),  has 
been  ascribed  in  error  to  Astle ;  John  Caley 
edited  the  former  work,  and  the  same  person 
and  Samuel  Ayscough  the  latter  one.  Astle 
died  at  his  house  at  Battersea  Rise,  near 
London,  on  1  Dec.  1803,  of  dropsy,  in  his 
sixty-ninth  year.  By  his  wife  he  had  nine 
children,  and  he  is  now  represented  by  the 
family  of  the  second  son,  Philip,  who  took 
the  name  and  arms  of  Hills,  of  Colne  Park, 
Essex. 

All  his  prmted  books,  chiefly  collected  by 
Morant,  were  purchased  from  the  executors 
in  1804,  for  the  sum  of  l,000;.,by  the  founders 
of  the  Royal  Institution,  where  they  are  now 
preserved.  The  collection  is  particularly  rich 
m  history  and  biography ;  many  volumes  in 
the  latter  class  are  enriched  with  the  notes 
of  their  former  owners.  The  famous  col- 
lection of  manuscripts  was  left  by  will  to 
the  Marquis  of  Buckingham,  in  token  of  the 
testator's  regard  for  the  Grenville  family, 
upon  payment  of  the  nominal  sum  of  500/. 
Had  the  offer  been  declined,  the  British  Mu- 
seum was  to  enjoy  the  right  of  purchase  at 
the  same  price.  The  offer  was,  however, 
accepted  by  the  marquis,  who  caused  a  beau- 
tiful gothic  room  to  be  erected  by  Mr.  (after- 
wards Sir)  John  Soane  for  their  reception 
at  Stowe,  where  they  remained  until  they 
were  transfeiTed,  with  O'Oonor's  Irish  co- 
dices and  other  manuscripts,  to  the  sale 
rooms  of  Messrs.  Sotheby  in  1849.    But  the 


sale  did  not  take  place,  as  the  entire  collec- 
tion was  privately  purchased  by  the  late 
Earl  of  Ashburnham  for  8,000/.  In  the  au- 
tumn of  1879  the  present  holder  of  the  title 
offered  his  late  father's  library  and  collection 
of  manuscripts,  the  latter  consisting  of  four 
distinct  collections,  known  as  the  Stowe, 
the  Barrois,  the  Libri  and  Appendix,  to  the 
British  Museum  for  160,000/.  After  a  pro- 
longed negotiation  the  nation  became  in  1883 
the  possessors  of  the  Stowe  division  at  the 
price  of  45,000/. ;  the  most  valuable  and  in- 
teresting of  the  codices  being  those  which 
had  once  belonged  to  Astle,  and  which  are 
now  at  the  British  Museum.  Among  the 
chief  treasures  bequeathed  to  the  Marquis 
of  Buckingham  may  be  mentioned  a  volume 
of  Anglo-Saxon  charters,  unrivalled  for  num- 
ber, beauty,  and  preservation  ;  King  Alfred's 
Psalter  :  the  original  wardrobe-book  of  Ed- 
ward II ;  the  register  of  Hyde  Abbey  near 
Winchester,  and  many  other  documents  re- 
lating to  the  history  of  the  most  celebrated 
abbeys  and  monasteries  of  Great  Britain ; 
the  original  inventories  of  Queen  Elizabeth's 
wai'dro be,  plate,  and  jewels;  the  Hanoverian 
state  papers :  the  origmal  accompts  of  Wolsey 
and  papers  connected  with  the  navy  and 
ordnance  of  Heniy  VIII ;  the  rich  collections 
of  Anstis,  Garter  king-at-arms :  the  con-e- 
spondence  of  Lord  Chancellor  Macclesfield 
and  Bishop  Lyttelton,  &c. ;  and  papers  from 
the  libraries  of  Spelman,  Twysden,  Thoresby, 
Le  Neve,  Ducarel,  &c. 

Besides  many  contributions  to  the  'Archseo- 
logia'  between  1763  and  1802,  Astle  pub- 
lished the  following  works :  1.  *  The  Will 
of  King  Henry  VII,'  London,  1775,  4to. 
2. '  The  Origin  and  Progress  of  Writing,  as  well 
Hieroglyj)hic  as  Elementary,  illustrated  by 
engi'avings  taken  from  marbles,  manuscripts, 
and  charters,  ancient  and  modern :  also  some 
account  of  the  origin  and  progress  of  print- 
ing,' London,  1784,  4to,  with  31  plates;  the 
'second  edition,  Avith  additions,'  London, 
1803,  4to,  31  plates  and  portrait,  contains 
*  Appendix  on  the  Radical  Letters  of  the  Pe- 
lasgians '  (published  separately  in  1775) ;  a 
reprint  by  Messrs.  Cliatto  Sc  Windus  appeai*ed 
in  1876,  with  poor  impressions  of  the  plates. 
3.  *  An  Account  of  the  Seals  of  the  Kings, 
Royal  Boroughs,  and  Magnates  of  Scotland,' 
London,  1792,  folio,  5  plates  ;  also  published 
in  '  Vetusta  Monumenta,'  1796,  iii. 

[European  Mag.  1802,  pp.  243^5  ;  Gent.  Mag. 
1803,  pp.  1190-1,  1804,  p.  84;  Nichols's  Lite- 
rary Anecdotes  (biography  in  vol.  iii.  p.  202)  and 
Illustrations  ;  Siiaw's  Staffordshire,  vol.  i.;  Notes 
and  Queries,  4th  series,  vol.  iii.;  Harris's  Cata- 
logue of  the  Library  of  Royal  Institution,  1821  ; 
the  same  by  B.  Vincent,  1857 ;  O'Conor's  Biblio- 


Astley 


205 


Astley 


thecjv  MS.  Stxjwensis,  1818;  Smith's  Catalogue 
of  the  Stowe  Collection,  1849;  AshlmmhamMSS.. 
copy  of  papers  relating  to  purchase  of  Stowe 
Coll.  (ParliamenUrA-  Return,  1883).] 

H.  R.  T. 

ASTLEY,  Sir  JACOB,  Lord  Astley 
(1579-165:2),  royalist,  was  the  second '  son 
of  Isaac  Astley  of  Melton  Constable,  Norfolk. 
From  the  age  of  nineteen  he  served  with  re- 
putation in  the  Netherlands  under  the  Counts 
3Iaiu*Ice  and  Henry,  and  subsequently  under 
the  Palatine  and  Gustavus  Adolphus.  He  was 
present  at  the  battle  of  Newport  (1599)  and 
the  siege  of  Ostend.  It  is  on  record  that,  though 
he  was  absent  in  the  service  of  Christian  IV 
of  Denmark  for  a  year  and  a  half,  and  again 
in  Germany  for  two  years,  his  company  was 
kept  for  him  in  the  States  army.  In  1638, 
having  been  made  governor  of  Plymouth  and 
the  isle  of  St.  Nicholas,  he  was  summoned  to 
the  council  of  war  (21  Feb.),  and  he  was  one 
of  the  committee  that  made  report  (7  May) 
on  some  vexed  questions  as  to  the  fortifica- 
tion of  the  isle  of  Scilly.  The  next  year,  after 
taking  the  musters  in  the  midland  and  noi'th- 
ern  counties,  he  went  to  Newcastle  as  sei*- 
goant-major  to  provide  against  the  expected 
Scotch  invasion.  He  had  to  overcome  the 
objections  of  the  traiilbands  to  serve  beyond 
tlieir  own  county  ;  but  at  last  they  agreed  to 
'  refer  all  to  the  king,  and  to  serve  wherever 
he  pleased.'  He  diligently  attended  to  all  the 
minutise  of  war,  and  kept  a  constant  cor- 
respondence with  tlie  council.  Ilis  patience 
was  much  tried  by  the  puritans,  whose  sym- 
pathies were  naturally  with  his  covenanting 
foes.  He  broke  up  their  meetings;  but  as 
they  were  poor  men  ('mostly  bancroftes,'  as  he 
says),  he  did  not  think  persecution  advisable, 
though '  if  a  fat  puritan  could  be  laid  hold  of 
it  were  best  to  punish  him.'  He  so  wrought 
upon  the  corporation  of  Berwick  that  they 
sent  him  a  protestation  of  their  loyalty — a 
service  worthy  of  the  '  thanks '  minuted  to 
him  by  the  council  in  days  when  the  Scotcb 
were  encouraged  by  the  dissensions  of  the 
English  peers  and  their  half-hearted  prose- 
cution of  the  war.  At  York  the  prevalent 
disattection  gave  fresh  scope  to  Astley's  di- 
plomacy. '  I  am  fain  to  single  out  some  of 
the  discreetest  of  the  leading  men,  to  bring 
them  to  reason.'  And  so  the  ill-fated  expe- 
dition ran  its  course  to  the  pacification  of 
Berwick,  when  Astley  was  left  free  to  other 
cares.  In  November  he  petitioned  for  the 
arrears  of  the  Plymouth  gaiTison,  and  ob- 
tained 400^.  out  of  1,500/.  due. 

In  January  1640  '  huge  preparation '  was 
making  for  another  Scotch  war.  Though 
Astley  was  then  'not  talked  of  for  any  of 
the  great  posts  (to  obtain  which,  says  one 


letter-writer,  *  we  are  all  ready  to  scratch  each 

other's  faces '),  yet  his  practical  knowledge 
made  him  indispensable.  He  was  appointed 
on  the  council  of  war  (14  Feb.),  and  was  one 
of  its  active  members,  reporting  on  stores  and 
weapons,  and  contriving  a  defence  for  New- 
castle by  arming  the  miners.  By  this  time 
he  was  again  sergeant-major.  The  war  was 
soon  ended  by  the  pacification  of  Ripon,  and 
its  immediate  result  was  the  assembling  of 
the  Long  Parliament.  In  1641  Astley  was 
examined  before  a  committee  of  the  house  as 
to  the  king's  alleged  tampering  with  the  army, 
especially  with  reference  to  a  petition  signed 
by  many  officers  and  shown  to  the  king,  who, 
in  token  of  his  approbation,  wrote  C.  R.  upon 
it.  This  petition,  reflecting  upon  the  leaders 
of  parliament,  was  highly  resented  by  that 
assembly,  and  some  incautious  speeches  of 
Astley  to  the  unstable  Earl  of  Holland  were 
reported  by  the  latter,  so  that  'what  had  been 
imparted  to  him  in  the  greatest  secrecy  his 
informants  had  now  publicly  to  testify.' 

In  August  1642,  when  the  war  broke  out, 
Astley  left  Plymouth  for  Nottingham  to  join 
the  king,  who  made  him  major-general  of  the 
foot — '  a  man  as  fit  for  that  office  as  Christen- 
dom yielded,'  says  Clarendon,  whose  commen- 
dations are  in  this  case  imqualified  by  any 
after  disparagement. 

During  the  first  civil  war  Astley  is  a  no- 
table figure.  He  was  among  those  *  hurt '  at 
Edgehill  (13  Oct.  1642).  His  prayer  before 
the  battle  is  recorded  by  Warwick  (Me- 
moirs, 229).  He  commanded  a  division  at 
the  siege  of  Gloucester.  When  Essex,  after 
relieving  that  city,  had  fought  the  battle  of 
Newbury  (20  Sept.  1643),  and  had  continued 
his  retreat  to  London,  Sir  Jacob  possessed 
himself  of  Reading.  In  1644  he  assisted 
Lord  Hopton  in  the  capture  of  Arundel 
(soon  retaken  by  Waller),  and  shared  in  the 
defeat  at  Alresford  (29  Marcli).  Clarendon 
records  in  detail  his  gallant  defence  of  Gos- 
worth  Bridge  against  Essex,  and  of  the  pur- 
lieus of  Shaw  House  against  the  repeated 
attacks  of  Manchester.  During  the  second 
battle  of  Newbury  (27  Oct.)  Astley  com- 
manded the  infantry  in  that  expedition  (or 
escape)  of  Charles  from  Oxford,  when  the  ar- 
mies of  Essex  and  Waller  were  closing  on  the 
city.  At  Naseby  (14  June  1645)  '  the  main 
body  of  the  foot  Avas  led  by  Lord  Astley,  whom 
the  king  had  lately  made  a  baron.'  His 
patent  is  dated  4  Nov.  1644.  When  the 
king  called  out  the  Welsh  levies  for  the 
relief  of  Hereford,  the  discontented  gentlemen 
of  those  counties  insisted  on  the  dismissal  of 
the  general  Gerrard,  '  and  his  charge  was 
presently  conferred  upon  Lord  Astley,  who 
was  most  acceptable  to  them.' 


Astley 


206 


Astley 


Not  long  after  Astley  had  the  honour  to 
play  the  last  stake  for  the  king.  From  Ox- 
ford was  sent  a  party  of  fifteen  hundred  to 
meet  the  remnant  of  the  royal  army  gathered 
Tuider  his  banners.  But  all  intelligence  as  to 
his  movements  was  intercepted,  till  his  friends 
learned  that  he  had  been  routed  after  a 
stubborn  resistance  by  Sir  Thomas  Brereton 
and  Colonel  Morgan  at  Stow-in-the-Wold 
(21  March  1646).  Morgan,  though  second  in 
command,  bore  the  main  brunt  of  the  engage- 
ment, and  was  allowed  to  announce  its  suc- 
cess in  a  letter  to  the  speaker.  Lord  Astley's 
speech  to  Brereton's  officers — '  You  have  now 
done  your  work  and  may  go  to  play,  unless  you 
will  fall  out  among  yourselves ' — has  '  some- 
thing of  prophetic  strain,'  prompted  by  the 
veteran's  '  old  experience.'  The  conquerors 
(who  ordered  a  special  thanksgiving  for  their 
victory)  seem  to  have  borne  him  no  lasting 
ill-wili.  His  release  from  Warwick  Castle 
(June)  was  one  of  the  terms  of  capitulation 
granted  to  Oxford  on  its  surrender  to  Fair- 
fax. An  ordinance  (passed  8  March  1648) 
cleared  him  of  his  delinquency.  But  he  had 
his  share  of  the  inconveniences  then  attach- 
ing to  conspicuous  loyalty.  The  council  of 
state,  in  the  anxious  months  before  Worcester 
"battle,  wrote  to  Colonel  Dixwell  (a  regicide 
and  ex-state  councillor  commanding  in  Kent), 
to  arrest  '  and  secure  in  one  of  your  garrisons 
furthest  from  their  houses,  and  from  the  places 
where  they  have  any  influence,'  certain  old 
cavaliers.  Among  them  Avas  Astley — 'Sir 
Jacob  Astley ' — his  title  not  being  acknow- 
ledged by  the  parliament.  He  was  brought 
to  London,  and  on  15  May  1651  order  was 
made  that  he  should  be  allowed  the  liberty 
of  the  Fleet.  On  31  May  he  was  called  before 
the  council  and  allowed  to  return  to  his  resi- 
dence in  Kent  on  giving  bail  in  1,000/.,  with 
two  sureties  in  500/.  each.  He  died  (Febru- 
ary 1661-2)  in  the  old  palace  of  Maidstone 
(granted  by  Elizabeth  to  Sir  John  Astley). 
His  wife,  Agnes  Imple,  a  German  lady, 
brought  him  two  sons  and  a  daughter.  One 
son,  Sir  Bernard,  fell  in  the  siege  of  Bristol. 
The  barony  became  extinct  in  1668  by  the 
death  of  Lord  Astley's  grandson  without  is- 
sue. A  portrait  of  Astley  (the  property  of 
Mrs.  Branfell)  was  in  the  National  Portrait 
Exhibition  of  1866. 

[Clarendon's  Hist,  of  Rebellion  ;  Rush  worth's 
Hist.  Collections ;  Calendars  of  State  Papers, 
Domestic]  R.  C.  B. 

ASTLEY,  JOHN  {d.  1595),  master  of 
the  Jewel  House,  was  the  eldest  son  of 
Thomas  Astley,  Esq.,  by  his  second  wife 
Anne  (Wood).  He  held  a  confidential  posi- 
tion in  the  household  of  the  Princess  Eliza- 


beth, on  whom  his  wife  Catherine  Avas  in 
attendance,  although  she  was  for  a  time  re- 
moved from  that  charge  by  a  special  order 
of  the  privy  council.  In  a  letter  to  his  friend 
Roger  Ascham  (1552)  he  refers  to  their 
friendly  fellowship  at  Cheston,  Chelsey,  and 
Hatfield,  and  their  pleasant  studies  in  read- 
ing together  Aristotle's '  Rhetoric,' Cicero,  and 
Livy.  Leaving  England  in  the  reign  of 
Queen  ]Marv,  he  played  a  conspicuous  part 
in  the  troubles  of  the  English  churcli  at 
Franlifoit.  On  the  accession  of  Elizabeth 
he  returned  to  this  country,  and  in  December 
1558  Avas  appointed  master  of  the  jewel 
house  and  treasurer  of  her  majesty's  jewels 
and  plate,  with  the  annual  fee  of  50/.  His 
Avife  was  appointed  chief  gentlewoman  of 
the  privy  chamber,  and  he  was  also  one  of 
the  grooms  of  the  chamber.  Soon  afterAvards 
he  obtained  from  the  croAA^n  a  grant  of  the 
mastership  of  the  game  in  Enfield  chace  and 
park,  with  tlie  office  of  stCAvard  and  ranger 
of  the  manor  of  Enfield.  Accompanying  her 
majesty  on  her  A'isit  to  the  university  of 
Cambridge  in  1564,  he  was  created  M.A.  In 
or  about  1568  the  queen  gi-anted  him  a  lease 
in  rcA'crsion  of  the  castle  and  manor  of  Al- 
lington  in  Kent,  and  he  also  had  an  estate 
at  Otterden  in  the  same  county.  He  repre- 
sented Maidstone  in  the  parliaments  of  29  Oct. 
1586  and  4  Feb.  1 588-9,  having  before  sat 
in  the  House  of  Commons.  His  death  ap- 
pears to  haA'e  occurred  about  July  1595. 

By  his  first  wife  Catherine,  daughter  of 
Sir  Philip  Champernowne  of  DeA'onshire,  he 
had  no  issue.  His  second  Avife  was  Mar- 
garet, daugliter  of  Thomas  Lord  Grey,  by 
whom  he  had  a  son,  aftei'Avards  Sir  John 
Astley,  and  three  daughters. 

Astley  was  the  author  of  'The  Art.  of 
Riding,  set  fooi*th  in  a  breefe  treatise,  with 
a  due  intei-pretation  of  certeine  places  alledged 
out  of  Xenophon,  and  Gryson,  A'erie  expert 
and  excellent  Horssemen  :  Wherein  also  the 
true  use  of  the  hand  by  the  said  GrA'Sons 
rules  and  precepts  is  speciallie  touched :  and 
how  the  Author  of  this  present  worke  hath 
put  the  same  in  practise,  also  Avhat  profit 
men  maie  reape  thereby  :  without  the  knoAv- 
ledge  whereof,  all  the  residu  of  the  order  of 
Riding  is  but  A'aine.  Lastlie  is  added  a  short 
discourse  of  the  Chaine  of  Cauezzan,  the 
Trench  and  the  Martingale:  Avritten  by  a 
Gentleman  of  great  skill  and  long  experience 
in  the  said  Ai*t,'  London,  1584,  4to. 

[Cooper's  Athenae  Canfcib.  ii.  182;  Letter 
prefixed  to  Ascham's  Report  and  Discourse  of 
the  Affairs  of  Germany;  Tanner's  Bibl.  Brit.; 
Wottou's  Baronetage,  iii.  15;  Ames's  Typogr. 
Antiquities,  ed.  Herbert,  694,  959,  1111;  Calen- 
dars of  State  Papers.]  T.  C. 


Astley 


207 


Astley 


ASTLEY,  JOHN  (1730  P-1787),  portrait 
painter,  was  born  at  Wem  in  Shropshire,  was 
sent  to  London  and  placed  under  the  portrait 
painter,  Hudson.  Leaving  him,  perhaps  in 
1749,  he  visited  Rome,  where  he  was  the 
companion  of  Reynolds  (from  whose  accounts 
a  little  later  it  appears  that  Astley  was  in- 
<lebted  to  him  in  the  sum  of  12^,  155.  6d.), 
of  Richard  AVilson  and  other  well-known 
English  artists.  James  Northcote  is  the 
author  of  the  stoiy  that  at  Rome  Astley  was 
so  poor  that  he  was  forced  to  patch  the  back 
•of  his  waistcoat  with  a  canvas  of  his  own 
painting  which  represented  a  magnificent 
waterfall.  Returning  from  Rome,  pi-obably 
with  Reynolds,  he  secured  the  patronage  and 
high  favour  of  Horace  Walpole.  In  1759  he 
left  London  for  Dublin,  and  in  three  years  of 

?ortrait-painting  made  a  large  sum  of  money, 
'ainting  his  way  back  to  London,  he  revisited 
his  bii'th-place,  and  met,  in  that  neighbour- 
hood, a  rich  widow.  Lady  Duckenfield  Daniell, 
whom  he  mari'ied.  This  lady  and  her  daughter 
•died  shortly  after  the  marriage,  and  Astley, 
who  was  now  a  wealthy  man,  married  a 
second  time.  He  bought  Schomberg  House 
in  Pall  Mall  (afterwards  Gainsborough's), 
and  fantastically  re-arranged  it  for  his  con- 
venience. '  He  was  a  gasconading  spend- 
thrift, and  a  beau  of  the  flashiest  order. 
When  the  Dublin  ladies  sat  to  him,  he  is 
said,  by  way  of  flourish,  to  have  used  his 
sword  as  a  maulstick.'  He  had  slight  gift 
as  a  painter,  and  little  merit  as  a  man,  but 
his  good  fortune  never  failed  him.  He  had 
wasted  much  money  in  speculation,  when 
the  accidental  death  of  a  brother  put  10,000/. 
in  his  pocket.  Quite  late  in  life  he  married 
his  third  wife :  it  is  recorded  that  at  this 
time  he  experienced  a  sti-ange  moral  quick- 
ening and  reflected  with  gravity  on  the  past. 
He  left  a  son  and  two  daughters.  Leslie 
enumerates  Astley,  '  a  clever,  conceited,  out- 
.at-elbows,  and  reckless  felloAV,'  amongst  the 
forgotten  artists  who  Avere  Sir  Joshua  s  com- 
panions in  youth.  His  best  works,  accord- 
ing to  one  writer,  were  copies  from  Italian 
pictures. 

[Edwards's  Anecdotes  of  Painters,  where 
Michael  Adams's  '  Biographical  History  '  (Hogg, 
Paternoster  Row)  is  referred  to  as  the  ultimate 
source  of  information  about  Astley ;  Leslie's 
Life  of  Reynolds  ;  Northcote's  Life  of  Reynolds ; 
Redgrave's  Dictionary ;  Nagler,  2nd  ed.] 

E.  R. 

ASTLEY,  PHILIP  (1742-1814),  eques- 
trian performer  and  theatrical  manager,  was 
born  at  Newcastle-under-Lyme.  Receiving 
little  education,  he  was  brought  up  to  his 
father's  trade  of  cabinet-making  and  veneer- 


cutting.  About  1759  he  joined  General 
Elliott's  regiment  of  light  horse,  became 
rough-rider  and  breaker-in,  and  rose  to  the 
rank  of  sergeant-ma,jor.  Having  distin- 
guished himself  at  the  battles  of  Emsdoi-ff 
and  Friedburg  and  upon  other  occasions,  lie 
obtained  his  discharge,  and  opened  an  exlii- 
bition  of  horsemanship  in  an  open  field  in 
Lambeth,  his  only  horse  being  his  regimental 
charger,  given  him  by  General  Elliott.  He 
travelled  through  the  country,  performing  at 
fairs  and  mai'kets,  resorting  sometimes  to  his 
old  trade  as  a  cabinet-maker.  In  1770  he 
opened  a  wooden  theatre,  with  sheltered  seats, 
but  with  an  unroofed  circus,  in  a  timber- 
yard  at  the  foot  of  Westminster  Bridge.  In 
1775  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Astley  appeared  on  horse- 
back at  Drury  Lane  in  the  jubilee  in  honour 
of  Shakespeare.  The  theatre  in  Lambeth 
was  gradually  enlarged  and  improA'ed,  and 
called  the  Amphitheatre  Riding  House.  In 
1781  the  theatre  was  opened  in  the  evening, 
and  a  candle-light  exhibition  first  attempted, 
the  earlier  performances  having  been  pre- 
sented in  the  daytime.  He  had  no  license 
from  the  magistrates,  but  he  pretended  that 
his  theatre  was  under  the  special  protection 
of  a  royal  patent.  In  1783  he  was  committed 
to  prison  for  performing  illegally,  but  he  Avas 
released  upon  the  intervention  of  Lord  Chan- 
cellor Thurlow,  whose  daughters  had  been 
taught  to  ride  by  Astley.  Presently  the  ma- 
gistrates granted  him  a  license;  he  nov 
called  his  theatre  the  Royal  Grove,  having 
painted  the  interior  to  resemble  foliage,  and 
added  a  stage  to  his  circus,  to  vie  with  the 
attractions  of  a  rival  establishment  of  like 
kind  opened  on  the  site  of  the  present  Surrey 
Theatre.  He  carried  his  performers  to  Dub- 
lin and  Paris,  and  established  equestrian 
theatres  in  both  those  cities.  In  Paris  he  in- 
stituted the  cirque  known  in  later  times  as 
Franconi's.  He  endeavoured  to  establish 
floating  baths  in  the  Thames  oft"  Westminster 
Bridge.  The  French  Revolution  interrupted 
his  performances  in  Paris,  and  his  amphi- 
theati'e  was  converted  into  barracks.  He  re- 
entered the  army,  and  served  with  distinc- 
tion under  the  Duke  of  York.  In  1794  the 
Royal  GroveTheatre  was  burnt  to  the  ground. 
Astley  obtained  leave  of  absence  from  the 
duke,  hurried  home  to  rebuild  his  theatre, 
and  meanwhile  engaged  the  old  Lyceum 
building  in  the  Strand  for  equestrian  perform- 
ances. His  new  theatre  was  opened  in  1794, 
under  the  patronage  of  the  Prince  of  Wales 
and  Duke  of  York,  and  in  1798  he  was  per- 
mitted to  designate  his  establishment  Astley's 
Royal  Amphitheatre.  After  the  peace  of 
Amiens  he  returned  to  Paris,  presented  his 
claims  before  the  First  Consul,  regained  pos- 


Aston 


208 


Aston 


session  of  his  premises,  and  obtained  payment 
of  rent  for  the  whole  period  of  their  occupa- 
tion by  the  troops  of  the  Revolution.  With 
great  difficulty  he  made  his  escape  from  Paris 
upon  the  issue  of  the  decree  for  the  deten- 
tion of  all  English  subjects  in  France.  In 
1803  the  ampliitheatre  was  again  destroyed 
by  fire,  Astley's  loss  being  estimated  at 
25,000/.  Forthwith  he  laid  the  first  stone  of 
a  new  building,  which  was  completed  in  time 
to  open  on  Easter  Monday,  1804.  Astley 
now  retired  from  active  management  in  fa- 
vour of  his  son,  receiving,  however,  one  clear 
half  of  the  annual  profits.  He  next  at- 
tempted to  establish  an  amphitheatre  on  the 
Middlesex  side  of  the  Thames,  and  obtaining 
a  license  through  the  influence  of  Queen 
Charlotte  for '  music,  dancing,  burlettas,  pan- 
tomimes, and  equestrian  exhibitions,'  he 
opened  the  Olympic  Pavilion  on  the  site  of 
the  present  Olympic  Theatre.  Bv  this  ven- 
ture he  lost  10,000/.  In  1812  he  sold  the 
Olympic  Pavilion  to  Elliston  for  2,800/.  and 
a  small  annuity  to  be  paid  during  the  life  of 
Astley.  There  was  but  one  payment  of  the 
annuity.  Astley  died  in  Paris,  aged  72,  and 
was  buried  in  the  cemetery  of  Pere-la-Chaise. 
His  son,  '  Young  Astley,'  also  an  admired 
equestrian  performer,  to  whom  he  had  be- 
queathed the  interest  arising  from  liis  some- 
what encumbered  property,  survived  seven 
years  only.  He  also  died  in  Paris,  and  was 
intended  beside  his  father  in  Pere-la-Chaise. 
Philip  Astley  was  the  best  horse-tamer  of  his 
time.  He  usually  bought  his  horses  in  Smith- 
field,  caring,  as  he  said,  'little  for  shape, 
make,  or  colour :  temper  was  the  only  consi- 
deration.' He  rarely  gave  more  than  five 
pounds  for  a  horse.  He  was  a  man  of  violent 
temper,  peremptory  of  speech  and  rude  of 
manner,  but  of  great  energy  and  notable  in- 
tegrity ;  and  lie  was  regarded  with  affection 
by  the  members  of  his  company.  He  con- 
structed in  all  nineteen  amphitheatres  for 
equestrian  exhibitions. 

[Do  Castro's  Memoirs,  1824  ;  Brayley's  Thea- 
tres of  London,  1833.]  D.  C. 

ASTON,  ANTHONY  (/.  1712-1731), 
dramatist  and  actor,  was  the  son  of  a  gentle- 
man who  had  been  master  of  the  Plea  Office 
in  the  King's  Bench,  and  was  educated  as  an 
attorney.  He  is  said  to  have  played  in  all 
the  London  theatres,  but  never  continued 
long  in  any.  In  a  pamphlet  of  24  pages,  en- 
titled '  A  brief  Supplement  to  Colley  Gibber, 
Esquire,  his  Lives  of  the  Famous  Actors  and 
Actresses,'  and  written  apparently  about  1747, 
Aston  states  that  he  came  on  the  stage  at  the 
latter  end  of  the  reign  of  William  III.  With 
his  wife  and  son  he  travelled  through  Eng- 


land, and  at  the  chief  towns  presented  a 
medley  entertainment  of  humorous  scenes 
from  various  plays,  Avith  songs  and  dialogue 
of  his  own  composition  '  to  fill  up  the  chinks 
of  the  slender  meal.'  The  '  Spectator '  for 
1  Jan.  1712  contained  the  advertisement  of 
the  popular  comedian,  Richard  Estcourt,  that 
he  was  about  to  open  the  Bumper  Tavern  in 
James  Street,  Covent  Garden,  and  that  his 
wines  would  be  sold  with  the  utmost  fidelity 
by  liis  old  servant.  Trusty  Antony — it  has 
been  presumed  that  Aston  was  referred  to — 
'  who  had  so  often  adorned  both  the  theatres 
in  England  and  Ireland.'  In  1717  he  is  said 
to  have  performed  three  times  a  week  at  the 
Globe  and  Marlborough  Taverns  in  Fleet 
Street.  In  1735  he  petitioned  the  House  of 
Commons  to  be  heard  against  the  Bill  intro- 
duced by  Sir  John  Barnard  for  restraining 
the  number  of  theatres,  and  for  the  better 
regulating  of  common  players  of  interludes, 
when  he  was  permitted  to  deliver  a  ludicrous 
speech  upon  the  subject,  which  was  after- 
wards published  in  folio.  Chetwood,  whose 
history  was  published  in  1749,  believed  that 
Aston  was  then  living  and  '  travelling  still, 
and  as  well  known  as  the  post-horse  tliat 
carries  the  mail.'  Aston's  '  Brief  Supple- 
ment '  contains  interesting  mentions  of  Bet- 
terton,  Mrs.  Bracegirdle,  and  others.  He  was 
the  author  of  'Love  in  a  Hurry,'  a  comedy 
performed  without  success  at  the  Smock 
Alley  Theatre,  Dublin,  about  1709 ;  and  of 
'  Pastora,  or  the  Coy  Shepherdess,'  an  opera 
performed  bv  the  Duke  of  Richmond's  ser- 
vants at  Tunbridge  Wells  in  1712.  The 
*  Fool's  Opera,  or  the  Taste  of  the  Age,' 
printed  in  1731,  '  written  by  Matthew  Med- 
ley and  performed  by  his  company  in  Oxfoi'd,' 
has  also  been  attributed  to  Aston. 

[Chetwood's  History  of  the  Stage,  1749.] 

D.  C. 

ASTON,  Sir  ARTHUR  {d.  1649),  royalist  ,^^ 
general,  was  the  younger  of  the  two  sons  of  . 
Sir  Arthur  Aston,  knight,  of  Fulham,  Mid- 
dlesex, by  his  first  wife,  Christiana,  daughter 
of  John  Ashton,  of  Penrith,  Cumberland, 
and  grandson  of  Sir  Thomas  Aston,  knight . 
of  Aston,  in  Bucklow  hundred,  Cheshire,  in  ■)< ' 
which  county  the  'ancient  and  knightly 
family '  of  Aston  had  long  flourished.  Probably 
he  was  a  native  of  Fulham,  but  nothing  is  re- 
corded concerning  his  birthplace  or  education. 
He  went  to  Russia  dui'ing  the  unsettled  state 
of  that  kingdom  which  preceded  and  followed 
the  assumption  of  the  throne  by  Michael 
Federowitz  in  1613.  He  was  accompanied 
by  a  certain  number  of  men,  captains,  and 
commanders,  and  furnished  with  letters  of 
recommendation  from  James  I,  and  he  pro- 


Aston 


209 


Aston 


bably  remained  there  till  a  truce  was  con- 
cluded between  this  power  and  its  belligerent 
neighbours,  the  Poles,  in  1618.  Returning 
to  England,  he  again  procured  letters  from 
King  James,  and  repaired  to  the  camp  of 
Sigismund  III,  King  of  Poland — the  enemy 
against  whom  he  had  lately  striven — with 
the  view  of  aiding  that  monarch  in  his  war 
against  the  Turks.  In  this  service  he  con- 
sequently witnessed  the  total  overthrow  of 
the  Moslem  army.  With  Christopher  Rad- 
zivill,  general-in-chief  of  the  Lithuanian 
forces,  he  served  throughout  the  war,  attend- 
ing the  invasion  of  Livonia  by  Gustavus 
Adolphus,  in  1621 ;  and  as  a  proof  of  his 
meritorious  services  obtained  from  that 
general  letters  testimonal,  dated  at  Vilna, 
1  Jan.  1623,  in  which  his  military  bearing  is 
highly  extolled,  especially  in  recovering  the 
castle  of  Mittivia,  which  had  been  captured 
by  the  Swedes.  For  this  and  other  services 
Sigismund,  in  a  deed  dated  23  April  1625, 
granted  him  a  yearly  pension  of  700  florins. 
Upon  peace  being  restored  in  1631  to  the 
dominions  of  Sigismund,  Lieutenant-colonel 
Aston,  for  he  had  now  attained  that  rank, 
once  more  returned  to  England. 

Having  raised  here  a  regiment  of  native 
soldiers,  he  again  departed  for  the  continent. 
Once  more  he  drew  his  sword  in  the  service 
of  a  former  adversary.  Joining  Gustavus 
Adolphus  with  his  newly  raised  company,  he 
attended  that  celebrated  commander  in  his  ex- 
pedition against  the  Austrian  Count  Tilly,  and 
probably  throughout  that  splendid  campaign 
which  terminated  on  the  plain  of  Liitzen. 

At  the  commencement  of  the  Scottish  re- 
bellion he  returned  home  with  as  many  sol- 
diers of  note  as  he  could  bring  with  him. 
On  8  April  1640  he  was  appointed  by  the 
Earl  of  Northumberland  sergeant-major- 
general  of  the  regiments  under  Viscount 
Conway,  then  lying  at  Newcastle,  and,  after 
the  rout  at  Newburn,  retired  with  that  body 
first  to  Durham,  and  then  into  Yorkshire. 
On  Northumberland's  sickness,  the  command 
of  the  army  devolving  on  the  Earl  of  Straf- 
ford, he  was  by  that  nobleman  appointed 
(7  Sept.)  colonel-general  of  one  of  the  bri- 
gades serving  against  the  Scots,who  now  occu- 
pied Newcastle ;  and  on  the  17th  of  the  same 
month  sergeant-major  of  the  newly  raised 
train-bands  of  Yorkshire,  in  which  capacity 
he  served  until  the  return  home  of  the  Scots 
and  the  disbandment  of  the  English  army. 

Dodd  relates  (^Church  History,  iii.  57)  that 
on  the  breaking  out  of  the  civil  war  Sir 
Arthur  Aston — who  had  been  knighted  on 
15  Feb.  1 640-1 — '  offered  his  services  to  King 
Charles,  but  was  refused ;  his  majesty  alleg- 
ing that  the  cry  of  popery  already  ran  so 

VOL.   II. 


high  against  him  that  it  would  certainly  in- 
flame matters  if  he  admitted  so  many  persons 
of  that  communion.  Afterwards,  a«  'tis  said, 
Sir  Arthur,  by  way  of  tryal,  made  the  same 
offer  to  Sir  Thomas  Fairfax,  general  of  the 
parliament's  forces,  who  immediately  em- 
braced it.  The  king,  being  made  acquainted 
with  this  passage,  not  only  granted  a  com- 
mission to  Sir  Arthur,  but  gave  a  general 
invitation  to  all  other  catholics  to  come  in 
to  liim.'  The  appointment  he  received  was 
that  of  colonel-general  of  the  dragoons,  with 
which  regiment  he  did  his  majesty  good 
service  at  Edgehill,  beating  off  the  field  the 
right  wing  of  the  parliamentary  army. 

Upon  the  king's  removal  to  Oxford  from 
Reading  (21  Nov.  1642),  where  he  had  lain 
since  the  attack  on  Brentford,  he  left  Sir 
Arthur,  who  had  now  succeeded  Mr.  Wilmot 
as  commissary-general  of  the  horse,  governor 
of  that  town,  with  a  gaiTison  of  about  three 
thousand  foot,  and  a  regiment  of  horse  of  about 
as  many  hundreds.  Whilst  governor  of  Read- 
ing he  hanged  one  or  two  of  his  own  men 
who  had  been  guilty  of  some  notorious 
crimes,  '  to  stop  the  mouths  of  the  people,' 
said  a  contemporary  journalist,  *  for  his  mur- 
dering Master  Boys,  an  honest  citizen  of 
London,  by  a  seeming  act  of  justice.'  In 
the  'Weekly  Intelligencer'  {ISo.  18)  it  is 
stated  that  this  Boys,  who  was  executed  in 
tlie  town,  was  suspected  of  being  a  spy. 

During  the  siege  of  Reading  he  three  times 
repulsed  the  parliament  forces  under  the  Earl 
of  Essex ;  but  afterwards,  whilst  standing 
under  a  shed  near  the  enemy's  approaches,  he 
received  an  injury  on  the  head,  occasioned 
by  the  fall  of  a  tile — an  accident  which  de- 
prived him  of  his  senses  for  the  remainder  of 
the  siege.  Accordingly,  he  resigned  the 
command  to  Colonel  Richard  Fielding,  the 
senior  officer  of  the  garrison.  Clarendon, 
speaking  of  this  accident,  says  that  it  '  was 
then  thought  of  great  misfortune  to  the  king, 
for  there  was  not  in  his  army  an  officer  of 
greater  reputation,  and  of  \\diom  the  enemy 
had  a  greater  dread.'  The  siege  terminated 
on  27  April  1643,  by  the  garrison  evacuating 
the  town  with  the  honours  of  war.  Sir 
Arthur,  in  a  horse-litter,  led  the  procession, 
which  made  for  Wallingford,  and  the  next 
day  joined  the  king  at  Oxford.  Sir  Arthur's 
wound  did  not  long  deprive  the  king  of  his 
assistance  ;  for  on  27  July  following  he  came 
post  from  Bristol — at  the  taking  of  which 
city  he  was  probably  present — to  the  king  at 
Oxford,  informing  him  of  the  state  of  things 
in  the  west.  In  the  following  month,  at  the 
particular  request  of  the  queen,  who  re- 
sided in  the  city,  and  who  imagined  herself 
safer  imder  the  protection  of  a  catholic,  he 


Aston 


Aston 


was  appointed  governor  of  Oxford  on  the 
death  of  Sir  William  Pennyman.     Here,  on  ' 
1  May  following,  the  degree  of  M.D.  was 
conferred  upon  him  by  the  university.     On 
19  Sept.  1644  he  was  thrown  from  his  horse 
and  broke  his  leg ;  gangrene  set  in,  and  am-  j 
putation  Avas  performed  on  7   Dec.     This*] 
accident    was     regarded    by    the    puritans 
(Vicars,  Looking-glass  for  Malignants,  1645) 
as  a  judgment  of  God  against  Aston  for  an  i 
act  of  revolting  cruelty  which  he  had  perpe- 
trated a  short  time  before  in  adjudging  that  , 
a  soldier,  against  whom  he  bore  a  grudge,  ; 
should  have  his  right  hand  sawn  off.     As  j 
Sir  Arthur  thus  became    incapable  of  dis- 
charging the  active  duties  of  his  office,  the  king 
removed  him  from  the  command  (25  Dec), 
conferring  upon  him  a  pension  of  1,000/.  a 
year.     He   was  removed,   says  Anthony  a 
Wood,  '  to  the  great  rejoycing  of  the  soldiers 
and  others  in  Oxford,  having  expressed  him- 
self very  cruel  and  imperious  while  he  exe- 
cuted that  office.' 

In  November  1646  we  find  Aston  in  Ireland 
with  the  Marquis  of  Ormonde,  with  whom 
he  probably  returned  to  England  on  the  de- 
livery of  Dublin  to  the  parliament.  It  seems 
likely  that,  after  the  execution  of  the  king, 
he  joined  the  marquis  in  Ireland  on  his  re- 
suming the  government  there.  Certain  it  is, 
that  on  27  July  1649  he  sat  on  a  council  of 
war  convened  by  the  lord-lieutenant.  Being 
left  with  a  garrison  of  3,000  men  in  defence 
of  Drogheda  or  Tredagh,  Sir  Arthur  three 
times  repulsed  the  army  of  General  Crom- 
well, which  approached  the  works  8  Sept. 
1649.  This  determined  perseverance,  how- 
ever, eventually  proved  unsuccessful.  The 
town  was  entered  on  the  10th.  No  quarter 
was  given,  and  only  about  thirty  persons 
escaped,  who,  with  several  hundreds  of  the 
Irish  nation,  were  shipped  off  as  slaves  to 
the  island  of  Barbadoes  (Dodd,  Church  His- 
tory, iii.  58).  Aston  perished  in  the  butchery. 
He  was  hacked  to  pieces,  and  his  brains  were 
beaten  out  with  his  wooden  leg. 

Clarendon  remarks  that  the  king,  in  all  his 
armies,  had  but  one  general  officer  of  the 
catholic  religion,  '  Sir  Arthur  Aston,  whom 
the  papists,  notwithstanding,  would  not  ac- 
knowledge for  a  papist.'  The  same  writer, 
referring  to  Aston's  appointment  as  governor 
of  Oxford,  says  he  'had  the  fortune  to  be 
very  much  esteemed  where  he  was  not  known, 
and  very  much  detested  where  he  was  ;  and 
he  was  at  this  time  too  well  known  at  Ox- 
ford to  be  beloved  by  any.'  Clarendon  adds 
that  he  was  •'  a  man  of  a  rough  nature,  and 
so  given  up  to  an  immoderate  love  of  money 
that  he  cared  not  by  what  unrighteous  ways 
lie  exacted  it.' 


[Memoir  by  Gr.  Steinman-Steinman,  in  Gent. 
Mag.  n.  s.  i.  144,  234  ;  Kippis's  Biog.  Brit.;  Notes 
and  Queries,  viii.  126,  302, 480,  629  ;  Clarendon's 
Hist,  of  the  Rebellion ;  Coates's  Hist,  of  Eeading, 
24  seq. ;  Addit.  MS.  18980  ff.  22,  43;  Wood's 
Fasti  Oxon.  ed.  Bliss,  ii.  77 ;  Life  of  Anthony  a 
Wood,  ed.  Bliss,  p.  xx ;  Dodd's  Church  Hist, 
iii.  57  ;  Calendars  of  State  Papers ;  Cromwell's 
Letters  and  Speeches  (1850),  ii.  205  ;  Faulkner's 
Fulham,  306.]  T.  C. 

ASTON,  or  ASHTON,  JOHN  {Jl.  1382), 
one  of  Wycliffe's  earliest  followers,  is  de- 
scribed as  M.A.  and  '  scholar '  (or,  once, 
*  bachelor ')  in  theology  at  Oxford,  and,  ac- 
cording to  Anthony  a  Wood  {History  and 
Antiquities  of  the  University  of  Oxford,  i. 
492,  ed.  Gutch),  was  a  member  of  Merton 
College.  He  appears  first  to  have  been  en- 
gaged as  one  of  Wyclifie's  band  of  itinerant 
priests,  and  by  the  year  1382  had  become 
conspicuous  for  his  advocacy  of  his  master's 
views,  particularly  of  those  relating  to  the 
sacrament  of  the  Lord's  supper.  Knighton 
(col.  2658,  sq.)  describes  the  zeal  with  which 
he  carried  on  his  mission  as  a  preacher  of  the 
new  doctrine,  and  the  author  of  the  'Fasciculi 
Zizaniorum  '  (p.  274)  makes  the  well-known 
rebel,  John  Ball,  in  his  confession,  name  Aston 
in  company  with  Nicholas  Hereford  and  Law- 
rence Bedeman  as  the  leaders  of  W^ycliffii's 
party.  In  1382  these  three  men,  together  with 
Philip  Repyngdon,  were  singled  out  among  the 
Oxford  W^ycliffites  as  the  subjects  of  a  prose- 
cution at  the  hands  of  Archbishop  Courtney, 
who  first  issued,  12  June,  an  ineffectual  man- 
date restraining  them  from  public  functions 
in  the  university,  and  then  summoned  them 
to  an  examination  to  be  held  before  him  at 
the  Blackfriars  Priory  in  London.  Wy- 
cliffe's specific  doctrines  had,  in  fact,  been 
already  condemned  at  the  '  earthquake '  coun- 
cil of  Blackfriars  in  the  preceding  month,  and 
there  was  little  difficulty  in  implicating  his 
disciples  in  them.  Aston  appeared  on  18  June. 
He  circulated  a  broadsheet  declaring  his  al- 
legiance to  the  faith  of  the  church,  and  won 
so  much  sympathy  that  his  final  hearing  on 
the  20th  was  interiaipted  and  nearly  broken 
up  by  the  invasion  of  a  friendly  mob.  He 
was,  however,  condemned,  and,  by  virtue  of 
a  subsequent  royal  patent,  dated  13  July,  was 
expelled  from  his  university.  By  the  arch- 
bishop's order  a  search  was  then  made  for 
him  and  his  companions,  and  at  length,  in 
October,  Aston  was  seized.  On  27  Nov.  he 
followed  the  example  of  Bedeman  and  Re- 
pyngdon (Hereford  had  left  the  country), 
recanted,  and  returned  to  Oxford.  His  re- 
cantation, however,  was  transient.  In  1387 
Bishop  Wakefield  of  Worcester  denounced 
him  as  a  dangerous  Lollard,  and  prohibited 


Aston 


211 


Aston 


liim  from  preaching.  Accoi-ding  to  Foxe 
{Acts,  iii.  47,  ed.  Townsend)  he  was  cited  and 
condemned  later  by  Archbishop  Arundel ; 
but  this  statement  seems  to  rest  upon  the 
notice  in  the  St.  Albans  Chronicles  (Wal- 
SINGHAM,  ii.  65  sq.,  ed.  Kiley;  Chronicon 
Am/lice,  1328-1388,  p.  350,  ed.  Thompson) 
of  the  popular  disturbance  at  his  trial,  Avhich 
evidently  relates  to  that  held  by  Archbishop 
Courtney  (cf.  Fasc.  Ziz.  p.  329). 

A  few  writings  by  Aston  are  enumerated 
by  Bale  {Scripfonon  Illustrium  Catalogus, 
p.  495,  ed.  Basle,  1559). 

The  name  is  spelled  variously.  The  au- 
thorities last  mentioned  give  *  Astone ; '  the 

*  Fasciculi  Zizaniorum  '   alternate    between 

*  Astone '  and  '  Aston  ; '  while  the  Lambeth 
registers  (see  Fasc.  Ziz.,  p.  310,  n.  8)  have 

*  Ashton,'  and  Wilkins  prints  *  Asshton.' 
Other  forms  are  *  Ayston '  (Wood,  I.  c.)  and 
^  Ayshton '  (Tajtner,  Bibl.  Brit.-Hib.,^.  54). 

[Fasciculi  Zizaniorum,  pp.  273-90,  309-U, 
329-33  (ed.  Shirley,  Kolls  series);  Knighton, 
De  Event.  Angl.,  coll.  26-56-9  (in  Twysden's 
Decern  Seriptores) ;  Wilkins's  Concil.  Magn. 
Brit.  iii.  157-69, 202et  seq.  (1737) ;  J.Lewis's  Life 
of  Wiclif,  pp.  262-6,  ed.  Oxford,  1820 ;  Lech- 
ler's  John  Wiclif  and  his  English  Precursors, 
pp.  215-22,  433-9,  Engl,  tr.,  ed.  1881.] 

K.  L,  P. 

ASTON,  JOSEPH  (1762-1844),  journal- 
ist, dramatist,  and  miscellaneous  writer,  was 
born  in  1762,  the  son  of  William  Aston, 

fimsmith,  of  Deansgate,  in  Manchester, 
n  1803  he  opened  a  stationer's  shop  at 
€4  Deansgate,  where,  on  1  Jan.  1805,  he 
issued  the  prospectus  of  the  '  Manchester 
Mail,'  published  at  sixpence,  and  professing 

*  no  political  creed.'  From  1809  till  1825  he 
was  publisher  and  editor  of  the  '  Manchester 
Exchange  Herald,'  a  conservative  journal. 
Afterwards  he  removed  to  Rochdale,  where 
he  started  the  *  Rochdale  Recorder.'  He  died 
at  Chadderton  Hall,  19  Oct.  1844,  and  was 
buried  at  Tonge,  adjoining  Middleton.  Aston 
was  the  friend  and  executor  of  Thomas  Bar- 
ritt,  the  antiquary.  For  about  thirty-four 
years  he  also  enjoyed  the  closest  intimacy 
with  James  Montgomery,  the  poet,  and  editor 
■of  the  '  Sheffield  Iris,'  Avho  submitted  to 
him  most  of  his  manuscripts  for  revision 
and  criticism.  He  himself  was  a  facile 
writer  of  verses,  the  majority  of  which  ap- 
peared in  his  own  paper.  Of  his  dramatic 
pieces,  '  Conscience,'  a  comedy,  was  per- 
formed at  the  Theatre  Royal,  Manchester, 
in  1815,  with  moderate  success;  and  he  also 
wrote  '  Retributive  Justice,'  a  tragedy,  and 

*  A  Family  Story,'  a  comedy.  His  published 
works  nearly  all  relate  to  Manchester.  Thev 
include  '  The  Manchester  Guide,'  1804,  Snii 


edition,  1815,  3rd,  with  plates,  1826;  *  His- 
tory and  Description  of  the  Collegiate  Church 
of  Christ,  Manchester;'  'Lancashire  Ga- 
zetteer,' Ist  edition  1808,  2nd  1822;  'An 
Heroic  Epistle  from  the  Quadruple  Obelisk 
in  the  Market  Place  to  the  New  Exchange,' 
1809;  '  A  Descriptive  Account  of  Manches- 
ter Exchange,' 1810;  'Metrical  Records  of 
Manchester,  in  which  its  History  is  traced 
(currente  calamo)  from  the  days  of  the 
ancient  Britons  to  the  present  time,'  1822. 

[Fishwick,  Lancashire  Library,  1875,  37,  119, 
and  285;  Procter,  Memorials  of  Manchester 
Streets,  1874,  pp.  164-174;  Memoirs  of  the  Life 
and  Writings  of  James  Montgomery,  by  John 
Holland  and  James  Everett,  1854-56;  Notes 
and  Queries,  vol.  xii.,  2nd  series,  379,  and  vol.  i., 
3rd  series,  97.]  T.  F.  H. 

ASTON,  Sir  RICHARD  (<7. 1778),  judge, 
was  a  younger  son  of  Richard  Aston,  Esq., 
of  W^adley,  Berks,  by  Elizabeth,  daughter  of 
John  Warren,  Esq.,  of  Oxfordshire,  gi-and- 
son  of  Sir  AVilloughby  Aston,  Bart.,  and 
great-gi-andson  of  Sir  Thomas  Aston,  created 
baronet  by  Charles  I,  sheriff"  of  Cheshire  in 
1635,  who  exerted  himself  energetically  on 
the  side  of  the  king  in  the  constitutional 
struggle,  and  lost  his  life  through  a  wound 
received  in  a  skirmish  in  1645.  The  Astons 
derived  their  name  from  Aston  in  Cheshire, 
where  the  fiimily  had  been  settled  since  the 
time  of  Henry  II.  It  is  not  known  at  what 
date  Richard  Aston  began  practice  as  a  bar- 
rister. His  name  appears  with  tolerable 
frequency  in  the  first  volume  of  Sir  James 
Burrow's  '  Reports  of  Cases  in  the  King's 
Bench  '  (1756-8),  but  seldom  in  connection 
with  cases  of  first-rate  importance.  He 
became  king's  counsel  in  1759,  and  in  1761 
was  made  lord  chief  justice  of  the  court  of 
Common  Pleas  in  Ireland,  on  the  resignation 
of  Sir  William  Yorke.  In  this  office  he 
seems  to  have  displayed  considerable  energy. 
Discovering  that  it  was  the  practice  of  grand 
juries  in  that  country  to  find  bills  of  indict- 
ment upon  the  mere  perusal  of  depositions 
without  examining  any  witnesses,  he  set  him- 
self to  reform  so  scandalous  an  abuse.  He 
failed,  however,  to  carry  his  colleagues  with 
him,  only  two  out  of  nine  disapproving  of 
the  practice,  which  remained  unaltered  until 
1816,  when  a  bill  making  the  examination  of 
witnesses  obligatory  was  introduced  into  the 
House  of  Commons  by  Horner  and  passed 
into  law.  Few  English  judges  have  been 
popular  in  Ireland,  and  Aston  was  not  one 
of  the  few.  Accordingly,  on  the  resignation 
of  Sir  Thomas  Denison,  one  of  the  judges  of 
the  King's  Bench  in  England,  which  happened 
in  1765,  he  resigned  his  Irish  post,  and  was 

p  2 


Aston 


Aston 


transferred  to  the  English  court  and  knighted. 
In  1768  Aston  was  a  member  of  the  court 
presided  over  by  Lord  Mansfield,  which  unani- 
mously decided  that  the  writ  of  outlawry 
issued  against  Wilkes  upon  his  conviction  for 
publishing  two  seditious  liljels  in  No.  45  of 
the  'North  Briton'  and  in  the  'Essay  on 
Woman,'  was  bad  by  reason  of  two  formal 
defects.  Wilkes,  who  had  kept  out  of  the 
country  until  the  writ  was  issued,  voluntarily 
surrendered  himself  to  the  sheriff  of  INIiddle- 
sex  before  the  execution  of  it,  and  then  ap- 
peared before  the  court  upon  a  writ  of  error, 
claiming  to  have  the  writ  of  outlawry  de- 
clared invalid  upon  certain  technical  gi-ounds. 
The  judges  disallowed  all  the  objections  urged 
by  the  counsel  for  Wilkes,  but  the  result  of  a 
careful  examination  of  precedents  conducted 
by  the  junior  members  of  the  court  (Yates, 
Aston,  and  Willes)  was  to  show  that  in  the 
days  when  the  writ  of  outlawry  (capias  utla- 
(jatum)  was  in  common  use  '  a  series  of 
judgments  required  that  .  .  .  after  the  Avords 
"  at  my  county  court "  should  be  added  the 
name  of  the  county,  and  after  the  word  "  held  " 

should  be  added  "for  the  county  of " 

(naming  it).'  The  vsTit  being  faulty  in  these 
respects,  the  court  held  that  it  was  invalid. 
A  decision  based  upon  a  ground  so  purely 
technical,  overlooked  by  the  counsel  for  the 
applicant,  and  only  discovered  by  the  judges 
after  careful  research,  excited  in  the  minds 
of  those  hostile  to  Wilkes  suspicions  of  cor- 
rupt motives,  and  a  report  was  circulated  to 
the  effect  that  the  judges,  or  at  any  rate 
Willes  and  Aston,  had  been  bribed  by  a  gift 
of  lottery  tickets,  that  Aston  had  been  seen 
selling  them  on  'Change,  and  had  remarked 
that  he  had  as  good  a  right  to  sell  his  tickets 
as  his  brother  Willes.  In  1770,  on  the 
sudden  death  of  Yorke,  which  occurred  on 
20  Jan.,  immediately  after  his  acceptance  of 
the  office  of  lord  chancellor  in  succession  to 
Lord  Camden,  the  Rockingham  administra- 
tion, being  unable  to  find  any  lawyer  of  ability 
and  character  to  succeed  him,  determined  to 
put  the  gi'eat  seal  in  commission ;  and  Sir 
Sidney  Stafford  Smythe  of  the  Exchequer, 
Sir  Richard  Aston  of  the  King's  Bench,  and 
the  Hon.  Henry  Bathurst  of  the  Common 
Pleas,  were  selected  as  commissioners.  These 
three  judges,  having  had  no  experience  of 
chancery  Tausiness,  in  the  space  of  a  year 
(1770-i)  committed  so  many  blunders  that 
a  change  was  plainly  necessary.  Accordingly, 
on  21  Jan.  1771,  the  three  commissioners 
delivered  up  the  gi'eat  seal,  and  on  the  same 
day  it  was  redelivered  to  one  of  them,  the 
Hon.  Henry  Bathurst.  It  was  by  Aston, 
sitting  with  Lord  Mansfield  in  the  court  of 
King's  Bench  at  Westminster,  that  in  1777 


sentence  of  fine  and  imprisonment  was  passed 
upon  Home  (afterwards  Home  Tooke)  for  a 
seditious  libel  in  advertising  a  subscription 
in  relief  '  of  the  widows,  orphans,  and  aged 
parents  of  our  beloved  American  fellow- 
subjects,  who,  faithful  to  the  character  of 
Englishmen,  and  preferi'ing  death  to  slavery, 
were,  for  that  reason  only,  inhumanly  mur- 
dered by  the  king's  troops  at  or  near  Lexington 
and  Concord  in  the  province  of  Massachu- 
setts.' Aston  was  married  twice,  first  to  a 
Miss  Eldred,  and  then  to  Rebecca,  daughter 
of  Dr.  Rowland,  a  physician  of  Aylesbury, 
and  widow  of  Sir  David  Williams,  Bart.,  of 
Rose  Hall,  Herts.  He  is  said  to  have  been 
brusque  in  his  manners.  He  died  in  1778, 
leaving  no  issue  by  either  of  his  wives. 

[Burke's Extinct  Baronetage,  23, 569 ;  Wotton's- 
Baronetage ;  Cal.  of  Home  Office  Papers,  1766-9, 
1770-2 ;  Hansard,  xxxii.  548,  552  ;  Homer's  Life, 
Letter  from  Horner  to  Murray  upon  the  Irish 
Jury  Bill;  Smyth's  Law  Officers  of  Ireland,  311 ; 
Law  and  Lawyers  (reputed  author  James  Grant), 
ii.  140;  Burrow's  Settlement  Cases,  533;  Biu-row'* 
Eeports,  iv.  2527;  Howell's  State  Trials,  xix. 
1085,  1098,  1109,  1116,  xx.  787;  Cr.  Oif.  Min. 
B.  No.  2,  fol.  16;  Annual  Eeg.  xiii.  186.] 

J.  M.  E. 

ASTON,  Sir  THOMAS  (1600-1645), 
royalist,  was  the  heir  of  an  ancient  Cheshire- 
family  which  had  been  settled  at  Aston  in 
that  county  for  many  generations,  and  showed 
undoubted  descent  from  the  time  of  Henry  II. 
Several  of  these  early  Astons  were  knighted, 
and  one  of  them  was  treasurer  to  Philippa,the 
wife  of  Edward  III,  and  joined  in  the  wars 
in  Spain.  Thomas  Aston  was  bom  on  29  Sept. 
1600.  His  father,  Jolm  Aston,  who  had  been 
sewer  to  the  wife  of  James  I,  died  in  1615, 
and  presumably  his  children  remained  under 
the  care  of  his  widow.  Thomas  was  educated 
at  Brasenose  College,  Oxford.  He  was  made 
a  baronet  by  Charles  I  in  July  1628,  and 
served  as  high  sheriff  of  Cheshire  in  1635. 
In  this  year  died  his  first  wife,  Magdalene, 
daughter  of  Sir  John  Poulteney,  but  their 
four  children  all  died  young.  She  lies  buried 
in  the  family  chapel  at  Aston  Hall,  with  an 
epitaph  which  may  have  been  the  work  of 
her  husband,  and  is  certainly  characteristic 
of  the  period.  In  1639  Sir  Thomas  took  as 
his  second  wife  Anne,  the  heiress  of  Sir  Henry 
Willoughby,  and  his  only  son  was  named 
Willoughby. 

Sir  Thomas  was  a  staunch  churchman  and 
loyally  attached  to  the  monarchy,  and  in  the 
civil  and  ecclesiastical  troubles  he  took  his 
pai-t.  The  portentous  rise  of  nonconformist 
sentiment  excited  alike  fear  and  anger. 
When  what  was  known  as  the  Cheshire  pe- 
tition against  episcopacy  was  in  circidation, 


Aston 


213 


Aston 


Sir  Tliomas  and  his  friends  set  about  the  pre- 
paration of  a  counter-petition  orremonstrance. 
Sir  Thomas  was  attacked  as  the  framer  of 
the  document  in  an  '  answer  '  which  he  de- 
nounces as  the  work  of  *  some  brain-sick 
anabaptist,'  and  this  appears  to  have  provoked 
him  to  the  hasty  compilation  of  a  quarto 
which  is  sufficiently  described  on  its  title- 
page  :  *  A  Remonstrance  against  Presbytery, 
exhibited  by  divers  of  the  nobilitie,  gentrie, 
ministers,  and  inhabitants  of  the  County 
Palatine  of  Chester,  with  the  motives  of 
that  Remonstrance,  together  with  a  short 
sur^'ey  of  the  Presbyterian  discipline,  show- 
ing the  inconveniences  of  it,  and  the  incon- 
sistency thereof  with  the  constitution  of 
this  state,  being  in  its  principles  destructive 
to  the  laws  and  liberties  of  the  people. 
With  a  briefe  review  of  the  institution, 
succession,  jurisdiction  of  the  ancient  and 
venerable  order  of  bishops  found  to  be  in- 
stituted by  the  Apostles,  continued  ever 
since,  grounded  on  the  lawes  of  God  and 
most  .ngreeable  to  the  law  of  the  land.  By 
Sir  Thomas  Aston,  Baronet.  .  .  .  Printed 
for  John  Aston,  1641'  (B.M.),  4to.  Sir 
Thomas  includes  in  his  book  the  petition  to 
which  it  is  an  answer,  and  also  '  certain 
positions'  maintained  by  Samuel  Eaton  in 
his  sermons  at  Chester  andKnutsford.  Eaton 
had  been  resident  in  New  England,  and  had 
brought  thence  a  keen  appreciation  of  the 
congi'egational  form  of  church  government. 
Aston  also  made  '  A  Collection  of  Sundry 
Petitions  presented  to  the  King's  most  ex- 
cellent Majesty,  as  also  to  the  two  Houses 
now  assembled  in  Parliament.  And  others 
already  signed  by  most  of  the  gentry,  minis- 
ters, and  freeholders  of  several  counties,' 
1642  (Bodleian).  When  the  war  broke  out 
between  the  king  and  parliament.  Sir  Thomas 
took  part  with  the  royalists,  and  was  in 
command  at  IMiddlewich  in  March  1642-3, 
when  lie  was  defeated  by  Sir  William  Brere- 
ton.  The  royalists  lost  their  two  cannons 
and  five  hundred  stand  of  arms.  Few  were 
slain,  but  the  prisoners  included  many  of  the 
principal  cavaliers  engaged,  and  the  town 
suffered  at  the  hands  of  the  roundheads,  who 
made  free  with  the  property  of  burgesses  and 
the  plate  of  the  church.  Sir  Thomas  escaped, 
but  when  a  few  days  later  he  returned  to 
Chester  he  was  placed  under  arrest  at  Pul- 
ford,  where  he  wrote  a  defence  of  his  conduct 
which  furnishes  a  very  minute  account  of 
the  afiair  and  is  an  interesting  picture  of  the 
civil  war.  Sir  Thomas  apparently  freed  him- 
self from  censure  and  rejoined  the  king's  army, 
and  indeed  is  said  to  have  suffered  a  second 
defeat  from  Brereton  at  Macclesfield  in  1643. 
He  was  afterwards  captured  in  a  skirmish  in 


Staflbrdshire.  When  in  prison  at  Staftbrd  he 
endeavoured  to  escape,  but  the  attempted 
evasion  was  discovered  by  a  soldier  who 
struck  him  on  the  head.  This  and  other 
wounds  received  in  the  war  brought  on  a 
fever,  of  Avhich  he  died  at  Stafford  on  24  March 
1645.  He  was  buried  at  Aston  chapel,  and 
is  fairly  entitled,  as  Wood  says,  '  to  the 
character  of  a  stout  and  learned  man.' 

[Ormerod's  History  of  Cheshire,  ed.  Helsby, 
1882,  ii.  82-3;  Rarwaker's  East  Cheshire,  1880, 
i.  470,  ii.  6.57 ;  Wood's  Athenae  Oxonienses ; 
Axon's  Cheshire  Gleanings,]  W.  E.  A.  A. 

ASTON,  WALTER,  Baron  Aston  op 
Forfar  (1584-1639),  ambassador,  was  the 
eldest  son  of  Sir  Edward  Aston,  of  Tixall 
in  Staffordshire,  whose  rental  has  been  esti- 
mated at  10,000/.,  so  that  he  must  have 
been  one  of  the  richest  men  in  England. 
Walter  was  one  of  the  knights  of  the  Bath, 
created  at  the  coronation  of  James  I,  and 
was  one  of  the  first  baronets.  He  was  sent  as 
ambassador  to  Spain  in  1620,  where  he  re- 
mained till  diplomatic  relations  between 
Spain  and  England  were  broken  oft'  at  the 
beginning  of  1625.  James  I  did  not,  how- 
ever, repose  sufficient  confidence  in  liim  to 
entrust  him  with  the  delicate  negotiations 
relating  to  the  Palatinate  and  the  marriage 
treaty,  and  in  1622  he  was  overshadowed  by 
Lord  Digby,  who  at  the  end  of  that  year 
became  Earl  of  Bristol,  and  was  appointed 
extraordinary  ambassador  to  conduct  those 
negotiations.  When  Prince  Charles  and 
Buckingham  were  in  Spain,  he  gained  their 
confidence  by  expressing  a  strong  opinion,  in 
opposition  to  Bristol,  against  the  Spanish 
proposals  for  securing  the  Palatinate  to  the 
family  of  the  elector  palatine  by  educating . 
the  two  eldest  sons  at  the  emperor's  court. 
Charles  took  a  liking  to  him  probably  on  this 
ground,  and  in  his  subsequent  letters  always 
addressed  him  as  '  Honest  Wat.'  In  1627  he 
created  him  Lord  Aston  of  Forfar,  in  the 
Scottish  peerage.  From  1635  to  1638  he 
again  served  as  ambassador  in  Spain.  Shortly 
after  his  return  he  died,  on  Aug.  13,  1639. 
He  is  well  known  in  literary  history  as  the 
patron  of  Drayton.  His  wife  was  Gertrude 
Sadler,  gi-anddaughter  of  the  Sir  Ralph  Sadler 
who  played  a  part  in  politics  in  the  reign  of 
Henry  VIII  and  his  successors. 

[Douglas,  Peerage  of  Scotland;  MSS.,  Des- 
patches ;  State  Papers,  Spain.]  S.  R.  G-. 

ASTON,  WILLIAM  (1735-1800),  a 
.lesuit,  whom  Dr.  Oliver  believed  to  he  the 
son  of  Edward  Aston,  by  Ann  Bayley  his 
wife,  Avas  born  in  London  22  April,  1735. 
He  made  his  early  studies  in  the  college  at 
St.  Omer,  and  at  the  age  of  sixteen  he  joined 


Astry 


214 


Asty 


the  Society  of  Jesus  at  Watten  (7  Sept., 
1751).  In  1761  lie  was  professor  of  poetry 
at  St.  Omer.  He  was  admitted  to  his  solemn 
profession  in  his  order  2  Feb.  1769.  His 
commanding  talents  and  accomplished  man- 
ners recommended  him  for  the  presidency  of 
the  Little  College  at  Bruges.  On  its  violent 
suppression  hy  the  Belgic-Austrian  privy 
council  of  Brussels,  he  was  detained  a  close 
prisoner  for  eight  months ;  but  he  and  his 
companions  were  ultimately  released,  owing 
to  the  exertions  of  Henry,  the  eighth  Lord 
Arundell  of  Wardour,  who  interceded  Avith 
Prince  Staremberg,  the  Austrian  prime  mi- 
nister, on  their  behalf.  A  few  years  later 
Father  Aston  established  an  academy  at 
Liege,  and  he  obtained  a  canonry  in  the  col-  ; 
legiate  church  of  St.  John  in  that  city.  He 
died  15  March,  1800.  Besides  writing  for 
reviews  and  journals,  Father  Aston  pub- 
lished D'x\zais'  '  Compte-rendu,'  '  Lettres 
Ultramontaines,'  and  '  Le  Cosmopolite.'  : 

[Oliver's  Collectanea  S.  J. ;  Foley's  Eeeords  of 
the  English  Province  of  the  Society  of  Jesus, 
vols.  V.  and  vii.]  T.  C.      i 

ASTRY,  RICHARD  (1632P-1714),  anti- 
quary, was  bom  in  Hunt  ingdonshire  in  or  about 
1632.  He  was  admitted  of  Queens'  College,  { 
Cambridge,  on  March  14,  1647-8  ;  proceeded 
B.A.  in  165]  ;  and  in  1654  obtained  from  his 
college  a  grace  for  M.A.,  though  that  degree 
is  not  recorded  in  the  university  registers. 
After  leaving  the  university  he  Avas  elected 
an  alderman  of  Huntingdon,  and  he  was 
buried  at  St.  Mary's  in  that  town  on  Aug.  11, 
1714,  aged  83.  He  is  the  author  of  a  quarto 
volume  of  collections,  heraldic  and  topogra- 
phical, relating  to  the  coimty  of  Huntingdon, 
preserved  in  the  Lansdowne  MS.  921.  The 
authorship  of  this  MS.,  which  is  the  only  sys- 
tematic attempt  towards  a  history  of  Hun- 
tingdonshire, has  hitherto  been  erroneously 
ascribed  to  Sir  Robert  Cotton.  Mr.  Thomas 
Baker  has  made  copious  extracts  from  this 
work  in  the  thirty-sixth  volume  of  his  MSS. 
now  deposited  in  the  University  Library, 
Cambridge.  Astry  also  drcAv  up  '  Alpha- 
betical Catalogues  of  English  Surnames,  with 
the  arms  belonging  to  them,  and  the  parti- 
cular times  that  the  persons  recorded  lived  ; ' 
forming  three  small  but  rather  thick  oblong  I 
folio  volumes,  formerly  in  the  possession  of  | 
the  Rev.  Henry  Freeman,  of  Norman  Cross.  I 

[MS.  Baker,  36;  MS.  Lansd.  921.]      T.  C.      ] 

ASTY,  JOHN  (1672P-1730),  dissenting  | 
clergyman,was  son  of  Robert  Asty  of  Norwich 
and  grandson  to  the  '  ejected '  of  Stratford, 
Avhose  christian  name  was  John,  not  Robert 
(llABMitiVi,  Ancient  and  Present  State  of  Con- 


gregational Churches  of  Norfolk  and  Suffolk^. 
p.  45).  He  was  born  at  Norwich  '  about  1672.' 
()f  his  early  education,  and  of  his  education 
altogether,  little  or  nothing  has  been  trans- 
mitted ;  but  in  his  funeral  sermon  by  Guyse 
(1730)  he  is  shown  to  have  made  *  thankful 
acknowledgments  for  his  privilege  in  de- 
scending from  godly  parents '  and  for  '  the 
advantages  received  from  a  religious  educa- 
tion.' He  spent  several  years  during  the 
earlier  part  of  his  ministry  in  the  historic 
family  of  the  Fleetwoods  of  Stoke  Newing- 
ton,  then  outside  London.  It  does  not  appear 
that  he  undertook  any  pastoral  charge  proper 
until  1713.  In  that  year  he  was  '  ordained ' 
as  '  pastor '  to  a  congregation  at  Ropemaker's 
Alley,  Moorfields.  Here  he  laboured  most 
devotedly  and  self-denyingly  until  the  date 
of  his  death.  He  was  involved  in  a  some- 
what passionate  controversy  with  a  fellow 
dissenting  minister  named  Martin  Tom- 
kins,  also  *  settled  '  in  Stoke  Newington» 
Tomkins  was  among  the  earliest  of  the  ori- 
ginally '  evangelical '  protestant  dissenters 
Avho  came  to  hold  Arian-Socinian  concep- 
tions of  the  'divinity '  of  Jesus  Christ.  This 
touched  nearly  Asty's  beliefs,  and  he  fear- 
lessly and  faithfully  asserted  the  Biblical- 
Athanasian  doctrine.  Even  Tomkins  admitted 
ultimately  that  his  opponent  contended  not 
against  him  as  an  individual,  but  for  what 
he  believed  to  be  truth  necessary  to  salva- 
tion. Later  Asty  signed  the  declaration  *  on 
the  doctrine  of  the  blessed  Trinity,'  as  pro- 
mulgated in  the  first  article  of  the  Church  of 
England  and  in  the  answer  to  the  fifth  and 
sixth  questions  of  the  Assembly's  catechism, 
agreed  upon  at  the  Salters'  Hall  synod,. 
7  April  1719.  He  was  a  great  admirer  of 
the  practical  writings  of  the  illustrious  Dr. 
John  Owen,  and  in  his  earnest  sermons  was 
never  weaiy  in  setting  forth  '  the  unsearch- 
able riches  of  Christ.'  '  And  yet,'  witnesses- 
Guyse,  '  in  my  freest  converse  with  him  I 
have  with  pleasure  observed  a  remarkable 
tenderness  in  his  spirit  as  to  judging  the 
state  of  those  who  differed  from  him,  even 
in  points  which  he  took  to  be  of  Aery  great 
importance'  (as  before,  p.  81).  He  died  on 
20  Jan.  1729-30.  He  is  one  of  the  many 
A'enerable  men  laid  to  rest  in  Bunhill  Fields, 
not  far  from  John  Bunyan's  graAe.  He  pub- 
lished only  a  single  sermon,  on  the  death  of 
Mrs.  Elizabeth  Fleetwood  and  preached  at 
Stoke  Newington  on  23  June  1728  from  Job 
ix.  12.  He  also  prefixed  to  the  collectiA'e 
folio  Aolume  of  the  ' Sermons  and  Tracts  of 
Dr.  John  Owen'  (1721)  a  Avell-weighed  and 
loA'ing  account  of  this  second  greatest  of  the 
later  puritans.  It  may  be  added  that  among 
the  1662  farcAvell  sermons  is  one  by  Joha 


Athelard 


215 


Athelstan 


Asty,  the  *  ejected '  clergyman  of  Stratford, 
and  that  Robert  Asty  of  Norwich  published  a 
singularly  bright  and  consolatory  book  called 
'  Treatise  of  Kt^oicing  in  the  Lord  Jesus  in 
all  Cases  and  Conditions  '  (1683). 

[Calamy  and Pahner's  Nonconf.  Mem.iii.  288; 
AV.  Wilson's  Dissenting  Churches,  ii.  537-45;  Dr. 
John  Guyse's  Funeral  Sermon ;  Harmer,  ut  supra ; 
for  full  details  on  the  Asty  family,  see  Browne's 
History  of  Congregationalism  in  Norfolk  and 
Suffolk,  Appendix,  p.  614.]  A.  B.  G. 

ATHELARD  of  Bath.  [See  Adelakd.] 

ATHELM  (d.  923),  archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, is  said  by  William  of  Malmesbury  ( Gesta 
Heff.  ii.  184)  to  have  been  a  monk  of  Glas- 
tonbury. This  statement  has  been  disputed 
{Anfflia  Sacra,  i.  556),  but  there  is  no  con- 
clusive evidence  against  it.  In  909  Atlielm 
was  made  the  first  bishop  of  Wells.  Since  705 
there  had  been  two  West-Saxon  sees,  at  Win- 
chester and  at  Sherborne  [see  Aldhelm]. 
William  of  Malmesbury  {Gesta  Rey.  ii.  129) 
says  that  Pope  Formosus  sent  a  letter  to  King 
Edward,  excommunicating  him  and  his  sub- 
jects, because  the  West-Saxon  country  had 
been  left  without  a  bishop  for  seven  years ; 
that  the  king  held  a  synod  of  great  men,  who 
divided  the  land  into  five  instead  of  two  dio- 
ceses, and  chose  five  new  bishops ;  and  that, 
in  909,  Archbishop  Plegmund  consecrated 
seven  bishops  in  one  day,  one  of  these  being 
Athelm  to  the  church  of  Wells,  one  of  the 
new  dioceses.  The  story  is  full  of  anachro- 
nism, for  Formosus  died  in  896,  and  the  names 
of  some  of  the  bishops  suggest  other  difficul- 
ties. The  division  of  the  dioceses,  the  crea- 
tion of  the  see  of  AN'ells,  and  the  consecration 
of  Athelm  may,  however,  be  accepted.  In 
914  Athelm  was  made  archbishop  of  Can- 
terbui-y,  and  obtained  the  pall  from  John  X. 
Athelm  was  the  brother  of  Heorstan,  the 
father  of  Dunstan.  He  is  said  to  have  been 
Dunstan's  patron,  but  he  died  about  the  time 
of  the  birth  of  that  saint.  Athelm  is  said 
by  Florence  of  Worcester  to  have  crowned 
^]thelstan.  This,  however,  is  a  mistake,  for 
he  died  8  Jan.  923,  and  was  succeeded  by 
AVulfhelm,  who  must  have  officiated  at  the 
coronation,  Avhich  took  place  the  next  year. 

[William  of  Malmesbury,  Gesta  Reg.  ii.  (Eng. 
Hist.  Soc.);  Gesta  Pontiff,  i.  (Rolls  Ser.);  Flo- 
rence of  Worcester  ;  Wliarton,  Anglia  Sacra,  i. ; 
Adelard,  Vita  Dunstani ;  Stubbs,  Reg.  Sac.  An- 
glic, p.  13,  note.]  W.  H. 

ATHELSTAN  or  ATHELSTAN  (895- 
940),  king  of  the  West-Saxons  and  Mercians, 
and  afterwards  of  all  the  English,  was  the  son 
of  Eadward  the  Elder,  and  of  a  noble  lady 
Ecgwyn,  according  to  Florence  of  Worcester ; 


but  another  and  later  story  represents  his 
mother  as  a  shepherd's  daughter,  and  not  the 
lawful  wife  of  Eadward.  In  all  probability  he 
was  illegitimate,  but  by  a  recognised  mistress 
of  noble  birth.     Bom  during  the  lifetime  of 
his  gi-andfather  .^Elfred,  yEthelstan  was   a 
favourite  of  the  great  West-Saxon  king,  who 
gave  him  as  a  boy  a  purple  cloak,  a  jewelled 
belt,  and  a  sword  with  a  golden  scabbard,  no 
doubt  to  mark  him  out,  in  spite  of  his  ille- 
gitimacy, as  a  riglit  tetheling.     When  the 
young  prince  was  six  years  old,  .Alfred  died, 
and  during  the  stormy  years  when  Eadward 
was  slowly  recovering  the  overlordship  of 
Mercia  and  Northumbria  from  the  Danish 
hosts,  yEthelstan  was  sent  to  be  brought  up 
by  his  aunt  ^thelflsed,  the  Lady  of  the  Mer- 
cians, and  her  husband  the  ealdorman^thel- 
red.     Probably  he  took   part,  in  the  great 
series  of  campaigns  by  which  yEthelflsed  and 
Eadward  gi-adually  extended  the  power  of 
the  West-Saxon  dynasty  over  the  whole  of 
northern  England.     His  education  seems  to 
have  been  sound  and  literary  ;  the  catalogue 
of  his  latOT  library  (among  the  Cottonian 
MSS.)  included  several  good  Latin  works.  In 
925,  when  Athelstan  Avas  aged  thirty,  Ead- 
ward the  Elder  died,  and  the  setheling  was  at 
once  chosen  to  succeed  him.  The  Anglo-Saxon 
Chronicle  specially  mentions  that   he  was 
elected  by  the  Mercians,  who  still  retained 
their  separate  national  gemot.     The  W'est- 
Saxon  election  apparently  came  later.  Athel- 
stan was   crowned  at  Kingston  in  Surrey 
(perliaps  as  being  near  the  borders  of  Mercia 
and  Wessex),  as  were  most  succeeding  kings 
till  the  building  of  Eadward  the  Confessor's 
abbey  at  Westminster.     Doubts,   however, 
were  cast  upon  the  election,  on  the  ground 
of  yEthelstan's  dubious  legitimacy ;  and  an 
aetheling  named  j^Elfred  (whose  exact  rela- 
tionship to  the  kingly  house  is  unknown)  en- 
deavoured  to   upset   the   arrangement.     A 
legendary  tale  in  William  of  Malmesbury 
states  that  yElfred,being  accused  of  conspiracy 
against  the  king,  went  to  Rome  to  clear  him- 
self, and  there,  having  swom  a  false  oath,  at 
once  fell  down  in  the  pope's  presence,  and 
died  three  days  later  at  the  English  college. 
The  materials  for  yEthelstan's  personal  and 
regnal  history  are  somewhat  deficient.     The 
'Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle'   and   Florence   of 
Worcester  (translating  from  a  lost  copy  of 
the  'Chronicle')  are  here  very  me'  gre,  while 
William  of  Malmesbury,  who  is  very  full 
on  this  reign,  is  uncritical,  and  evidently  de- 
rives much  of  his  information  from  ballads 
and  other  legendary  sources.      It  is  quite 
clear,  however,  that  '  glorious  Athelstan ' 
was  a  personally  vigorous  and  able  king,  a 
worthy  successor  of  yElfred  and  Eadward,  and 


Athelstan 


216 


Athelstan 


a  precursor  of  Edward  I,  definitely  pursuing 
an  imperial  policy,  by  Avhich  he  hoped  to 
unite  all  Great  Britain  under  the  overlordship 
of  a  single  West-Saxon  king.  In  the  year  fol- 
lowing his  accession  he  had  a  conference  at 
Tamworth  (the  royal  burgh  of  Mercia)  with 
Sihtric,  Danish  king  of  Northumbria,  to  whom 
he  gave  his  sister  in  marriage,  and  whom 
he  apparently  compelled  to  acknowledge  his 
suzerainty.  A  year  later  Sihtric  died,  where- 
upon jEthelstan  drove  out  his  son  Guthfrith, 
and  annexed  Northumbria  to  his  own  imme- 
diate dominions.  A  coalition  of  the  minor 
kings  was  then  formed  to  resist  ^thelstan's 
imperial  policy,  and  was  joined  by  Howel, 
king  of  the  West-AVelsh  (perhaps  the  Comish, 
but  more  probably  Howel  Dda  of  Dyved), 
Owen,  king  of  Gwent  (Monmouthshire),  Con- 
stantine,  king  of  tlie  Scots,  and  Ealdred,  lord 
of  Bamborough,  and  leader  of  the  English 
remnant  in  the  modern  county  of  Northum- 
berland. yEthelstan  crushed  this  coalition, 
and  compelled  all  the  underkings  to  acknow- 
ledge his  supremacy  '  with  pledge  and  with 
oaths,'  at  a  congress  held  at  Emmet  in  926. 
He  thus  perhaps  deserves  the  title  of  first 
king  of  all  the  English  far  more  fully  than 
Ecgberht  or  any  other  prince  before  Eadgar. 
At  the  same  time  his  overlordship  was  of  a 
loose  character ;  he  did  not  attempt  to  govern 
the  whole  kingdom  directly,  but  left  the  native 

firinces  everywhere  as  his  vassals  (to  use  the 
anguage  of  later  feudalism),  it  being  one  of 
his  favourite  sayings  that  it  was  more  glorious 
*  regem  facere  quam  regem  esse.'  Still  he 
expelled  Ealdred  of  Bamborougli  altogether, 
as  well  as  Guthfrith,  so  that  he  became  direct 
king  of  all  English  and  Danish  Britain, 
leaving  only  the  Celtic  princes  of  the  west 
and  north  as  underkings.  Towards  the  Welsh 
his  policy  was  one  of  mixed  firmness  and  con- 
ciliation. He  made  the  princes  of  Wales 
proper  do  homage  to  him  at  Hereford,  paying 
him  a  stipulated  tribute  of  coin  and  cattle  ; 
and  he  fixed  the  Wye  as  the  political  boundary 
between  the  two  races.  In  West  Wales  or 
Damnonia  he  also  pushed  foi-ward  the  West- 
Saxon  boundary,  subjugating  the  Welsh  in 
the  northern  half  of  Exeter  city,  which  they 
had  previously  held  as  their  own,  while  the 
English  held  the  southern  half,  and  fortifying 
the  town  as  a  border  fortress  with  stone  forti- 
fications— the  earliest  mentioned  in  Anglo- 
Saxon  history.  He  then  conquered  the  western 
half  of  Devonshire,  and  restricted  the  Cornish 
princes  to  the  country  beyond  the  Tamar.  At 
the  same  time  he  adopted  a  conciliatory  tone 
to  the  conquered  Welsh  in  Wessex  itself,  dedi- 
cating churches  and  colleges  in  Dorset  and 
Devon  to  Welsh  saints,  and  holding  his  gemot 
at  Exeter,  w^hence  some  of  his  laws  are  dated. 


As  a  legislator  his  enactments  are  mainly  of 
the  nature  of  amendments  of  custom,  and 
do  not  (like  those  of  yElfred  and  Cnut)  aspire 
to  the  character  of  a  code.  In  933,  according 
to  the  '  Chronicle,'  or  in  934,  according  to 
Simeon  of  Durham  (a  safer  guide  on  northern 
matters),  Constantine,  king  of  Scots,  rebelled 
(William  of  Malmesbury  says  by  receiving 
the  banished  Guthfrith),  and  /Ethelstan  then 
invaded  Scotland  '  with  land  host  and  ship 
host,  and  overhariied  much  of  it.'  On  his 
way  he  destroyed  the  Danish  tower  at  York, 
which  Guthfrith  had  endeavoured  to  occupy. 
In  937  occurred  the  final  grand  victory  of 
^thelstan's  life,  the  campaign  and  battle  of 
Brimanburh.  A  dangerous  rebellion  and 
coalition  of  the  subject  princes  with  the 
Danish  pirate  kings  then  took  place,  and 
threatened  seriously  to  overthrow  the  newly 
founded  West-Saxon  supremacy.  One  Anlaf, 
of  whom  nothing  certain  is  known,  came  from 
Ireland  with  a  fleet  of  long-ships,  and  stirred 
up  Constantine  of  Scotland,  OAvain,  Celtic 
king  of  Cumberland,  and  all  the  Northum- 
brian Danes  and  Welslikind  to  a  great  revolt. 
jEthelstan  and  his  brother  the  setheling  Ead- 
mund  led  a  hasty  levy  against  the  combined 
host,  and  defeated  them  with  great  slaughter 
at  a  place  called  Brunanburh,  the  exact  loca- 
lity of  which  is  uncertain,  biit  it  is  probably 
somewhere  in  Northumbria.  This  battle  prac- 
tically established  for  the  time  the  unity  of 
England  and  the  supremacy  of  the  West- 
Saxon  house.  It  is  commt>morated  by  a  fine 
alliterative  ballad,  inserted  in  the '  Chronicle,' 
and  frequently  translated  into  modem  Eng- 
lish. The  battle  is  there  described  as  the 
greatest  of  English  victories  over  the  native 
Welslikind  since  the  first  invasion  of  Britain. 
The  great  personal  popularity  of  vEthelstan  is 
shown,  not  only  by  the  tone  of  this  fine  war- 
song,  but  also  by  the  numerous  ballads  and 
legends  implied  in  William  of  Malmesbury's 
narrative.  Three  years  later,  on  27  Oct.  940, 
Athelstan  died  at  Gloucester,  after  a  reign  of 
fourteen  years  and  ten  weeks.  We  haA'e  no 
record  that  Athelstan  was  ever  man-ied  or 
had  any  children.  But  the  splendour  of  his 
family  alliances  on  the  continent,  unexampled 
in  the  case  of  any  other  English  king  before 
the  Norman  conquest,  specially  marks  the 
unusual  dignity  of  his  position.  Five  of  his 
sisters  married  continental  princes,  including 
Charles  the  Simple,  king  of  the  West  Franks, 
Louis,  king  of  Aries,  and  Hugh  the  Great, 
duke  of  the  French ;  while  Henry,  king  of 
the  East  Franks,  actually  sent  ambassadors 
to  ask  of  -Athelstan  one  of  his  sisters  in  mar- 
riage for  his  son  Otto,  aftei'wnrds  the  Emperor 
Otto  the  Great.  yEthelstan  royally  sent  a 
selection  of  two,  one  of  whom  Otto  kept,  and 


Atherstone 


217 


Atherton 


passed  on  the  other  to  a  nameless  German 
princeling.  After  the  murder  of  Charles  the 
Simple,  his  widow  and  her  son  Louis  (d'Outre- 
mer)  took  refuge  with  ^thelstan,  at  whose 
court  Louis  Avas  brought  up.  Later  on  his 
imcle  Hugh  sent  for  Louis  to  return,  and  he 
acquired  his  familiar  surname  (Ultramarinus) 
from  this  sojourn  beyond  the  sea  Avith  his 
English  relations.  yEthelstan  was  bui-ied  in 
Malmesbury  Abbey,  to  which  (as  to  other 
Celtic  shrines)  he  had  been  a  great  benefactor, 
and  where  a  later  mediaeval  tomb  (perhaps 
remade)  is  still  slioAvn  as  his.  He  was  suc- 
ceeded by  his  brother  Eadmund,  the  hero  of 
Brunanburh.  Another  brother,  the  setheling 
Eadwine,  is  said  by  Simeon  of  Durham  (a  late 
authority)  to  have  been  drowned  at  sea  by 
.^thelstan's  orders.  William  of  Malmesbury 
expands  this  stoiy,  by  obviously  legendary 
additions,  into  an  ugly  romance ;  but  the 
^Chronicle'  merely  mentions  briefly  that 
Eadwine  was  drowned  in  933,  an  entry  which 
Heni'y  of  Huntingdon  amplifies  by  adding 
(after  his  usual  groundless  fashion)  that  it 
was  much  to  yEthelstan's  sorrow.     We  may 

Srobably  acquit  the  king's  memory  of  the 
oubtful  fratricide. 

[The  Anglo-Saxon  Clu-onicle  (here  contempo- 
rary, but  slight) ;  Florence  of  Worcester  (transla- 
ting a  contemporary,  but  almost  equally  meagre) ; 
William  of  Malmesbury  (full  but  untriistworthy) ; 
Simeon  of  Durham ;  llenry  of  Huntingdon — all 
under  dates  924-940  ;  Kemble's  Codex  Diploma^ 
ticus  ^vi  Saxonici  has  many  of  JEthelstan's 
charters ;  Thorpe's  Ancient  Laws  and  Institutes 
of  the  Anglo-.Siixons  contains  .35thelstiin's  Laws  ; 
Freeman's  Old-English  History  (the  chief  modern 
critical  authority),  p.  145;  Freeman's  Norman 
Conquest,  vol.  i. ;  Palgrave's  History  of  the 
Anglo-Saxons,  p.  165;  Sharon  Turner's  History 
of  the  Anglo-Saxons,  ii.  177 ;  Lappenberg ;  Thomas 
Kerslake,  The  Welsh  in  Dorset,  and  other  pamph- 
lets (Bristol,  1870  and  onward).]  G.  A. 

ATHERSTONE,  EDWIN  (1788-1872), 
a  voluminous  writer  in  verse  and  prose,  was 
bom  on  17  April  1788.  His  first  work  was 
a  poem  entitled  '  The  Last  Days  of  Hercu- 
laneum,'  1821.  This  was  followed,  in  1824, 
by  *  A  Midsummer  Day's  Dream.'  In  1828 
appeared  the  first  six  books  of  his  cliief  work, 
*  The  Fall  of  Niniveh.'  Seven  more  books 
were  published  in  1847  ;  and  finally,  in  1868, 
the  whole  work  appeared  complete  in  thirty 
books.  Atherstone  was  a  friend  of  John 
Martin,  the  painter;  and  the  poet  and  painter 
worked  in  friendly  rivalry.  In  1830  he  pub- 
lished an  historical  romance,  •  The  Sea  Kings 
in  England,'  dealing  Avith  the  times  of 
-(Elfred.  His  other  romance  is  '  Tlie  Hand- 
writing on  the  Wall,'  1858.  AfterAvards  he 
returned  to  the  writing  of  epics,  and  in  1861 


Avas  deliA'ered  of  '  Israel  in  Egypt,'  a  poem 
not  far  short  of  twenty  thousand  lines.  The 
grandiose  scale  on  Avhicli  his  poems  Avere 
planned  attracted  some  ephemeral  notice  and 
applause.  Atlierstone  died  at  Bath  on  29  Jan. 
1872.  At  the  time  of  his  death  he  was  in 
receipt  of  a  pension  of  1 00/.  a  year. 

[Athenaeum,  10  Feb.  1872 ;  Brit.  Mus.  Cat.] 

A.  H.  B. 

ATHERTON,  JOHN  (1 598-1640),bisliop 
of  Waterford  and  Ijismore,  is  IjelieA'ed  to  have 
been  bom  at  Bawdripp,  in  Somersetshire,  in 
1598,  where  his  father,  Kev.  Jolin  Atherton 
(a  canon  of  St.  Paul's),  AA'as  rector  of  the 
parish.  At  sixteen  he  Avent  to  Gloucester 
Hall  (subsequently  Worcester  College) :  but 
after  taking  his  bachelor's  degree  he  remoA'ed 
to  Lincoln  College,  of  Avhich  he  Avas  a  member 
when  he  took  his  master's  degree.  He  entered 
holy  orders,  and  became  rector  of  Huish 
Comb  FloAver  in  his  natiA'e  county.  He  ac- 
quired a  great  reputation  as  a  skilful  canonist 
and  one  learned  in  ecclesiastical  law,  and  on 
this  account  is  said  to  have  attracted  the  no- 
tice of  Thomas  Wentworth,  afterwards  Earl 
of  Strafford,  then  lord  lieutenant  of  Ireland, 
and  to  liaAe  been  appointed  prebendary  of 
St.  John's,  Dublin,  22  April  1630.  This  he 
held  by  dispensation  Avith  his  prcA^ious  prefer- 
ment. In  1635  he  became  chancellor  of  Christ 
Church,  and  held  also  the  rectories  of  Killa- 
ban  and  Ballintubride,  in  the  diocese  of 
Leighlin.  He  Avas  chancellor  of  Killaloe  in 
1634.  His  liighest  promotion  was  reached 
in  1636,  when  (4  May)  he  became  bishop  of 
Waterford  and  Lismore.  In  this  situation 
he  is  said  to  liaAe  '  beluiAed  himself  for  some 
time  with  great  prudence,  though  forward 
enough,  if  not  too  much,  against  the  Roman 
catholicks  in  that  coimtiy'  (AVood's  Athen. 
0x011.).  He  was  in  1640  accused  of  unnatural 
crime,  and  being  found  guilty  was  first  de- 
graded and  afterwards  hanged  at  Dublin, 
5  Dec.  1640.  His  body,  by  his  OAA'n  desire, 
was  buried  in  the  obscurest  part  of  St.  John's 
churchyard,  Dublin. 

A  theory  has  been  set  forth  that  he  was 
in  reality  innocent  of  the  crime  imputed  to 
him,  and  a  A-ictim  to  the  A'indictiAe  feelings 
of  powerful  enemies.  Wentworth,  in  his  po- 
sition as  lord  deputy,  had  recovered  from  the 
Earl  of  Cork  some  of  the  great  tithes  which 
he  had  appropriated,  and  had  compelled  the 
earl  to  compound  for  some  church  lands  in 
his  possession.  Bishop  Atherton  sued  for  the 
remainder  of  those  lands  belonging  to  the  see 
of  Waterford  Avhich  AA-ere  still  retained  by 
the  Earl  of  Cork  ;  and  Carte  Avishes  us  to 
belieA-e  that  the  bishop  '  fell  a  sacrifice  to  that 
litigation  rather  than  to  justice,  when  he 


Atherton 


218 


Atherton 


suifei'ed  foi*  a  pretended  crime  upon  the  testi- 
mony of  a  single  witness  that  deserved  no 
credit.  The  bishop  absolutely  denied  the 
fact ;  and  the  fellow  who  swore  against  him, 
when  he  came  to  be  executed  himself  some 
time  afterwards  for  his  crimes,  confessed  at 
the  gallows  that  he  had  falsely  accused  him.' 
Carte's  statement  is  much  too  strong.  Dr. 
Nicholas  Bernard  attended  him  from  the 
time  of  his  sentence  to  that  of  his  execution, 
and  at  the  re(juest  of  Archbishop  Usher 
wrote  *  A  Relation  of  the  Penitent  Death  of 
Bishop  Atherton.'  From  this  we  learn  that 
Atherton's  attitude  during  the  trial  was  *  by 
all  condemned ; '  but  when  the  fatal  issue 
became  manifest  his  manner  changed.  Three 
times  daily  Bernard  visited  the  prisoner, 
and  after  a  time  he  became  penitent,  and 
faced  the  penalty  with  equanimity.  '  The 
magnanimity  of  the  man,'  says  Bernard,  '  I 
did  much  admire.'  When  the  news  of  the 
lord-deputy's  death  brought  some  hope  of  a 
reprieve, '  it  moved  him  not,  as  rather  choos- 
ing a  present  deserved  death  than  the  pro- 
longing of  an  ignominious  life ;  whereby  the 
scandal  would  but  increase.  He  did  so 
abhor  himself  that  once  a  thought  rising 
within  him  to  have  petitioned  to  have  been 
beheaded,  he  told  me  he  answei'ed  himself 
with  indignation  "  That  a  dog's  death  was 
too  good  for  him,"  and  so  judged  himself  to 
the  last.'  Dr.  Bernard  tells  us  that  the 
father  of  Atherton  had  foretold  the  shorten- 
ing of  life  as  a  penalty  for  disrespect  to  his 
mother.  He  had,  when  a  youth,  threatened 
her  that  he  would  hang  himself  with  his 
horse's  bridle  on  a  common  gallows  by  which 
they  were  riding.  On  the  day  of  his  execu- 
tion he  read  the  morning  service  to  his 
fellow-prisoners,  and  was  then  escorted  by 
the  sheriff  of  the  county,  a  Roman  catholic, 
who  is  said  to  have  behaved  with  much  un- 
necessary harshness.  Bernard  nowhere  ex- 
presses an  opinion  of  Atherton's  innocence, 
although  he  reports  his  denial  '  of  the  main 
thing  in  the  inditement,  which  the  law  laid 
hold  of,  and  which  hath  been  since  confirmed 
by  the  confession  of  his  chief  accuser  at  his 
execution  also,  yet  in  his  own  conscience 
applauded  and  magnified  God's  justice  in  it ; 
and  so  burned  a  bundle  of  papers,  which  he 
wrote  out  of  law  books,  in  his  own  defence.' 
These  quotations  are  clearly  incompatible 
with  the  idea  that  Atherton  was  the  inno- 
cent victim  of  a  vile  conspiracy.  It  is  to  be 
noted  that  none  of  his  accusers  were  Roman 
catholics.  His  execution  was  witnessed  by 
an  immense  crowd,  and  his  last  speeches 
and  prayers  were  broken  by  a  wretch  who 
had  climbed  upon  one  end  of  the  gallows  in 
order  to  interrupt  and  deride  the  unhappy 


man.  A  penitent  and  pious  letter  to  his- 
wife,  and  another  to  his  children,  are  printed 
by  Bernard. 

[Wood's  Athen.  Oxon.  ed.  Bliss,  ii.  892  ;  Fasti 
Eccles.  Hibernise ;  Carte's  Life  of  Ormonde ; 
Whole  Works  of  Sir  James  Ware  concerning 
Ireland,  ed.  Harris,  Dublin,  1739,  fol.,  i.  539, 
ii.  363  ;  Life  and  Death  of  John  Atherton,  Lon- 
don, 1641  (in  verse) ;  Bernard's  Penitent  Death 
of  John  Atherton,  Dublin,  1641,  London,  1641,. 
1651,  1709,  &c.;  Case  of  John  Atherton,  London, 
1709  (this  includes  a  letter  by  Thomas  Mills,. 
Bishop  of  Waterford) ;  King's  Case  of  John 
Atherton,  London,  1716.]  W.  E.  A.  A. 

ATHERTON,  WILLIAM  (1775-1850), 
Wesleyan  minister,  was  born  at  Lamber- 
head  Green,  near  Wigan  in  Lancashire,  in 
1775.  At  the  age  of  21  he  entered  the  Wes- 
leyan ministry  on  the  Grimsby  circuit,  and 
his  fresh  and  original  style  of  preaching  gave 
him  a  place  among  the  most  famous  preachers- 
of  England  in  the  first  half  of  this  century. 
He  worked  under  the  direction  of  the  Wes- 
leyan Conference  for  more  than  fifty  years, 
and  was  chosen  in  1846  the  president  of  that 
assembly. 

After  spending  some  years  in  London, 
Atherton  became  in  1849  superintendent  of 
the  W  akefield  circuit  and  cliairman  of  the 
Leeds  district,  a  position  which  he  held  until 
his  death  on  26  Sept.  1850,  in  his  74th  year. 

Atherton  published  several  works,  among" 
which  were  the  following :  a  sermon  on  the 
'Insecui'ity  of  Life,'  in  1818;  an  abridged 
'Life  of  Lady  Maxwell,'  in  1838;  and  an 
'Address  on  the  Character,  Agencies,  and 
Religious  Effectiveness  of  Wesleyan  Me- 
thodism,' in  1839. 

[Minutes  of  the  Methodist  Conferences ;  Dr^ 
Osborn's  Outlines  of  Wesleyan  Bibliography.] 

W.  B.  L. 

ATHERTON,  Sir  WILLIAM  (1806- 
1864),  lawyer,  was  born  at  Glasgow  in  1806, 
being  the  son  of  the  Rev.  William  Atherton^ 
a  well-known  A^'esleyan  preacher,  by  Mar- 
garet, daughter  of  the  Rev.  Walter  Morison, 
a  minister  of  the  Established  Church  of  Scot- 
land. He  was  educated  in  England,  adopted 
the  legal  profession,  and  practised  from  1832' 
to  1839  as  a  special  pleader  below  the  bar. 
In  the  latter  year  he  was  called  to  the  bar  at 
the  Inner  Temple.  He  chose  the  northern 
circuit,  and  was  not  long  in  securing  a  high 
reputation.  He  was  returned  to  parliament 
as  one  of  the  members  for  the  city  of  Durham 
in  1852,  and  was  re-elected  by  the  same  con- 
stituency in  1857  and  1859.  In  politics  he 
was  an  advanced  liberal ;  opposed  to  the  re- 
peal of  the  Maynooth  gi-ant;  in  favour  of  the 
ballot,  a  large  reform  in  the  law,  and  the 


Athlone 


219 


Atkins 


removal  of  all  religious  disabilities.   He  was 
appointed   a   queen's  counsel  in  1852,  and 
became  a  bencner  of  his  inn  tlie  same  year. 
He  was  judge-advocate  of  the  fleet  and  stand- 
ing counsel  to  the  admiralty  from  I800  till 
December  1859,  when  he  succeeded  Sir  H.  S. 
Iveatinge  as  solicitor-general,  and  received 
the  honour  of  knighthood.   In  June  1861,  on 
the  elevation  of  Sir  R.  Bethell  (Lord  West-  I 
bury)  to  the  lord  chancellorship,  Sir  William  j 
Atherton  succeeded  to  the  vacant  post  of  i 
attorney-general.    He  resigned  his  office  in 
the  autumn  of  1863  on  account  of  ill-health; 
and  died  at  his  residence,  Westmoreland  Ter-  | 
race,  Hyde  Park,  London,  22  Jan.  1864.   He 
married,  in  1843,  Agnes  Mary,  daughter  of 
Mr.  Thomas  James  Hall,  chief  magistrate  at  ; 
Bow  Street.   While  practising  below  the  bar 
he  published  '  An  Elementary  and  Practical 
Treatise  on  the  Commencement  of  Personal 
Actions,  and  the  Proceedings  therein  to  De-  | 
clai'ation,  in  the  Superior  Courts  at  West- 
minster.  Comprising  the  Changes  eft'ected  by 
the  Uniformity  of  Process  Act  (2  W.  4.  c.  , 
39)  and  recent  Rules  of  Court.'  Lond.  1833. 
12mo. 

[Solicitor's  Journal,  viii.  3,  42,  247;  Times,  | 
23  Jan.  1864;  Dod's  Parliamentary  Companion,  1 
(1863).]  T.  C. 

ATHLONE,  Eakl  op.     [See  Gikkel.]    | 
ATHLUMNEY,   Lokd.      [See  Somek-  I 

TILLE.]  j 

ATHOLE,  or  ATHOLL,  Dukes  of.  ' 
[See  MuRKAY.]  j 

ATHOLE,     or    ATHOLL,   Earls    of.  I 

[See  Stewart.]  j 

ATHONE,  JOHN.     [See  Acton,  John.] 

ATKINE,     ATKINS,     or     ETKINS, 
JAMES  (1613  P-1687),  Scottish  bishop,  born 
at  Kirkwall  about  1613,  was  the  son  of  Harie  | 
Atkine,  sheriff  of  Orkney.      He  graduated  : 
M.A.    at   Edinburgh,   23   July    1636 ;    and  ' 
studied  divinity  at   Oxford,  1637-8,  imder  j 
Dr.  John  Prideaux,  then  regius  professor  and 
rector  of  Exeter  College.     He  became  chap-  { 
lain  to  James,  marquis  of  Hamilton,  high 
commissioner  to  the  strongly  anti-prelatical  ; 
general  assembly  at  Glasgow,  1638.   He  was  ! 
presented  to  the  living  of  Birsay,  Orkney, 
27  July  1641 ;  admitted  26  June  1642,  but  j 
deposed  by  the  Orkney  presbytery,  July  1649.  i 
In  1650,  however,  we  find  Atkine,  as  mode- 
rator of  the  presbyteiy,  presenting  an  address 
to  James,  marquis  of  Montrose,  expressive  of 
loyalty  to  Charles  II ;   for  this  the  whole 
presbytery  was  deposed  by  the  assembly,  and 
the  council  of  state  issued  an  order  for  At- 


kine's  apprehension.  Warned  of  this  by  the 
clerk  of  the  council.  Sir  Archibald  Primrose, 
his  kinsman,  he  took  refuge  in  Holland  in 
1650-3.  We  find  him  in  Edinburgh  in 
1653-60,  and  on  15  May  1661  he  received  a 
grant  of  100/.  on  account  of  his  sufferings  in 
the  loyal  cause.  He  went  to  London  with 
Thomas  Sydserf  (the  only  survivor  of  the  old 
hierarchy,  and  now  made  bishop  of  Orkney), 
and  obtained  the  rectory  of  Winifrith, Dorset. 
On  1  Nov.  1676,  he  was  elected  bishop  of 
Moray  ;  the  patent  was  issued  5  June  1677, 
but  he  was  not  consecrated  till  28  Oct.  1679. 
He  was  translated  to  the  see  of  Galloway, 
6  Feb.  1680,  by  a  patent  dated  6  March. 
His  loyalty  was  not  servile ;  in  1686  he  took 
a  firm  stand  in  parliament  against  rescinding 
the  acts  against  popery;  the  Earl  of  Moray, 
royal  commissioner,  who  opened  the  parlia- 
ment, and  the  chancellor.  Lord  Perth,  had 
both  joined  the  church  of  Rome.  The  ob- 
noxious measure  was  withdrawn.  Atkine 
died  of  apoplexy,  15  Nov.  1687,  aged  seventy- 
four.  He  married  Anna  Rutherford,  and  had 
four  daughters. 

[Hew  Scott's  Fasti  Eccl.  Scotie. ;  "Wood's  Athenaa 
Oxon.  (Bliss),  ii.  1170  ;  Grub'sEccl.  Hist,  of  Scot- 
land, 1861,  vol.  iii.]  A.  G. 

ATKINS.     [See  Atkyns.] 

ATKINS,  HENRY  (1558-1635),  physi- 
cian, was  son  of  a  Plertfordshire  gentleman, 
Richard  Atkins  of  Great  Berkhamstead,  and 
was  born  in  1558.  He  graduated  at  Oxford, 
and  afterwards  took  his  M.D.  degree  at 
Nantes.  In  1588  he  became  a  fellow  of  the 
College  of  Physicians,  and  in  1606  was 
elected  president.  He  was  re-elected  in  1607, 
1608,  1616,  1617,  1624,  and  1625.  In  1597 
he  sailed  as  physician  to  the  Earl  of  Essex 
in  the  Spanish  expedition,  but  was  so  sea- 
sick that  he  had  to  be  put  on  shore  and  re- 
signed the  appointment.  In  1604  Dr.  Atkins 
was  sent  by  James  I  to  Scotland  to  bring 
back  his  son  Charles.  A  letter  of  Di*.  Atkins' 
on  the  child's  health,  written  from  Dunferm- 
line, is  extant  (Thomas,  Historical  Notes^ 
p.  485).  In  1612  he  was  called  into  consul- 
tation during  the  last  illness  of  Heniy,  Prince 
of  Wales,  and  his  opinion  (Mayerne,  Opera^ 
p.  119)  was  that  the  disease  was  a  putrid 
fever  'without  malignity,  except  that  at- 
tending putridity.'  He  suggested  bleeding. 
His  signature,  as  one  of  the  king's  physi- 
cians, stands  next  to  that  of  Mayerne  in  the 
original  report  of  the  post-mortem  examina- 
tion ( Original  State  Papers,  vol.  Ixxi.  No.  29). 
In  1611  the  king  is  said  to  have  offered  Dr. 
Atkins  the  first  baronet's  patent.  In  1618, 
under  the  presidency  of  Dr.  Atkins,  the  Col- 
lege of  Physicians  issued  the  first  '  London 


Atkins 


Atkins 


Pharmacopeia.'  The  doctor  married  Mary 
Pigot  of  Dodei"shall,  Bucks.  He  lived  in 
"Warwick  Court,  enjoyed  a  large  practice, 
and  died  rich  on  21  Sept.  1635.  He  left  an 
only  child,  afterwards  Sir  Henry  Atkins, 
and  is  buried  in  Oheshunt  cliurch,  where  his 
monument  remains.  He  was  a  benefactor  of 
the  College  of  Physicians.  i 

[Munk's  College  of  Physicians,  i.  93.]  ■ 

i 
ATKINS,  JOHN  (168.5-1757),  naval 
surgeon,  received  his  professional  education 
as  a  surgeon's  apprentice,  and  immediately  ; 
entered  the  navy.  He  records  wounds  which 
he  treated  in  Sir  George  Rooke's  victoi-y  oif 
Malaga  (1703).  In  1707  he  was  in  some 
small  actions  Avith  the  French  in  the  Channel,  \ 
and  in  1710  he  served  in  the  Lion  man-of- 
war  at  the  battle  of  Vaia  Bay.  The  ship  [ 
was  commanded  by  Captain  Galfridus  Wal-  ' 
pole,  whose  right  arm  was  severely  wounded,  j 
Atkins  cut  it  off  above  the  elbow  and  sat  up  ' 
two  whole  nights  with  the  patient  after-  j 
wards,  '  supposing  a  tenderness  and  respect 
■would  engage  his  good  opinion  and  conse- 
quently his  interest.'  This  interested  atten- 
tion did  not  gain  its  object,  for  Captain 
Galfridus  gave  no  thanks  for  it,  being,  as 
Atkins  bitterly  observes,  '  the  reverse  of  his 
bi'otlier  (Sir  Kobert),  loving  cheapness  in  all 
jobs'  {Navy  Surgeon,  137).  In  February 
1721  Atkins  sailed  from  Spithead  for  the 
coast  of  Guinea  with  the  Swallow  and  the 
Weymouth,  sent  to  put  down  piracy  on  the 
west  coast  of  Africa.  They  visited  Siei-ra 
Leone,  Wydah,  the  Gaboon,  Elmina,  and 
captured  at  Cape  Lopez  270  pirates  and 
10,000/.  in  gold  dust.  When  the  pirates 
were  tried,  Atkins  was  made  registrary,  and 
complains  that  for  twenty-six  hard  days'  work 
he  only  received  as  many  pounds.  Three  or 
four  of  the  crew  died  every  day  for  six  weeks, 
and  the  surgeon  became  purser  for  want  of 
another  survivor  fit  for  the  office.  They  sailed 
to  Brazil  and  the  West  Indies,  where  at 
Port  Royal  a  hurricane  carried  off  the  masts. 
In  April  1723  the  vessels  returned  to  England 
and  were  paid  oft".  Atkins  was  unsuccessful 
in  getting  another  ship,  and  took  to  writing 
books.  He  published  two,  both  of  which 
liave  had  more  than  one  edition.  The '  Navy 
Surgeon '  Avas  published  first  (1732).  It  is 
a  general  treatise  on  surgery,  with  remarks 
on  mineral  springs,  empirics,  amulets,  and 
infirmaries.  It  shows  the  author  to  have 
been  an  obsei'vant  but  somewhat  prejudiced 
practitioner.  The  cases  are  clearly  related, 
and  are  the  best  part  of  the  book.  Many 
surgical  books  are  quoted,  and  enough  of 
other  books  to  show  that  Atkins  was  widely 


read.  Horace,  Juvenal,  Pope,  and  Milton 
were  known  to  him,  and  he  admired  also 
Stephen  Duck.  This  book  appeared  in  a 
shorter  form  as  '  A  Treatise  on  the  follow- 
ing Chirurgical  Subjects,'  &c.,  without  date. 
In  1735  he  published  *  A  Voyage  to  Guinea, 
Brazil,  and  the  West  Indies.'  This  de- 
scribes the  voyage  of  the  Swallow  and  the 
Weymouth,  and  is  full  of  interesting  infor- 
mation about  the  slave  trade  and  the  natural 
history  of  the  Gold  Coast.  He  describes  the 
manatee  accurately,  and  tells  much  about 
fetish  worship.  He  shows  that  there  Avas 
no  evidence  of  a  general  cannibalism  in  any 
negro  tribe,  but  mentions  how  an  English 
captain  made  one  slaA'e  eat  the  liA'er  of 
another  as  a  punishment.  He  gi\'es  full 
accounts  of  the  Avinds  and  currents,  and 
leaves  the  impression  that  he  was  intelligent 
and  truthful.  An  edition  of  the  '  NaAy  Sur- 
geon '  in  1742  contains  seA'eral  additions. 

[Xavy  Surgeon,  1742.]  N.  M. 

ATKINS,  RICHARD  (1559  P-1581), 
martyr,  Avas  born  at  Ross  in  Herefordshire, 
According  to  his  own  confession  '  till  he  was 
nineteen  years  old  he  was  a  catholic,  after 
that  a  protestant,'  but  whether  for  another 
nineteen  years  or  only  three  is  not  quite  clear 
from  the  narrative.  About  Midsummer  1581 
we  find  him  at  Rome  armed  with  his  '  litle 
ueAv  testament  turned  out  of  Beza '  into  Eng- 
lish, and  an  unbounded  faith  in  his  mission 
against  the  church,  the  pope,  and  the  city  of 
Rome.  After  having  addressed  himself  in  an 
unknoAvn  tongue  to  an  audience  in  St.  Peter  s, 
who  thought  him  'distract  of  his  wit,'  he 
Avas  confronted  with  some  of  his  fellow- 
countrymen  in  the  English  college.  For  his 
language  towards  them  on  the  *  misorder  of 
their  lives,'  and  his  denunciations  against  the 
church,  he  was  imprisoned  for  a  short  time 
by  the  Inquisition.  Upon  his  release  he  pro- 
ceeded to  a  series  of  acts  that  finally  brought 
him  to  torture  and  the  stake.  He  Avas 
charged  with  exclaiming  against  the  catholic 
religion  and  the  pope  in  public  places  of  re- 
sort, and  Avith  an  act  of  sacrilege  in  attempt- 
ing to  throw  down  the  sacrament  while 
being  carried  through  the  streets  by  a  priest. 
It  was  also  stated  that  a  few  days  later,  he 
had  gone  to  St.  Peter's  once  again,  whih; 
divers  gentlemen  and  others  were  hearing 
mass,  he  stepped  forward  to  the  altar  *  and 
threw  doAvn  the  chalice  with  the  wine,'  and 
stroA'e  to  pull  the  cake  out  of  the  priest's 
hand  before  its  consecration.  Being  com- 
mitted to  prison  a  second  time  and  examined, 
his  reply  Avas  '  that  he  came  purposely  to  re- 
buke the  pope's  wickedness  and  their  idolatry.' 
After  many  exhortations  by  his  own  country- 


Atkins 


221 


Atkinson 


men  to  recant,  but  in  vain,  he  was  brought 
to  the  stake  with  many  tortures  and  burned 
before  St.  Peter's,  2  Aug.  1581. 

[Copie  of  a  Double  Letter  .  .  .  containing  the 
true  Advises  of  the  Causes  and  Maner  of  the  Death 
of  one  Richard  Atkins,  executed  by  Fire  in 
Eome,  2  Aug.  1581,  12  leaves,  sine  1.  et  d. ;  The 
English  Romayne  Life  (cap.  8) ;  Report  of  the 
Christian  Suffering  of  Richard  Atkins,  written  by 
A[nthony]  M[unday], London,  1582,  4to  ;  to  this 
is  added  a  curious  woodcut  showing  two  of  the 
incidents  mentioned  above,  and  '  the  order  of  the 
marterdom  of  the  aforesaid  E.  A.  at  Roome;' 
see  also  Lansd.  MS.  982,  13.]  C.  H.  C. 

ATKINS,  SAMUEL  (/.  1787-1808), 
marine  painter,  contributed  to  the  Royal 
Academy  between  1787  and  1796.  From 
1796  to  1804  he  was  in  the  East  Indies,  Avhen 
he  returned  to  England,  and  continued  to 
exhibit  until  1808.  lie  worked  in  oil  and 
water  colour.  The  water-colour  collections 
of  South  Kensington  and  the  British  Mu- 
seum have  each  an  example  of  his  work.  It 
is  rather  early  in  manner,  low  in  tone,  quiet, 
and  truthful.  A  picture  of  '  Shakespeare's 
CliiF,  Dover,'  has  been  engraved  after  him  by 
R.  and  D.  Havell.  Nagler  attributes  to  this 
Samuel  Atkins  the  originals  of  two  engravings 
of  sea-subjects  after  * —  Atkins  : '  '  Ships  in 
Sight  of  ilarbour,'  engraved  in  aquatint  by 
H.  Merke ;  and '  A  Sea  Piece,'  by  F.  Janinet. 
A  water-colour  drawing  also, '  Seascape  with 
Ships,'  he  gives  to  this  painter. 

[Nagler's  Kiinstler-Lexicon,  2nd  ed.,  and  Red- 
grave's Diet,  of  Painters.]  E.  R. 

ATKINS,  WILLIAM  (1601-1679),  a 
Jesuit,  was  born  in  Cambridgeshire  in  1601. 
He  became  a  secular  priest,  and  was  sent  on 
the  English  mission  in  1 63 1 .  Four  years  later 
he  entered  the  Society  of  Jesus.  In  1653 
he  was  chosen  rector  of  the  '  College  of  St. 
Aloysius,'  which  at  that  period  comprised 
the  counties  of  Lancaster  and  Stafford. 
Father  Atkins  was  one  of  the  most  remark- 
able of  the  victims  of  Titus  Oates's  plot. 
In  1679  he  was  living  at  Wolverhampton, 
being  almost  an  octogenarian,  and  for  six 
years  he  had  been  completely  paralysed,  bed- 
ridden, and  nearly  speechless.  Nevertheless 
he  was  charged  with  high  treason  in  inciting 
the  people  to  rebellion.  The  pursuivants 
dragged  him  from  his  bed,  and,  forcing  him 
into  a  most  incommodious  vehicle,  conveyed 
him  to  Stafford  gaol,  eleven  miles  distant. 
He  was  tried  at  the  assizes  before  Lord  Chief 
Justice  Scroggs,  13  Aug.  1679,  and  con- 
demned to  death  on  account  of  his  sacerdotal 
character.  The  sentence  was  not,  however, 
carried  out,  and  the  aged  ecclesiastic  was 


allowed  to  languish  in  Stafford  gaol,  where 
he  died,  17  March,  1681. 

[The  Trial,  Conviction,  and  Condemnation  of 
Andrew  Bronimich  and  William  Atkins  for  being 
Romish  Priests,  Lond.  1679,  fol. ;  Dodd's  Church 
History,  iii.  314;  Oliver's  Collectanea  S.  J.  48; 
Foley's  Records,  vols.  v.  and  vii.]  T.  C. 

ATKINSON,  HENRY  (1781-1829), 
mathematician,  the  son  of  Cuthbert  Atkin- 
son, a  schoolmaster,  was  bom  at  Great  Bav- 
ington,  in  Northumberland,  28  June  1781. 
He  was  educated  by  his  father,  and  at  an 
early  age  he  began  to  assist  in  conducting 
Bavington  school.  When  he  reached  his 
thirteenth  year  his  father,  considering  him 
capable  of  managing  that  school,  resigned  it 
to  his  charge,  and  opened  another  at  West 
Woodburn.  These  two  schools  were  super- 
intended by  the  father  and  son  alternately. 
About  Henry's  sixteenth  year  his  father  and 
he  quitted  the  school  at  Bavington,  and 
opened  another  at  West  Belsay,  which  they 
continued  to  superintend  alternately  with 
the  school  at  Woodburn.  Henry  afterwards 
removed  to  Stamfordham,  where  he  kept  a 
school,  conjointly  with  his  sister,  for  up- 
wards of  six  years.  Then,  with  his  sister, 
he  removed  to  the  adjoining  village  of  Hawk- 
well.  Finally,  on  14  Nov.  1808,  he  settled 
in  Newcastle-on-Tyne,  where  he  passed  the 
remainder  of  his  days.  In  that  large  town 
he  speedily  attained  the  highest  rank  in  his 
profession. 

Atkinson  devoted  his  leisure  to  the  study  of 
scientific  subjects,  on  which  he  submitted  some 
remarkable  papers  to  the  Literary  and  Phi- 
losophical Society  of  Newcastle.  His  earliest 
contribution  was  entitled  'A  New  Method 
of  extracting  the  Roots  of  Equations  of  the 
Higher  Orders.'  The  discovery  was  first 
made  by  himself  in  1801,  and  the  essay  was 
read  to  the  society  in  August  1809.  Many 
years  afterwards  this  paper  formed  the  basis 
on  which  its  author  rested  his  claim  of 
priority  in  discovering  the  mode  of  handling 
equations  which  has  been  pursued  bylloldred 
Nicholson  and  Horner  with  such  marked 
success.  In  the  following  year  Atkinson  read 
an  elaborate  essay  '  On  the  Eclipses  of  .lupi- 
ter's  Satellites,  and  on  the  Mode  of  Deter- 
mining the  Longitude  by  these  Means.'  In 
1811  he  produced  two  papers — one  contain- 
ing *  An  Ingenious  Proof  of  Two  Curious 
Properties  of  Square  Numbers,'  which  Dr. 
Hutton  spoke  of  in  terms  of  high  approba- 
tion, and  the  other  '  Demonstrating  that  no 
sensible  error  can  arise  in  the  theory  of 
Falling  Bodies  from  assuming  Gravity  as  an 
uniformly  accelerating  Force.'  In  1813  he 
read  an  elaborate  paper  *  On  the  Comet  of 


Atkinson 


Atkinson 


1811,' and 'An  Essay  on  Proportion;'  in  1814 
a  paper  *  On  the  Difference  between  the  Fol- 
lowers of  Newton  and  Leibnitz  concerning 
the  Measure  of  Forces;'  and  in  1815  an 
essay  '  On  the  Possibility  and,  if  possible, 
on  the  Consequences  of  the  Lunar  Origin  of 
Meteoric  Stones.' 

About  this  period  he  embraced  a  wider 
field  in  the  course  of  his  inquiries,  and  read 
in  1816  an  essay  on  the  '  Nature  and  Con- 
[n]ection  of  Cause  and  Effect.'  In  1818  he 
composed  a  valuable  essay  '  On  Truth,'  and 
in  1819  '  A  New  Mode  of  investigating 
Equations  which  obtain  among  the  Times, 
Distances,  and  Anomalies  of  Comets  moving 
ai'ound  the  Sun,  as  their  Centre  of  Attrac- 
tion, in  Parabolic  Orbits.'  In  1821  Atkin- 
son,  who  meanwhile  had   studied   Smith's 

*  Wealth  of  Nations  '  and  other  treatises  on 
political  economy,  read  an  essay  '  On  the 
Effects  produced  on  the  different  Classes  of 
Society  by  an  Increase  or  Decrease  of  the 
Price  of  Corn.'    In  1824  he  produced  a  paper 

*  On  the  Utility  and  probable  Accuracy  of 
the  Mode  of  determining  the  Sun's  Parallax 
by  Observations  on  the  Planet  Mars  near  his 
opposition.'  This  paper  was  subsequently 
presented  to  the  Astronomical  Society  of 
London.  Another  paper,  submitted  to  the 
Newcastle  Society,  was  '  On  the  true  Prin- 
ciples of  calculating  the  Refractive  Powers 
of  the  Atmosphere.'  This  he  afterwards 
greatly  enlarged,  entitling  it  '  An  Essay  on 
Astronomical  and  other  Refraction,  with  a 
connected  Enquiry  into  the  Law  of  Tempera- 
ture in  different  latitudes  and  at  different 
altitudes.'  In  its  revised  foi-m  the  paper  was 
presented  to  the  Astronomical  Society  of 
London  (1825),  and  it  elicited  very  high  en- 
comiums from  several  of  the  most  learned 
men  in  Europe.  In  1826  Atkinson  read  be- 
fore the  society  at  Newcastle  a  long  paper 
'  On  Suspension  Bridges,  and  on  the  Possi- 
bility of  the  proposed  Bridge  between  North 
and  South  Shields.'  The  following  year  he 
delivered  a  course  of  lectures  on  astronomy. 
Atkinson  likewise  contributed  solutions  of 
many  of  the  abstruse  mathematical  questions 
propounded  in  the  '  Gentlemen's  Diary '  and 
the  '  Ladies'  Diary,' 

He  died  at  Newcastle  31  Jan.  1829,  and 
was  buried  in  St.  Andrew's  churchyard. 

[Memorials  of  his  life,  by  Robert  White,  in 
Richardson's  Local  Historian's  Table  Book  (Le- 
gendary Division),  iii.  363-75;  also  the  Histo- 
rical Division  of  the  same  work,  iv.  8.]    T.  C. 

ATKINSON,  JAMES  (1759-1839),  sur- 
geon and  bibliographer,  son  of  a  medical 
practitioner  and  friend  of  Sterne  in  York,  is 
chiefly  known  by  his  *  Medical  Bibliography,' 


of  which  the  dedication  is  thus  worded: 
*  To  all  idle  medical  students  in  Great  Britain 
sit — ,'  with  a  picture  of  that  part  of  the  hu- 
man spinal  column  known  as  the  '  sacrum.' 
The  author's  reason  for  attempting  the  work 
was :  *  Wanting  better  amusement,  and 
through  mere  accident,  I  stumbled  upon  the 
dry,  dusty,  tedious,  accursed,  hateful  biblio- 
graphy (see  p.  365).'  The  subject  vmdoubt- 
edly  deserves  all  these  epithets,  but  Atkinson 
managed  to  Avrite  a  book  to  which  none  of 
them  can  be  truly  applied.  It  is  full  of  anec- 
dote, humour,  and  out-of-the-way  informa- 
tion. The  scientific  value  is,  however,  small, 
the  bibliography  consisting  of  a  simple  list  of 
editions  arranged  alphabetically  under  names 
of  authors.  The  notes  are  merely  excuses  for 
the  compiler's  discursive  and  amusing  remarks 
on  things  in  general.  The  book  is  usually 
spoken  of  as  unfinished,  as  it  is  only  devoted 
to  letters  A  and  B ;  but  thei-e  is  nothing  to 
show  that  it  was  the  intention  of  Atkinson 
to  go  any  further.  Dibdin  made  his  acquaint- 
ance in  York  in  the  course  of  his  bibliogi-a- 
phical  tour,  and  speaks  of  him  (p.  213)  as  '  a 
gentleman  and  a  man  of  varied  talent :  ardent, 
active,  and  of  the  most  overflowing  goodness 
of  heart.  .  ,  .  The  heartiest  of  all  the  octo- 
genarians I  ever  saw,  he  scorns  a  stretch 
and  abhors  a  gape.  .  .  .  His  libraiy  is  suffo- 
cated AvithKoburgers,rrobens,  the  Ascensii, 
and  the  Stephens.'  On  the  title  of  his  book 
Atkinson  is  described  as '  surgeon  to  H.R.II. 
the  Duke  of  York,  senior  surgeon  to  the 
York  County  Hospital  and  the  York  Dis- 
pensary, and  late  V.P.  to  the  Yorkshire 
Philosophical  Society.'  He  was  also  an  en- 
thusiastic member  of  the  Musical  Society. 
He  collected  portraits  of  medical  writers, 
and  projected  a  catalogue  with  memoirs. 
For  many  years  he  was  the  chief  medical 
man  in  York,  and  remained  in  practice  to 
within  a  few  years  of  his  death,  which  took 
place  at  the  age  of  eighty,  at  Lendal,  in  the 
city  of  York,  on  14  March  1839.  He  was 
buried  at  St.  Helen's,  Stonegate,  his  great 
popularity  causing  his  funeral  to  assume 
somewhat  of  a  semi-public  character.  The 
'York  Herald'  observes  (16  March  1839): 
'Mr.  Atkinson,  throughout  his  long  and 
useful  life,  has  been  highly  and  universally 
respected.  Ever  prominent  with  his  aid  at 
every  benevolent  institution,  he  possessed 
the  blessing  of  the  poor  and  afflicted  whilst 
among  them,  and  will  live  in  their  grateful 
remembrance  beyond  the  grave.' 

His  works  are :  1.  '  Medical  Bibliograph\-, 
A  and  B,'  London,  1834,  8vo.  2.  'De- 
scription of  the  New  Process  of  perforating 
and  destroying  the  Stone  in  the  Bladder, 
illustrated  with  Cases  and  a  Drawing  of  the 


Atkinson 


223 


Atkinson 


Instrument,  in  a  Letter  addressed  to  the 
3Iedical  Board  of  Calcutta,'  London,  1831, 
S\o. 

[Notes  and  Queries,  .5th  series,  x.  474;  Dib- 
<lin's  Bibliographiciil  Tour;  Index-Cat.  of  the 
Library  of  the  Surgeon-General's  Office,  U.S. 
Army.]  H.  It.  T. 

ATKINSON,  JAMES  (1780-1852),  an 
iiccomplished  Persian  scholar,  was  born  in 
the  county  of  Durham,  9  March  1780.  After 
studying  medicine  at  Edinburgh  and  London, 
he  accepted  the  post  of  medical  officer  on 
board  an  East  Indiaman,  and  in  1805  was 
appointed  an  assistant  surgeon  in  the  Bengal 
service,  and  placed  in  medical  charge  of  the 
station  of  Backergunj,  near  Dacca.  In  the 
leisure  afforded  by  his  not  very  arduous  duties 
he  devoted  himself  with  considerable  success 
to  the  study  of  Persian  and  other  oriental 
tongues;  and  his  linguistic  attainments  hav- 
ing attracted  the  attention  of  the  governor- 
general.  Lord  Minto,  with  whom  learning 
was  ever  a  strong  recommendation,  Atkinson 
was  invited  to  Calcutta  in  1813,  and  given  the 
appointment  of  assistant  assay  master  at  the 
mint,  which  he  retained  till  1828,  with  a 
brief  intermission  in  1818,  when  he  filled  the 
deputy  chair  of  Persian  in  Fort  William  Col- 
lege, and  another  interval  in  1826-7,  when  he 
revisited  England.  In  addition  to  his  ap- 
pointment at  the  mint,  he  held  the  post  of 
superintendent  of  the  *  Government  Gazette ' 
from  1817;  and  when  the  official  connection  of 
the  government  with  that  print  was  discon- 
tinued in  1823,  the  proprietors  were  induced 
by  the  success  which  had  attended  Atkinson's 
management  to  confide  both  the '  Gazette '  and 
the  '  Press '  to  his  sole  charge.  Under  his 
editorship  the  *  Gazette '  was  supplied  with 
valuable  statistical  and  topographical  infor- 
mation on  little-known  parts  of  India.  After 
a  second  visit  to  England  in  1828-33,  At- 
kinson returned  to  his  original  profession,  as 
surgeon  to  the  55th  regiment  of  native  in- 
fantry. In  1838  he  was  appointed  superin- 
tending surgeon  to  the  army  of  the  Indus, 
and  accompanied  it  on  its  march  to  Kabul ; 
but  was  relieved  in  ordinary  course  of  routine 
shortly  after  the  surrender  of  Dost  Moham- 
mad, and,  returning  to  Bengal  in  1841,  escaped 
the  fate  which  awaited  the  army  of  occupa- 
tion. He  was  appointed  a  member  of  the 
medical  board  in  1845,  retired  in  1847  after 
forty-two  years  of  service,  and  died  of  apo- 
plexy 7  Aug.  1852. 

Atkinsons  Persian  translations  are  his 
chief  title  to  fame,  and  of  these  his  selections 
from  the  '  Shah  Nameh '  of  Firdausi  are  the 
most  notable,  inasmuch  as  they  were  the  first 
attempt  to  make  the  gi-eat  Persian  *  Epic  of 


Kings '  familiar  to  English  readers.  He  first 
published  the  episode  of '  Sohrab,'  in  Persian 
with  a  free  English  translation,  in  1814,  and 
after  a  long  interval '  The  Shah  Nameh,  trans- 
lated and  abridged  by  James  Atkinson,'  was 
issued  in  the  publications  (and  won  the  gold 
medal)  of  the  Oriental  Translation  Fund  in 
1832,  to  which  the  earlier  excerpt  was  aji- 
pended.  Next  in  importance  stands  his  verse 
translation  of  Nizami's  *  Leyla  and  Meinun ' 
(Orient. Trans.  Fund,  1836).  The  '  Expedition 
into  AfFghanistan :  Notes  and  Sketches  made 
in  the  Campaigii  1839-40  '  (London,  1842),  is 
a  A'aluable  and  interesting  personal  narrative, 
and  the  supplementary  *  Sketches  in  AfFghan- 
istan '  (fol.  1842),  containing  a  series  of  litho- 
gi'aphed  drawings,  serve  to  complete  the 
picture  of  what  Avas  then  an  unexplored 
country.  From  early  youth  Atkinson  had 
shown  a  talent  for  rhyming.  His  first  pub- 
lished poem  was  a  romance  called '  Rodolpho ' 
(Edinburgh,  1801).  His  selections  from  the 
'  Shah  Nameh '  are  partly  in  verse.  He  also 
wrote  '  The  Aubid ;  an  Eastern  Tale,'  in  verse, 
1819 ;  '  The  City  of  Palaces,  a  Fragment,  and 
other  Poems,'  1824;  translations  from  the 
Italian,  Ugo  Foscolo's  '  Ricciarda,'  1823,  and 
Alessandro  Tassoni's  'La  Secchia  Rapita,' 
1825.  An  edition  of  the  popular  Persian 
romance  of  *  Hatim  Taee,'  1818 ;  *  The  Cus- 
toms and  Manners  of  the  Women  of  Persia,' 
an  amusing  translation  of  a  Persian  essay  on 
liarim  life,  1832;  his  one  professional  treatise, 
*  Description  of  the  New  Process  of  perforating 
and  destroying  the  Stone  in  the  Bladder,'  1831 ; 
contributions  to  the  'Calcutta  Annual  Regis- 
ter,' 1821-2 ;  and  a  solitary  political  squib, 
'  Prospectus  of  the  Calcutta  Liberal,'  1824, 
complete  the  list  of  Atkinson's  publications. 
Accomplished  both  in  literature  and  art,  at 
once  a  scholar  and  a  popular  wTiter,  James 
Atkinson  holds  an  honourable  place  among 
the  pioneers  of  oriental  research. 

[Annual  Report  of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society  of 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  Proceedings  of  the 
Thirtieth  Anniversary  Meeting,  1853.] 

S.  L.-P. 

ATKINSON,   JOHN  AUGUSTUS   (b. 

1775),  painter,  was  born  in  London.  At  the 
age  of  nine  he  was  taken  by  his  uncle  to  St. 
Petersburg.  He  studied  in  the  royal  gal- 
leries, and  gained  the  patronage  successively 
of  the  Empress  Catherine  and  her  son,  the 
Emperor  Paul.  Kotzebue  celebrates  two 
pictures  by  Atkinson,  which  in  1799  hung  in 
the  palace  of  St.  Michael— the  '  Victory  of 
the  Cossacks  of  the  Don  over  the  Tartars,' 
and  the  *  Baptism  of  Count  Wladimir ' 
(Naglbr).  In  Russia  he  made  many  drawings 
illustrative  of  native  manners  and  costume, 


Atkinson 


224 


Atkinson 


and  furnished  designs  for  a  Russian  edition 
of  '  Hudibras,'  wliicli  appeared  at  Konigs- 
berg  in  1798.  He  returned  to  England  in 
1801,  and  first  exliibited  here  at  the  Academy 
in  1802.  In  1803-4  he  prepared  the  plates  for 
'  A  Picturesque  Representation  of  the  Man- 
ners, Customs,  and  Amusements  of  the  Rus- 
sians,' which  seems  not  to  have  actually  ap- 
peared till  1812,  when  it  was  published  by 
Bulmer  in  3  folio  volumes.  In  1807  he  pub- 
lished 'A  Picturesque  Representation,  in 
one  hundred  coloured  plates,  of  the  Naval, 
Military,  and  Miscellaneous  Costumes  of 
Great  Britain,'  and  in  the  same  year  a  set  of 
soft-ground  etchings  to  illustrate  the  misery 
of  human  life.  The  two  first-named  of  these 
Avorks  will  be  found  in  the  print-room  of  the 
British  Museum.  The  plates  are  all  etched 
(in  soft  ground)  by  the  artist  himself,  and 
printed  in  colours.  We  have  few  better  ex- 
amples of  aquatint  engraving  than  these 
supply,  and  no  collected  specimens  of  Atkin- 
son's work  so  readily  accessible.  In  1805 
Boydell  published  a  'Panorama  of  St.  Peters- 
biu'g '  drawn  by  Atkinson,  and  a  portrait  of 
Suwarrow,  botli  of  which  were  engraved  by 
Walker.  In  1819  he  exhibited  in  London, 
amongst  other  pictures,  the  *  Battle  of  Water- 
loo,' some  of  the  portraits  in  which  are  by 
A.  W.  Devis.  The  two  artists  made  their 
studies  for  the  picture  upon  the  battle-field  in 
1815.  It  was  engraved  by  John  Burnet,  on 
the  anniversary  of  the  battle,  in  1819.  A 
fine  water-colour  study  for  this  picture  in 
the  print-room  attests  its  merit.  Composi- 
tion and  colouring  are  excellently  good,  the 
figure-drawing  is  spirited  and  lifelike,  though 
seldom  faultless.  In  the  drawing  of  horses 
Atkinson  was  no  master.  There  are  various 
diflPerences  between  this  water-colour  study 
and  the  engraving  from  the  finished  picture. 
In  1808  he  exhibited  as  an '  associate '  at  the 
Water-Colour  Society.  In  1812  he  sent  Shake- 
speare's *  Seven  Ages '  to  the  same  gallery. 
He  ceased,  after  1813,  to  be  a  member  of 
the  society,  but  continued  to  exhibit  till 
1818.  To  the  Royal  Academy  he  sent  many 
pictures,  his  last  in  1829.  The  date  of  his 
death  is  not  knoAvn.  At  the  South  Kensing- 
ton Museum  are  four  good  water-colours, 
which  show  skilful  composition  and  a  fine 
feeling  for  colour.  His  figures,  artistically 
arrested  in  movement,  show  rather  an  actor  s 
sensibility  than  a  draughtsman's  skill ;  they 
are  spirited  and  interesting,  if  sometimes 
faulty.  His  rustic  groups,  his  soldiers  and 
sailors,  are  charming,  and  pleasantly  remini- 
scent of  Morland.  In  1817,  according  to 
Nagler,  Atkinson  essayed  aiithorship,  and 
published  'Incidents  of  English  Bravery 
during  the  late   Campaigns   on  the  Conti- 


nent.' Fiissli  {Neue  Zusiitze  zu  dem  allge" 
meinen  Kilnstler-Lexikon,  1824)  gives  an  ac- 
count of  the  painter  which  is  largely  occu- 
pied with  a  consideration  of  his  masterpiece, 
the  '  Battle  of  Waterloo.'  He  comments 
upon  the  prominence  given  to  Wellington  in 
the  picture,  and  rather  drily  remarks  (quoting 
the  Tubinger Morgenhlattfur gehildete  Stdnde 
for  1820)  that  the  rearward  position  assigned 
Bliicher  is  not  an  ungraceful  tribute  to  Ger- 
many! the  intention  undoubtedly  being 'der 
deutschen  Bescheidenheit  ein  Compliment 
zu  machen.' 

[Fiissli's  Neue  Zusatze ;  Nagler's  Kiinstler- 
Lexicon,  2nd  ed. ;  Redgrave's  Diet,  of  Painters; 
Tiibinger  Morgenblatt,  1820.]  E.  E. 

A.TKINSON,  .lOSEPH  (1743-1818),  dra- 
matist, was  born  in  Ireland,  and  served  in 
the  army  until  he  obtained  a  captain's  com- 
mission. In  1785  he  produced  a  comedy  in 
Dublin,  the  '  Mutual  Deception,'  which,  in 
the  following  year,  was  altered  by  Colman, 
the  seriou*  scenes  being  omitted,  and,  under 
the  title  of  *  Tit  for  Tat,'  presented  at  the 
Haymarket.  Atkinson  professed  himself  in- 
debted to  an  Italian  original  for  the  comic 
portion  of  his  play,  which  was  found 
closely  to  resemble  the  eai-lier  comedies  of 
the  '  Double  Deceit '  and '  Love's  Metamor- 
phosis,' first  performed  in  1735  and  1776  re- 
spectively. In  1786  Atkinson  produced  in 
Dublin '  A  Match  for  a  Widow,  or  the  Frolics 
of  Fancy,'  an  opera  in  three  acts,  the  music 
by  Dibdin,  founded  upon  a  French  comedy 
which  Mrs.  Inchbald  had  previously  con- 
verted into  the  English  play  of  the  'Widow's 
Vow,' and  of  which  Miss  Sheridan  had  availed 
herself  in  writing  her  farce  of  the  '  Ambigu- 
ous Lover.'  In  1800  Captain  Atkinson  pro- 
duced at  the  Cork  Street  Theatre  a  comic 
opera  called  '  Love  in  a  Blaze,'  borrowed  from 
a  French  play,  which  had  done  duty  in  an 
English  form  as  *  Gallic  Gratitude '  at  Covent 
Garden  in  1779.  The  music  to  '  Love  in  a 
Blaze '  was  composed  by  Dr.  (afterwards  Sir) 
John  Stevenson,  to  whose  assistance  the  pro- 
duction is  said  to  have  been  indebted  for  the 
success  it  obtained. 

[Thespian  Diotionary,  1805;  Genest's  History 
of  the  Stage,  1832.]  D.  C. 

ATKINSON,  MILES  (1741-1811),  di- 
vine, second  son  of  the  Rev.  Christopher 
Atkinson,  rector  of  Thorp  Arch,  Yorkshire, 
was  born  at  Ledsham  28  Sept.  1741,  and 
educated  at  Peterhouse,  Cambridge  (B.A. 
1763).  He  became  curate  of  the  parish 
church  of  Leeds ;  head-master  of  the  school 
of  Drighlington,  near  Leeds  (1764-70)  ;  lec- 
turer of  the  parish  church  of  Leeds,  1769 ; 


Atkinson 


225 


Atkinson 


vicar  of  Kippax,  near  Leeds,  1783  ;  minister 
of  St.  Pinils  Cliurch,  Leeds,  17P-).  which  he 
founded  at  a  cost  of  nearly  10,000/. ;  and  died 
(i  Feb.  1811.  lie  publi.shed  several  pulpit 
discour.ses,  and  a  collection  of  liis  *  Practical 
Sermons '  was  published  at  London  in  two 
volumes,  1812.  In  AVhitaker's  *  Loidis  and 
IClmete  '  there  is  a  fine  portrait  of  him,  en- 
ifi'aved  bv  W.  Holl  from  a  painting  by 
J.  Russeli,  ll.A. 

[Memoir  pi-efixed  to  his  Practical  Sermons; 
Whitaker's  Loidis  and  Elmete,  p.  69.]      T.  C. 

ATKINSON,  PAUL  (1656-1729),  Fran- 
ciscan friar,  was  a  Yorkshireman  by  birth, 
and  after  holding  several  important  offices 
in  his  order,  including  that  of  definitor  of 
the  English  province,  was  infiimonsly  be- 
trayed to  the  officers  of  the  law  by  his  maid- 
servant for  a  reward  of  100/.  under  the  penal 
statute  of  11  and  12  William  III.  He  was 
apprehended  in  London  in  1698,  and  con- 
demned, on  account  of  his  priestly  character, 
to  perpetual  imprisonment,  which  he  under- 
went in  Hurst  Castle  in  Hampshire,  where 
he  lived  with  cheerful  composure,  beloved 
and  respected  by  the  keeper  of  the  castle 
and  the  whole  neighbourhood  as  an  ill-fated 
fimiable  man.  The  governor  at  one  time 
allowed  him  the  privilege  of  walking  out 
beyond  the  walls  of  his  prison  iintil  some 
bigots  complained  of  this  indulgence  being 
granted,  and  Father  Atkinson  voluntarily 
confined  himself  ever  afterwards  to  his  own 
miserable  apartment,  wherein,  after  thirty 
years  of  strict  incarceration,  he  died  15  Oct. 
1729.  He  was  buried  at  St.  James's,  Win- 
chester, where  the  following  epitaph  was 
placed  over  his  grave  : — '  II.  S.  E.  R.  P. 
Paulus  Atkinson,  Franciscanus,  qui  15  Oct. 
1729  ffitat.  74  in  castro  de  Hurst  vitam 
finivit,  postquam  ibidem  30  peregerat  annos. 
R.  I.  P.^ 

His  portrait  has  been  engi-aved. 

[Gent.  Mag.  Ix.  234,  332,  412;  Oliver's  Col- 
lections illustrating  the  History  of  the  Catholic 
Religion  in  Cornwall,  &c.,  565;  Noble's  Continua- 
tion of  Granger,  iii.  172;  Bromley's  Catalogue 
of  Engraved  British  Portraits,  274 ;  Evans's 
Catalogue  of  Portraits,  i.  13,  ii.  18.]  T.  C. 

ATKINSON,  PETER  (1725-1805),  ar- 
chitect, was  born  at  Ripon,  trained  for  a 
carpenter,  became  the  assistant  of  John  Carr, 
an  architect  of  York,  and  was  engaged  upon 
many  works  in  his  employ.  He  afterwards 
succeeded  to  Carr's  practice.  He  erected  a 
large  mansion  for  Sir  John  V.  B.  Johnstone 
at  Hackness,  near  Scarborough. 

[Dictionary  of  Architectural  Publication  So- 
ciety, 1853.]  E.  R. 
VOL.  II. 


ATKINSON,  PETER  (1776-1822),  ar- 
chitect, son  of  the  above,  was  educated  in 
his  profession  by  his  father,  and  succeeded 
to  his  business.  He  built  the  bridge  over  the 
Ouse,  begun  in  1810.  For  many  years  ho 
was  steward  and  surveyor  to  the  cori)oratiou 
of  York.  To  him  that  city  remains  grateful 
for  its  house  of  correction  and  gaol.  He 
erected  many  churches  in  the  service  of  the 
church  commissioners.  During  the  last 
years  of  his  life  he  resided  abroad. 

[Dictionary  of  Architectural  Publication  So- 
ciety, 1853.]  E.  R. 

ATKINSON,  STEPHEN  (J.  1619), 
metallurgist,  was  a  native  of  London.  After 
serving  an  apprenticeship  to  Francis  Tiver, 
a  refiner  of  gold  and  silver,  he  was  admitted 
a  *  finer '  in  the  Tower  of  London  about  1586, 
and  subsequently  he  was  engaged  in  refining 
silver  in  Devonshire,  from  lead  brought  from 
Ireland.  He  tells  us  that  he  was  taught  his 
mining  skill  *by  Mr.  B.  B.,  an  ingenious 
gent'  (i.e.  Mr.,  afterwards  Sir  Bevis,  Bul- 
mer) ;  that  he  spent  his  '  golden  time '  in 
different  shires  in  England ;  and  that  he  was 
for  two  years  in  Ireland  with  Bulmer,  who 
died  in  his  debt  340/.,  having  left  him  there 
'  much  in  debt  for  him.'  By  a  grant  of  the 
privy  council  of  Scotland  in  1616,  confirmed 
by  James  I,  he  obtained  leave  to  search  for 
gold  and  silver  in  Crawford  Muir,  on  paying 
the  king  one-tenth  of  the  metals  found.  It 
appears  that  he  was  imsuccessful  in  his 
mining  operations,  and  consequently  he  wrote 
*  The  Discoverie  and  Historic  of  the  Gold 
Mynes  in  Scotland.'  This  was  edited  by 
Mr.  Gilbert  Laing  Meason  for  the  Bannatyne 
Club  in  1825,  from  a  manuscript  in  the  Ad- 
vocates' Library,  Edinburgh.  Another  manu- 
script is  in  the  Harleian  collection,  4621. 
The  author  proposes  to  the  king  *  the  open- 
ing of  the  secrets  of  the  earth — the  gold 
mines  of  Scotland,  to  make  his  majesty  the 
richest  monarch  in  Europe,  yea,  in  all  the 
world.'  This  measure  was  to  be  accomplished 
by  moving  '  twenty-four  gentlemen  of  Eng- 
land, of  sufficient  land,  to  disbnrst  300/. 
each,'  by  creating  them  '  for  ever  Knights  of 
the  Golden  Mynes,  or  Golden  Knights.'  At- 
kinson failed  to  make  any  impression  on  the 
king,  who  had  already  expended  3,000/.  on 
the  gold  mines  of  Crawford  Muir,  and  had 
obtained  not  quite  three  ounces  of  gold. 

[Meason's  introd.  to  the  Discoverie  ;  Lowndes's 
Bibl.  Man.  ed.  Bohn,  App.  9.]  T.  C. 

ATKINSON,  THOMAS  (1600-1639), 
divine  and  dramatist,  entered  Merchant 
Taylors'  School  in  August  1608.  Seven  years 
later  he  was  elected  scholar  of  St.  John's 


Atkinson 


226 


Atkinson 


College,  Oxford,  during  the  presidency  of 
Laud,  and,  gi-aduating  in  1 61 9,  proceeded  to 
the  degree  of  B.D.  in  1630.  After  filling  the 
office  of  senior  proctor  of  the  university,  At- 
kinson accepted  the  living  of  South  Warn- 
boi'ough  in  Hampshire,  to  which  he  was  in- 
ducted 20  Jan.  1637-8.  Towards  the  end  of 
the  same  year,  by  virtue  of  an  exchange  with 
Dr.  Peter  Ileylin,  he  became  rector  of  Islip, 
near  Oxford,  and,  dying  a  few  weeks  later, 
was  buried  in  St.  John's  College  chapel  6  Feb. 
1638-9. 

Atkinson  is  not  known  to  have  published 
anything;  but  he  wrote  two  Latin  poems, 
directed  against  Andrew  Mel v  in,  and  styled 

*  Andrei  Melvini  Anti-Tami-Cunicategoria ' 
and  '  Melvinus  delirans '  respectively.  A 
Latin  tragedy  entitled  '  Homo,'  bearing  the 
signature  Thomas  Atkinson,  may  (almost  cer- 
tainly) be  ascribed  to  tlie  same  author  on 
these  grounds  :  (1)  It  was  dedicated  to  Laud 
in  his  capacity  of  president  {Presses  colen- 
dissime),  which  implies  that  a  member  of  St. 
Jolui's  College  wrote  it ;  (2)  There  was  at 
St.  John's,  during  Laud's  time,  only  one 
Tliomas  Atkinson  of  any  note  as  a  scholar. 
The  MS.  of  '  Homo '  is  preserved  in  the 
Harleiau  librai-y  of  the  Britisli  Museum,  No. 
6925. 

[Wood's  Athenae  Oxon.  (Bliss),  iii.  556,  iv.  444 ; 
Fasti  (Eliss),  i.  239,  386,  450,  456;  Kegisters 
of  St.  John's  Coll.  Oxford  ;  Parish  Registers  of 
South  Warnborough  and  Islip.]  J.  M.  H. 

ATKINSON,  THOMAS  (1801  P-1833), 
poet  and  miscellaneous  writer,  was  a  native 
of  Glasgow,  where  he  cai-ried  on  business  as 
a  bookseller.  He  published,  under  his  own 
editorship,  the  '  Sextuple  Alliance '  and  the 

*  Chameleon,'  and  also  a  weekly  periodical, 
the  '  Ant.'  After  the  passing  of  the  Ileform 
Bill,  he  became  a  candidate  in  the  liberal 
interest  for  the  representation  of  the  Stirling 
burghs  in  parliament,  but  was  unsuccessful. 
Over-exertion  during  the  contest  brought  on 
a  dangerous  illness,  which  assumed  the  cha- 
racter of  consumption,  and  he  died   on  the 

Kissage  to  the  Barbadoes,  10  Oct.  1833. 
aniel  Macmillan,  founder  of  tlie  publishing 
house  of  Macmillan  &  Co.,  was  for  some  time 
Atkinson's  shopman. 

[Charles  Rogers,  Scottish  Minstrel,  1870,  pp. 
272-73;  J.  Grant  Wilson,  Poets  and  Poetry  of 
•Scotland,  vol.  ii.  1877,  pp.  230-33;  Thomas 
Hughes,  Memoir  of  Daniel  Macmillan,  1882, 
pp.  10-16.]  T.  F.  H. 

ATKINSON,  WILLIAM,  D.D.  {d.  1509), 
translator,  a  native  of  the  diocese  of  York, 
was  M.  A.  and  fellow  of  Pembroke  Hall,  Cam- 
bridge, in  1477,  B.D.  in  1485,  and  l^.D.  in 


1498.  He  became  a  prebendary  of  Southwell 
in  1501,  canon  of  Lincoln  7  March  1 503-4,  and 
canon  of  Windsor  25  Feb.  1506-7.  He  died 
8  Aug.  1509,  and  was  buried  in  St.  George's 
chapel,  Windsor.  At  the  command  of  Mar- 
garet, countess  of  Richmond  and  Derby, 
mother  of  King  Henry  VII,  Dr.  Atkinson 
translated  from  the  French  three  books  of  the 
*  Imitation  of  .Jesus  Christ '  attributed  to  John 
Gerson.  This  translation  was  published  in 
1502,  and  again  in  1503  and  1517,  under  the 
title  of  '  A  full  deuoute  &;  gostely  treatyse  of 
y*  Imytacion  «&  foloA\'ynge  y*  blessyd  Lyfe  of 
our  most  mercifull  Sauiour  Cryst.' 

[Le  Neve's  Fasti  Eccl.  Anglic. ;  Ames's  Typo- 
graphical Antiquities,  cd.  Herbert,  138,  231,  249, 
322;  Tanner's  Bibl.  Brit.  55;  Cooper's  Athen. 
Cantab,  i.  13.]  T.  C. 

ATKINSON,  WILLIAM  (1773P-1839), 

architect,  was  bom  at  Bishop's  Auckland, 
near  Durham.  He  began  life  as  a  carpentei'. 
Through  the  patronage  of  the  then  bishop  of 
Durham,  he  became  a  pu])il  of  .lames  Wyatt . 
In  1795  he  obtained  the  Academy  gold  medal 
for  designs  for  a  court  of  justice.  In  1805 
he  published  'Pictures(£ue  Views  of  Cottages,' 
4to,  London.  He  had  many  pupils,  and  was 
practically  and  theoretically  an  able  archi- 
tect. He  Avas  engaged  on  many  important 
works,  and  built  several  large  mansions, 
amongst  them  Lord  iNIansfield's  house  at 
Scone.  '  He  died  22  May  1839,  aged  66,  at 
his  residence  at  Cobham,  SuiTey  .  .  .  and  is 
buried  at  Walton-on-Tliames,  Surrey.  He 
was  a  most  excellent  chemist,  geologist,  and 
botanist,  excelling  in  the  latter  science  to  an 
extraordinary  degi-ee.  The  well-known  Ro- 
man cement,  called,  fi"om  himself,  Atkinson's 
cement,  was  introduced  by  him  to  the  Lon- 
don market.' 

[Redgnxve's  Diet,  of  Painters ;  the  Arehitectura  1 
Publication  Society's  Dictionary  of  Architecture. 
1853.]  E.  R. 

ATKINSON,  WILLIAM  (1757-1846), 
poetical  writer,  was  born  at  Tlioi-pe  Arch, 
within  the  bounds  of  the  city  of  York,  in 
1757,  and  was  the  son  of  a  clergvnian.  lb' 
was  admitted  a  sizar  of  .Jesus  College,  Cam- 
bridge, 29  Dec.  1775,  graduated  B.A.  in  1780, 
was  elected  a  fellow  of  his  college,  and  pro- 
ceeded to  the  degree  of  M.A.  in  1783.  Having 
taken  orders  he  was  appointed  lecturer  at  lln' 
parish  church  of  Bradford,  in  Yorkshire,  and 
subsequently,  in  1792,  he  was  presented  by 
the  lord  chancellor  to  the  rectory  of  War- 
ham  All  Saints,  in  Norfolk.  He  died  at 
Thorpe  Arch  30  Sept.  1846.  Mr.  Atkinson 
published  a  small  volume  of  *  Poetical  Essays,' 
Leeds,  1786,  4to,  which  was  most  sarcasti- 


Atkyns 


227 


Atkyns 


cally  reviewed  by  a  writer  calling  himself  1 
*  Trim  '  (Edwiird'Baldwyn),  in  '  A  Critique 
on  the  Poetical  Essays  of  the  Rev.  William  ! 
Atkinson,'  London,  1787.     '  Trim  '  also  pub- 
lished anotlier  pamphlet,  abounding  in  the  ' 
coarsest  personalities,  and  entitled  '  A  Con- 
gi-atiilatory  Letter  to  the  llev.  William  At- 
kinson, M.A.,  Fellow  of  Jesus  College,  Cam-  ' 
bridge,  on  his  appearance  in  the  character  of 
a  printer,  with  remarks  on  the  several  papers 
tliat  have  issued  from  his  press,'  London,  1790. 

[Notes  and  Queries,  3rd  ser.  iii.  166  ;  Norfolk  i 

Benefices,  17,  30;  Gent.  Mug.  N.  8.  xxvi.  662;  I 

Hotten's  Topograpliieal    Catalogiie,    1861,   No. 

3099.1  T.  C.       ! 

■"  ! 

ATKYNS,  Sir  EDWARD  (1587-1669),  I 
baron  of  the  exchequer,  was  the  third  son  \ 
■of  Richard  Atkyns,  and  was  born  in  1587,  | 
jipparentlv  at  Ilensington  in  Oxfordshire  i 
{Hnrl.  MS.  5801  f.  9;  Cal.  State.  Papers,' 
1658-1,  p.  398).  Admitted,  5  Feb.  1600-1, 
A  student  of  Lincoln's  Inn,  where  his  father 
4ind  gi'andfather  had  both  attained  legal 
honours,  he  was  called  to  the  bar  25  Jan. 
161^^14,  became  governor  of  the  society  in 
1630,  nnd  was  two  years  later  nominated 
'autumn  reader.'  On" 7  Feb.  1622-3  Atkyns 
;appeared  before  the  Star  Chamber  as  counsel 
for  William  Prynne,  cliarged  with  libelling 
the  queen  in  his  '  Histriomastix,'  and  de- 
fended his  client's  character  from  his  per- 
sonal acquaintance  Avith  him  '  in  a  society 
of  inns  of  court,  where  he  has  lived.'  It  is 
])robable  that  he  gaAe  similar  aid  to  Heniy 
Burton  and  Dr.  John  Bastwick  when  brought 
befoi'e  the  same  tribunal  in  1637 ;  for  in  1640 
Burton  and  Bastwick,  while  petitioning  the 
liong  parliament  to  reconsider  their  sentence 
of  imprisonment,  requested  permission  to  ob- 
tain Atkyns's  legal  assistance  in  stating  their 
case.  Atkyns  had  so  far  identified  himself 
with  tlie  popular  cause  that  his  promotion  to 
a  serjeanty  by  the  king  on  19  5lay  1640 — a 
fortnight  after  the  dissolution  of  the  Short 
parliament — must  be  regarded  as  an  en- 
deavour either  to  conciliate  the  pai4iamen- 
tarians  or  to  alienate  Atkyns  from  them. 
Atkyns,  however,  accepted  the  honour,  and 
made  no  change  in  his  conduct.  But  a  royal 
patent,  issued  on  7  Oct.  1640  (Rtmer,  Fw- 
dera,  xx.  447),  appointing  Atkyns  a  baron  of 
the  exchequer,  did  not,  for  reasons  that  we 
have  been  unable  to  ascertain,  take  effect. 
In  1643,  when  the  Commons  entered  into  ne- 
gotiations with  Charles  I,  they  demanded  that 
'  Mr,  Seijeant  Atkyns  should  be  made  justice 
of  the  King's  Bench '  (Clarendon,  ii.  478), 
and  on  28  Oct.  1 645,  despairing  of  any  settle- 
ment with  the  crown,  they  ci-eated  him,  by 
their  own  order,  baron  of  the  exchequer. 


That  post  Atkyns  held  till  4  Aug.  164^, 
when,  by  an  order  of  the  Lords  {Jourmil,  \. 
419  a),  he  was  removed  to  the  court  of  Com- 
mon Pleas.  After  the  king's  death,  Atkyns, 
according  to  Foss,  refused  to  accept  a  com- 
mission from  the  provisional  councilof  statf 
continuing  him  in  his  office,  but  on  9  Dec. 
1650  he  was  nominated,  without  any  protest 
on  his  part,  one  of  the  judges  to  try  disturlxTs 
of  the  peace  in  the  eastern  counties,  and  was 
consulted  by  Cromwell  on  legal  business. 
On  16  Jan.  1653-4,  he  delivered  before  tln' 
protector  and  his  council  the  opinion  of  tlif 
judges  stating  the  liability  of  an  alien,  Don 
Pantaleone,  the  brother  of  the  Portuguese 
ambassador,  to  be  tried  in  an  English  court 
of  laAv  on  a  charge  of  murder  alleged  to  have 
been  committed  during  a  riot  in  the  New- 
Exchange,  London,  and  at  Pautaleone's  trial 
Atkyns  was  one  of  the  presiding  judges.  The 
only  instancj;  in  which  Atkyns  0])enly  refused 
to  act  with  the  Commonwealth  authorities 
was  in  June  1654  at  the  trial,  by  special  com- 
mission, of  Gerard  and  others  for  conspiracy 
to  murder  Cromwell,  an  offence  described  in 
the  indictment  as  high  treason.  An  ordi- 
nance of  the  council  had  in  the  previous 
January  brought  the  crime  witliin  the  legal 
definition  of  treason,  and  before  the  trial 
commenced,  Atkyns,  with  the  other  judges, 
was  requested  to  bind  himself  by  oath  to  givp 
the  ordinance  effect.  But  this  he  declined  to 
do  :  '  By  the  law,'  he  said,  '  no  man  indicted 
for  treason  but  o\ight  to  be  tried  by  a  jury : 
by  this  ordinance  it  is  otherwise;  and  there- 
fore this  oath  [seems]  contrary  to  the  other 
oaths  I  have  taken.' 

This  episode  did  not  affect  Atkyns's  posi- 
tion. In  succeeding  years  he  continued  oii 
the  bench,  and  maintained  his  former  rela- 
tions with  CromAvell.  lie  was  renominated 
a  judge  on  the  first  return  of  the  Long 
parliament  to  Westminster  in  ^May  1659, 
but  on  its  second  return  in  tlie  following 
year  his  name  was  omitted  from  the  list  of 
duly  appointed  judges.  After  the  Restora- 
tion, in  May  1660,  Atkyns,  however,  was 
created  anew  (23  .Tune)  a  baron  of  the  ex- 
chequer and  knighted.  On  9  Oct.  following, 
he  was  one  of  the  presiding  judges  at  the  trial 
of  the  regicides,  but  took  no  prominent  part 
in  the  proceedings.  On  9  March  1660-1  he 
fell  seriously  ill  on  the  midland  circuit ;  on 
20  April  1661  he  arranged,  witli  others,  the 
procedure  to  be  followed  at  the  trial  of  Lord 
Morley  for  murder ;  and  on  1  April  1668  he 
took  part  in  an  important  trial  of  certain 
rioters  charged  with  high  treason.  He  died 
9  Oct.  1669,  at  Albury  Hall,  Hertfordshire, 
an  estate  that  he  had  purchased  in  1661. 
He  is  described  bv  Chauncv  as  '  a  grave  and 

ft2 


Atkyns 


228 


Atkyns 


learned  judge,'  and  in  spite  of  bis  political 
conduct,  which  was  somewhat  variable,  as 
'  a  most  just  and  charitable  man.' 

Atkyns  married  (1)  Ursula,  daughter  of 
Sir  Thomas  Dacres,  by  whom  he  had  two 
sons,  Robert  and  Edward,  who  both  became 
judges  of  eminence,  and  three  daughters ; 
and  (2)  Frances,  daughter  of  John  Berry,  of 
Lydd,  Kent,  by  wliom  he  had  no  issue.  Ilis 
first  wife  died  26  June  1644,  and  was  buried 
in  Cheshunt  Church,  Hertfordshire  (Cus- 
SANs's  Hertfordshire,  ii.  225).  His  second 
wife,  whom  Atkyns  married  16  Sept.  1645, 
long  survived  him,  and  died  2  March  1703-4, 
at  the  reputed  age  of  100. 

[Foss's  Lives  of  the  Judges,  vii.  53  et  seq.  ; 
State  Trials,  vols.  iii.  v.  vi. ;  State  Paper  Calen- 
dars, 1640-1667;  Whitelocke's  Memorials  (1853), 
iv.  107,  246  ;  Noble's  continuation  of  Grranger, 
ii.  295  ;  Chauncy's  Hertfordshire  (1817),  i.  294, 
&c. ;  Harl.  MS.  5801  f.  9  6 ;  Notes  and  Queries 
(2nd  series)  ix.  197,  294.]  S.  L.  L. 

ATKYNS,  Sir  EDWARD  (1630-1698), 
baron   of  the  exchequer   and   younger  son 
of  Sir  Edward  Atkyns,  who  held  a  similar 
office,   was  born  in   1630.      He   became   a 
student  at  Lincoln's  Inn  at  the  age  of  18, 
and  five  years  later  was  called  to  the  bar. 
In  1675  he  was  appointed  '  autumn  reader ' 
at  his   inn  of  court,  and  in   Easter  term, 
1679,  was  made  a  seijeant-at-law.     A  few 
Aveeks  afterwards  (22  June  1679)  Atkyns, 
wlio  had  secured  some  reputation  for  legal 
learning  and  for  hospitality,  was  raised  to  the 
bench  as  one  of  the  barons  of  the  exchequer, 
and  knighted.     He  took  a  prominent  part  in 
the  trial  of  Thomas  Twining  and  Mary  Pres- 
sicks,  who  were  charged  on  29  July  1680,  at 
the  instigation  of  the  anti-catholic  agitators 
of  the  day,  with  compassing  the  death  of  the 
king  and  seeking  the  overthrow  of  the  pro- 
testant  religion :  in  his  summing  up  Atkyns 
placed  the  case  before  the  jury  with  becom- 
ing impartiality.     At  the  close  of  the  same 
year  he  was  one  of  the  judges  appointed  to 
try  Lord  Stafford  and  other  catholic  peers 
on  a  charge  of  high  treason,  but  he  there 
supported  his  colleagues  in  their  contention 
that  the  law,  which  demanded  t  wo  witnesses 
to  every  overt  act  of  treason,  might  on  occa- 
sion be  waived.     On  21  April  1686,  when 
lord  chief  baron  Montagu  was  removed  from 
thebenehfor  refusing  to  certify  to  the  legality 
of  the  dispensing  power  exercised  by  James  II, 
Atkyns  was  promoted  to  his  place.    After  the 
revolution  of  1688  he  consistently  refused  to 
take  the  oaths  of  allegiance  to  "NVilliam  III, 
and  consequently  resigned  his  office,  to  which 
Sir  Robert  Atkyns,  his  elder  brother,  was  im- 
mediately appointed  [see  Atkyns,  Sik  Ro- 


bert]. Shortly  afterwards  Atkyns  retired 
from  public  life,  and  withdrew  to  his  country 
seat  at  Pickenham,  in  Norfolk.  Although 
he  continued  to  hold  Jacobite  opinions,  he- 
showed  no  bitterness  of  spirit  to  those  whO' 
differed  from  him,  and  earned  the  gratitude 
of  all  classes  of  his  neighbours  by  liis  tact  in 
settling  their  disputes.  He  died  of  the  stone- 
in  London  during  October  1698. 

[Foss's  Judges  of  England,  vii.  210-11  ;  State 
Trials,  vii.  1179,  1258;  Noble's  Continuation  of 
Granger,  ii.  296  ;  Chauncy's  Hertfordshire,  p. 
149;  Blomefield's  History  of  Norfolk,  vi.  71  ^ 
viii.  349,  ix.  69,  70.]  S.  L.  L. 

ATKYNS,  JOHN  TRACY  {d.  1773), 
barrister-at-law,  was  the  third  son  of  John 
Tracy,  of  Stanway,  Gloucestershire,  and 
gi-eat-grandson  of  the  third  Viscount  Tracy, 
of  Toddington.  His  mother  was  a  daughter 
of  Sir  Robert  Atkyns,  lord  chief  baron,  and 
it  was  probably  on  account  of  the  legal  emi- 
nence of  his  grandfather  that  he  adopted  the 
name  of  Atkyns.  He  entered  Lincoln's  Inn 
in  1724,  and  was  called  to  the  bar  in  1732. 
In  1755  he  Avas  appointed  cursitor  baron  of" 
the  exchequer.  He  had  taken  notes  of  the 
cases  in  the  coiu-t  of  Chancery  from  Hilary 
term  1736  to  Michaelmas  term  1754,  and  \\& 
published  condensed  reports  of  them  in  three 
volumes,  1765-7-8;  a  second  edition  ap- 
peared 1781-2,  and  a  third,  edited  by  Francis 
William  Sanders,  in  1794.  In  1768  he  made- 
a  codicil  to  his  will  under  the  name  of  Tracy^ 
By  his  wife,  whose  name  was  Katherine 
Lindsay,  he  left  no  children.  He  died  25  July 
1773.  Lord  Chief-Justice  Wilmot  describes 
him  in  his  diary  as  '  a  cheerful,  good- 
humoured,  honest  man,  a  good  husband, 
master,  and  friend.' 

[Britton's  Graphic  Illustrations  of  Toddington,. 
Gloucestershire;  Foss's  Judges  of  England,  viii. 
101 ,  238  ;  Wilmot's  Life  of  Chief-JiLstice  Wilmot, 
p.  199.]  T.  F.  H. 

ATKYNS,  RICHARD  (1615-1677),. 
writer  on  typography,  was  descended  from  an 
old  Gloucestershire  family  that  for  upwards 
of  a  century  leased  from  the  dean  and  chap- 
ter of  Gloucester  the  manor  of  Tufiley,  two 
miles  south-south-east  fi-om  the  cathedral' 
city.  After  receiving  a  home  education  at 
the  hands  of  two  inefficient  clerical  tutors, 
he  was  sent  to  the  Free  (Crypt)  Grammar 
School  in  Gloucester.  Thence,  at  the  age 
of  fourteen,  he  proceeded  to  Balliol  Col- 
lege, Oxford,  as  a  gentleman  commoner,  where 
he  remained  two  years,  probably  without 
taking  a  degree,  as  he  afterwards  informs  us 
*  that  he  was  not  so  well  grounded  as  he 
ought  to  have  been  to  read  a  Greek  or  Latirti 


Atkyns 


229 


Atkyns 


author  with  pleasure.'  Several  members  of 
hi.s  family  on  his  fathei-'s  side  having  already 
<listingiiished  themselves  in  the  study  of  the 
law,  it  was  i-esolved  to  send  him  to  Lincoln's 
Inn,  whei-e  several  of  them  '  had  anciently 
been  and  some  of  them  there ;  but  receiving 
some  disgust  at  his  entrance  '  he  was  recalled 
thence  and  sent  to  travel  abroad  with  the 
only  son  of  Ijord  Arundel  of  Wardour,  who 
was  about  his  own  age.  The  Arundels  being 
staunch  Roman  catholics,  while  Atkyns  was 
a  protestant,  each  youth  was  accompanied  by 
a  tutor  of  his  own  faith.  The  party  left 
Dover  in  October  1636  or  1637,  and  travelled, 
by  way  of  Calais,  to  Douay,  where  they 
stayed  some  time  at  the  English  College  ; 
thence  they  set  out,  by  way  of  Cambray  and 
St.  Quentin,  to  Paris.  Before  the  winter 
was  ended  the  three  years'  travel  was  ab- 
ruptly terminated  by  the  death  of  young 
-Vrundel,  who,  '  getting  a  heat  and  cold  at 
tennis,'  probably  in  Paris,  died  from  fever  at 
Orleans.  Soon  afterwards  Atkyns  returned 
to  England  and  betook  himself  to  country 
affairs.  On  the  death  of  his  father,  in  1636, 
he  succeeded  to  the  family  estates  at  the  age 
of  twenty-one.  ^\iter  the  days  of  mourning 
for  his  father  were  ended,  '  he  put  off  his 
hounds,'  came  to  London,  '  and  kept  his 
coach,'  and  made  his  bow  at  court,  Avhere  he 
was  invited  by  the  queen  to  assist  at  masques. 
He  does  not  appear  to  have  shone  as  a  cour- 
tier, having,  as  he  infonns  us, '  found  himself 
guilty  of  three  imperfections,  a  blushing 
modesty,  a  flexible  disposition,  and  no  great 
diligence.'  These  festive  scenes  at  the  court 
of  Henrietta  Maria  wei'e,  however,  soon  to 
terminate  in  the  turmoil  of  the  civil  war. 
In  1642  we  find  him  engaged  in  raising  a 
t  roop  of  horse  for  the  king  at  his  own  ex- 
pense. His  first  skirmish  appears  to  have 
taken  place  with  Sir  William  Waller  at  Little 
Dean  near  Newnham-by-Gloucester.  In  the 
following  year  he  was  engaged  at  Reading 
and  Bath,  also  at  the  taking  of  Bristol  and 
at  the  raising  of  the  siege  of  Gloucester  in 
Septembei'.  For  his  loyalty  to  the  royal 
cause  his  estate  was  sequestrated  by  the  par- 
liament. In  1646,  however,  both  houses 
passed  an  ordinance  pardoning  his  delin- 
quency after  imposing  a  fine  of  140/.  (^Com- 
mons' Journal,  4,  530;  Lords'  ib.  9,  o",  11''). 
After  the  Restoration  he  was  made  deputy- 
lieutenant  for  Gloucestershire,  and  was  also 
re-appointed  to  an  agency  for  the  crown  con- 
nected in  some  way  with  printing,  a  post 
which  he  appears  to  have  held  originally  as 
early  as  1631,  as  he  had  already  involved 
himself '  in  several  great  and  chargeable  suites 
against  the  Company  of  Stationers  at  the 
cost  of  more  than  1,000/.' 


About  1660  there  was  discovered  in  the 
public  library  of  Cambridge  an  early  work, 
said  to  have  been  printed  at  Oxford  in  146K, 
on  the  Apostles'  Creed.     Its  title  ran  '  Ex- 

fiosicio  sancti  Jeronimi  in  simbolum  aposto- 
orum  ad  papam  Laurentium.  Impressa 
Oxonie  et  finita  anno  Domini  1468,'  4to  (copy 
in  Roy.  Lib.  Brit.  Mus.,  show  case  viii.  15). 
Shortly  after  its  appearance  Atkyns  printed 
and  published  an  anonymous  broadside  en- 
titled '  The  Original  and  Growth  of  Printing,' 
with  what  object  will  be  shown  in  the  sequel. 
This  was  afterwards,  in  1664,  enlarged,  with 
answers  to  objections,  and  published  in  his 
own  name  in  quarto.  It  is  to  this  broadside 
and  its  reprint  that  Atkyns  owes  his  fame, 
and  by  means  of  which,  it  is  supposed,  he 
hoped  to  repair  his  shattered  fortunes  by 
proving  that  the  right  and  title  of  printing 
belonged  to  the  crown  alone,  and  by  securing 
for  himself  the  ofiice  of  patentee  for  the 
printing  of  law  books.  He  first  endeavoured 
to  establish  that  printing  in  England  began 
at  Oxford ;  and  that  StoAv,  Sir  Richard  Baker, 
and  Howell,  in  asserting  that  the  art  of 
printing  was  introduced  into  England  in 
1472,  '  do  most  en'oneously  agree  together,' 
although  their  error  might  have  arisen 
'through  the  mistake  of  the  first  writer  only.' 
His  discovery  of  the  '  Exposicio  '  is  his  lead- 
ing argument.  '  A  Book  came  into  my  hands,' 
he  writes,  '  Printed  at  Oxford  in  1468,  whicli 
was  three  years  before  any  of  the  recited 
authors  would  allow  it  to  be  in  England.' 
'  The  same  most  worthy  Person,'  he  continues, 
'  who  trusted  me  with  the  aforesaid  Book,  did 
also  present  him  with  a  copy  of  h  Record  and 
MS.  in  Lambeth  House,  heretofore  in  his 
custody,  belonging  to  the  See,  and  not  to  any 
particular  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  the 
substance  wereof  was  (of  which  the  following 
is  an  outline)  "That  Thos.  Bouchier,  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  moved  the  then  King 
(Hen.  VI)  to  use  all  possible  means  for  pro- 
curingaPrintingMold". .  .  to  which  the  King 
readilj-  barkened  and  committed  the  Manage- 
ment of  the  Design  to  Mr.  R.  Tumour  .  .  . 
who  took  to  his  assistance  Mr.  Caxton.'  After 
having  spent  1,500  marks  in  gifts  and  ex- 
penses they  succeeded  in  bringing  over  from 
Harlem  one  of  Cuthenburg's  (sic)  under-work- 
men,  whose  name  was  Frederick  Corsells,  or 
rather  Corsellis,  and  brought  him  safe  to 
London.  It  not  being  thought  prudent  to 
set  him  on  work  there,  'Corsellis  was  cari'ied 
with  a  guard  to  Oxford,  which  gfuard  con- 
stantly watched,  to  prevent  Corsellis  from 
any  possible  escape  till  he  had  made  good 
his  Promise  in  teaching  how  to  Print.  So 
that  at  Oxford  Printing  was  first  set  up  in 
England.'      Atkyns   naively   adds  that   he 


Atkyns 


230 


Atkyns 


would  not  have  vmdei'taken  this  work  were 
it  not  for  a  double  notion  that  he  was  too 
much  a  friend  to  truth  and  a  friend  to  him- 
self *  not  to  love  one  of  my  best  arguments 
of  Instituting  the  King  to  this  Art  [of  print- 
ing] in  his  private  capacity,'  for  Avhich  of 
course  Atkyns  was  to  be  one  of  tlie  agents. 
Atkyns's  story  has  longsincebeen  discredited. 
It  is  only  by  implication  that  Atkyns  him- 
self infers  from  the  manuscript  that  the 
printer  of  the  '  Exposicio  '  was  one  Corsellis; 
the  researches  of  a  host  of  bibliographers, 
from  the  learned  Dr.  Conyers  Middleton 
downwards,  have  proved,  moreover,  that  the 
book  was  antedated  by  ten  years,  probably  by 
the  omission  of  an  X  by  the  printer  by  design 
or  accident ;  it  has  also  been  shown  that 
no  other  book  was  jn-inted  at  Oxford  until 
1479.  As  to  *  the  Record  and  MS.  in  Lam- 
beth House,'  one  fatal  objection  to  the  story 
of  Caxton  and  Corsellis  contained  in  it  is, 
tliat  tlie  former  has  not  made  the  slightest 
allusion  to  it  even  in  liis  '  Polychronicon,' 
which  is  brought  down  to  the  end  of  the 
i-eign  of  Henry  VI.  Again,  Dr.  Ducarel,  the 
librarian  at  Lambeth,  one  of  the  greatest 
antiquarians  of  his  time,  and  who  made  com- 
plete indexes  to  the  registers  and  manuscripts 
under  his  care,  after  fruitless  research  for  the 
record  alluded  to  by  Atkyns,  declared  its 
existence  to  be  a  myth,  and  the  whole  story 
of  Corsellis  '  a  mere  fable.'  Whether  Atkyns 
was  the  inventor  of  it,  or  a  dupe  of  others, 
cannot  now  be  detennined  ;  but  one  thing  is 
clear,  that  he  was  an  interested  person,  and 
had  it  not  been  from  a  private  motive  he 
would  not  have  advanced  such  a  story,  which 
has  in  almost  every  sentence  a  ring  of  false- 
liood  and  improbability.  AMiatever  imme- 
diate advantage  he  may  have  gained  by  its 
publication,  misfortune  swiftly  overtook  him ; 
Avithin  three  years  he  was  committed  to  the 
Marshalsea  in  Southwark  for  debt,  brought 
about  partly  by  his  own  imprudence,  partly 
by  the  vagaries  and  extravagances  of  his  wife. 
He  died  without  issue  on  14  Sept.  1677,  and 
was  buried  two  days  later  by  relatives  in  the 
adjoining  church  of  St.  George-the-Martyr 
without  any  religious  ceremony. 

The  writings  of  Atkyns  are :  1.  '  The  Ori- 
ginal and  Growth  of  Pi-inting,  collected  out 
of  History  and  the  Records  of  this  King- 
dom,' &c.,  London,  1664, 4to,  24  pj).  2.  '  The 
King's  Grant  of  Privilege  for  Sole  Printing 
(')f  Common  Law  Books  Defended,' &c.,  Lon- 
don, 1669,  4to,  17  pp.,  b.l.  (anonymous, 
ascribed  to  Atkyns  from  internal  evidence). 
a.  '  Vindication  of  Richard  Atkyns,  Esq.,  as 
also  a  Relation  of  several  Passages  in  the 
Western  War  wherein  he  was  concerned, 
together  with  certaine  Sighs  or  Ejaculations 


at  the  end  of  every  cluipter,'  London,  1 669, 
4to,  80  pp.  This  last  woi-k  has  been  wholly 
misunderstood  by  his  biographers,  the  three 
paragraphs  in  the  title  having  been  taken  for 
three  separate  works.  It  is  an  exceedingly 
curious  '  Apologia,'  with  only  one  reference 
to  his  printing  troubles,  'dedicated  to  his 
particular  Friends  and  intended  to  no  other.' 

[Biog.  BritiinniL'a,vol.  ii.  art.  'Caxton ;'  Singer's 
Account  of  the  Book  printed  at  Oxford  in  1468. 
1812  ;  Timperley's  Encycl.  of  Literaiy  and  Typo- 
graphical Anecdote,  1842;  Encycl.  Brit,  8th  edi- 
tion, art.  'Printing'  by  Hansard,  x.  534  ;  Bigmore 
and  Wynian's  Bibliography  of  Printing,  1880, 
part  i.  p.  21,]  C.  H.  C. 

ATKYNS,  Sir  ROBERT  (1621-1709), 
lord  chief  baron  of  the  exchequer,  was  the 
eldest  son  of  Sir  Edward  Atkyns,  one  of  the 
barons  of  the  exchequer  during  the  Com- 
monwealth, and  the  elder  brother  of  Sir 
EdAvard  Atkyns,  Avho  preceded  him  as  lord 
chief  baron.  There  had  been  laAA'vers  in  the 
family  for  many  genei-ations :  '  He  himself, 
and  his  three  immediate  ancestors,  having- 
been  of  the  profession  for  near  two  hundred 
years,  and  injudicial  places;  and  (through 
the  blessing  of  Almighty  God)  have  pro- 
spered by  it '  (Epistle  dedicatory  to  his  JEn- 
quirif  into  the  Jurisdiction  of  the  Chancery). 
In  his  son's  '  History  of  Glocestershire  '  the 
record  of  the  family  is  carried  still  further 
back,  in  an  unbroken  legal  1  ine,  to  a  Richard 
Atkyns  Avho  liA^ed  at  the  beginning  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  and  '  followed  the  profes- 
sion of  the  laAV  in  Monmouthsliire.'  Robert 
Atkyns  was  born  in  Gloucestershire  in  1621. 
It  is  not  certain  Avhether  he  went  to  Oxford 
or  to  Cambridge,  Chalmers  (i.  60)  including 
him  among  the  famous  men  of  Balliol  Col- 
lege, and  Dyer  (ii.  437)  among  those  of  Sid- 
ney Sussex  College.  Chalmers's  statement 
may  have  originated  in  the  fact  that  in  1663 
Atkyns  received  from  Oxford  the  degree  of 
master  of  arts  {Catalogue  of  Oxford  Gradu- 
ates; Wood  mentions  this,  but  does  not  con- 
nect him  otherwise  with  Cxford  {Fasti,  ed. 
Bliss,  ii.  273)).  In  1638  he  was  admitted  to. 
Lincoln's  Inn,  and  was  called  to  the  bar  in 
1(345.  Mention  of  his  name  is  made  in  some 
reported  cases,  but  beyond  that  nothing  is 
heard  of  him  until  1659,  when  he  entered 
Richard  CroniAA'ell's  parliament  as  member 
for  Evesham.  Probably  he  was  already 
known  to  sympathise  with  the  king's  party, 
for  Ave  find  him  among  the  sixty-eight  who 
were  made  kniglits  of  the  Bath  at  Charles's 
coronation  (Kennet,  lier/ister,  410).  His 
name  does  not  appear  in  the  list  of  members 
of  Charles's  first  parliament,  but  in  that  of 
1661  he  sat  for  EastloAv,  speaking  frequently 


Atkyns 


231 


Atkyns 


upon  legal  questions,  and,  us  appears  from 
the  record  of  the  debates,  with  acKnowledgod 
aiuthority.  In  1061  he  was  made  a  bencher 
of  his  inn,  and  about  the  same  time  was 
appointed  recorder  of  liristol  (.'3  Mud.  Rep. 
;i-"};  but  see  Willis's  Not.  Purl.,  where  he  is 
mentioned  as  a  recorder  in  1659).  On  the 
death  of  Sir  Thomas  Tyrrell  in  1672  he  be- 
came a  judge  of  the  court  of  Ccnnmon  Pleas. 
Along  with  Scroggs  he  was  engaged  in  some 
of  the  trials  for  the  popish  plot,  but  there  is 
little  trace  of  the  part  which  he  took.  lie 
sliared  in  the  opinion  that  papists  should  be 
St  ernly  dealt  with  (see  trial  of  Lewis  tlie  Jesuit, 
7  St.  Tr.  249);  yet,  to  judge  from  his  writings 
and  his  later  life,  it  is  inconceivable  that  he 
could  have  shared  in  the  passion  of  the  time. 
The  chief  civil  case  in  which  Atkyns  took 
j)art  during  this  period  was  that  brought  by 
Sir  S.  Barnardiston  against  Sir  W.  Soame, 
the  sheriff  of  Suffolk,  which  led  ultimately 
to  the  passing  of  the  act  7  &  8  AVm.  Ill, 
c.  7,  declaring  it  illegal  for  a  sheriff  to  make 
a  double  return  in  the  election  of  members 
of  parliament.  The  points  of  the  case  are 
technical,  but  it  excited  keen  political  in- 
terest, and  Atkyns's  judgment,  in  wliich  he 
differed  from  the  majority  of  the  court,  marks 
the  beginning  of  his  separation  from  the 
])arty  in  power  (reprinted  in  his  Tracts,  and 
in  6  St.  Tr.  1074;  see  case  iuBKOOSi's  Const. 
Lmv,  796;  also  Nokth's  description  of  the 
trial,  E.i'amen,  521).  In  1679  he  retired 
from  the  bench  in  circumstances  which  lead 
one  to  believe  that  be  was  practically  dis- 
missed. Being  questioned  before  a  com- 
mittee of  the  House  of  Commons  in  1689,  he 
mentioned  several  causes  for  his  enforced  re- 
tirement. His  judgment  in  'Barnardiston  r. 
Soame  '  had  given  offence  ;  he  had  declared 
against  pensions  to  parliament  men :  he  had 
quarrelled  with  Scroggs  about  the  right  to 
petition ;  and  he  had  offended  North  by 
speaking  against  the  sale  of  offices.  '  As  to 
jM'usions,  Lord  Clifford  took  occasion  to  tell 
me  "that  I  had  attended  diligently  in  parlia- 
ment, and  was  taken  from  my  profession, 
tlierefore  the  king  had  thought  fit  to  send 
me  500/."  I  replied  :  "I  thank  you.  I  will 
not  accept  anytlxing  for  my  attendance  in 
])arliament."  ...  I  did  take  occasion  upon 
this  to  advise  my  countrymen  "  that  those 
who  took  pensions  were  not  fit  to  be  sent  up 
to  parliament  again  " '  (Gkey's  Debates,  ix. 
*}07-9).  In  fact  Atkyns  was  marked  out  as 
a  disaffected  man.  He  settled  in  Gloucester- 
shire, with  the  intention  of  abandoning  the 
law,  but  his  political  opinions  again  brought 
him  into  trouble.  When  the  Oxford  parlia- 
ment was  summoned,  he  was  persuaded, 
tliough  unwillingly,  to  stand  for  Bristol,  but 


was  defeated  by  Sir  U.  Hart  and  Sir  T.  lilarle, 
both  tories.     A  strong  i)arty  in  the  city,  not 
content  with  his  defeat,  sought  to  force  him 
to  resign  the  recordership.   The  occasion  was 
found  in  canillegality  of  which  Atkyns  along 
with  others  Avas  said  to  be  guilty  in  proceed- 
ing to  the  election  of  an  alderman  in  tlu^ 
absence  of  the  mayor,  who  was  the  same  Sir 
K.  Hart.     The  prosecution  failed,  but  '  Sir 
Kobert  Atkyns,  on  the  Lord  Pemberton's 
and  his  brother's   pei-suasifm,  resigned   his 
recordership ;  which  Avas  all  that  the  city  of 
Bristol  aimed  at    by  their   indictment'  (2 
Shower,  238 ;  see  Atkyns's  argument,  which 
is  ingenious  and  learned,  in   3  Mod.  Hep. 
3).     In  the  following  year  came  the  trial  of 
Ijord  llussell ;  he  covild  not  appear  by  coun- 
sel, but  his  friends  exerted   themselves  in 
the  preparation  of  his  defence,  and  applied 
to  Atkyns,  who  wrote  to  them  a  statement 
of  the  law.     '  And  the  like  assistance  being 
afterwards  desired  from  me,  by  many  more 
persons  of  the  best  quality,  who  soon  after 
fell  into  the  same  danger,  I,  living  at  some 
distance  from  London, did  Acnture  by  letters, 
to  find  the  best  rules  and  directions  I  could, 
towards  the  making  of  their  just  defence, 
being  heartily  concerned  with  them  '  ( Tracts, 
334 ;    and   see   Braddon's   case,   9   St.     Tr. 
1 127,  1162).     Five  years  aftei-Avards  he  pub- 
lished the  letters,  together  with  *  A  Defence 
of    the   late   Lord    llussel's    Innocency,'   a 
spirited  and  eloquent  reply  to  an  anonymous 
pamphlet  called  *  An  Antidote  against  Poy- 
son.'     To  a  rejoinder  from  the   same  pen, 
*  Tlu^  ^lagistracy  and  Government  of  Eng- 
land vindicated,'  he  wrote  in  answer  'The 
Lord  llussel's  Innocency  further  defended,' 
assailing  his  opponent  with  merited  abuse 
and  almost  expressly  naming   him   as   Sir 
Bartholomew  Shower.     In  point   of  legal 
criticism  Atkyns's  letters  and  pamphlets  are 
effective  and  still  worth  reading,  but  they  do 
not  shake  the  received  opinion  that  the  law 
of  treason  was  not  strained  against  Ijord 
llussell.     They  are  reprinted  in  his  '  Tracts,' 
and,  along  with  Shower's  '  Magistracy '  and 
Sir  J.  Hawle's  '  Remarks  on  Lord  llussel's 
Trial,'  in  9 '  St.  Tr.'  719.   In  1684  we  find  his 
name   associated   Avith  another  great   case, 
AA'hen  Sir  William  AVilliams,  the  speaker  of 
the  House  of  Commons,   was  indicted  for 
printing  and  publishing  Dangerfield's  narra- 
tiAC  of  the  popish  i)lot.    Williams  had  acted 
under  the  orders  of  the  house,  so  that  the 
case  raised  the  whole  question  of  the  powers 
and  privileges  of  parliament.   Atkyns's  argu- 
ment in  his  defence  {Tracts:  reprinted  13 
St.  Tr.  1380)  is  an  elaborate  revieAV  of  the 
authorities,  to  show  that  the  actions  of  par- 
liament, itself  the  highest  court  of  the  nation, 


Atkyns 


232 


Atkyns 


were   beyond    the   jurisdiction   of   inferior  | 
courts.     Judgment  was  given  against  Wil- 
liams, but  in  later  cases  the  decision  has 
been   described    as    disgraceful   (see   E.   v. 
Wright,  8    Tei-m  Rep.  297).     The  report  in 
the '  State  Trials  '  says  that  Atkyns  took  part 
in  the  case,  and  even  notices  that  he  had  to 
borrow  a  wig  for  the  purpose ;  but  in  the 
other  reports  (2    Shower,   471  ;    Comb.    18) 
there  is  no  mention  of  his  name  as  counsel. 
His  steady  attitude  of  resistance  during  these 
years  of  misgovernment  met  with  recognition 
at  the  revolution.    In  1689  he  succeeded  his 
brother  as  chief  baron,  and  in  October  of  the 
same  year,  the  great  seal  being  in  commis- 
sion, he  was  appointed  speaker  of  the  House 
of  Lords  in  the  place  of  the  Marquis  of  Hali- 
fax.    He  held  the  speakership  until  1693, 
and  for  his  services  was  recommended  by 
the  house  to  the  king's  favour.    Towards  the 
end  of  the  following  year  he  retired  from  the 
bench — through  disappointment,  it  has  been 
said,  at  not  being  chosen  master  of  the  rolls, 
but  more  likely  owing  to   advancing  age. 
Yet  he  still  gave  proof  of  continued  vigour. 
In    a    pamphlet    published    in    1695,   and 
'  humbly  submitted  to  the  consideration  of 
the  House  of  Lords,  to  whom  it  belongeth 
to   keep   the   inferior    courts   within    their 
bounds,'  he  renewed  Coke's  protest  against 
the   insidious  encroachments    of   the  court 
of  Chancery,  tracing  the  growth  of  equitable 
jurisdiction,  and  suggesting  how  the  com- 
mon law  might  be  restored.     This  was  fol- 
lowed a  few  years   afterwards  by  another 
tract,  addressed  as  a  petition  to  the  House  of 
Commons,  in  which,  while  repeating  his  com- 
plaint against  the  court  of  Chancery,  and 
lamenting  the   uncertainty  of  the  law,  he 
argued  from  the  history  of  parliament  that 
the  exercise  of  judicial  functions  by  the  lords 
was  a  usurpation.     It  should  be  read  along 
with  Skinner's  case,  in  which  the  lords  failed 
in  their  attempt  to  exercise  an  original  juris- 
diction, and  Dr.  Shirley's  case,  in  which  they 
maintained  their  right  to  an  appellate  juris- 
diction.    An  account  of  the  whole  struggle, 
in  the  first  part  of  which  Atkyns  himself, 
while  in  parliament,  had  taken  a  vigorous 
part,  will  be  found  in  Hargrave's  preface  to 
Hale's  '  Jurisdiction  of  the  House  of  Lords,' 
and  in  Hatsell's  '  Precedents,'  vol.  iii.    After 
1699  we  hear  nothing  more  of  him  till  his 
death.    He  spent  his  later  years  at  Saperton 
Hall  in  Gloucestershire,  and  died  18  Feb. 
1709.   After  Hale,  there  was  no  more  learned 
lawyer  of  his  time,  and  there  was  none  more 
honest.    Lord  Campbell  calls  him  a  '  virtuous 
judge,'  and  he  mei'ited  the  praise  in  an  age 
of  judicial  Bcandals.     His  political  attitude 
moreover  displayed  a  moderation  and  an  in- 


dependence of  spirit  which  make  him  a  type 
of  what  was  best  in  the  period  of  the  revolu- 
tion. 

1.  '  Parliamentary  and  Political  Tracts,' 
collected  1734,  2nd  ed.  1741.  Besides  those 
already  mentioned  it  contains  other  tracts 
published  in  Atkyns's  lifetime :  '  An  En- 
quiry into  the  Power  of  dispensing  with 
Penal  Statutes,'  Avhich  sums  up  the  whole 
history  of  dispensations  and  denies  their  an- 
tiquity; a  reply  to  Chief-Justice  Herbert's 
review  of  the  authorities  in  Hale's  case, 
which  raised  the  question  of  the  dispensing- 
power  (see  both  tracts,  11  St.  Tr.  1200);  a 
discourse  on  the  ecclesiastical  commission  of 
1686  (in  11  St.  Tr.  1148);  and  his  speecli  as 
chief  baron  to  the  lord  mayor  in  1693  (also 
in  2  St.  Tr.  361),  a  word  of  warning  as  to 
Louis  XIV's  designs  for  a  universal  and  ar- 
bitrary monarchy.  2.  *  An  Enquiry  into  the 
Jurisdiction  of  the  Chancery  in  Causes  of 
Equity,'  1695.  3.  '  A  Treatise  of  the  True 
and  Ancient  Jurisdiction  of  the  House  of 
Peers,'  1699.  In  many  copies  of  this  work 
is  included  the  case  of  '  Tooke  v.  Atkyns,'  in 
which  he  was  defendant,  and  which,  as  he 
allows,  makes  liim  write  warmly  on  the  sub- 
ject of  equitable  jurisdiction. 

[Biographia  Britannica ;  Foss's  Judges ;  At- 
kyns's Hist,  of  Gloeestershire,  638,  2nd  ed.  335 ; 
Grey's  Debates ;  Pari.  Hist.,  iv.  and  v. ;  Lords' 
Journals,  xiv.  319,  xv.  122-4 ;  Seyer's  Mem.  of 
Bristol ;  Luttrell's  Diary ;  Howell's  .State  Trials ; 
Hargrave's  preface  to  Hale's  Jurisdiction  of  the 
House  of  Lords,  clxxxviii,]  G.  P.  M. 

ATKYNS,  SiE  ROBERT  (1647-1711), 
topographer,  was  the  only  son  of  Sir  Robert 
Atkyns,  chief  baron  of  the  Exchequer,  and 
sometime  speaker  of  the  House  of  Lords  [see 
Atkyns,  Sir  Robebt,  1621-1709].  Thomas 
Atkyns,  who  died  in  London  1401,  was 
succeeded  in  the  fourth  generation  by  one 
David,  an  eminent  merchant  in  Chepstow, 
who  removed  before  his  death  in  1552  to 
Tuffley,  near  Gloucester,  which  continued 
to  be  the  family  seat  until  the  purchase  of 
Saperton  by  Baron  Atkyns  in  1660.  Sir 
Robert  was  born  in  1647 ;  he  was  knighted 
by  Charles  II  on  his  visit  to  Bristol  5  Sept. 
1663  (Seyek,  infra),  and  was  elected  M.P. 
for  the  borough  of  Cirencester  (33  Car.  II) 
1680-1,  and  afterwards  for  the  county  of 
Gloucester  (1  Jac.  II)  1684-5.  He  died  at 
his  house  in  Westminster  of  dysentery,  at 
the  age  of  sixty-five,  and  was  buried  at 
Saperton,  where  his  monument  is  preserved. 
He  is  the  author  of  the  '  ^\jicient  and  Present 
State  of  Gloucestershire,'  London,  1712,  fol, 
2nd  edition,  1768. 

The  first  edition,  now  scarce,  contains  a 


Atmore 


233 


Atterbury 


fine  portrait  of  the  author  by  Van  der  Gucht, 
together  with  a  series  of  views  of  seats  in 
the  county,  drawn  and  engi'aved  by  J.  Kip 
in  his  earliest  manner. 

[Biog.  Diet.  S.D.U.K.  iv.  3 ;  8eyer's  Memoirs 
of  Bristol,  1823,  ii.  511;  Malcom's  Lives  of 
Topographers  and  Antiquaries,  London,  1824.1 

C.  H.  C. 

ATMORE,  CHARLES  (1759  - 1826), 
AVesleyau  minister,  was  born  at  Ileacham, 
near  King's  Lynn,  Norfolk,  17  Aug.  1759, 
his  father  being  the  captain  of  a  ship  belong- 
ing to  Lynn.  In  June  1779  he  turned  his 
Attention  to  the  Wesleyan  ministry,  and  in 
February  1781  he  was  sent  forth  by  the  vene- 
rable John  Wesley  as  an  itinerant  evange- 
list. At  the  conference  which  met  in  the 
following  August,  he  was  appointed  a  regular 
preacher.  Wesley  formed  so  high  an  esti- 
mate of  his  character  that  three  years  after- 
wards he  caused  his  name,  although  he  was 
then  only  twenty-four  years  of  age,  to  be  in- 
serted in  the  deed  of  declaration  as  one  of  the 
members  of  the  legal  conference.  In  the 
discussions  on  the  polity  and  position  of  Me- 
thodism which  took  place  immediately  after 
AVesley's  death,  Atmore  boi-e  a  leading  part, 
And  his  influence  and  prudent  counsels  largely 
•contributed  to  the  consolidation  of  the  Wes- 
leyan mcithodist  chui'ch. 

His  ministry  until  1825  was  exercised  in 
the  following  towns :  York,  Edinburgh,  Hali- 
fax, Bristol,  London,  Birmingham,  Man- 
chestei-,  Wakefield,  Liverpool,  Leeds,  Hull, 
Salford,  Sheffield.  In  1811,  while  stationed 
in  Hull,  he  was  elected  to  the  presidency  of 
the  Wesleyan  conference. 

He  was  author  of  the  '  Methodist  Memo- 
rial '  (a  perfect  treasury  of  information  on 
■early  methodism),  first  published  in  1801, 
and  since  re-issued ;  '  Discourses  on  the  Lord's 
Prayer,' 1807, also  republished;  besides  seve- 
ral pamphlets  and  occasional  sermons. 

Atmore,  who  was  twice  married,  died  in 
Fountain  Court,  Cheapside,  London,  on 
30  June  1826,  aged  66  years. 

[Minutes  of  the  Methodist  Conferences,  espe- 
•cially  vol.  vi. ;  Wesleyan  Methodist  Magazine 
for  1845;  Dr.  Osborn's  Outlines  of  Wesleyan 
Eibliography.]  W.  B.  L. 

ATSLOWE,  EDWARD,  M.D.  {d.  1694), 
a  well-known  physician  in  Elizabeth's  reign, 
was  educated  at  Winchester  and  New  Col- 
lege, Oxford.  After  being  elected  to  a  fel- 
lowship at  his  college  he  was  created  '  doctor 
of  physic '  at  Oxford  on  27  Aug.  1566,  and 
was  one  of  the  four  doctors  appointed  by 
convocation  to  dispute  before  Queen  Eliza- 
beth when  she  was  entertained  at  the  uni- 


I  varsity  in  September  of  that  year.     Shortly 
afterwards  Atslowe  settled  in  London  and 
was  admitted  a  fellow  of  the  College  of  Phy- 
sicians, and  between  1569  and  1583  he  filled 
successively  most  of  the  offices  of  distinction 
connected  with  the  society.     Among  his  pa- 
tients Astlowe  reckoned  the  chief  noblemen 
;  of  his  time,  and  he  was  probably  attached 
for  some  years  as  physician  to  the  household 
of  the  Earl  of  Sussex,     liut  he  did  not  wholly 
i  confine  himself  to  the  practice  of  medicine. 
If  not  a  catholic  himself,  he  strongly  sympa- 
thised with  the  professors  of  that  faith,  and 
he  proved  himself  an  ardent   supporter   of 
Mary,  Queen  of  Scots.     As  early  as  Deceni- 
:  ber  1570  he  paid  her  a  visit  at  Tutbury  (Wal- 
sinoham's  Journal  (1570-83),  p.  1,  in  Camden 
;  Soc.  Miscellanies,  vi.).     For  many  years  he 
is  alleged  to  have  aided  the  Earls  of  Arundel, 
I  Northumberland,  and  others,  in  a  conspiracy 
j  to  obtain  assistance  in  her  behalf  from  the 
I  continent,  and  in  1579  he  was  aiTested  on 
[  that  charge,  but  released.     In  1585  he  was 
I  again  sent  to  the  Tower;  but  on  being  privately 
I  examined  by  the  lord  chancellor  and  other 
officials  as  to  his  relations  with  the  papists  he 
j  vehemently  denied  having  had  any  treason- 
j  able  'intelligence'  with  any  of  them.     A  spy 
j  of  the  Queen  of  Scots  wrote  to  her,  however, 
in  July  of  the  same  year :  '  I  heare  that  Dr. 
j  Atslowe  was  racked   twice   almost   to  the 
,  death  in  the  Towre  about  the  Earl  of  Arun- 
I  dell  his  matters   and   intentions  to  depart 
Englande,  wherein  he  was  betrayed '  (MuR- 
din's  State  Papers,  ii.  452).     Atslowe  was 
apparently  released  soon  aftenvards,  for  we 
find  him  in  attendance  on  a  son  of  the  Earl 
of  Northumberland  during  a  fatal  illness  in 
1587.     His  death  occurred  some  seven  years 
later;    a  private   letter    describes    him   as 
'  newly  deade '  on  2  May  1594.     On  2  Nov. 
1573  Atslowe  maiTied  Frances  Wingfield  at 
Stoke  Newington,  and  upon  her  the  Earl  of 
Arundel  settled  an  annuity  after  her  hus- 
band's death. 

[Miuik's  Roll  of  the  College  of  Physicians,  i. 
66;  AVood's  Fasti  Oxon.  ed.  Bliss,  i.  176  ;  State 
Paper  Calendars,  1547-80, 1581-90  ;  Hist.  M.SS. 
Commiss.  Rep.  vi.  227  a,  vii.  523  a  ;  Lodge's  Il- 
lustrations, ii.  143;  Egerton  M.S.  2074,  ff.  32, 
39,  52  ;  Addit.  MS.  6251,  p.  78.]         S.  L.  L. 

ATTAWELL,  HUGH.    [See  Atwbll.] 

ATTERBURY,  FRANCIS  (1662-1732), 
bishop  of  Rochester,  was  born  at  Milton 
or  Middleton  Keynes  in  Buckinghamshire. 
His  father,  Lewis  Atterbury,  was  rector  of 
the  parish,  and  educated  both  Francis  and 
his  elder  brother  Lewis  until  they  were  old 
enough  to  go  to  Westminster,  then  in  the 
zenitli  of  its  fame  under  Dr.  Busby.     From 


Atterbury 


234 


Atterbury 


Westminster  Francis  proceeded  to  Christ 
(Jliurcli,  Oxford,  being  at  the  head  of  the 
four  Westminster  students  elected  in  1680. 
After  he  had  graduated,  he  continued  to  re- 
side at  Oxford,  taking  part  in  the  tutorial 
work  at  Christ  Cluirch,  and  acting  as  a  sort 
of  right-hand  man  to  Dean  Aldrich.  In  1682 
lie  published  a  translation  into  Latin  verse 
of  Dryden's  'Absalom  and  Achitophel,'  in 
1684  an  '  Anthologia,'  or  selection  of  Latin 
poems,  and  about  the  same  time  two  or 
three  little  treatises  on  classical  subjects. 
JJut  he  was  soon  engaged  in  more  important 
literary  work.  The  attempt  of  James  II  to 
force  his  creed  upon  an  unwilling  university 
called  forth  many  champions  of  the  faith,  and 
among  others  the  able  ytJung  tutor  of  Christ 
Church.  One  of  the  chiefs  of  the  romanising 
party  at  Oxford,  Obadiah  Walker,  who  had 
been  thrust  by  the  king  into  the  mastership 
of  University  College,  had  written,  under 
the  pseudonym  of  Abraham  AVoodhead,  an 
attack  upon  the  Keformation.  In  reply  to 
this  Atterbury  published  (1687)  '  An  Answer 
to  some  Cousiderat  ions  on  the  Spirit  of  Mar- 
tin Luther,  and  the  Original  of  the  Reforma- 
tion,'whicli  Bishop  IJurnet  pronounces  to  be 
one  of  tlie  ablest  of  the  many  vindications 
of  the  church  of  England  whicli  were  about 
that  time  issued  from  Oxford.  Atterbui'y's 
next  essay  at  controversy,  thougli  its  con- 
temporary reputation  was  much  higher,  was 
in  reality  very  far  from  being  so  successful. 
It  was  a  defence  of  the  genuineness  of  the 
'  Epistles  of  Phalaris '  against  the  great  Dr. 
F>entley,  and  was  nominally  written  by  At- 
terbury's  pupil,  the  Hon.  Charles  Boyle,  but 
in  reality  by  Atterbury  himself.  Though 
written  earlier,  it  was  not  published  until 
1698,  and  for  Atterbury's  sake  it  would  have 
been  well  if  it  had  never  been  published  at 
all.  It  is  now  universally  acknowledged 
tliat  Bentley  was  in  the  right,  but  tluit  was 
by  no  means  the  opinion  even  of  the  ablest 
contemporaries.  Swift  in  his  *  Battle  of  the 
Jiooks '  describes  Boyle  as  '  advancing  imme- 
diately against  his  trembling  foe  clad  in  a  suit 
of  armour  given  him  by  all  the  gods,'  and 
ending  the  battle  very  quickly  by  '  transfixing 
Bentley  and  Wottou."  '  The  gods '  were  the 
Christ  Church  wits,  chief  among  whom  was 
Atterbury,  who  accordingly  figures  as  Apollo, 
the  god  of  wisdom.  About  1687  Atterbury  re- 
ceived holy  orders,  and  he  soon  won  consider- 
able reputation  as  a  preacher.  He  was  in  the 
habit  of  preaching  occasionally  iii  London, 
and  his  sermons  were  so  well  appreciated 
that  he  was  appointed,  over  the  heads  of 
many  candidates,  lecturer  of  St.  Bride's  by 
the  Bishop  of  London  in  1691 ;  he  was  next 
made  chaplain  to  King  William  and  Queen 


Mary,  and  preaclier  at  Bridewell  Hospital, 
While  at  Oxford  he  married  Miss  Katherine 
Osborn,  who,  in  the  Avords  of  his  biographer,. 
'  was  the  inspiration  of  his  youth  and  the 
solace  of  his  riper  years.'  After  his  marriage- 
he  left  Oxford  for  London.  In  1700  Atter- 
bury again  came  prominently  before  the 
public  as  a  controversialist.  For  ten  years 
convocation  had  not  been  suffered  to  meet 
for  the  despatch  of  business ;  by  a  series  of 
successive  prorogations  the  church's  parlia- 
ment had  practically  become  a  dead  letter. 
But  not  without  remonstrance.  Among  other 
protests  '  A  Letter  to  a  Convocation  Man ' 
(1697)  attributed  the  irreligion  and  immo- 
rality, of  which  there  was  so  general  a 
complaint,  to  the  virtual  suppression  of  con- 
vocation. The  '  Letter  '  caused  a  great  sen- 
sation, and  was  answered  in  a  '  Letter  to  a 
Member  of  Parliament '  and  also  in  a  work 
by  Dr.  Wake,  afterwards  archbisliop  of  Can- 
terbury, entitled  'The  Authority  of  Chris- 
tian Princes  over  their  Ecclesiastical  Synods.' 
In  opposition  to  Dr.  Wake,  and  in  defence  of 
the  '  Letter  to  a  Convocation  Man,'  Atter- 
bury published  his  '  Rights  and  Privileges  of 
an  English  Convocation  stated  and  vindi- 
cated,' in  which  he  roimdly  charged  Dr. 
Wake  with  subjecting  the  liberties  both  of 
church  and  state  to  the  arbitrary  will  of  one 
man.  The  subject  is  treated  historically,  sc> 
that  it  is  impossible  to  describe  the  work  in 
detail ;  but  its  general  object  is  stated  in  the 
preface, '  to  perpetuate  to  the  church  the  use 
of  her  parliamentar}-  assemblies,  and  of  that 
free  debate  which  is  inseparable  fiom  such 
assemblies.'  Dr.  Wake  was  supported  by 
Dr.  White  Keunett  and  Dr.  Edmund  Gibson, 
both  men  of  learning  and  ability,  and  both 
afterwards  bishops.  The  most  contradictory 
opinions  have  been  expressed  as  to  the  side 
OJi  which  the  victory  lay ;  but  the  general 
mass  of  the  clergy  gratefully  rc^cognised 
Atterbury  as  an  able  champion  of  their  order 
against  Erastianism  in  high  places  both  in 
church  and  state :  and  it  really  is  difficult  t» 
controvert  the  assertion  of  Warburton,  who 
Avas  no  friend  to  convocation,  but  whose 
lawyer-like  mind  at  once  grasped  the  real 
gist  of  the  dispute.  '  Atterbury,'  lie  writes 
to  Hurd,  '  goes  upon  principles,  and  all  that 
Wake  and  Keunett  could  possibly  oppose 
are  precedents.'  One  result  of  Atterbury's 
work  was  that  he  was  made  in  1701  arch- 
deacon of  Totnes,  and  in  the  same  year  a 
prebendary  of  Exeter  Cathedral  by  his  faith- 
ful and  lifelong  friend.  Sir  Jonathan  Tre- 
lawney,  then  bishop  of  Exeter,  '  in  reward,' 
writes  Atterbury  himself,  '  for  my  honest 
endeavours  to  retrie\e  the  syiiodical  rights 
of  the  clergy.'     The  lower  house  of  convo- 


Atterbury 


235 


Atterbury 


cut  ion  passed  a  vote  of  thanks  to  him,  and 
liis  own  university  conferred  upon  him  the 
degree  of  D.D.  without  the  usual  fees. 

Atterbury  did  not  lose  his  favour  at  court 
through  his  bold  advocacy  of  the  rights  of 
the  clergy.  He  had  long  been  u  favourite 
preacher  at  the  Chapel  Royal,  and  on  Queen 
Mary's  death  in  1694  he  was  the  only  royal 
chaplain  who  was  still  retained.  The  Prin- 
cess Anne  and  her  husband  highly  esteemed 
him,  and  when  the  foi'mer  succeeded  to  tlie 
throne  she  made  him  her  chaplain  in  ordi- 
nary,  and   in   1704   dean   of  Carlisle.     In 

1709  he  was  appointed  preacher  at  thellolls 
(.'hapel,  where  several  of  his  printed  sermons 
were  delivered.  The  tory  reaction  which 
marked  the  last  four  years  of  Queen  Anne's 
reign  naturally  brought  Atterbury  into  still 
greater  prominence.  In  fact,  if  the  tradition 
be  true  (and  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  its 
truth)  that  he  took  a  chief  part  in  the  com- 
p(jsition  of  Dr.  Sacheverel's  speech  before  the 
Jlouse  of  Lords  in  1710,  he  had  no  small 
share  in  bringing  about  that  reaction.  Queen 
Anne  consulted  him  largely  about  church 
matters,  and  in  1711-12  appointed  him  as  suc- 
cessor to  his  old  friend  and  chief.  Dr.  Aldrich, 
in  the  deanery  of  Christ  Church.  Since  the 
time  when  convocation,  largely  througli  At- 
terbury's  means,  had  resumed  its  active  func- 
tions, he  had  been  a  most  prominent  figure 
in  the  assemblies  of  the  lower  house.  He 
was  the  life  and  soul  of  the  party  which  car- 
ried on  its  long  warfare  against  the  latitu- 
dinarian  bisliops.  In  1709  he  was  associated 
with  the  excellent  Archbishop  Sharp's  scheme 
to  bring  before  convocation  the  question  of 
providing  bishops  for  the  plantations.     In 

1710  he  was  elected  prolocutor  of  the  lower 
house  by  a  large  majority,  and  in  that  capa- 
city, in  1711,  he  drew  up  by  the  queen's 
command  that  famous  '  Representation  of 
the  State  of  Religion '  which  has  been  so 
often  quoted  in  histories  of  the  times,  but 
for  which  the  bishops  insisted  upon  substi- 
tuting a  less  unfavourable  report.  No  doubt 
Atterbury  took  a  gloomy  view  of  the  situa- 
tion in  this  '  Representation,'  but  he  expressed 
his  honest  convictions,  and  did  not  pen  it 
for  mere  political  purposes ;  his  tone  is  quite 
as  desponding  in  his  charges  as  f  rchdeacon 
of  Totnes.  In  1713  he  was  made  bishop  of 
Rochester  and  dean  of  Westminster,  two 
posts  which,  according  to  the  objectionable 
custom  of  the  times,  always  went  together. 
'  Thus,'  says  his  enemy.  Bishop  Burnet,  '  he 
was  promoted  and  rewarded  for  all  the  flame 
he  had  raised  in  our  church.'  As  a  debater 
and  public  speaker  he  had  long  held  the 
highest  rank  among  the  representatives  of 
the  clergy  in  convocation,  and  he  soon  be- 


came almost  as  prominent  a  figure  iu  tin- 
House  of  Lords.  A  fine  person  and  graceful 
delivery  contributed  to  his  success,  and,  to 
judge  by  the  almost  unanimous  testimony  of 
contemporaries,  he  nuist  have  been  one  of 
the  greatest  orators  of  his  day. 

There  is  no  doubt  tliat,  during  the  lifetime 
of  Queen  Anne,  Atterbury  had,  like  a  vast 
number  of  his  contemporaries,  shown  a  lean- 
ing to  the  Jacobite  cause ;  but  the  oft-re- 
peated story,  that  he  offered  to  head  the 
procession  in  his  lawn  sleeves  to  proclaim 
King  James  III  at  Charing  Cross,  rests  on 
doubtful  authority.  At  any  rate,  he  suIj- 
mitted  to  the  new  rcyxme,  and  took  part 
officially,  as  bishop  of  Rochester,  at  the 
coronation  of  George  I.  He  was  entitled  to 
the  throne  and  canopy  as  his  perquisites,  but 
gracefully  offered  them  to  the  king.  The 
present  was  rejected,  and  Atterbury  could 
scarcely  help  regarding  this  as  a  studied 
affi'ont.  Again,  the  declaration  of  confidence 
in  the  government  after  the  rebellion  of  171'> 
contained  many  reflections  u])on  the  liigh- 
church  party,  the  very  party  of  which  Atter- 
bury was  the  undoubted  chief.  He  refused 
to  sign  it,  and  b(K'ame  more  and  more  alien- 
ated from  the  ruling  powers,  which  he  at- 
tacked frequently  and  vehemently,  and  at 
last  drifted  away  entirely  into  the  senice  of 
him  whom  he  considered  to  be  the  rightful 
monarch.  It  was  about  the  year  1717  that 
Atterbury  began  to  hold  direct  communica- 
tion with  the  Jacobites.  The  climax  was 
reached  about  five  years  later.  The  birth  of 
a  son  to  the  exiled '  Chevalier '  in  1720  raised 
the  hopes  of  the  Jacobites  in  England.  The 
bui'sting  of  the  South  Sea  bubble  increased 
the  prevalent  disaff*ection  to  the  reigning 
dynasty,  and  the  conjuncture  was  regarded 
as  favourable  for  another  attempt  to  restore 
the  ancient  line.  That  Atterbury  was  really 
involved  in  this  attempt  there  can  be  no 
doubt ;  but  whether  the  mode  of  proceeding 
against  him  was  justifiable  is  another  ques- 
tion. He  was  arrested  and  imprisoned  "in 
the  Tower,  and  a  bill  of  pains  and  penalties 
was  brought  against  him  in  the  House  of 
Commons.  He  declined  to  plead  his  cause 
before  the  house,  declaring,  with  some 
dignity,  that  he  was  '  content  with  the  oppor- 
tunity (if  the  bill  went  on)  to  make  his  de- 
fence before  another  house,  of  which  he  had 
the  honour  to  be  a  member.'  After  the  bill 
had  passed  its  third  reading  in  the  Commons, 
it  was  sent  u])  to  the  Lords,  and  Atterbury 
was  sent  for  from  the  Tower,  where  he  had 
been  confined  for  seven  months,  to  plead 
his  cause.  The  evidence  which  chiefly  con- 
tributed to  condemn  him  Avas  curious.  A 
Mrs.  Bates,  being  examined   by  the  crown, 


Atterbury 


236 


Atterbury 


admitted  that  a  little  spotted  dog,  named 
Harlequin,  was  sent  by  the  Earl  of  Mar  as  a 
present  to  the  Bishop  of  Rochester.  This 
dog  was  often  mentioned  in  cori'espondence 
which  contained  treasonable  matter,  and 
thus  the  bishop  was  compromised.  He  em- 
ployed his  wonted  eloquence  in  making  his 
memorable  defence,  but  all  to  no  purpose. 
He  was  condemned  by  a  majority  of  83  to 
43,  and  the  sentence  pronounced  against  him 
was  that  he  should  be  depi'ived  of  all  his 
ecclesiastical  offices,  be  incapacitated  for 
holding  any  civil  offices,  and  be  banished  for 
ever  from  the  realm,  and  that  no  British 
subject  shoidd  hold  any  intercourse  with  him, 
except  by  the  royal  permission.  In  the  ma- 
jority were  all  his  brother  prelates  except 
one  (Bishop  Gastrell,  of  Chester,  an  '  old 
Westminster '),  and  so  strong  was  the  feel- 
ing against  him  that  Lord  ]Jathurst  (Pope's, 
and  therefore  Atterbury 's,  firm  friend)  de- 
clared that  the  inveterate  hatred  could  only 
be  accounted  for  on  the  principle  of  the '  wild 
Americans,  who  fondly  hoped  to  inherit  not 
only  the  spoils  but  the  abilities  of  him  whom 
tliey  should  destroy.'  But  outside  the  walls 
of  parliament  the  deepest  sympathy  with 
him  was  displayed,  especially  among  the 
clergy.  He  was  publicly  prayed  for  in  the 
London  churches  '  as  one  affiicttd  with  the 
gout ; '  verses  were  written  in  his  honour ; 
and  a  print  was  circxdated  representing  him 
as  looking  through  the  bars  of  his  prison, 
and  holding  in  his  hand  a  portrait  of  the 
martyred  Laud.  An  attempt  was  made  to 
raise  a  prejudice  against  him  as  a  papist  in 
disguise  ;  but  his  life  and  opinions  were  too 
well  known  to  allow  reasonable  people  long 
to  doubt  his  attachment  to  the  church  of 
England.  In  fact,  from  first  to  last  he  was 
conspicuously  and  aggressively  anti-Boman. 
The  sympathy  Avith  him  was  heightened  by 
the  rumour  that  he  had  been  harshly  treated 
in  the  Tower.  For  some  time  his  dearly  loved 
and  loving  daughter  had  not  been  allowed 
to*  see  him,  except  in  the  presence  of  the 
officers;  but  this  restriction  was  removed 
through  the  kindness  of  Ijord  Townshend. 

In  the  summer  of  1723  he  left  England 
never  to  return,  accompanied  by  his  daughter 
and  her  husband  (Mr.  and  Mrs.  Morice)  and  a 
kind  clergyman,  the  Rev.  B.  Hughes.  By  a 
curious  coincidence  he  met  at  Calais  Lord 
Bolingbroke  returning  from  the  exile  to 
which  he  himself  was  condemned,  and  ex- 
claimed, '  Then  we  are  exchanged  ! '  To  ap- 
preciate the  severity  of  liis  sentence,  it  must 
be  remembered  that  he  was  verging  upon  old 
age,  that  he  was  a  constant  martyr  to  the 
gout  and  the  stone,  that  liis  health  was 
generally  delicate,  and  that  he  had  an  unusu- 


ally large  circle  of  friends  in  England.  To 
add  to  his  sorrows,  he  had  just  lost  his  wife. 
Atterbury  was  regarded  as  indisputalily 
the  best  preacher  of  liis  day.  To  this  repu- 
tation no  doubt  his  manner  and  person  con- 
tributed greatly.  Tlie  '  Tatler  '  (No.  66,  by 
Steele),  in  a  well-known  passage,  contrasts 
the  apathy  of  the  greater  part  of  the  clergj'  in 
the  pulpit  with  ^  the  dean  we  heard  the  other 
day,'  who  *  is  an  orator.  He  has  so  much  re- 
gard to  his  congTegation  that  he  commits  to 
his  memory  what  he  has  to  say  to  them,  and 
has  so  soft  and  gi-aceful  a  behaviour  tliat  it 
must  attract  your  attention.  His  person,  it  is 
to  be  confessed,  is  no  small  recommendation  ; 
but  he  is  to  be  highly  commended  for  not  losing 
that  advantage,  and  adding  to  the  propriety 
of  speech,  which  might  pass  the  criticism  of 
Longinus,  an  action  which  would  have  been 
approved  by  Demostlienes.'  The  writer  then 
goes  on  to  praise  the  matter  of  tlie  dean's  ser- 
mons, a  point  on  wliich  a  reader  may  judge 
for  himself,  as  many  of  them  are  still  extant. 
They  are  not  for  a  moment  to  be  compared 
with  the  sermons,  e.g.,  of  Jeremy  Taylor,  or 
South,  or  Barrow  ;  but  tliey  are  written  in 

{)lain  and  lucid  English ;  the  preacher  ad- 
leres  closely  to  his  text,  and  is  always 
earnest  and  sensible.  His  sermon  on  the 
power  of  charity  to  cover  sin  brought  him 
into  controversy  with  Hoadly,  and  tliat  on 
the  '  Scorner  iuca])able  of  True  Wisdom  ' 
gave  ofl'ence  as  containing  a  supposed  reflec- 
tion on  Tillotson's  orthodoxy. 

Atterbury  was  far  more  intimate  with  tlu^ 
gi'eat  men  of  letters  wlio  adorned  tlie  reign 
of  Queen  Anne  than  most  of  the  clergy  of 
his  day.  He  held  constant  intercourse  with 
Swift,  who  for  some  time  lodged  near  him  at 
Chelsea,  and  frequently  alludes  in  his  corre- 
spondence to  '  my  neighbour  over  the  way.' 
The  letters  between  these  two  celebrated 
men  are  singularly  courteous  and  interesting. 
His  intimacy  with  Pope  was  still  closer; 
and  when  Atterbury  became  bishop  of  Roches- 
ter, the  poet  was  a  frequent  guest  at  Bromley. 
Atterbury  strove  to  convert  Pope  from  Kf)- 
nianism,  and  though  he  did  not  succeed  he 
elicited  from  the  poet  expressions  of  a  deeper 
sense  of  religion  than  he  has  been  sometimes 
credited  with.  Pope  gave  evidence  in  favour 
of  Atterbury  at  his  trial,  and  to  the  last  be- 
lieved him  innocent.  One  of  the  most 
touching  of  all  Atterbury's  letters  was  that 
which  he  addressed  to  Pope  '  from  the  I'ower, 
19  April  1723,'  which  he  concludes  witli  tlie 
fine  lines  of  his  favourite  poet — 
Some  natuml  tears  he  dropped,  but  wiped  tliem 

soon. 
The  -world  was  all  before  him,  where  to  cheese 
His  place  of  rest,  and  Providence  his  guide. 


Atterbury 


237 


Atterbury 


Atterbury  was  also  on  terms  of  intimacy 
with  Sir  Isaac  Newton  and  with  Arbuthnot, 
Gay, and  Prior:  and  in  spite  of  ])olitical  and 
religions  diHerences,  he  was  friendly  witli 
Addison,  Avho  describes  him  as  *  one  of  the 
greatest  geniuses  of  his  age.'  Atterbury 
otHciated,  as  dean  of  Westminster,  at  Addi- 
son's funeral,  and  was  observed  to  be  deeply 
att'ected  during  the  ceremony.  Bolingbroke 
also  was  a  friend  of  Atterburj',  and  so  was 
Ih".  Soutli,  whose  funeral  sermon  he  preached. 
]5ut  the  man  for  whom,  next  to  his  own 
family,  Atterbury  had  the  deepest  affection, 
and  of  whose  kindness  and  sympathy  he  is 
never  tired  of  speaking,  was  Sir  Jonathan 
Trelawney,  bishop  of  Exeter,  and  subse- 
([uently  of  Winchester.  Tlis  intimacy  with 
Jiishop  Trelawney  enabled  him  to  do  a  ser- 
vice to  one  of  the  most  learned  and  least 
a])preciated  clergymen  of  the  day,  Joseph 
Jiingham,  to  whom  he  had  the  honour  of 
first  drawing  the  bishop's  attention.  He 
was  also  a  friend  to  another  learned  clergy- 
man of  retiring  habits,  John  Strype,  the  an- 
tiquary ;  and  among  his  most  enthusiastic 
admirers  was  Samuel  ^^'esley  the  younger, 
who  knew  him  when  Atterbuiy  was  dean 
and  Wesley  one  of  the  masters  at  AVestmin- 
ster.  Lastly,  he  numbered  among  his  most 
intimate  friends  the  amiable  and  able  Dr. 
Smalridge,  the  '  Favonius '  of  the  *  Tatler.' 
Smalridge  succeeded  him  both  at  Carlisle  and 
Christ  Church,  and  is  reported  to  have  said  : 
*  Atterbury  comes  first,  and  sets  everything 
on  fire,  and  I  follow  with  a  bucket  of  water.' 
Atterbuiy  lived  in  exile  nearly  nine  years. 
Ilis  first  residence  was  at  Brussels,  but  his 
health  was  so  bad  there  that  he  remo\ed  to 
Paris,  his  faithful  daughter  acting  as  '  the 
kindest  of  nurses  to  the  best  of  fathers,'  as 
her  husband  expressed  it.  At  Paris  she  left 
him,  I'ecovered  in  health,  and  the  bishop 
threw  himself  heart  and  soul  into  James's 
cause,  acting  as  a  genei-al  adviser  and  super- 
visor of  his  affairs  at  home  and  abroad.  The 
service  was  not  a  smooth  one,  owing  partly 
to  the  impracticable  character  of  the  master, 
and  partly  to  the  petty  jealousies  and  self- 
seeking  of  the  followers.  James,  in  1725, 
described  Atterbury  as '  one  in  whose  fidelity 
and  ability  he  placed  the  gi'eatest  trust  and 
confidence,'  but  he  acted  towards  him  in  so 
different  a  spirit  that  in  1728  Atterbury 
(juitted  his  service.  The  lonely  old  man  had 
other  txoubles.  His  only  surviving  son, 
Osborn,  was  a  constant  source  of  anxiety  to 
him.  His  brother  Lewis,  whom  he  had  de- 
clined to  appoint  archdeacon  of  Rochester, 
neA'er  (juite  forgave  the  slight,  and  behaved 
shabbily  in  money  transactions  between 
them  [see  Atterbukv,  Lewis,  1650-1731]. 


He  was  once  nearly  involved  in  trouble  with 
the  French  police,  being  suspected  of  liuving 
helped  Pere  Courayer  in  his  escape  to  England. 
Courayer's  offence  was  simply  an  inclination 
towards  the  Anglican  in  preference  to  the  Gal- 
ilean church,  and  it  is  highly  probable  that  At- 
terbury, who  was  from  first  to  last  a  staunch 
Anglican,  may  have  influenced  the  father, 
with  whom  he  had  certainly  been  intimate. 
But  Atterbury 's  great  sorrow  was  the  loss  of 
that  daughter  who,  with  her  husband,  had 
been  his  greatest  earthly  comfoit  and  sup- 

!)ort.  After  Atterbury's  rupture  with  James 
le  left  Paris  for  the  south  of  France,  in  the 
hope  of  restoring  his  failing  health,  and 
settled  at  Montpelier.  His  daughter  in  Eng- 
land, whose  health  was  also  failing,  felt  a 
longing  desire  to  see  her  father  once  more ; 
and  as  he  could  not  go  to  her  she  determined 
at  all  hazards  to  go  to  him.  Unfortunately, 
the  weather  proved  most  unfavourable  for  a 
sea  voyage ;  and  when  Bordeaux  was  at  length 
reached,  Mrs.  Morice  was  all  but  a  dying 
woman.  Her  father  had  been  as  anxious  to 
see  her  as  she  to  see  him.  '  I  live  only,'  he 
wi'ites  with  real  pathos,  *  to  help  towards 
lengthening  your  life,  and  rendering  it,  if  I 
can,  more  agreeable  to  you.  I  see  not  of 
what  use  I  can  be  in  other  respects.'  The 
meeting  took  place  at  Toulouse,  it  Ijeing 
found  impossible  to  convey  the  dying  woman 
as  far  as  Montpelier.  The  bishop  was  just 
in  time  to  administer  to  her  the  last  rites  of 
the  church :  she  died  within  twenty  hours 
after  her  an-ival.  A  most  interesting  cor- 
respondence bet\\een  the  bereaved  father 
and  his  faithful  friend  Pope  on  the  sad  sub- 
ject is  extant.  Atterbury  had  not  many 
friends  left ;  liis  Jacobite  helpers  in  England 
had  dropped  off  one  by  one ;  his  son-in-law, 
Mr.  Morice,  Avas  most  faithful  to  him  ;  and 
the  old  man  took  the  greatest  interest  in  his 
grandchildren,  who  paid  him  a  visit.  He 
had  also  a  most  devoted  friend  in  the  Dowager 
Duchess  of  Buckingham.  He  survived  his 
daughter  two  years,  and  actually  entered 
once  more  into  James's  service,  and  his  last 
letter  was  one  of  advice  to  that  very  im- 
])racticable  master.  He  also  v^TOte  in  his 
last  days  a  dignified  vindication  of  himself 
against  the  aspersions  of  Oldmixon,  who  ac- 
cused him  of  tam])ering  with  the  new  edi- 
tion of  Lord  Clarendon's  '  History-  of  the 
Rebellion.'  The  end  came  suddenly  at  last, 
in  1732.  His  body  was  conveyed  to  Eng- 
land, and  buried  privately  in  Westminster 
Abbey. 

Atterbury  cannot  be  regarded  as  a  perfect 
character  or  as  a  great  divine  ;  but  he  was 
a  very  able  man,  and  in  his  way  a  brave  and 
faithful  son  of  the  church.     If  he  mingled 


Atterbury 


238 


Atterbury 


politics  too  raucli  with  religion,  it  must  be 
remembered,  in  justice  to  liim,  that  the  two 
subjects  were  so  strangely  mixed  up  in  that 
eventful  time  that  it  was  all  but  impossible 
for  a  public  character  to  disentangle  the  one 
from  the  other.  His  name  Avill  always  be  a 
prominent  one  in  the  complicated  history  of 
the  church  and  nation  of  England  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  seventeenth  and  the  early 
part  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

[Bishop Atterbury's Works,  passim ;  The  8tu<arb 
Papers;  The  Atterbury  Papers;  Williams's 
Memoirs  and  Correspondence  of  Francis  Atter- 
bury ;  Stackhouse's  Memoirs  of  Atterbury,  from 
his  'Birth  to  his  Banishment ;  Maeaulay's  Bio- 
graphies,'Francis  Atterbury ;'  Atterbury's  Cor- 
respondence, edited  by  Nichols.]         J.  H.  0. 

ATTERBURY,  LEAVIS,  D.D.,  the  elder 
{d.  1693),  was  the  son  of  Francis  Atterbury, 
rector  of  Middleton-Malsor,  Northampton- 
shire. He  became  a  student  of  Christ  Church 
in  1647  ;  submitted  to  the  authority  of  the 
visitors  appointed  by  tlu>  parliament;  took 
tlie  degree  of  B.A.  oil  :i8  Feb.  1649,  and  was 
created  M.A.  on  1  March  1651,  by  dispensa- 
tion from  Oliver  Cromwell,  at  that  time 
chancellor  of  the  university.  In  1654  he 
was  made  rector  of  Great  or  Broad  Rising- 
ton  in  Gloucestershire,  and  in  1657  received 
the  living  of  MIddleton-Keynes,  near  New- 
port Pagnell,  Bucks.  At  tlie  Restoration  he 
was  careful  to  have  his  titles  to  these  bene- 
fices confirmed  by  taking  a  presentation 
under  the  great  seal.  On  25  July  1660,  he 
became  chaplain  to  lleniy,  Duke  of  Glou- 
cester, who  died  at  the  end  of  the  year ;  and 
on  1  Dec.  1660  he  took  the  degi-ee  of  D.D. 
He  seems  to  have  been,  in  his  later  years, 
involved  in  litigation,  Avliich  necessitated 
bis  frequent  attendance  in  town.  On  7  Dec. 
1698,  as  he  was  returning  home  after  one  of 
his  visits  to  London,  he  was  drowned  near 
Middleton-Keynes,  and  there  buried.  Atter- 
bury man-ied  and  left  two  sons — Tjewis 
Atterbury  the  younger,  and  the  famous 
F'rancis  Atterbury,  Bishop  of  Rochester.  He 
published  the  following  sermons:  1.  *A 
Good  Subject,  or  the  Riglit  Test  of  Religion 
and  Loyalty'  (on  Pro  v.  xxiv.  21,  22), 
17  July  1684.  2.  'The  Grand  Charter  of 
Christian  Feasts,  with  the  right  way  of 
keeping  them '  (on  1  Cor.  v.  8),  30  Nov. 
1685.  3.  'Babylon's  Downfall,  or  England's 
Happy  Deliverance  from  Popery  and  Slavery' 
(on  Revelation  xviii.  2),  preached  at  Guild- 
hall Chapel  on  28  June  1691,  and  published 
at  the  desire  of  the  court  of  aldermen. 

[Yardley's  Preface  to  the  Senuoiis  of  Le-\vi.s 
Atterbury  the  younger,  1743;  Wood's  Athcn. 
Oxon.  ed.  Bliss,  iv.  395.]  A.  H.  B. 


ATTERBURY,    LEWIS,    LL.D.,    the 

vounger  ( 1 656-1731 ),  the  eldest  son  of  LeAvis 
Atterbury  the  elder,  and  brother  of  Bishop 
AtterbuT-v,  was  born  at  Caldecot,  in  the 
])arish  of  Newport  Pagnell,  Buckingham- 
shire, on  2  May  1656.  After  l)eiug  educated 
at  Westminster  School,  luuler  Dr.  Busby,  he 
proceeded  to  Christ  Church,  Oxford,  where 
he  matriculated  on  10  April  1674.  He  was 
ordained  deacon  by  Dr.  John  Fell,  bishop  of 
Oxford,  on  21  Sept.  1679,  when  he  had 
already  taken  his  bachelor's  degree  ;  and  on 
5  July  1680  he  proceeded  M.A.,  taking 
priest's  orders  on  25  Sept.  of  the  follow- 
ing year.  In  1683  he  became  chaplain  to 
Sir  William  Pritchard,  then  lord  mayor  of 
London  :  and  in  February  1684  he  was  ap- 
])ointed  rector  of  Sywell,  Northamptonshire. 
On  8  July  1687  he  took  by  accumulation 
the  degrees  of  bachelor  and  doctor  of  civil 
law.  He  was  appointed,  in  1691,  lecturer 
of  St.  Mary  Hill,  London,  and  on  16  June 
1695  he  became  ]n-eacher  of  Highgatt; 
Chapel,  wlun-e  he  had  been  officiating  for' 
some  time  previously,  during  the  illness  of 
his  predecessor.  Before  this  date  he  had 
been  appointed  one  of  the  six  chaplains  to 
Princess  Anne  of  Denmark  at  Whitehall  and 
St.  James's,  a  position  which  he  continued 
to  hold  after  she  came  to  tlie  throne,  and 
during  jiart  of  the  reigii  of  George  I.  On 
coming  to  reside  at  Ilighgate,  struck  with 
the  difficulties  against  which  the  neighbour- 
ing poor  had  to  contend  in  obtaining  good 
medical  advice,  he  applied  himself  to  the 
study  of  medicine,  and  used  his  knowledge 
gratuitously  for  the  benefit  of  his  parishion- 
ers. In  1707  he  Avas  presented  by  the  queen 
to  the  rectory  of  Shepperton,  in  ]Middlesex, 
the  incumbent  having  been  deprived  for  ne- 
glecting to  take  the  oaths  within  the  time 
required  bylaAv;  and  in  1719  he  was  col- 
lated by  the  Bishop  of  London  to  the  rectory 
of  Hornsey,  continuing  at  the  same  time  to 
hold  the  office  of  preacher  at  Ilighgate. 
The  archdeaconry  of  Rochester  becoming 
vacant  by  the  death  of  Dr.  Sprat  in  1720, 
Atterbury  Avrote  to  his  younger  brother,  tlie 
bishop,  applying  for  the  post.  Archdeacon 
Yardley  jirinted  (in  the  ])reface  to  Atter- 
bury's '  Sermons,'  1743)  the  correspondence 
that  passed  on  the  subject.  The  bishop 
thought  that  such  an  appointment  Avould  be 
'the  most  unseemly,  indecent  thing  in  tlie 
AA'orld:'  to  Avhich  the  elder  brother  replied 
that  he  could  not  st'e  where  tlie  '  indecency  ' 
lay,  and  that,  though  there  might  be  '  some 
shoAV  of  reason  for  the  non-acceptance,' there 
was  '  none  for  the  not  giving  it.  At  the  age 
of  seAenty,  ii])  to  Avhich  time  lie  had  enjoyed 
good  health,  he  was  compelled  by  the  in- 


Atterbury 


239 


Attersoll 


tinnities  of  4ige  aud  an  attack  of  the  palsy 
to  pay  frequent  visits  to  Rath.  Here  he 
<liea  20  Oct.  1731,  in  liis  seventy-si.xth  year. 
He  was  buried  in  Ilighgate  Chapel.  He  left 
a  collection  of  pamplilets,  in  some  two  hun- 
dred volumes,  to  the  library  of  Christ  Church, 
Oxford,  and  a  few  books  to  the  libraries  at 
liedford  and  Newport-Pagnell.  To  his 
brother,  the  bishop,  '  m  token  of  his  true 
t'Steem  and  affection,'  lie  left  one  hundred 
pounds ;  and  the  remainder  of  his  property, 
hrst  to  his  granddaughter  (who  survived  him 
but  a  short  time),  and  afterwards  to  his 
nephew  Osbom,  the  bishop's  son.  He  also 
left  ten  pounds  a  year  for  the  support  of  a 
schoolmistress  for  girls  at  Xewport-Pagnell. 
In  1688  he  had  married  Penelope,  sister  of 
Sir  Robert  Bedingfield,lord  mayor  of  London 
in  1707.  Two  of  his  sons  died  in  infancy; 
51  third,  Bedingfield  Atterbury,  wlio  was  edu- 
<^ated  at  Oxford,  died  in  1718:  a  married 
♦laughter  died  in  1725;  and  his  wife  in  1723. 
A  list  of  Atterbury's  works  is  given  in 
Yai'dley's  preface  to  the  '  Sermons,'  1743. 
Among  them  may  be  mentioned  : — 1 .  '  The 
Penitent  Lady,  or  Reflections  on  the  jMerey 
of  God,  from  the  French  of  Madame  de  la 
Valliere,'  12mo,  1684.  2.  'Ten  Sermons 
preached  before  her  Royal  Highness  the 
Princess  Anne  of  Denmarlc,  at  the  chapel  of 
St.  James's,'  8vo,  1699.  3.  '  Twelve  Sermons 
])reached  at  St.  James's  and  AVhitehall : 
dedicated  to  the  Queen,' 8vo,  1703.  4.  'Some 
Letters  relating  to  the  History  of  the  Coun- 
cil of  Trent,'  4to,  1705.  5.  '  An  Answer  to  a 
Popish  Book  intitled  "  A  True  and  Modest 
Accoimt  of  the  Chief  Points  of  Controversy 
between  the  Roman  Catholics  and  the  Pro- 
testants," &c.,'  8vo,  1709.  6.  '  The  Reunion 
of  Christians  ;  translated  from  the  French,' 
^vo,  1708.  7.  '  Sermons  on  Select  Subjects  ; 
now  published  from  the  originals,'  two  vols., 
■8vo,  1743.  A  portrait,  engraved  by  Vertue, 
is  prefixed  to  vol.  i. 

[Archdeacon  Yardley's  Brief  Account  of  the 
Author,  prefixed  to  Sermons  on  Select  Subjects, 
1743  ;  Atterbui-y's  Correspondence,  ed.  Nichols, 
i.  484,  ii.  99.]  A.  H.  B. 

ATTERBURY,  LFFFMAN  (d.  1796), 
a  carpenter  and  builder  by  trade,  but  a 
musician  by  inclination,  studied  the  harpsi- 
chord, composition,  and  harmony  in  the 
leisure  time  he  could  spare  from  his  business, 
which  was  carried  on  in  Turn  Again  Lane, 
Fleet  Market.  He  acquired  considerable 
proficiency  in  music,  and  on  the  death  of 
his  father,  being  left  tolerably  well  oft",  gave 
up  his  business  and  retired  to  Teddington. 
He  obtained  several  prizes  from  the  Catch 
Club   for  his   glees,   and  was   appointed   a 


musician  in  ordinary  to  George  IH.  On 
15  May  1765  Atterbury  was  elected  a  per- 
forming member  of  the  Madrigal  Society 
{Recordft  of  Madrigal  Soc).  In  1770,  liV- 
seems  to  have  been  connected  with  Mai\- 
lebone  Gardens,  as  he  paid  Chatterton  h\.' 
guineas  for  the  copyright  of  '  The  Revenge  ' 
on  6  July  of  the  same  year  in  which 
the  burletta  was  performed.  On  5  Ma\, 
1773,  he  produced  at  tlie  Haymarket  tlieat  iv 
an  oratorio,  '  Goliali,'  which  failed  dis- 
astrously, though  it  was  afterwards  repeated 
at  West  Wycombe  on  13  Aug,  1775,  on  the 
occasion  of  the  buriiil  of  the  heart  of  Paul 
Whitehead  in  tlie  mausoleum  of  Lord  J^e 
Despencer.  In  1784  Atterbury  sang  in  the 
chorus  of  the  Handel  commemoration,  and 
in  1787,  on  the  establishment  of  the  glee 
club  at  the  Newcastle  Coffee  House,  Castle 
Street,  Strand,  his  name  occurs  as  one  of 
the  original  members.  In  September  1790 
he  married  Miss  Ancell,  of  Downing  Street. 
He  was  at  this  time  still  living  at  Tedding- 
ton, but  his  improvidence  forced  him  to  re- 
move to  Marsham  Street,  Westminster,  and 
to  give  concerts  in  aid  of  his  finances.  It 
was  in  the  middle  of  one  of  these  conc(M'ts 
that  he  is  said  to  have  died,  11  June,  1796. 

[Gent.  Mag.  for  1790,  1814,  1821;  Busbys 
Concert- room  Anecdotes,  1 825 ;  Grove's  Dictio- 
nary of  Music,  vol.  i.]  W.  B.  S. 

ATTERSOLL,  \AILLIAM  (d.  1640), 
puritan  divine  and  author,  was  apparently  for 
a  time  a  member  of  Jesus  College,  Cambridge, 
when,  as  he  writes  in  his  '  Historie  of  Balak  ' 
(1610),  his  patron  of  later  years,  Sir  Henry 
Fanshaw,  was  '  a  chiefe  and  choise  ornament ' 
there.  But  in  that  case  he  must  have  early 
passed  from  it ;  for  he  pi'oceeded  A.B.  1 582 
at  Clare  Hall,  and  A.M.  1586  at  Peterhouse. 
Attersoll  succeeded  A\'illiam  Bishoppe  in  tlie 
living  of  Isfield,  in  Sussex,  soon  after  18  Jan. 
1599-1600,  the  date  of  Bishoppe's  burial. 
In  the  Epistle-dedicatory  to  Sir  Henry 
Fanshaw,  knight,  the  king's  remembrancer 
in  his  highness's  court  of  I'lxehequer,  prefixed 
to  Attersoll's  '  Historie  of  Balak,'  he  speaks, 
among  other  of  Fanshaw's  acts  of  kindness 
shown  towards  him,  '  of  the  fauour  you 
shewed  me  at  my  repaire  vnto  you,  in  that 
trouble  which  befell  me  about  the  poore 
lining  that  now  I  enioy.'  Succeeding  sen- 
tences state  that  the  'trouble '  was  occasioned 
by  a  suspicion  on  the  part  of  Attersoll's  ])a- 
rishioners  that  the  new  parson  was  too  much 
of  a  scholar,  and  unlikely  to  be  a  preacher 
after  the  type  of  their  former. 

Attersoll  was  the  author  of  many  biblical 
commentaries  and  religious  treatises.  His 
earliest  works  were  entitled  'The  Pathwav 


Attersoll 


240 


Attwood 


to  Canaan'  (1609)  and  'The  Historie  of 
Balak  the  King  and  Balaam  the  false  Prophet ' 
(1610).  These,  with  others  of  the  same 
kind,  all  in  quarto,  were,  severally,  exposi- 
tions of  portions  of  the  book  of  Numbers, 
and  were  ultimately  brought  together  in  a 
noble  folio  of  1300  pages  in  1618.  In  the 
quartos  and  folio  alike  there  is  abundant 
evidence  of  wide  if  somewhat  undigested 
learning,  penetrative  insight,  and  felicitous 
application  in  the  most  unexpected  ways  of  old 
facts  and  truths  to  present-day  circumstances 
and  experiences.  All  this  applies  especially 
to  his  'New  Covenant'  (1614),  and  to  his 
next  important  work,  which  reached  a  second 
edition  in  1633,  viz.  '  A  Commentarie  vpon 
the  Epistle  of  Saint  Pavle  to  Philemon. 
Written  by  William  Attersoll,  Minister  of 
the  Word  of  God,  at  Isfield  in  Sussex.  The 
second  edition,  corrected  and  enlarged ' 
(1633).  It  is  this  volume  that  has  been 
wi-ongly  assigned  to  William  Aspinwall 
[q.  V.].  In  1632  Attersoll  published  a  volume 
called  the  '  Conversion  of  Nineveh.'  In  the 
Epistle-dedicatory  to  Sir  John  Rivers  he 
writes  of  himself  as  an  old  man  :  '  Having 
heretofore  upon  sundiy  occasions  divulged 
sundry  bookes  which  are  abroad  in  the  world, 
whereby  I  received  much  encouragement,  I 
resolved,  notwithstanding  being  now  in 
veares,  and  as  it  were  donatus  rude.  (Horat. 
lib.  i.  epist.  1),  preparing  for  a  nunc  dimittis, 
utterly  to  give  over  and  to  enjoyne  myselfe  a 
pei-petuall  silence  touching  this  kind  of  writ- 
ing, and  content  myselfe  with  performing  the 
other  more  necessary  duty  of  teaching. 
Nevertheless,  being  requested,  or  rather  im- 
portuned, by  friends  to  publish  some  things 
which  had  been  a  long  time  by  mee  ...  I 
deliuered  into  their  hands  these  three 
treatises.'  The  other  two  treatises  (besides 
'  Nineveh ')  are '  God's  Trvmpet  sovnding  the 
Alarme'  (1632)and  'Phisicke  against  Famine, 
or  a  Soueraig-ne  Preseruatiue '  (1632). 

As  shown  by  the  Isfield  Register,  Atter- 
soll was  buried  '  30  May  1640,'  and  thus  had 
remained  in  his  original  '  poore  lining '  for 
upwards  of  forty  years.  He  describes  him- 
self as  '  a  poore  labourer  in  the  Lord's  vine- 
vard,  and  a  simple  watchman  in  his  house.' 
He  also  s])eaks  of  'the  poore  cottage'  in 
which  he  resided  (Ep.  to  Nineveh).  His 
works  are  now  extremely  rare. 

Another  William  Attersoll,  probably 
his  son,  proceeded  A.B.  1611,  A.M.  1615  at 
Peterhouse ;  and  a  third  of  the  same  names 
proceeded  A.B.  1672  at  Catherine  Hall.  In 
all  likelihood  the  former  was  the  William 
Attersoll  of  Calamy,  whose  name  is  simply 
entered  under  '  Iloadley  (East),  Sussex,'  as 
among  the  ejected  of  1662,  and  so,  too,  in 


Palmer's   'Nonconformist's   Memorial'    (iii. 
320). 

[Information  from  Rev.  S.  F.  Russell.  M.A. 
Isfield;  H.  R.  Luard,  LL  D.,  and  W.  Aldis 
Wright,  LL.D.  Cambridge  ;  Kippis's  Biog.  Brit, 
s.  '  Fanshawe ; '  Attersoll's  works.]     A.  B.  Gr. 

ATTWOOD,  THOMAS  (1765-1838), 
musician,  born  in  "London,  23  Nov.  1765, 
was  the  son  of  a  coal  merchant.  When  nine 
years  old  he  Avas  admitted  as  a  chorister  to 
the  Chapel  Royal,  where  he  attracted  the  at- 
tention of  the  Prince  of  Wales  (George  IV), 
who  invited  him  to  Buckingham  House,  and 
was  so  pleased  by  his  pianoforte  playing  and 
musical  talent  that  in  1783  he  sent  him  to 
Naples  to  study  under  Cinque  and  Latilla. 
From  Naples  Attwood  went  (1785)  to 
Vienna,  where  he  studied  under  Mozart, 
who  expressed  a  favourable  opinion  of  his 
talent.  He  left  Vienna  in  company  with  the 
Storaces  in  February  1787.  Shortly  after 
his  return  to  London  he  was  appointed 
music  master  to  the  Duchess  of  York ;  he 
also  subsequently  occupied  the  same  post 
with  the  Duchess  of  Cumberland  and  the 
Princess  of  Wales.  In  the  following  year 
(1792)  he  produced  a  musical  afterpiece, 
'  The  Prisoner,'  at  the  Opera  House,  where 
the  Drury  Lane  company  was  then  perform- 
ing. This  was  the  first  of  several  similar 
pieces  he  composed ;  in  all  his  writings  for 
the  stage,  after  the  fashion  of  the  time,  he 
eked  out  his  own  music  by  considerable  in- 
terpolations from  the  works  of  other  com- 
posers, particularly  those  of  Mozart,  and 
Cherubini.  In  1793  Attwood  married  Mary, 
the  only  child  of  Matthew  Denton,  of  Stot- 
fold,  Bedfordshire.  His  eldest  son,  a  lieu- 
tenant in  the  army,  was  assassinated  at 
Madrid  in  October  1821  ;  another  son,  after 
a  distinguished  career  at  Cambridge,  became 
in  1837  rector  of  Framlingham,  Suftblk.  In 
1796,  on  the  death  of  John  Jones,  Attwood 
Avas  appointed  organist  and  vicar  choral  of 
St.  Paul's,  and  in  June  of  the  same  year  he 
succeeded  Dr.  Dupuis  as  composer  to  the 
Chapel  Royal.  For  the  coronation  of 
George  IV  (19  July  1821)  Attwood  wrote 
an  anthem,  '  I  was  glad.'  In  the  same  year 
the  king  appointed  him  organist  of  the  chapel 
in  the  Pavilion,  Brighton.  He  wrote  an 
anthem,  '  O  Lord,  grant  the  King,'  for  the 
coronation  of  William  IV,  and  had  begun 
another  for  the  coronation  of  Queen  Victoria 
when  he  was  interrupted  by  his  last  illness. 
On  the  death  of  Stafford  Smith  (1836)  he 
was  appointed  organist  to  the  Chapel  Royal, 
a  post  he  did  not  live  long  to  occvipy.  He 
was  taken  ill  soon  after  Christmas  1837,  and, 
preferring  some  peculiar  mode  of  treating  his 


Atwater 


241 


Atwell 


complaint,  neglected  the  proper  remedies, 
aiid  died  at  his  house,  17  Cheyne  Walk,  on 
24  March  1838.  He  avus  buried  in  St.  Paul's 
on  31  March.  Besides  the  works  mentioned 
above,  Attwood  wrote  some  chamber  music, 
many  songs,  glees,  and  pianoforte  pieces. 
His  music  is  melodious  and  graceful,  as 
would  be  expected  from  a  pupil  of  Mozart, 
but  it  is  deficient  in  individuality  and  force. 
During  the  latter  part  of  his  life  he  made  the 
acquaintance  of  Mendelssohn,  who  often 
stayed  with  the  English  composer  at  his 
house  at  Norwood. 

[Biog.  Diet.  S.  D.  U.  K. ;  Add.  MS.  31587; 
Gent.  Mag.  for  1821 ;  Annual  Register  for  1838  ; 
Kelly's  Reminiscences,  i.  (1826);  Grove's  Dic- 
tionary, i.]  W.  B.  S. 

ATWATER,  WILLIAM  (1440-1521), 
bishop  of  Lincoln,  was,  according  to  his 
epitaph,  born  about  1440.  Wood  connects 
his  parentage  with  Davington,  in  Somerset- 
shire; but  no  such  place  is  known.  A 
family  of  the  name  was,  however,  resident 
near  Downton,  in  Wiltshire,  and  a  Philemon 
Attwater  and  a  William  Attwater  held  pro- 
perty in  the  neighbourhood  in  the  eighteenth 
centuiy  (Hoare's  Wiltshire,  sub  '  Downton,' 
iii.  61).  Wood  also  states  that  Atwater  was 
educated  at  Magdalen  College,  Oxford,  Avhere 
he  was  first  demy  and  afterwards  fellow. 
His  name  does  not  appear  in  the  college 
registers,  which  only  date  from  the  latest 
years  of  the  fifteenth  century,  but  it  is  pro- 
bable that  he  was  a  fellow  in  1-480  (Bloxam's 
Magdalen  College  Registers,  iv.  27  w.).  He 
was  doubtless  tutor  at  Magdalen  when 
Thomas  AVolsey  was  studying  there,  and 
thus  formed  an  acquaintance  that  proved  of 
service  to  him.  Li  1492-3  Atwater  took  the 
degree  of  D.D.,  and  in  1497  became  for  the 
first  time  vice-chancellor  of  the  university. 
Three  years  later  he  was  reappointed  to  the 
office,  which  he  held  in  conjimction  with 
others  till  1502.  In  1500  the  post  of  chan- 
cellor of  the  university,  vacated  by  the  death 
of  Archbishop  Morton,  was  temporarily  filled 
by  him.  William  Smith,  bishop  of  Lincoln, 
one  of  the  founders  of  Brasenose  College,  on 
succeeding  Morton  as  chancellor,  continued 
Atwater  in  the  vice-chancellorship,  and  highly 
commended  his  *  merits  and  diligence.'  He 
effectually  aided  the  bishop  in  reforming  aca- 
demical discipline.  But  Atwater  did  not 
derive  all  his  income  from  university  work ; 
he  held  an  unusually  large  number  of  eccle- 
siastical benefices.  He  was  appointed  on 
19  Dec.  1489  to  the  living  of  Hawkridge,  in 
Wiltshire,  and  subsequently  held,  among 
many  other  small  benefices,  that  of  Ditcheat, 
in  Somersetshire.    The  deanery  of  the  Chapel 

VOL.  II. 


Koyal  was  conferred  on  him  in  1602.  On 
21  June  1504  he  became  canon  of  Windsor 
and  registrar  of  the  order  of  the  Garter. 
From  1506  to  1512  he  was  chancellor  of  the 
cathedral  of  Lincoln,  a  dignity  bestowed  on 
him  by  his  friend  William  Smith,  the  bishop; 
on  30  Oct.  1512  he  exchanged  the  chancel- 
lorship for  a  prebend  in  the  cathedral.  On 
5  Sept.  1509  he  was  appointed  dean  of  Salis- 
bury, having  become  prebendary  of  Ruscomb 
in  Salisbury  cathedral  on  20  July,  and  was 
granted  a  coat  of  arms.  For  a  short  time, 
between  1509  and  1512,  he  was  archdeacon 
of  Lewes.  In  Browne-Willis's  '  Cathedrals ' 
Atwater  is  stated  to  have  been  fellow  of 
Eton.  From  3  June  1514  till  18  Nov.  follow- 
ing he  held  the  archdeaconry  of  Huntingdon. 
His  elevation  to  the  bishopric  of  Lincoln,  in 
September  1514,  in  succession  to  Wolsey, 
whose  patronage  had  doubtless  secured  him 
many  of  his  honours,  closes  the  long  list  of 
his  preferments.  He  was  consecrated  at 
Lambeth  12  Nov.  1514.  He  resigned  the 
canonry  of  Windsor  on  22  Oct.  1514,  but  he 
continued  in  the  deanery  of  the  Chapel  Royal. 
On  15  Nov.  1515  he  took  part  in  the  fonnal 
reception  by  Wolsey  at  Westminster  of  the 
cardinal's  hat. 

Atwater  died  at  Wooburn,  Buckingham- 
shire, 4  Feb.  1520-1,  and  was  buried  in 
Lincoln  Cathedral.  A  brass  above  his  gi'ave 
stated  that  he  was  then  eighty-one  years  old. 
Among  the  state  papers  is  an  autograph 
letter  (11  Nov.  1516)  from  Atwater  to  Pope 
Leo  X,  praying  for  the  appointment  of  a  suf- 
ragan  bishop  at  an  annuity  of  200  ducats. 
An  entry  in  Henry  VIII's  accounts  for  1  Oct. 
1514  shows  that  the  king  lent  Atwater  600/. 
A  license  to  import  one  hundred  tuns  of 
Gascon  wine  was  granted  to  Atwater  1  Dec. 
1513.  A  popular  book,  printed  by  Pynson 
in  1519  and  reprinted  by  Wynkyn  de  Worde, 
entitled  '  Vulgaria  viri  doctissimi  Guil.  Hor- 
manni  Csesarisburgensis,'  was  dedicated  to 
Atwater  in  highly  flattering  terms. 

[Wood's  Athen.  Oxon.  (ed.  Bliss),  ii.  716; 
Wood's  Fasti  (ed.  Bliss),  i.  3,  6,  9  ;  Le  Neve's 
Fasti ;  Letters  and  Papers  of  the  Reign  of 
Henry  VIII,  1512-1516  ;  Chiu-ton's  Lives  of  the 
Founders  of  Brasenose  College,  pp.  156,  360, 
496 ;  Ames's  Typograph.  Antiq.  (ed.  Herbert  and 
Dibdin),  ii.  286-7,  479-82.]  S.  L.  L. 

ATWELL,  ATTAWEL,  or  ATTE- 
WELL,  HUGH  {d.  1621),  actor,  was  one  of 
the '  Children  of  her  Majesty's  Revels,'  who  is 
known  to  have  taken  part  in  the  first  repre- 
sentation of  Ben  Jonson's '  Epicoene '  in  1609. 
From  a  funeral  elegy  by  William  Rowley, 
upon  the  death  of  Hugh  Atwell,  '  servant  of 
Prince  Charles,'  on  Sept.  25, 1621 ,  he  has  been 

B 


Atwood 


342 


Atwood 


accounted  an  actor  of  some  note.  In  the  *  Al- 
leyn  Papers  '  Atwell's  name  is  mentioned  as 
the  witness  of  a  loan  from  Philip  Ilenslowe 
to  Robert  Duborne  of  twenty  shillings  in 
1613.  Atwell's  name  also  appears  as  one  of 
AUeyn's  company,  applying  to  him  for  an 
advance  of  money.  Another  player  of  the 
same  surname  in  Ilenslowe's  company,  George 
Attwell,  has  been  regarded  as  the  father  of 
Hugh  At  well. 

[The  AUeyn  Papers,  1843 ;  Collier's  Annals  of 
the  Stage,  1831.]  D.  C. 

ATWOOD,  GEORGE  (1746-1807),  a 
distinguished  mathematician,  was  born  in 
1746,  entered  AVestminster  School  in  1759, 
and  was  elected  to  a  scholarship  at  Trinity 
College,  Cambridge,  in  176.5.  He  graduated 
B.A.  in  1769  as  third  wrangler  and  first 
Smith's  prizeman,  became  subsequently  a 
fellow  and  tutor  of  his  college,  took  a  degree 
of  M.A.  in  1772,  and  was  chosen  fellow  of 
the  Royal  Society  in  1776.  His  lectures 
were  remarkable  both  for  the  fluent  ease  of 
their  delivery,  and  for  the  ingenuity  of  their 
experimental  illustrations,  and  exercised 
much  influence  on  the  scientific  studies  of 
the  university.  Amongst  Ids  auditors  and 
admirers  was  William  Pitt,  who  bestowed 
upon  him,  on  leaving  Cambridge  in  1784, 
a  sinecure  place  as  one  of  the  patent 
searchers  of  the  customs,  with  a  salary  of 
500/.  a  year.  This,  however,  was  only  an 
indirect  mode  of  remunerating  financial  ser- 
vices of  a  very  arduous  kind,  all  the  calcula- 
tions connected  with  the  revenue  being  exe- 
cuted by  him  until  failing  health  forbade 
the  intense  application  said  to  have  been  its 
cause.  He  died  at  his  house  in  Westminster, 
in  July  1807,  at  the  age  of  61,  and  was 
buried  in  St.  Margaret's  Church.  As  a  writer 
he  was  less  gifted  than  as  a  lecturer.  His 
treatises,  though  marked  by  considerable 
ability,  are  deficient  both  in  power  and  ele- 
gance, and  are  now  completely  superseded. 
In  accuracj-  of  calculation  he  could  scarcely 
be  sui*passed,  and  he  possessed  musical  as 
well  as  mathematical  accomplishments. 

He  wrote:  1.  'A  Description  of  the  Ex- 
periments intended  to  illustrate  a  Course  of 
Lectures  on  the  Principles  of  Natural  Philo- 
sophy,' London,  1776.  2.  '  A  Treatise  on  the 
Rectilinear  Motion  and  Rotation  of  Bodies, 
with  a  Description  of  Original  Experiments 
relative  to  the  Subject,'  Cambi-idge,  1784, 
in  which  occurs  (p.  298)  the  first  description 
of  the  ingenious  apparat  us  since  so  well  known 
as  'Atwood's  Machine,'  for  exhibiting  and 
verifying  the  accelerative  action  of  gravity. 
8.  'An  Analysis  of  a  Coui-se  of  Lectures  on  the 
Principles  of  Natural  Philosophy,'  London, 


1784,  still  of  interest  as  illustrating  the  state 
of  science  at  Cambridge  a  century  ago.  4.  *  A 
Dissertation  on  the  Construction  and  Proper- 
ties of  Arches,'  1801,  with  a  supplement, 
1804,  written  at  the  request  of  a  committee 
of  the  House  of  Commons,  then  engaged  in 
considering  Telford's  plan  for  replacing  Lon- 
don Bridge  with  a  one-arched  iron  construc- 
tion. 5.  *A  general  Theory  for  the  Mensuration 
of  the  Angle  subtended  by  two  Objects,'  Phil. 
Tram.  vol.  Ixxi.,  1781.  6.  'Investigations 
founded  on  the  Theory  of  Motion  for  deter- 
mining the  Times  of  Vibration  of  Watch 
Balances,'  Phil.  Trans,  vol.  Ixxxiv.,  1794. 
7.  *  The  Construction  and  Analysis  of  Geome- 
trical Propositions  determining  the  Positions 
assumed  by  homogeneal  Bodies  which  float 
freely,  and  at  rest,  on  a  Fluid's  Surface,' 
Phil.  Trans,  vol.  Ixxxvi.,  1796,  honoured 
with  the  Copley  medal  (1796).  8.  'A  Disqui- 
sition on  the  Stability  of  Ships,'  Phil.  Trans. 
vol.  Ixxxviii.,  1798. 

[Gent.  Mag.  Ixxvii.  pt.  ii.  690  ;  Mutton's  Phil, 
and  Math.  Diet.  (1815),  i.  189  ;  De  Morgan  in 
Biog.  Diet.  Soc.  D.  U.  K.  iv.  44.]       A.  M.  C. 

ATWOOD,  PETER  (1643-1712),  Domi- 
nican friar,  was  a  native  of  Warwickshire, 
joined  the  order  in  1678,  and  was  ordained 
priest  five  years  later.  He  was  several  times 
cast  into  prison,  and  at  length  was  con- 
demned to  death  on  account  of  his  sacerdotal 
character.  The  hurdle  was  actually  at  the 
gate  of  the  gaol  to  convey  him  to  Tyburn 
when  Charles  H  sent  him  a  reprieve.  Father 
Atwood,  who  governed  his  brethren  as  pro- 
vincial from  1698  to  1706,  died  in  London, 
12  Aug.  1712. 

[Oliver's  Hist,  of  the  Catholic  Religion  in 
ConuTOll,  450.]  T.  C. 

ATWOOD,  THOMAS  {d.  1793),  chief 
judge  of  the  isLand  of  Dominica,  and  after- 
wards of  the  Bahamas,  died  in  the  King's 
Bench  prison,  at  an  advanced  age,  broken 
down  with  misfortunes,  on  27  May  1793. 
He  is  the  reputed  author  of  the  *  History  of 
the  Island  of  Dominica,'  published  in  1791, 
and  of  a  pamphlet  published  in  1790  entitled 
*  Observations  on  the  True  Method  of  Treat- 
ment and  Usage  of  the  Negro  Slaves  in  the 
British  West  India  Islands.' 

[Gent.  Mag.  Ixiii.  576,  669.]  T.  F.  H. 

ATWOOD,  AVILLIAM  (<7.  1705  ?),  po- 
litical writer,  chief  justice  of  New  York,  was 
an  English  barrister,  and  the  author  of  a 
large  number  of  controversial  pamphlets  on 
political  questions  during  the  last  two  d«»- 
cades  of  the  seventeentlx  century  and  the 
early  years  of  the  eighteenth.     In  politics 


Aubert 


«43 


Aubert 


be  WM  A  sUaach  wliH^  sad*n«rfnt«  ■»> 
hoUcr  <tf  the  rig^  of  parikflKiit  aad  toe 
peopl«  flfMMt  the  {preteBMOiM  of  ¥iimer, 
noMff  (Old  the  «xtr«iB«  totim  9ad  hk^  [ 
ehuiwuaen,  A«  a  dupotaat,  Iw  m  ntbtet  \ 
dnsMf  rad  tneflcetire;  bat  lu»  eonrtitii' 
tional  tWofic»Mnegroaiid«dapon«eoand«r' 
able  knowle^pe  of  carir  <haxten  mtd  other 
6oaaaeBt»f  ind  of  tn«  <Jder  WRten  of 
Eatfllkh  lukofj,  in  wltieli  he  Menw  to  hare 
been  miacittllr well  rmil  Amenghhwotk* 
are: 'JniAiiglornmabAiitiqao/ 1091;  'IVr 
FradaflMotal  Cbnatitotioii  c^  tb«  Eojgltfh 
Gorenmieitt/  1090;  'The  Antiquity  and 
JtMtiee  of  an  OaA  of  AUtmtion,'  1604; 
'The  Idrtorrand  BeaaotM  oine  Dependener 
f  I  land,''*^.,  leeS.  In  Xagnft  1701  Imj 
AtTr.'A  in  Xew  York,  where  he  had  be^rn  ap- 
pointed diiefjhiatice  and  judge  of  the  eonrt  of 
adniiBltf  .  He  waa  idnrait  iBwediatelr  in- 
Tohred  in  xkient  qnanda  with  cone  m  the 
inhabitantc,  and  anerwarda  with  Lord  Com- 
bit>7,  the  gvremor.  He  wa«  aeeiMedofnnw 
corruption  and  maladminiatertion,  and  waa 
finally  ( Jnne  170S)  co^ended  from  hix  tta- 
fiajnutata  bjr  Lord  Conihajy,  and  eompelled 
to  eaeape  frrnn  the  cAmj.  On  his  retttm  to 
Vnglbmd  he  pnhlished  a  ctatenent  of  his 
'  Caae '  (I>»don^  170^,  in  whidi  he  end/^a- 
\  ottxed  to  prore  that  his  difienltiea  in  the 
colony  were  doe  to  his  rigoroaa  administra^ 
tion  of  En^ish  law,  especially  in  its  appli- 
cation to  maritinie  Mid  conuneidal  nurtlers ; 
bat  he  net  with  no  redress,  and  the  lords 
eoramisetonera  of  trade  ami.  ^antations  en* 
dorsed  l>ord  Comhiays  aetion.  In  17(W  he 
yj'iWisJjftd  'The  Bttpenontj  and  Direct  IXt>- 
i.',.;.>n  of  the  Lnpnial  Crown  ot  Bwgland 
over  the  Orown  and  Kingdom  of  Beotkni^ 
and  in  1705  'TheSeoteh  Patriot  unmask'd,' 
Bodi  these  paaq^blets  ezcitbd  gi^at  indigna- 
tion in  Seowaad,  and  were  ordi>fr«d  by  the 
Scotch  parliament  to  he  bnmt  by  the  com- 
mon  hangman.  The  year  of  Atwood's  death 
is  uncertain.  Qe  appears  to  hare  paUished 
nothing  later  than  1705. 

[Bixiiop  TSiedmm^  English  Hcrtorial  library, 
1 796,  p.  193 ;  Boyer,  Asnals  of  Qncen  Anne,  ir, 
62;  (yCallaghaa,  Hew  York  Colootsl  Docn- 
vaentM,  it.  971,  1010,  r.  105S,  See, ;  The  Case 
of  William  At  wood.  Load,  1703,  fot] 

8.J.L. 

AUBEBT,  ALEXANDER  (1730-1805), 

-tronom*;r,  was  >K»m  at  .Austin  Friars, 
J^/ndon,  11  May  1730.  The  appearance  of 
the  magnificent  comet  of  1744  gare  him, 
then  a  schoolboy  at  Genera,  a  permanent 
Was  towards  astronomy ;  he  diligentlv  pre- 
pared, howerer,  for  a  mercantile  career  in 
'  ounting-houses  at  Geneva,  Le^iom,  and 


Genoa ;  riinted  Bone  in  the  inb(k«  year 
(175(^  and,  retnmia^  to  lanOon  in  1751, 
was,  m  the  following  year,  taken  int49  part' 
nenAip  by  his  £rther.  In  175!l  he  bMnne 
a  diiwctor,  and  sone  yean  later  gownor, 
of  the  London  Asmnance  Coa^nty.  lie 
was  elected  a  fellow  of  the  Boyal  Society 
in  1772,  and  of  tibe  Society  of  Antiansriea 
in  1764,  nwetfinjjf  noreorer,  in  1799,  a 
dqilona  of  adniawon  to  the  St.  PclenAnf 
Academy  of  Sdeneea.  Thetnmsit  of  Vesw^ 
of  9  Jane  1700,  was  <^bsenred  br  hin  at 
.Anstin  Friars  (PM,  Tratu,  lix.  ^9),  and 
that  of  Merenry,  4  )fay  17i86  (Fldl.  Trmu, 
IxxriL  47)  at  an  obserratofy  bmlt  by  Inn 
at  LoanpttHill,nearDeptford,and  ibrnAed 
with  the  best  instmments  by  S9bort.  Bad, 
Bamsden^  and  DoUond.  Ensept  th«t  of 
Count  Bt^ih],  it  was  at  tint  period  the  only 
wdl-e;nip«id  prtrate  estabiishnent  of  tike 
kind  in  tS^^aaiL  In  178B  hepardbaned 
HkUiafyHonse,Ijdington,for6,lOWgniiieas, 
and  oected  on  the  gronnda,  widi  the  anist- 
anee  of  his  friend  Smeaton,  the  edebBxted 
ei^glinea^  a  new  obserratory  on  iamored 
vUaiB  oi  his  own.  His  nediaaieal  kbow- 
ledge  eaased  hin  to  be  i^pointed  chairman 
(if  the  tntsteea  for  the  eon^letioa  of  T?ana 
gate  harbonr,  and  his  «M»gy  cooteibnted 
m^eriaUy  to  the  ultimate  aneecas  of  Smcs- 
ton*s  dengna.  In  179S  Anbert  headed  a 
society  for  the  tapynanoa  of  aeditioo,  and 
in  1797  he  otgamaedf  md  was  rapmnted 
lientenant-eolond  of,  the  '  Loyal  I^ngton 
Volttnteers.'  While  sUnrti^  in  the  house 
'if  Mr.  John  Lloyd,  of  Wypdr,  St.  Aarah, 
he  was  struck  with  raoplexy,  and  «ed 
19  Oct.  1805,  at  the  ajgie  of  75,  hig^y 
esteened  both  in  sdentine  and  eonnereial 
eiidea,  and  widdy  popular,  owii^  to  his 
goual  manners  and  unstinted  hoi^itality. 
His  ralnaUe  astronomical  libnny  and  in- 
struments were  sold  and  dispened  attar  his 
death.  Ammigst  the  latter  were  a  IMlood 
4^S-indi  aebromatiCf  aperture  3|  inches,  and 
the  one  Caase^ratn  rraeetor  eonatmeted  by 
Short,  of  S4  indbea  focus  and  6  anerture, 
known  among  optiiaana  m  *  Iffliort's  Dampy.* 
Both  had  beim  origmalty  made  for  Tophun 
Beanclerk.  Two  slight  papers  by  Aubert 
appeared  in  the  'Philosopnieal  Transactions,* 
Viz.,  *  A  Xew  3f«*thod  of  finding  Time  bv 
Equal  .\ltitudes '  (IxvL  92-8),  and  *  An  .Ac- 
count of  the  Meteors  of  18  Aug.  and  4  Oct. 
1783' (Ixxiv,  112-15). 

[EoH^.  Msg.  xxxir.  291.  xxxri.  79;  Gatt. 
Mag.  Ixxr.  982 ;  Lysoas's  Earirons  ol  London 
(179.5),  ill.  13>5.'  Lewis's  History  <rf  Uiiifton 
(1842),  18.9;  Kitehioer's  Practical  dMerfatiom 
oaTei<mefjpe»  (3rd  ed.  1818),  pp.  16, 108;  Watt's 
Bih.  Brit  i.  .54.]  A.  X.  C. 

b2 


Aubrey 


244 


Aubrey 


AUBREY,  JOHN  (1626-1697),  anti- 
quary, was  born  at  Easton  Pierse,  or  Percy, 
in  the  parish  of  Kington  in  Wiltshire,  on 
12  March  1625-6,  and  not  on  3  Nov.  as 
stated  by  some  of  his  biographers.  His 
father,  Ilichard  Aubrey,  was  a  gentleman 
of  fortune,  possessed  of  estates  in  Wiltshire, 
Herefordshire,  and  Wales,  Young  Aubrey 
was  a  sickly  boy,  and  received  the  first  part 
of  his  education  privately  under  the  llev. 
Robert  Latimer,  vicar  of  Leigh  Delamere 
near  Malmesbury,  the  preceptor  of  Hobbes. 
He  afterwards  went  to  Blandford  grammar 
school,  and  in  May  1642  was  entered  a 
gentleman  commoner  at  Trinity  College, 
Oxford.  While  yet  an  undergraduate  he  i 
evinced  his  antiquarian  tastes  by  contribut- 
ing a  plate  of  Oseney  Abbey  to  Dugdale's 
'  Monasticon.'  In  1643  he  was  driven  from  j 
the  university  by  small-pox  and  civil  war,  | 
'  and  for  three  years  led  a  sad  life  in  the 
country.'  In  1646  he  became  a  student  at 
the  Middle  Temple,  but  was  never  called  to 
the  bar,  and  returned  from  time  to  time  to 
Oxford,  where  he  declares  he  enjoyed  the 
greatest  felicity  of  his  life.  He  was  also 
frequently  at  home  upon  his  father's  busi- 
ness, and  in  1649  brought  to  light  the  extra- 
ordinary megalithic  remains  at  Avebury, 
Avhich  had  been  unheeded  till  then.  In  1652, 
on  his  father's  death,  lie  inherited  the  family 
estates,  and  along  with  them  numerous  law- 
suits, which,  combined  with  his  careless  and 
extravagant  habits  of  living,  eventually  r^^L- 
duced  him  to  poverty.  'Several  love  ana 
lawe  suits,'  he  notes  of  the  year  1656.  He 
must,  nevertheless,  have  kept  up  his  literaiy 
and  scientific  interests,  for  he  belonged  to  the 
club  of '  Commonwealth  Men,'  founded  on  the 
principles  of  Harrington,  of  which  he  has  left 
an  entertaining  description,  and  in  May  1663 
he  was  elected  a  fellow  of  the  Royal  Society. 
In  1662  he  sold  his  Herefordshire  property. 
In  1665  '  I  made  my  first  address  (in  an  ill 
hour)  to  Joane  Sumner.'  His  biogi-aphers, 
previous  to  Mr.  Britton,  have  not  imnatu- 
rally  concluded  that  he  espoused  this  lady, 
but  the  register  of  his  death  and  passages 
in  his  autobiographical  notes  prove  that  this 
cannot  have  been  the  case.  Instead  of  going 
to  the  altar  she  went  to  law  with  him,  and 
'  all  my  business  and  affairs  ran  kim  kam.' 
He  nevertheless  gained  several  causes,  buV 
in  1670  was  compelled  to  sell  his  remaining 
landed  property.  '  From  1670  to  this  very 
day,'  he  notes,  '  I  have  enjoyed  a  happy  deli- 
tescency.'  The  term  is  emphasised  by  the 
entry  for  the  following  year,  '  Danger  of 
arrests.'  In  1677  he  was  obliged  to  part 
with  his  books,  but  this  year  seems  to  have 
been  the  term  of  his  misfortunes.     Having 


lost  everything,  he  was  no  longer  disquieted 
by  lawsuits ;  and  his  good  humour  made 
him  a  welcome  guest  in  many  families,  espe- 
cially that  of '  the  Earl  of  Thanet,  with  whom 
I  was  delitescent  near  a  year,'  and  of  '  Mr. 
Edmund  NVyld,  with  whom  I  most  com- 
monly take  my  diet  and  sweet  otiums.'  To 
these  protectors  may  be  added  Sir  William 
Petty,  Hobbes,  Ashmole,  and  Lady  Long,  of 
Draycott,  in  Wilts,  with  whom  he  frequently 
resided  during  his  latter  years.  W^hen  not 
thus  enacting  the  part  of  a  highly  accom- 
plished Will  Wimble,  he  spent  his  time  in 
country  excursions,  collecting  materials  for 
his  antiquarian  works.  He  had  in  1671  re- 
ceived a  patent  empowering  him  to  make 
antiquarian  surveys  under  the  crown,  and 
had  perambulated  Surrey  in  1673,  forming 
copious  topographical  collections.  He  had 
also  since  1659  been  more  or  less  engaged  011 
a  similar  undertaking  for  North  Wilts,  and 
in  1685  '  tumultuarily  stitched  up '  his  notes 
on  the  natural  histoiy  of  that  county.  He 
also  conjposed,  by  order  of  Charles  II,  as  is 
said,  an  unpublished  discourse  on  Stone- 
henge  and  other  ancient  stone  monuments, 
which  he  regarded  as  druidical.  In  1667  he 
had  made  the  acquaintance  of  Anthony  a 
Wood,  and  aided  him  materially  in  his 
'  Antiquities  of  Oxford,'  published  in  1674, 
His  correspondence  with  Wood  was  con- 
tinued until,  in  1680,  he  sent  the  latter  his 
'  Minutes  of  Lives,'  with  a  highly  character- 
istic letter.  Wood  made  great  use  of  hia 
information,  which  continued  to  be  furnished 
until  the  publication  of  the  *  Athenfe  Oxo- 
nienses'  in  1690.  Unfortunately  one  of" 
Aubrey's  notes,  reflecting  upon  Lord  Chan- 
cellor Clarendon,  caused  Wood  to  be  visited 
by  a  prosecution ;  and  this  seems  to  have 
occasioned  an  estrangement,  and  to  have- 
prompted  the  unfavourable  character  which 
Wood  has  left  of  his  disinterested  if  not 
always  judicious  ally.  Aubrey  continued 
to  occupy  himself  with  his  history  of  Wilt- 
shire, but,  feeling  that  he  should  not  live  to 
finish  the  work,  m  1695  imparted  his  papers 
to  Tanner,  afterwards  Bishop  of  St.  Asaph, 
In  1696  he  issued  the  only  book  he  ever 
printed  himself,  the  '  Miscellanies,'  a  highly 
entertaining  collection  of  ghost  stories  and 
other  anecdotes  of  the  supernatural.  In  June 
1697  he  died  at  Oxford,  on  his  way  from 
London  to  Draycott,  and  was  buried  in  the 
church  of  St.  Mary  Magdalene. 

Aubrey  left  a  mass  of  manuscript  material 
behind  him,  which  long  remained  unpub- 
lished. His '  Perambulation  of  Surrey '  was 
incorporated  in  Rawlinson's  '  Natural  His- 
tory and  Antiquities  of  Surrey,'  printed  in 
1719,  which  is  indeed  substantially  Aubrey's 


Aubrey 


245 


Aubrey 


Avork.  Part  of  his  Wiltshire  collections  was 
used  by  Tanner  for  Bishop  Gibson's  edition  | 
of  Camden.  Aubrey's  own  manuscript  was 
presented  by  the  writer  to  the  Ashmolean  ! 
Library.  It  was  in  two  volumes,  one  of 
which  was  borrowed  by  his  brother  and  lost,  i 
Portions  of  the  other  were  privately  printed 
by  Sir  Thomas  Phillips  in  1821  aiid  1838, 
but  the  edition,  which  is  far  from  correct, 
was  never  completed.  The  work  was  finally 
edited  for  the  Wiltshire  Topographical  So- 
ciety by  the  Rev.  J.  S.  Jackson  (Devizes,  1862). 
'  The  iS^atural  History  of  Wilts,'  abstracted 
by  the  author  from  his  larger  work,  was  left 
by  him  in  two  manuscripts,  one  at  Oxford, 
the  other  in  the  libraiy  of  the  Royal  Society. 
The  portions  immediately  concerning  Wilt- 
shire were  edited  for  the  W^iltshire  Topo- 
graphical Society  by  Mr.  John  Britton.  The 
'  Minutes  of  Lives,'  given  to  Wood,  were  first 
published  in  a  collection  entitled  '  Letters 
written  by  Eminent  Persons  in  the  Seven- 
teenth and  Eighteenth  Centuries '  (London, 
1813).  The  most  recent  edition  of  the  '  Mis- 
cellanies'is  that  in  Russell  Smith's  Library  of 
Old  Authors,  in  1867.  Aubrey  also  wrote  a 
life  of  Hobbes,  which  foi-med  the  groundAvork 
of  Blackburn's  Latin  biogi-aphy.  The  manu- 
script of  his  '  Monumenta  Britannica '  is  in 
the  Bodleian.  His  *  Architectonica  Sacra,' 
*  Idea  of  Education  of  Young  Gentlemen,'  and 
other  works  of  less  importance,  are  extant  in 
the  Ashmolean  Library  or  in  private  hands. 
His  '  Remains  of  Gentilism  and  Judaism '  is 
preserved  among  the  Lansdowne  MSS.  in  the 
British  Museum.  Extracts  from  it  have  been 
given  in  Brand's  '  Popular  Antiquities '  and 
Thoms's  'Anecdotes  and  Traditions,'  and  the 
entire  text,  with  White  Kennet's  additions, 
was  issued  by  the  Folk-lore  Society  in  1880. 
Aubrey  was  the  very  type  of  the  man  who 
is  no  man's  enemy  but  his  own.  He  pos- 
sessed every  virtue  usually  associated  with 
an  easy  careless  temper,  and  an  industry  in 
his  own  pursuits  w"hich  would  have  done 
credit  to  one  of  robuster  mould.  '  My  head,' 
he  says,  'was  always  working,  never  idle, 
and  even  travelling  did  glean  some  observa- 
tions, some  whereof  are  to  be  valued.'  They 
assuredly  are,  and  many,  especially  those  on 
the  alteration  of  manners  in  his  time,  exhibit 
real  shrewdness.  He  was  well  aware  of  his 
failings,  and  it  is  impossible  not  to  sympathise 
with  his  regret  for  the  abolition  of  the  mo- 
nasteries which  would  have  afforded  him  a 
congenial  refuge ;  and  his  verdict  that  '  if 
ever  I  had  been  good  for  anything,  'twould 
have  been  a  painter.'  His  buoyant  cheerful- 
ness defied  calamity,  and  pi"eser\'ed  his  self- 
respect  under  the  hard  trial  of  dependence. 
His  character  as  an  antiquaiy  has  been  un- 


worthily traduced  by  Anthony  i  Wood,  but 
fully  vindicated  by  his  recent  editors  and 
biogi-aphers.  He  certainly  is  devoid  of  lite- 
rary talent,  except  as  a  retailer  of  anecdotes  ; 
his  head  teems  with  particulars  which  he 
lacks  the  faculty  to  reduce  to  order  or  com- 
bine into  a  whole.  As  a  gossip,  however,  he 
is  a  kind  of  immature  Boswell ;  and  we  are 
infinitely  beholden  to  him  for  the  minute 
but  vivid  traits  of  Bacon,  Milton,  Raleigh, 
Hobbes,  and  other  great  men  presei'ved  in 
his  *  Minutes  of  Lives.'  His  '  Natural  His- 
tory of  Wilts '  is  full  of  quaint  lore,  and  one 
need  not  believe  in  spirits  to  enjoy  his  '  Mis- 
cellanies.' Half  the  charm  is  in  the  simple 
credulity  of  the  narrator,  who  seems,  never- 
theless, to  have  inclined  to  the  philosophy  of 
his  friend  Hobbes. 

[Aubrey  left  two  papers  of  autobiographical 
memoranda.  Every  circmnstance  respecting  him 
has  been  collected  and  carefully  investigated  in 
the  excellent  biography  by  J.  Britton  (London, 
1845),  the  only  work  of  authority.  The  best 
criticism  upon  his  life  and  MTitings  is  an  admi- 
rable essay  by  Professor  Masson  in  vol.  xxiv.  of 
the  British  Quarterly  Review.]  R.  G. 

AUBREY,  W^ILLIAM,  LL.D.  (1529- 
1595),  an  eminent  civilian  and  gi-andfather 
of  the  antiquary,  John  Aubrey,  was  born  at 
Cantre  [Cantretf],  Brecknockshire,  in  or  about 
1529,  and  was  educated  at  Oxford,  where  he 
graduated  B.C.L.  in  1549.  He  became  fellow 
of  All  Souls',  was  appointed  principal  of  New 
Inn  Hall  in  1550,  and  professor  of  civil  law 
in  1553.  It  appears  that  he  discharged  the 
duties  of  his  professorship  by  deputies ;  for 
W^illiam  Mowse  filled  the  chair  in  1554.  In 
1559  he  resigned  in  favour  of  John  Griffith 
(Rymek's  Fcedera,  xv.  503).  Having  taken 
the  degree  of  D.C.L.  (1554),  Aubrey  was 
admitted  an  advocate  in  the  court  of  Arches, 
and  afterwards  officiated  as  judge-advocate 
in  the  expedition  against  St.  Quentin.  By 
Archbishop  Grindal  he  was  appointed  auditor 
and  vicar-general  in  spirituals  for  the  province 
of  Canterbury,  and  in  1577,  during  Grindal's 
sequestration,  he  was  one  of  the  civilians 
chosen  to  carry  on  the  visitation.  He  was 
afterwards  chancellor  to  Archbishop  Whit- 
gift,  and  was  created  by  Queen  Elizabeth  a 
member  of  the  Council  of  ^larches  for  Wales, 
a  master  in  chanceiy,  and  a  master  of  re- 
quests in  ordinary.  He  died  on  23  July 
1595,  leaving  three  sons  and  six  daughters. 
In  Dugdale's '  History  of  St.  Paul's  Cathedral ' 
thei'e  is  a  drawing  of  Aubrey's  monument  and 
effigy  in  St.  Paul's.  His  grandson,  the  anti- 
quary, writes :  *  I  have  his  originall  picture. 
He  had  a  delicate,  quick,  liveh',  and  piercing 
black  eie,  a  severe  eie  browe,  and  a  fresh 
complexion.     The  figure  in  his  monument 


Aucher 


246 


Auc|imuty 


at  St,  Paules  is  not  like  him — it  is  too  big ' 
{Letters  from  the  Bodleian,  1813,  ii.  219). 

Some  letters  of  Aubrey's  are  printed  in 
Strype's  '  Life  of  Grindal.'  Two  of  bis 
judgments  are  preserved  among  the  Lans- 
downe  MSS.  (Ixviii.  Ixix.)  A  letter  to  Jobn 
Dee,  in  criticism  of  bis  '  Soveraignty  of  tbe 
Sea,'  is  printed  in  vol.  ii.  pp.  214-18  of '  Letters 
from  the  Bodleian,'  1813.  The  original  letter, 
with  transcripts  by  Dee  and  Ashmole,  is 
among  the  Ashmolean  MSS.  (1789,  33).  The 
Tanner  MSS.  in  tbe  Bodleian  contain  '  Trac- 
tatus  duo  in  causa  matrimonii  dominaj 
Katberime  Grey  et  comitis  Hertfordise,  per 
Gul.  Aubrey  et  lien.  Jones,'  and  a  letter  of 
Aubrey's  to  Grindal  '  On  the  Abuses  in  the 
Ecclesiastical  Courts.'  Among  the  Ashmo- 
lean MSS.  (1788,  132-3)  is  preserved  Ash- 
mole's  transcript  of  a  *  Letter  from  Dr.  W. 
Aubrey  to  Dr.  Dee  upon  his  perusall  of  the 
British  Monarchy.     Kew,  28  July,  1577.' 

[Wood's  rasti,  ed.  Bliss,  i.  127,  143  ;  Strype's 
Grindal ;  Strype's  Cranmer  ;  Dugdale's  History 
of  St.  Piiurs  Cathedral ;  Black's  Catalogue  of 
Ashmolean  MSS. ;  Catalogue  of  Tanner  MSS. ; 
Letters  from  the  Bodleian  Library,  1813,  ii. 
207-21,  whore  an  account  of  Aubrey  is  printed 
from  a  manuscript  (supposed  to  be)  in  the  writ- 
ing of  his  son-in-law.  Sir  Daniel  Dun,  supple- 
mented bv  notes  of  John  Aubrej',  the  antiquary.] 

A.  H.  B. 

AUCHER,  JOHN,  D.D.  (1619-1700), 
royalist  divine,  was  son  of  Sir  Anthony  Au- 
cher, knight,  of  Hautsbourne  in  Kent.  He 
was  nominated  to  a  Canterbury  scholarship  in 
Corpus  Christ  i  College,  Cambridge,  by  Arch- 
bishop Laud  in  1034,  but  after  taking  the 
degree  of  B. A,  he  removed  to  Peterhouse  for 
a  fellowship,  where  be  commenced  M.A.  in 
1641.  He  was  ejected  from  his  fellowship  on 
account  of  his  loj'alty,  and  during  the  Com- 
monwealth he  wrote  two  treatises  against  the 
dominant  party,  which,  however,  were  not 
printed  till  long  afterwards.  At  the  Resto- 
ration he  was  created  D.D.  by  royal  mandate, 
and  further  rewarded  with  a  prebend  in  the 
church  of  Canterbury  (1660).  He  also  held 
the  rectory  of  Allhallows  in  Lombard  Street, 
London,  for  many  years  (1662-85).  Dr. 
Aucher  died  at  Canterbury  on  12  March 
1700-1,  and  was  buried  in  the  cathedral. 

His  works  are  :  1.  '  The  Personal  Reign  of 
Christ  upon  Earth,'  1642, 4to.  2.  A  treatise 
against  tbe '  Engagement.'  3.  '  The  Arraign- 
ment of  Rebellion,  or  the  iiTesistibility  of 
sovereign  powers  vindicated  and  maintained 
in  reply  to  a  letter,'  London,  1084,  4to  ;  re- 
printed London,  1718,  8vo. 

[Peter  Barwick's  Life  of  Dr.  John  Barwick, 
283  n. ;  Newcourt's  Eepertorium,  i.  255 ;  Ken- 


nett's  Register  and  Chron.  185,  186;  Le  Neve's 
Fnsti  Eccl.  Anglic,  ed.  Hardy,  i.  54  ;  MS.  Lansd. 
987  f.  144  ;  Somner's  Antiq.  of  Canterbury,  ed. 
Battely,  append,  to  the  supplement,  p.  9  ;  Mas- 
ters's  Hist,  of  C.  C.  C.  C.  219;  Cat.  Librorum 
Impress.  Bibl.  Bodl.  (1843),  i.  142;  Walker's 
Sufferings  of  the  Clergy,  ii.  153;  Carter's  Hist, 
of  the  Univ.  of  Camb.  44,  49.]  T.  C. 

AUCHINOUL,  Lord.  [See  Bellenden.] 

AUCHMUTY,   Sir  SAMUEL,  G.C.B. 

(1756-1822),  a  distinguished  general,  who 
attained  his  rank  by  merit  alone,  was  born 
at  New  York  in  1756.  His  grandfather,  a 
distinguished  Scotch  lawyer,  had  established 
himself  at  Boston  in  the  reign  of  William  HI, 
and  his  fatlier,  after  being  educated  at  Harvard 
and  Oxford,  had  become  rector  of  the  princi- 
pal Church  of  England  church  in  New  York. 
When  the  colonies  declared  war,  Dr.  Auch- 
muty  and  his  brother,  who  was  judge  of  tbe 
high  court  of  admiralty  at  Boston,  at  once 
declared  for  the  king,  and  young  Samuel  was 
present  with  the  45th  regiment  as  a  volun- 
teer at  the  battles  of  Brooklyn  and  White- 
plains.  Tbe  need  of  rewarding  the  loyal 
colonists  caused  to  be  given  to  young  Auch- 
muty  in  1777  an  ensigncy,  and  in  1778  a 
lieutenancy  in  the  45th  without  purchase. 
On  the  conclusion  of  peace  he  went  to  Eng- 
land with  his  regiment,  but  soon  found  it 
impossible  to  live  on  bis  lieutenant's  pay,  or 
to  expect  any  promotion  in  England;  so  in 
1783  he  exchanged  into  the  52nd  regiment, 
then  under  orders  for  India,  and  was  at  once 
made  adjutant.  He  saw  sei"\ice  in  the  last 
war  with  Hyder  Ali,  and  was  promoted  cap- 
tain in  the  75th  regiment  for  his  ser-s-ices  in 
1788.  Lord  Cornwallis  percei^-ed  bis  apti- 
tude for  Indian  Avarfare,  and  made  him  a 
brigade-major  in  1790,  in  which  capacity  he 
served  in  the  campaigns  of  1790  and  1791 
against  Tippoo  Sultan,  and  with  Baird's  di- 
vision at  the  siege  of  Seringapatam  in  1792. 
Lord  Cornwallis  was  so  pleased  with  his  con- 
duct that  he  took  him  to  Calcutta,  made  him 
deputy-quartermaster-general  to  the  king's 
troops  there,  and  soon  afterwards  major  by 
brevet  in  1794.  Sir  Robert  Abercromby,  the 
successor  of  Cornwallis  as  commander-in- 
chief,  found  him  equally  useful,  and  made  him 
lieutenant-colonel  by  brevet  in  1795.  He 
acted  as  Sir  Robert's  military  secretary  for 
three  years,  and,  after  serving  with  him  in 
the  short  campaign  against  the  Rohillas, 
went  home  with  him  in  1797.  He  had  left 
England  a  poor  lieutenant,  and  noAv  returned 
after  fourteen  years'  service  a  lieutenant- 
colonel,  with  two  powerful  patrons  in  Corn- 
wallis and  Sir  Robert  Abercromby.  He  was 
promoted    brevet-colonel    and     lieutenant- 


Auchmuty 


247 


Auchmuty 


colonel  of  the  10th  regiment  in  1800,  and  or- 
dered at  once  to  the  Cape ;  there  he  took 
command  of  a  mixed  force,  which  was  sent 
to  the  Red  Sea  to  co-operate  with  the  army 
coming  from  India  under  Sir  David  Baird  to 
assist  Sir  Ralph  Abercromby  in  subduing  the 
French  in  Egypt.  Baii'd  had  learned  his  merit 
at  Seringapatam,  and  on  his  arrival  made  him 
adjutant-general  of  his  whole  army.  It  was 
now  that  he  first  gained  popular  reputation  ; 
Baird's  march  across  the  desert  and  passage 
down  the  Nile  read  like  a  story  of  romance, 
and  was  enjoyed  accordingly  by  the  English 
people,  and  the  general's  chief  lieutenants, 
notably  Beresford  and  Auchmuty,  became 
popular  heroes.  After  the  capture  of  Alex- 
andria, Colonel  Auchmuty  was  for  a  short 
time  adjutant-general  of  the  whole  army  in 
Eg\'pt,  and  on  his  return  to  England  in  1803 
was  made  a  knight  of  the  Bath.  From  1803 
to  1806  he  was  commandant  in  the  Isle  of 
Thanet,  and  in  the  latter  year  was  made 
colonel  of  the  103rd  regiment,  and  ordered 
to  command  the  reinforcements  for  South 
America. 

The  English  expedition  to  Buenos  Ayres  in 
1806  had  been  nothing  less  than  a  filibuster- 
ing expedition.  It  had  occurred  to  Sir  Home 
Popham  when  at  the  Cape,  that  though  Eng- 
land was  at  peace  with  Spain,  the  English 
people  and  ministers  would  not  object  to  his 
seizing  a  rich  city  like  Buenos  Ayres,  Avhich 
would  open  a  new  channel  for  trade.  He 
made  an  easy  conquest  with  the  help  of  a 
small  force  under  Colonel  Beresford,  which 
he  had  borrowed  from  Baird,  and  sent  home 
a  glowing  account  of  his  new  possession. 
People  and  ministers  were  alike  delighted, 
and  Sir  Samuel  Auchmuty  was  made  a  bri- 
gadier-general, and  ordered  to  reinforce 
Beresford  as  advanced  guard  of  a  still  larger 
reinforcement.  On  reaching  the  river  Plate 
he  found  matters  very  different  from  what  he 
had  expected.  The  Spaniards  had  arisen, 
and  their  militia  had  reoccupied  Buenos 
Ayres,  and  captvired  Beresford  and  his  small 
force.  Sir  Samuel  disembarked ;  but  found 
it  impossible  to  retake  Buenos  Ayres,  or 
to  remain  encamped  in  safety  on  the  banks 
of  the  river  with  only  4,800  men.  He  de- 
cided therefore  to  attack  the  city  of  Monte 
Video,  which,  though  strongly  fortified,  was 
much  smaller  than  Buenos  Ayres,  and  suc- 
ceeded in  storming  it,  after  a  desperate  de- 
fence, with  a  loss  of  600  men,  or  one-eighth 
of  his  whole  army.  When  the  news  of  his 
success  reached  England,  he  was  voted  the 
thanks  of  parliament,  and  the  news  of  the 
capture  of  Buenos  Ayres  was  confidently  ex- 
pected. But  General  Whitelocke,  who  super- 
seded him,  had  not  his  military  ability.     He 


prepared,  indeed,  to  take  Buenos  Ayres,  but 
instead  of  one  or  at  most  two  strong  attacks 
on  the  important  points,  he  divided  his  force 
into  five  columns,  each  too  weak  to  make  a 
real  impression.  Nevertheless,  two  of  the 
columns,  including  Auchmuty's,  did  what 
they  were  ordered  ;  but  on  hearing  that  two 
more  had  capitulated,  General  Whitelocke 
made  terms  with  the  Spanish  commandant, 
Liniers,  to  leave  South  America  and  give  up 
Monte  Video.  On  his  return  he  was  tried  by 
court  martial  and  cashiered,  but  Auchmuty, 
who  had  done  well  what  he  was  ordered,  was 
marked  out  for  further  advancement. 

In  1808  he  was  promoted  major-general, 
and  in  1810  appointed  commander-in-chief  at 
Madras.  At  this  time  Lord  Minto  was  go- 
vernor-general of  India,  and  had  a  fixed  in- 
tention to  seize  all  the  French  possessions  in 
Asia,  and  also  those  of  their  allies,  the  Dutch, 
in  order  to  secure  safe  communication  with 
England,  and  to  be  the  only  European  power 
in  Asia.  He  had  therefore  sent  General  John 
Abercromby  to  take  the  Mauritius  in  1810, 
and  in  1811  ordered  Sir  Samuel  Auchmuty 
to  organise  a  force  for  the  capture  of  Java. 
The  governor-general  himself  accompanied 
the  expedition,  which  reached  Java  on  4  Aug. 
and  occupied  Batavia  on  8  Aug.  Gen.  Jans- 
sens,  the  Dutch  governor,  had  given  up  the 
capital  as  indefensible,  and  had  retired  to  a 
strong  position  at  Cornelis,  which  he  had 
fortified.  This  position  Auchmuty  attacked 
on  28  Aug.,  but  the  Dutch  made  a  stubborn 
resistance,  and  were  only  defeated  by  a  gal- 
lant charge  of  Major-general  Rollo  Gillespie, 
who  got  behind  the  position,  and  was  the 
hero  of  the  day.  The  last  resistance  of  the 
Dutch  was  overcome  at  Samarang  on  8  Sept., 
after  which  General  Janssens  surrendered, 
and  in  October  Lord  Minto  and  Auchmuty 
returned  to  India.  For  his  services  on  this 
occasion  he  received  a  second  time  the  thanks 
of  parliament,  and  was  made  colonel  of  the 
78th  regiment.  In  1813  he  handed  over  his 
command  to  John  Abercromby,  and  left  for 
England.  On  his  return  he  was  promoted 
lieutenant-general,  but  the  peace  of  1815 
prevented  his  again  seeing  active  service. 
After  being  unemployed  some  years,  Auch- 
muty was  in  1821  appointed  to  succeed 
Beckwith  as  commander-in-chief  in  Ireland, 
and  was  sworn  of  the  Irish  privy  council. 
He  did  not  long  enjoy  this  high  command ; 
for  he  fell  off"  his  horse  dead  on  11  Aug.  1822, 
in  Phoenix  Park,  and  was  buried  in  Christ- 
church  Cathedral.  Sir  Samuel  Auchmuty 
was  an  extremely  able  Indian  officer,  and  had 
served  with  distinction  in  every  quarter  of 
the  globe  but  Europe ;  his  great  merit  is 
shown  by  the  high  rank  which  he,  the  son  of 


Auckland 


248 


Audley 


a  loyal  and  therefore  ruined  American  colo- 
nist, without  money  or  political  influence, 
had  managed  to  attain. 

[For  General  Aiicliinuty's  services  see  the 
Eoyal  Military  Calendar,  3rd  edition,  1820. 
Eor  his  Egyptian  campaign  see  Sir  E.  Wilson's 
History  of  the  Campaign  in  Egypt,  1803  ; 
Hook's  Life  of  Sir  David  Baird ;  and  more  par- 
ticularly the  Count  de  Noe's  Memoires  relatifs 
a  I'Expedition  Anglaise  partie  du  Bengale  en 
1800  pour  aller  combattre  en  Egypte  I'Armee 
de  rOrient,  Paris,  1826.  Eor  the  capture  of 
Monte  Video  see  the  despatches  in  the  Annual 
Kegister ;  Whitelocke's  Court  Martial ;  and  the 
Memoir  of  Sir  S.  F.Whittingham.  The  despatches 
on  the  capture  of  Java  are  printed  at  length  in 
the  Eoyal  Military  Calendar ;  and  see  also  Lady 
Minto's  Lord  Minto  in  India.]  H.  M.  S. 

AUCKLAND,  Eaels  op.     [See  Eden.] 

AUDELAY.     [See  Awdelay.] 

AUDINET,  PHILIP  (1766-1837),  line- 
engraver,  was  descended  from  a  French 
family  which  came  over  to  England  in  con- 
sequence of  the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of 
Nantes.  He  was  born  in  Soho,  London,  in 
1766,  and,  after  having  served  his  apprentice- 
ship to  John  Hall,  was  employed  to  engrave 
the  portraits  for  Harrison's  '  Biographical 
INIagazine '  and  other  works.  He  also  en- 
graved '  Lear  with  the  dead  body  of  Cor- 
delia,' after  Fuseli,  for  Bell's '  British  Theatre,' 
and  several  portraits  after  pictures  by  Dan- 
loux,  a  French  painter  who  resided  in  Eng- 
land during  the  time  of  the  revolution  in 
France.  Among  his  later  works  are  por- 
traits of  Sir  Benjamin  Hobhouse,  Bart.,  and 
Sir  William  Domville,  Bart.,  lord  mayor  of 
London,  after  William  Owen,  and  an  excel- 
lent engraving  of  Barry's  unfinished  portrait 
of  Dr.  Johnson,  as  well  as  the  illustrations 
designed  by  Samuel  Wale  for  the  edition  of 
Walton's '  Angler '  published  in  1 808.  There 
is  one  plate  in  mezzotinto  by  him,  a  portrait  of 
his  brother,  S.  Audinet,  a  watchmaker.  It  is 
said  to  have  been  done  for  improvement  when 
the  artist  was  a  boy,  and  to  be  the  only  im- 
pression that  was  taken  off  the  plate.  Audinet 
died  in  London  18  Dec.  1837,  and  was  buried 
in  the  church  of  St.  Giles-in-the-Fields. 

[Ottley's  Notices  of  Engravers,  1831;  Eed- 
gi'ave's  Dictionary  of  Artists  of  the  English 
School,  1878;  Smith's  British  Mezzotinto  Por- 
traits, 1878,  i.  4.]  E.  E.  G. 

AUDLEY,  LoEDS.     [See  Tuchet.] 

AUDLEY,  EDMUND  {d.  1624),  bishop 
of  Rochester,  was  the  son  of  James,  Lord 
Audley,  by  Eleanor  his  wife.  He  was 
educated  at  Lincoln   College,  Oxford,  and 


took  the  degree  of  B.A.  in  1463.  It  is  pre- 
sumed, though  no  record  is  found  of  the  fact, 
that  he  afterwards  took  the  degi-ee  of  M.A. 
also.  In  1464  he  was  collated  to  the  pre- 
bend of  ColwaU  in  Hereford  Cathedral,  and 
three  years  later  to  that  of  Iwern  in  Salis- 
bury. In  1472  he  was  made  a  canon  of 
Windsor.  In  the  same  year  he  received  the 
prebend  of  Farrendon  in  Lincoln  Cathedral, 
in  1474  that  of  Gaia  Minor  in  Hereford,  and 
in  1475  that  of  Codeworth  in  Wells.  On 
Christmas  day  in  the  same  year  he  was  made 
archdeacon  of  the  East  Riding  of  Yorkshire, 
and  in  1479  archdeacon  of  Essex.  These 
substantial  preferments  he  does  not  seem  to 
have  found  at  all  incompatible  with  each 
other ;  and  though  we  find  that  he  resigned 
the  rectory  of  Bursted  Parva  in  Essex  on 
9  April  1471,  he  had  no  difficulty  in  ac- 
cepting another  prebend,  that  of  Gevendale 
in  York,  on  18  Oct.  1478.  In  1480  he  was 
made  bishop  of  Rochester,  when  he  resigned 
his  two  archdeaconries  and  most  of  his  other 
preferments.  In  1492  he  was  translated  to 
Hereford,  and  in  1502  to  Salisbury.  About 
the  time  of  this  last  preferment  he  was  also 
made  chancellor  of  the  order  of  the  Garter 
— an  office  which  in  the  sixteenth  century 
Dr.  Seth  Ward  endeavoured  to  unite,  or,  as 
he  put  it,  to  restore,  to  the  see  of  Salisbury, 
for  which  he  maintained  it  was  intended 
when  given  to  Bishop  Audley. 

This  catalogue  of  his  honours  and  churcli 
preferments  really  comprises  almost  all  we 
know  about  the  man;  and  it  may  be  re- 
marked that  whereas  his  two  last  bishoprics 
are  supposed  to  have  been  given  him  for  the 
fidelity  of  his  family  to  the  house  of  Lan- 
caster, all  his  previous  benefices,  including 
the  bishopric  of  Rochester,  were  bestowed 
upon  him  during  the  reign  of  Edward  IV. 
It  will  be  asked,  what  then  was  his  claim  to 
distinction  .f*  The  answer  is  that  although 
not  an  author  he  was  a  patron  of  letters, 
and  was  complimented  as  such  by  the  uni- 
versity of  Oxford  for  having  bestowed  a 
prebend  in  Salisbury  on  Dr.  Edward  Powell 
(afterwards  a  martyr  at  Smithfield  for  denying 
Henry  VIII's  supremacy)  who  had  written  a 
book  against  Luther.  He  was  a  benefactor 
to  Lincoln  College,  Oxford,  to  which  he  gave, 
in  1518,  400Z.  to  purchase  lands.  He  also 
bestowed  upon  it  the  patronage  of  a  chantry 
in  Salisbury  Cathedral.  He  seems,  more- 
over, to  have  been  a  contributor  to  the  erec- 
tion of  a  stone  pulpit  in  St.  Mary's  Church 
at  Oxford,  at  the  bottom  of  which,  according 
to  Wood,  his  arms  were  seen  carved  along 
with  those  of  Cardinal  Morton  and  Fitz- 
James,  bishop  of  London.  But  of  this  pulpit 
even  Anthony  h  Wood,  writing  in  the  seven- 


Audley 


249 


Audley 


tcenth  centiu\y,  speaks  in  the  past  tense,  and 
■what  became  of  it  we  are  not  informed. 
Godwin  says  that  Bishop  Audley  also  gave 
the  organs  to  St.  Mary's  Church ;  but  this  is 
doubted  by  Anthony  h  Wood.  In  1509  he 
gave  a  doiiation  of  200  marks  to  Chichele's 
chest  at  Oxford,  which  had  been  robbed. 
It  further  appears  that  he  was  a  legatee  and 
■executor  of  King  Henry  VII,  and  one  of 
the  trustees  for  the  foundation  of  the  Savoy 
iros])ital  (Calendar  of  Henri/  VIII,  i.  776, 
y>-2U-2) ;  that  in  1516  he  obtained  from 
Henry  VIII  a  license  to  found  and  endow 
two  chantries,  one  in  his  own  cathedral  and 
one  in  Hereford  {ib.  ii.  2660) ;  and  that  in 
1521  he  suppressed  the  nunnery  of  Brome- 
hall  in  his  diocese  on  account  of  the  mis- 
conduct of  its  inmates,  for  which  he  received 
a  letter  of  thanks  from  the  king  (ib.  iii. 
1863).  He  died  at  llamsbury  in  Wilts  on 
2.3  Aug.  1524,  and  was  buried  in  a  chapel 
erected  by  himself  in  his  own  cathedral  of 
Salisbury  in  honour  of  the  Assumption  of 
the  Virgin  Mary. 

[Wood's  Athense,  ed.  Bliss,  i.  662,  ii.  722,  725  ; 
Wood's  Antiq.  of  Univ.  Oxf.  i.  667;  Wood's 
Antiq.  of  Colleges,  239,  248  ;  Hardy's  Le  Neve; 
Oodw'in  de  Prsesulibus ;  Biographia  Britannica.] 

.T.  a. 

AUDLEY,  ALDITHEL,  or  ALDI- 
THELEY,  HENRY  be  (d.  1246),  a  royalist 
baron,  was  son  of  Adam  de  Alditheley,  who 
held  Alditheley  (Stafl'.)  from  the  Verdons  in 
1 186  {Pipe  Roll  32,  33  Hen.  II.).  He  began 
his  career  as  constable  to  Hugh  de  Lacy 
(whose  first  Avife  was  a  Verdon)  when  Earl  of 
Ulster,  and,  on  Hugh's  disgrace  (1214),  at- 
tached himself  to  Ilanulph,  the  gi-eat  royalist 
Earl  of  Chester,  and  was  rewarded  by  the 
crown  with  a  foi-feited  estate  (1215-16). 
He  served  as  sheriff  of  Shropshire  and  Staf- 
fordshire 1216-1221,  as  deputy  for  the  Earl 
of  Chester,  from  whom  he  obtained  large 
grants  of  lands  {Cart.  11  Hen.  III.  p.  1,  m.  6). 
On  acquiring  Hgleigh  Castle  he  made  it  his 
chief  seat,  but  was  entrusted  by  the  crown, 
as  a  lord-marcher,  with  the  constableship  of 
several  castles  on  the  Welsh  borders  from 
1 223  to  his  death,  which  took  place  shortly 
before  11  Nov.  1246,  when  his  son  did 
homage  {Fin.  31  Hen.  III.  m.  12). 

[Dugdale's  Baronage  (1675),  i.  746;  Eyton's 
Shropshire  (1858),  vii.  183-5.]  J.  H.  E. 

AUDLEY,  HUGH  {d.  1662),  notorious 
moneylender,  amassed  a  large  fortune  in 
the  first  half  of  the  seventeenth  century  by 
frugal  living  and  hard  dealings.  In  1605  he 
possessed  only  200/.,  and  died  in  November 
1662  worth  400,000/.    He  held  a  very  lucra- 


tive post  in  tlie  court  of  wards,  and  is  said  to 
have  lost  not  less  than  100,000/.  by  the  dis-. 
establishment  of  the  court  at  the  time  of  thw 
civil  wars.  At  his  elbow  he  usually  had  some 
devotional  book,  especially  when  he  expected 
clients,  and  he  was  very  regular  in  his  attend- 
ance at  church.  The  expensive  habits  of  the 
clergy  caused  him  some  anxiety,  and  he  would 
often  sigh  for  the  simplicity  of  living  that  pre- 
vailed in  the  days  of  his  youth.  He  was 
always  willing  to  advance  money  to  improvi- 
dent young  gallants ;  he  was,  indeed,  a  most 
heartless  bloodsucker.  Occasionally  he  met 
Avith  checks  and  reverses,  but  his  indomi- 
table energy  bore  him  through  everjthing. 
In  the  lofty  language  of  his  biographer,  he 
lived  *  a  life  of  intricacies  and  misteries, 
wherein  he  walked  as  in  a  maze,  and  went 
on  as  in  a  labyrinth  Avith  the  clue  of  a  re- 
solved mind,  which  made  plaine  to  him  all 
the  rough  passages  he  met  with  ;  he,  with  a 
round  and  solid  mind,  fashioned  his  own 
fate,  fixed  and  unmoveable  in  the  great 
tumults  and  stir  of  business,  the  hard  rocke 
in  the  middest  of  the  waves.'  He  is  the 
subject  of  an  article  in  D'Israeli's  *  Curiosities 
of  Literature.' 

[The  Way  to  be  Rich  according  to  the  Prac- 
tice of  the  Great  Audley,  1662.]         A.  H.  B. 

AUDLEY,  ALDITHEL,  or  ALDI- 
THELEY, JAMES  DE,  knight  {d.  1272),  a 
royalist  baron,  was  son  and  heir  of  Henry  de 
Audley  [q.v.],  and,  like  him,  a  lord-marcher. 
In  1257  he  accompanied  Richard,  king  of 
the  Romans,  to  his  coronation  at  Aachen 
(Matt.  Paris),  sailing  on  29  April  (Rymer) 
and  returning  to  England  in  the  autumn 
to  take  part  in  the  Welsh  campaign  (1257- 
1260).  In  the  following  year  (1258)  he  was 
one  of  the  royalist  members  of  the  council 
of  fifteen  nominated  by  the  Provisions  of 
Oxford,  and  witnessed,  as  '  James  of  Aldi- 
thel,' their  confirmation  by  the  king  (18  Oct.). 
He  also,  with  his  brother-in-law,  Peter  de 
Montfort  [see  ]Moxtfort,  Peter  de],  was  ap- 
pointed commissioner  to  treat  with  Llewelyn 
(18  Aug.),  and  two  years  later  (44  Hen.  III.) 
he  acted  as  an  itinerant  justice.  On  Llewelyn 
of  Wales  attacking  Mortimer,  a  royalist 
marcher,  Audley  joined  Prince  Edward  at 
Hereford,  9  Jan. '1263  (Claus.  47  Hen.  III. 
m.  5  dors.)  to  resist  the  invasion.  But  tlie 
barons,  coming  to  Llewelyn's  assistance,  dis- 
persed the  royalist  forces,  and  seized  on  his 
castles  and  estates.  He  is  Avrongly  said  by 
Dugdale  and  Foss  to  have  been  made  'jus- 
tice of  Ireland '  in  this  year,  but  in  December 
he  was  one  of  the  royalist  sureties  in  the 
appeal  to  Louis  of  France.  At  the  time  of 
the  battle  of  Lewes  (May  1264)  he  was  in 


Audley 


250 


Audley 


arms  for  the  king  on  the  Welsh  marches 
(Matthew  Paris),  and  he  was  one  of  the 
first  to  rise  against  the  government  of  Simon 
de  Montfort  {Yjyodigma  Neustrice).  On 
Gloucester  embracing  the  royal  cause,  early 
in  1265,  Audley  joined  him  Avith  the  other 
marchers,  and  took  part  in  the  campaign  of 
Evesham  and  the  overthrow  of  the  baronial 
party.  lie  appears  to  have  gone  on  a  pil- 
gTimage  to  Galicia  in  1268,  and  also,  it  is 
stated,  to  Palestine  in  1270;  but  though  his 
name  occurs  among  the  *  Crucesignati '  of 
21  May  1270,  it  is  clear  that  he  never  went, 
for  he  was  appointed  justiciary  of  Ireland  a 
few  months  later,  his  name  first  occurring  in 
connection  with  that  office  5  Sept.  1270  {Rot. 
Pat.  54  Hen.  III.  m.  4).  During  his  tenure 
of  the  post  he  led  several  expeditions  against 
'■  the  Irish  rebels,'  but  died  by  '  breaking  his 
neck'  about  11  June  1272  (when  he  is  last 
mentioned  as  justiciary),  and  was  succeeded 
by  his  son  James,  who  did  homage  29  July 

[Dugdale's  Baronage  (1675),  i.  747 ;  Foss's 
Judges  (1848),  ii.  212;  Eyton's  Shropshire 
( 1858),  vii.  185-8  ;  Chancery  Misc.  KoUs,  No.  28, 
liot.  1,  2.]  J.  H.  R. 

AUDLEY,  or  AUDELEY,  JAMES  de 

(1316.^-1369),  one  of  the  original  knights  or 
fcninders  of  the  order  of  the  Garter,  was, 
according  to  the  best  authorities,  the  eldest 
son  of  Sir  James  Audeley,  of  Stretton  Au- 
deley,  Oxon,  who  served  in  the  expedition 
to  Gascony  in  1324  and  to  Scotland  in  1327, 
and  Eva,  daughter  of  Sir  John  Clavering, 
and  widow,  first,  of  Thomas  de  Audeley  and, 
secondly,  of  Sir  Thomas  Ufibrd.  In  1.346 
letters  of  protection  were  granted  him  to 
proceed  beyond  the  seas  upon  an  expedition 
to  France  in  the  retinue  of  Edward  III  and 
the  Black  Prince.  In  1350  he  took  part  in 
the  naval  battle  Avitli  the  Spaniards  oft"  Sluys. 
After  the  expiration  of  the  truce  in  1354, 
the  Black  Prince  advanced  on  Bordeaux, 
accompanied  by  Sir  James  Audeley  and  his 
brothei-,  Sir  Peter.  At  this  time  Sir  James 
was  in  constant  attendance  on  the  prince ; 
he  distinguished  himself  by  many  brave  ex- 
ploits, particularly  in  the  taking  of  Chastiel 
Sacra  by  assault,  and  at  the  battle  of  Poi- 
tiers on  19  Sept.  1356.  According  to  Frois- 
sart,  Sir  James  had  made  a  vow  that  if  ever 
he  was  engaged  in  any  battle  in  company 
with  the  king  or  any  of  his  sons,  he  *  would 
be  the  foremost  in  the  attack  and  the  best 
combatant  on  his  side,  or  die  in  the  attempt.' 
Having  obtained  the  prince's  permission,  he 
posted  himself  with  his  four  esquires  in  front 
of  the  English  army.  In  his  eagerness  for 
the  fray  he  advanced  so  far  that  he  engaged 


the  Lord  Arnold  d'Audreghen,  marshal  of 
France,  whom  he  severely  wounded,  and 
whose  battalion  was  finally  routed.  So 
energetic  was  Sir  James,  that  Froissart  say& 
of  him  that  '  he  never  stopped  to  make  any 
one  his  prisoner  that  day,  but  was  the  whole 
time  employed  in  fighting  and  following  the 
enemy.'  He  was  severely  wounded  in  the 
body,  head,  and  face, but,  covered  with  blood 
as  he  was,  he  continued  to  fight  as  long  as  he 
was  able.  At  last,  overcome  with  exhaus- 
tion, he  was  carried  out  of  the  battle  by  his 
four  esquires. 

L^pon  the  Black  Prince  inquiring  for  him 
after  the  fighting  had  ceased,  he  was  taken  on 
a  litter  to  the  royal  tent.  There  the  prince 
told  him  that  he  had  been  the  bravest  knight 
on  his  side,  and  granted  him  an  annuity  of 
500  marks.  On  his  retiu-n  to  his  own  tent.  Sir 
James  made  over  the  royal  gift  to  liis  four 
esquires  (Button  of  Button,  Delves  of  Dod- 
dington,  Foulehurst  of  Crewe,  and  Hawke- 
stone  of  Wainehill).  Hearing  of  this  gene- 
rous conduct,  the  Black  Prince  confirmed 
the  grant  to  the  esquires,  and  granted  to  Sir 
James  a  further  pension  of  600  marks.  In 
1359  Sir  James  was  one  of  the  principal 
commanders  of  a  fresh  expedition  to  Fi-ance. 
In  the  next  year  he  carried  the  forti'ess  of 
Ohaven,  in  Brittany,  by  assault,  and  was 
present  with  the  king  when  the  treaty  of 
peace  was  signed  at  Calais.  During  the  ex- 
pedition of  the  Black  Prince  into  Spain,  iu 
the  year  1.362,  Sir  James  was  appointed 
governor  of  Acquitaine.  In  1369  we  find 
him  filling  the  important  office  of  great 
seneschal  of  Poitou. 

After  taking  part  with  the  Earl  of  Cam- 
bridge in  the  capture  of  the  town  of  La 
Iloche-sur-Yon  in  that  year,  he  went  to  re- 
side at  Fontenay-le-Comte,  where,  in  the 
words  of  Froissart,  '  he  was  attacked  with  so 
severe  a  disorder  that  it  ended  his  life.'  His 
obsequies  were  performed  in  the  city  of 
Poitiers,  and  were  attended  by  the  prince 
in  person.  On  the  foundation  of  the  order 
of  the  Garter  in  1344,  Sir  James  was  insti- 
tuted as  one  of  the  '  first  founders,'  as  they 
were  described  on  their  plates  of  arms  in 
St.  George's  Chapel,  Windsor.  His  stall 
was  the  eleventh  on  the  prince's  side ;  his 
plate  of  arms,  though  in  existence  in  1569, 
has  long  since  disappeared.  Sir  Thomas 
Granson  succeeded  to  the  stall  Avhich  became 
vacant  on  Audeley's  death. 

[Beltz's  Memorials  of  the  MostNoble  Order 
of  the  Garter,  75-84  ;  Sir  N.  H.  Nicolas' History 
of  the  Orders  of  Knighthood  of  the  British 
Empire,  i.  37,  ii.  li;  Dictionary  of  the  D.  U.  K. 
Society,  iv.  pt.  i.  p.  91 ;  Burke's  Extinct  Peer- 
age ;  Sir  John  Froissart 's  Chronicles,  translated 


Audley 


251 


Audley 


l)y  Thomas  Johnes,  i. ;  Notes  anil  Queries,  4th 
series,  iii.  596,  iv.  44.]  G.  F.  R.  B. 

AUDLEY,  THOMAS,  Baron  Axtdley 
OK  Waldex  (1488-1544),  lord  chancellor, 
was  an  Essex  man,  whose  family,  thougli 
unknown  to  good  genealogists,  is  surmised 
by  some  to  have  had  a  distant  connection 
with  that  of  the  Lords  Audley  of  an  earlier 
date.  He  is  believed  to  have  studied  at 
Magdalen  College,  Cambridge,  to  which  he 
was  afterwards  a  benefactor.  lie  then  came 
to  London,  and  gave  himself  to  the  law  in 
the  Inner  Temple,  where  he  was  autumn 
reader  in  1526.  Meanwhile  he  had  been  ad- 
mitted a  burgess  of  Colchester  in  1516,  and 
was  appointed  town  clerk  there.  His  name 
occurs  on  the  commission  of  the  peace  for 
Essex  as  early  as  1521  (Brewer,  Calendar 
of  Henry  VIII,  iii.  1081,  12  Nov.),  and  in 
commissions  for  levying  the  subsidv  at  Col- 
cliester  in  1523  and"  1524  {ib.  pp.  1367, 1458, 
and  iv,  236).  It  is  said  that  he  was  steward 
to  the  Duke  of  Suffolk,  and  that  the  way  he 
discharged  the  duties  of  that  -office  first  re- 
commended him  to  the  king's  notice.  In 
1523  he  was  returned  to  parliament ;  and  in 
1525  he  had  become  a  man  of  so  much  weight 
that,  when  it  was  thought  necessary  to  make 
a  private  search  for  suspicious  characters  in 
London,  and  the  work  was  committed  to 
men  like  the  Dukes  of  Norfolk  and  Suffolk, 
Lord  Edmund  Howard,  and  the  principal 
residents  in  the  different  suburbs,  Ave  find 
Audley's  name  siiggested  with  some  others 
to  assist  in  examining  the  district  from 
Temple  Bar  to  Charing  Cross  {ib.  iv.  1082). 
The  same  year  he  was  appointed  a  member 
of  the  Princess  Mary's  council,  then  newly 
established  in  the  marclies  of  Wales  (Mad- 
den, Privy  Purse  ILvpenses  of  the  Princess 
Mary,  introd.  xxx).  A  little  later  he  Avas 
appointed  attorney  of  the  duchy  of  Lancaster, 
and  Avas  candidate  for  the  office  of  common 
Serjeant  of  the  city  of  London  {Calendar  of 
Henry  VIII,  iv.  2639).  In  1527  he  Avas  groom 
of  the  chamber,  and  an  annuity  of  20/.  was 
granted  to  him  on  10  July  out  of  the  sub- 
sidy and  idnage  of  cloth  in  Bristol  and  Glou- 
cester {ib.  p.  3324).  Soon  afterwards  he  Avas 
a  member  of  Cardinal  Wolsey's  household  {ib. 
p.  1331).  On  the  fall  of  his  master  in  1529, 
some  changes  took  place  in  which  he  at- 
tained further  adAancement.  Sir  Thomas 
More  was  made  lord  chancellor  in  the  room 
of  the  cardinal,  and  Audley  Avas  made  chan- 
cellor of  the  duchy  of  Lancaster  in  the  room 
of  Sir  Thomas  More.  Another  office  which 
More  had  filled  a  few  years  before  was  that 
of  speaker  of  the  House  of  Commons,  and  in 
this  too  he  was  succeeded  by  Audley  when 


parliament  met  in  November.  On  being 
elected  and  sent  up  to  the  House  of  Lords, 
in  which  the  king  that  day  Avas  present,  he 
made  an  elocjuent  oration  in  Avhich  he  *  dis- 
abled liimself  Avith  conventional  modesty 
for  the  high  office  imposed  upon  him,  and 
besought  the  king  to  cause  the  commons  to 
return  to  their  house  and  choose  another 
speaker.  This  sort  of  excuse  Avas  a  time- 
honoured  form,  and  its  refusal  Avas  equally  a 
matter  of  course.  '  The  king,'  says  Hall, 
*  by  the  mouth  of  the  lord  chancellor,  an- 
swered that  AA-ere  he  disabled  himself  in  Avit 
and  learning,  his  OAvn  ornate  oration  there 
made  testified  the  contrary ;  and  as  touching 
his  discretion  and  other  qualities,  the  king 
himself  had  well  knoAvn  him  and  his  doings, 
sith  he  AA'as  in  his  service,  to  be  both  wise 
and  discreet ;  and  so  for  an  able  man  he  ac- 
cepted him,  and  for  the  speaker  he  him  ad- 
mitted.' 

It  must  be  obserAed  that  this  was  the 
parliament  by  whose  aid  Henry  VIH  ulti- 
mately separated  himself  and  his  kingdom 
from  all  allegiance  to  the  see  of  Rome.  Its 
sittings  continued,  with  seAeral  prorogations, 
OA'er  a  period  of  six  yeai-s  and  a  half;  and  it 
is  clear  that  from  the  first  the  Commons 
were  encouraged  to  attack  the  clergy  and 
urge  complaints  against  them.  In  the  House 
of  Lords,  Fisher,  Bishop  of  Rochester,  took 
notice  of  the  character  of  their  proceedings. 
'  My  lords,'  he  said,  *  you  see  daily  AA'hat  bills 
come  hither  from  the  Common  house,  and 
all  is  to  the  destruction  of  the  church.  For 
God's  sake,  see  Avhat  a  realm  the  kingdom  of 
Bohemia  Avas,  and  when  the  church  went 
down,  then  fell  the  glory  of  the  kingdom. 
NoAV  Avith  the  Commons  is  nothing  but 
"  Down  Avith  the  church !  "  And  aU  this, 
meseemeth,  is  for  lack  of  faith  only.'  But 
the  words  only  furnished  the  Lower  House 
AA'ith  another  gi'ievance,  and  a  deputation  of 
the  Commons,  with  Audley  as  speaker  at 
their  head,  waited  on  the  king  in  his  palace 
at  Westminster,  complaining  that  they  Avho 
had  been  elected  as  the  Avisest  men  in  their 
several  constituencies  should  be  reproached 
as  little  better  than  Turks  or  infidels.  The 
king  (at  Avhose  secret  prompting,  beyond  a 
doubt,  this  remonstrance  was  really  made) 
assumed  a  tone  of  moderation  in  his  rejjly, 
saying  he  Avould  send  for  the  bishop  and  re- 
port to  them  hoAV  he  explained  his  Avords ; 
after  Avhich  he  summoned  Fisher  to  his  pre- 
sence, along  Avith  the  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury and  six  other  bishops,  to  give  an  account 
of  his  language  in  the  House  of  Peers.  The 
bishop  really  had  nothing  to  retract,  as  his 
brother  prelates  bore  witness  along  with  him 
that  he  had  imputed  lack  of  faith  not  to  the 


Audley 


252 


Audley 


Commons,  but  to  the  Bohemians  only.  The 
warning,  however,  was  sigTiificant. 

Audley's  professional  advancement  at  this 
time  scarcely  kept  pace  with  his  political 
distinction.  It  Avas  just  two  years  after  his 
election  as  speaker  that  we  find  him  called 
to  the  degi-ee  of  sei'jeant-at-law,  and  a  day 
or  two  later,  on  14  Nov.  1531,  he  was  ap- 
pointed a  kind's  serjeant  (Dugbale,  Origines, 
83).  He  received,  however,  from  the  crown, 
on  2  March  1531,  a  grant  of  lands  in  Col- 
chester and  Mile  End  in  Essex  ( Calendar  of 
Henry  VIII,  v.  166,  1) ;  and  next  year  he 
attained  all  at  once  a  degi'ee  of  professional 
eminence  Avhich  his  antecedents  scarcely 
seemed  to  justify.  An  incident  related  by 
Hall  the  chronicler  Avill  perhaps  enable  us 
to  comprehend  why  this  promotion  was  con- 
ferred on  him. 

Dui'ingthe  prorogued  session  of  parliament 
held  in  April  1532,  a  motion  was  made  in 
the  House  of  Commons  by  a  member  named 
Temse  that  the  king,  who  had  now  for  some 
months  separated  from  Queen  Katharine, 
though  he  had  not  yet  obtained  his  divorce, 
should  be  urged  to  take  back  his  queen  and 
avoid  the  grave  dangers  that  might  arise 
from  the  bastardising  of  his  only  daughter 
Mary.  This  was  a  degi-ee  of  independence  that 
Henry  did  not  expect  of  his  faithful  Com- 
mons, though  their  remonstrances  on  other 
subjects  very  often  suited  his  pui-poses  Avell 
enough.  On  the  last  day  of  April  he  sent 
for  Audley,  the  speaker,  and  some  others, 
and  reminded  them  in  the  first  place  how 
they  had  exhibited  last  year  a  bill  of  gi-iev- 
ances  against  the  clergA',  which  he  had  de- 
livered to  his  spiritual  subjects  to  make 
answer  to,  and  how  he  had  just  received 
their  reply,  which  he  delivered  into  Audley's 
hands,  intimating  that  he  thought  himself  it 
would  scarcely  satisfy  them.  '  But,'  said  the 
king,  'you  be  a  great  sort  of  wise  men.  I  doubt 
not  but  you  Avill  look  circumspectly  on  the 
matter,  and  we  Avill  be  indifferent  between 
you.'  Having  thus,  with  a  pretence  of  neu- 
trality, assured  tliem  of  his  support  against 
the  clerg}^,  he  went  on  to  express  liis  astonish- 
ment that  one  of  their  House  should  have 
ventured  to  speak  of  liis  separation  from  the 
queen,  a  matter  Avhich  it  Avas  not  their  pro- 
vince to  determine,  seeing  that  it  touched  his 
conscience.  He  added  that  he  wished  with 
all  his  heart  that  he  could  find  the  marriage 
good,  but  he  had  receiA'ed  the  decisions  of 
many  uniAersities  that  it  Avas  invalid  and 
detestable  in  the  sight  of  God ;  that  he  had 
not  been  moved  by  a  wanton  appetite  at 
forty-one  years  of  age  to  abandon  the  queen 
for  the  sake  of  some  one  else :  but  that  he 
felt  it  a  positiA'e  duty  to  part  company  with 


her.  For  noAvhere  but  in  Spain  and  Portugal 
had  a  man  been  knoAvn  to  marry  two  sisters, 
and  as  for  the  marriage  with  a  brother's 
Avife,  it  Avas  so  abliorred  among  all  christian 
nations,  that  he  had  never  heard  of  any 
christian  doing  so  except  himself.  This  dis- 
graceful piece  of  hypocrisy  Audley  Avas  com- 
missioned to  report  to  the  House  of  Commons 
as  the  sincere  grounds  of  the  king's  conduct, 
and  he  did  so  as  in  duty  bound. 

Before  the  session  ended  he  Avas  sent  for 
again  to  come  before  the  king,  along  with 
twelA'e  of  his  OAvn  house  and  eight  peers,  to 
Avhom  the  king  made  an  address,  declaring 
that  he  had  discovered  that  the  clergy  were 
but  half  his  subjects.  They  had  taken  an 
oath,  indeed,  to  him,  but  they  had  taken  an 
oath  to  the  pope  as  Avell,  Avhich  was  quite 
inconsistent  with  their  allegiance  to  him. 
This  matter  he  AA'ished  the  Commons  to  take 
carefully  into  consideration,  and  Audley  ac- 
cordingly caused  the  tAvo  oaths  to  be  read  in 
parliament,  thus  preparing  the  AA^ay  for  the 
Act  of  Supremacy,  Avhich  was  passed  two 
years  later.     • 

This  conference  AA'itli  the  king  was  on 
11  May  1532.  On  the  16tli  of  the  same 
month  Sir  Thomas  More,  not  liking  the 
king's  proceedings,  was  allowed  to  resign 
the  office  of  lord  chancellor,  and  surrendered 
the  great  seal  into  the  king's  own  keeping. 
Four  days  later  Henry  delivered  it  to  Audley 
Avith  instructions  to  discharge  all  the  duties 
of  a  lord  chancellor,  though  he  was  only  to 
be  called,  for  the  present,  keeper  of  the  gi-eat 
seal.  That  same  day  the  king  made  him  a 
knight,  and  on  5  June  following,  being  the 
first  day  of  Trinity  term,  he  took  his  oath  in 
the  court  of  Chancery  as  keeper  of  the  great 
seal.  His  poAvers  Avere  more  formally  set 
forth  in  a  commission  dated  5  Oct.  following; 
but  in  the  beginning  of  next  year  it  Avas 
found  advisable  to  giAe  him  the  name  as 
Avell  as  the  duties  of  lord  chancellor,  and  he 
was  appointed  to  that  office  on  26  Jan.  1533 
{ib.  V.  1075,  1295,  1499  (9),  vi.  73). 

The  name  of  lord  chancellor,  apparently, 
had  been  withheld  from  him  at  first  in  order 
that  he  might  still  act  as  speaker  of  the 
House  of  Commons ;  but  noAV  Humphrey 
Wingfield  Avas  chosen  speaker  in  his  place, 
and  Audley  took  his  seat  upon  the  Avoolsack 
in  the  House  of  Lords.  Daring  the  time  he 
was  lord  keeper  the  king  ordered  the  old 
great  seal  (in  which  the  lettering  was  very 
much  Avorn)  to  be  destroyed  and  a  ncAV  one 
to  be  made. 

From  this  time  his  Avhole  career  is  that  of 
a  submissiA'e  instrument  in  the  hands  of 
Henry  VIII  and  his  gi-eat  minister  Crom- 
Avell.     Sickly  in  his  pliysical  constitution, 


Audley 


253 


Audley 


for  he  complains  even  at  this  time  of  the 
stone,  of  a  feeble  heart  and  stomach,  and  of 
intermittent  fever  {ib.  vi.  2,  976,  1049,  1063), 
his  moral  constitntion,  apparently,  was  not 
more  robust,  and  he  could  not  maintain  the 
expenses  of  his  new  position  without  a  good 
deal  of  begging.  He  was  in  debt  as  keeper 
of  the  great  seal,  and  he  complained  of 
poverty  as  chancellor  (ib.  2,  927).  As  some 
relief  he  was  allowed,  in  the  quaint  language 
of  Fuller,  to  '  carve  for  himself  the  first  cut ' 
of  the  monastic  property,  the  priory  of  Christ- 
church  in  the  city  of  London,  which  was  sup- 
pressed some  years  before  the  general  supres- 
sion  and  given  to  him  by  patent  {ib.  vii. 
419  (28),  587  (10),  1601  (35)).  But  it  was 
not  quite  such  *  a  dainty  morsel '  as  the  his- 
torian insinuates,  being  in  fact  only  sur- 
rendered by  the  prior  because  it  was  very 
much  in  debt.  Nor  was  the  office  of  chan- 
cellor otherwise  greatly  honoured  in  Audley's 
tenure,  especially  considering  who  was  his 
predecessor.  The  lord  chancellor,  according 
to  the  legal  theory,  is  the  keeper  of  the 
sovereign's  conscience,  and  what  the  custody 
of  such  a  conscience  as  that  of  Henry  VIII 
involved  there  could  be  no  doubt,  even  from 
the  time  of  his  appointment.  The  first  thing 
he  had  to  do  was  to  sanction  what  More 
could  not  sanction — the  divorce  from  Katha- 
rine of  An-agon  and  the  maiTiage  with  Anne 
Boleyn;  then  to  assist  next  year  (1534)  in 
procuring  a  new  Act  of  Succession,  and 
taking  the  oaths  of  the  Lords  and  Commons 
and  of  the  king's  subjects  generally  in  con- 
formity therewith  {ib.  vii.  392,  434).  Next 
he  was  commissioned,  along  with  Cromwell, 
to  examine  his  predecessor.  Sir  Thomas  More, 
whom  the  court  was  endeavouring  to  impli- 
cate in  the  follies  and  treason  of  the  Nun  of 
Kent  {ib.  296).  Then,  when  that  failed,  he 
had  to  examine  him  touching  his  refusal  to 
take  the  oath  of  succession  {ib.  575).  It 
must  not  be  supposed  that  he  was  void  of 
humanity.  His  conversations  with  More's 
daughter.  Lady  Alington,  seem  to  show  that 
he  was  simply  a  man  of  low  moral  tone,  who 
would  have  saved  More  if  he  could,  but 
wondered  why  any  man  should  entertain 
such  scruples.  '  In  good  faith,'  he  said  sati- 
rically, *I  am  very  glad  that  I  have  no 
learning  but  in  a  few  of  iEsop's  fables,'  in- 
sinuating that  too  much  learning  only  gave 
rise  to  moral  scruples  that  men  would  be 
far  better  without.  And  the  two  fables  he 
immediately  after  related  to  Lady  Alington 
with  a  laugh  were  distinctly  designed  to  il- 
lustrate these  principles — that  when  fools 
are  stronger  than  wise  men  it  is  better  to  go 
with  fools,  and  that  life  is  vastly  simplified  by 
suiting  your  conscience  to  your  convenience. 


What  were  his  feelings  next  year  when 
the  play  developed  into  a  tragedy  it  is  un- 
necessary to  inquire.  On  15  June  1535  he 
presided  at  the  trial  of  Bishop  Fisher,  who 
like  More  liad  refused  the  oath ;  and  on 
1  July  he  presided  at  that  of  More  himself. 
His  conduct  in  both  these  trials  is  univer- 
sally reprobated.  He  was  even  ready  to 
have  passed  sentence  upon  More  without 
addressing  the  usual  question  to  the  prisoner 
beforehand.  In  1536  he  conducted  Anne 
Boleyn  a  prisoner  to  the  Tower,  and  her 
supposed  accomplices  were  tried  before  him, 
while  she  herself  was  brought  before  the 
court  of  the  lord  high  steward  and  found 
guilty  by  a  jury  of  peers.  Tliat  same  year 
he  opened  a  new  parliament  with  a  speech 
showing  the  necessity  of  a  fresh  Act  of  Suc- 
cession and  the  repeal  of  some  former  statutes 
connected  with  the  marriage  of  Anne  Boleyn. 
Next  year  he  tried  the  Lincolnshire  rebels 
at  Easter,  and  the  Yorkshire  rebels — Aske, 
Sir  Robert  Constable,  Sir  Francis  Bigot,  and 
others— on  16  May.  Never  was  so  much 
criminal  jurisdiction  committed  to  a  lord 
chancellor.  On  29  Nov.  1538  he  was  created 
a  peer  by  the  name  of  Baron  Audley  of  Wal- 
den,  apparently  for  the  express  purpose  that 
he  might  fill  the  office  of  lord  high  steward 
at  the  trial  of  the  Marquis  of  Exeter  and 
other  lords,  whose  chief  guilt  was  being 
either  of  the  blood  royal  or  in  some  way 
connected  with  Cardinal  Pole.  In  reward 
for  services  like  these  a  few  more  of  the 
suppressed  monasteries  Avere  gi-anted  to  him 
at  the  general  dissolution,  among  which,  at 
his  own  very  earnest  suit,  was  the  abbey  of 
Walden  in  Essex.  It  is  not  true,  as  stated 
by  Dugdale  and  carelessly  repeated  by  others, 
that  he  asked  for  this  expressly  on  the  gi'ound 
that  he  had  incuiTed  infamy  in  the  king's 
service.  The  words  used  in  his  letter  to  Crom- 
well are  'damage  and  injury; '  but  what  sort 
of  injuries  he  could  have  incuiTed  beyond 
the  expenses  of  a  prominent  position  in  the 
state,  we  are  left  free  to  speculate.  Walden 
became  his  country  seat  as  Christchurch  had 
been  converted  into  his  town  house.  At 
Walden  he  constructed  a  tomb  for  himself 
during  his  own  life,  and  his  grandson,  Thomas 
Howard,  earl  of  Suffolk,  built  the  mansion 
of  Audley  End,  which  is  noAV  the  seat  of 
Lord  Braybrooke. 

On  28  April  1539,  at  the  opening  of  a  new 
parliament,  Audley  as  chancellor  made  an 
oration  in  presence  of  the  king  and  the  as- 
sembled lords ;  and  on  5  May  he  conveyed 
to  the  peers  a  message  from  the  king  de- 
claring his  majesty's  desire  that  measures 
should  be  taken  as  soon  as  possible  for  the 
abolition  of  differences  of  opinion  concerning 


Audley 


254 


Aufrere 


the  christian  religion.  The  bloody  '  Act  of 
the  Six  Articles '  was  the  result.  Next  year, 
on  24  April,  Audley  was  made  a  knight  of 
the  Garter,  and  within  less  than  three  months 
after  it  became  his  duty  to  carry  throvigh 
parliament  an  act  for  the  attainder  of  Crom- 
Avell,  earl  of  Essex,  the  hitherto  powerful 
minister,  on  whom  he  had  been  for  eight 
years  dependent,  and  another  for  the  disso- 
lution of  the  king's  man-iage  with  Anne  of 
Cleves.  In  1541  he  was  again  appointed 
lord  steward  for  the  trial  of  a  peer— Lord 
Dacres  of  the  South,  Avho  confessed  a  homi- 
cide he  had  committed  while  hunting  in 
Kent,  and  was  accordingly  hanged.  In  De- 
cember of  the  same  year  he  passed  judgment 
on  the  paramour  of  Queen  Katharine  Howard, 
the  queen's  own  case  being  reserved  for  the 
parliament  which  met  in  January  following, 
which  the  lord  chancellor  opened  with  a 
very  long  speech. 

In  the  spring  of  1542  a  remarkable  case 
involving  the  privileges  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons was  brought  before  the  lord  chancellor. 
George  Fen-ers,  member  for  Plymouth,  Avas 
an-ested  in  London  on  some  private  suit  in 
which  judgment  was  passed  against  him,  and 
he  was  committed  to  the  Counter.  The  Com- 
mons sent  their  serjeant-at-arms  to  fetch  him 
out  of  prison ;  but  he  was  resisted,  and  a 
scuffle  took  place  in  the  streets  with  the 
sherifts'  officers.  The  house,  on  this,  refused 
to  attend  to  other  business  till  their  member 
was  delivered,  and  desired  a  conference  with 
the  lords.  The  lord  chancellor  declared  it  a 
flagrant  contempt,  and  left  the  punishment 
to  the  House  of  Commons,  on  which  the 
sheriffs  and  their  officers  were  committed  to 
the  Tower  by  the  speaker's  warrant.  It  was 
a  precedent  of  some  importance  in  parlia- 
mentary history.  Yet  even  here  the  conduct 
of  Aiidiey  was  governed  simply  by  the  con- 
venience of  the  court,  which  required  a  sub- 
sidy of  the  House  of  Commons ;  for  it  seems 
to  iiave  been  the  opinion  of  good  authorities 
that  the  commitment  was  strictly  legal,  and 
the  privilege  unjust. 

Nothing  more  is  known  of  the  public  life 
of  Audley.  He  may  have  opened  the  session 
of  1543,  and  even  that  of  January  1544 ;  but 
in  all  probability  he  was  prevented,  at  least 
as  regards  the  latter,  by  increasing  infirmity. 
On  21  April  in  that  year  he  sent  the  great 
seal  to  the  king,  praying  his  majesty  to  ac- 
cept his  resignation  of  an  office  Avhich  he 
was  now  unable  to  discharge  from  mere  i^hj^- 
sical  weakness,  and  on  the  30th  of  the  same 
montli  he  breathed  his  last.  His  remains 
were  deposited  in  the  magnificent  tomb  which 
he  had  erected  for  himself  at  Saffron  Walden, 
and  a  doggrel  epitaph  engi-aved  upon  it  is 


believed  to  have  been  his  own  composition 
also.  Beneath  the  verses  is  given  the  date 
of  his  death,  which  is  said  to  have  been  in 
the  thirteenth  year  of  his  chancellorship  and 
the  fifty-sixth  of  his  age  (Weevee,  Fun. 
Mon.  624). 

In  person  he  is  said  to  have  been  tall  and 
majestic — the  sort  of  man  Henry  VIII  loved 
to  see  at  his  court.  He  was  twice  married^ 
but  left  no  son  to  succeed  him.  His  first 
wife  was  a  Suffolk  lady,  daughter  of  Sir 
Thomas  Barnardiston,  by  whom  he  had  no 
children.  His  second,  whom  he  married 
in  April  1538,  was  Elizabeth,  daughter  of 
Thomas  Grey,  marquis  of  Dorset.  By  her 
he  had  two  daughters,  of  whom  the  elder, 
Mary,  died  unmaiTied;  the  second,  Margaret, 
married,  first,  a  son  of  Dudley,  duke  of  Nor- 
tliumberland,  and  afterwards  Thomas,  duke 
of  Norfolk,  who  was  behctaded  in  the  time 
of  Queen  Elizabeth.  The  nobleman  who  built 
Audley  End  was  a  son  of  this  duke  of  Nor- 
folk and  of  JIargaret  Audley. 

[Wriothesley's  Chronicle  ;  Hall's  Chronicle  ; 
Dugdale's  Baronage  ;  Lloyd's  State  Worthies,  72 
(a  rather  doubtful  authority,  being  mainly  an 
encomium  which  has  the  effect  of  a  satire) ;  Bio- 
grapliia  Britannica ;  Campbell's  Lord  Chancellors ; 
Foss's  Judges.]  J.  G. 

AUFRERE,  ANTHONY  (1756-1833), 
antiquary,  of  Old  Foulsham  Hall,  Norfolk, 
born  in  1756,  was  the  eldest  son  of  Anthony 
Aufrere,  of  Iloveton  Hall,  Norfolk,  who  died 
in  1814.  His  mother  was  Anna,  only  daugh- 
ter of  John  Norris,  of  Witton,  in  the  same 
county,  and  sister  to  John  Norris,  founder  of 
the  Norrisian  professorship  at  Cambridge. 
On  19  Feb.  1791  he  mamed  Matilda,  youngest 
daughter  of  General  James  Lockhart,  of  Lee 
and  Carnwath,  by  whom  he  had  a  son  and 
daughter,  the  former  marrying  the  youngest 
daughter  of  a  Hamburg  merchant,  named 
Whertman,  and  the  latter  George  Barclay,  a 
merchant  of  New  York.  To  Anthony  Au- 
frere, who  had  a  great  taste  for  literature, 
the  task  of  editing  the  '  Lockhait  Letters ' 
(1817,  2  vols.  4to)  was  entrusted  by  his 
brother-in-law,  Charles  Count  Lockhart, 
three  years  before  his  death,  which  took 
place  in  August  1802.  These  letters  con- 
tain much  curious  correspondence  between 
the  ancestors  of  the  Lockhart  family  and  the 
confidential  supporters  of  the  Pretender,  pre- 
vious to  and  during  the  rebellions  of  1715 
and  1745,  the  publication  of  which  was 
delayed  for  more  than  half  a  century,  in  order 
that  every  one  concerned  in  it  might  be  dead 
before  it  became  public  property.  In  early 
life  Anthony  Aufrere  showed  a  great  aptitude 
for  learning  foreign  languages,  and  among 


Augusta 


255 


Augustine 


the  works  he  translated  was  '  A  Tribute  to 
the  Memory  of  Ulric  von  Illitten,  from  the 
German  of  Goethe,'  1789,  in  the  preface  to 
which  he  pays  a  graceful  tribute  to  the 
memory  of  one  who  took,  he  says,  '  so  dis- 
tinguished and  so  useful  a  part '  in  the  re- 
formation. In  1795  he  published  a  translation 
of  *  Travels  through  various  Provinces  of  the 
Kingdom  of  Naples,'  1789,  from  the  German 
of  Salis ;  and  in  1822  *  A  Narrative  of  an 
Expedition  from  Tripoli  to  the  AVestern 
frontier  of  Egypt,'  from  the  Italian  of  Delia 
Gella.  A  small  work  which  excited  much 
attention  was  his '  Warning  to  Britons  against 
Preuch  Perfidy  and  Cruelty  ;  or  a  Short  Ac- 
count of  the  Treacherous  and  Inhuman  Con- 
duct of  the  French  Officers  and  Soldiers 
towards  the  Peasants  of  Suabia,  during  the 
Invasion  of  Germany  in  1796,  selected  from 
Avell-authenticated  German  publications, with 
an  address  to  the  people  of  Great  Britain  by 
the  translator,'  1798.  He  was  also  a  frequent 
contributor  to  the  '  Gentleman's  Magazine,' 
under  the  pseudonym  of  '  Viator  A. '  He  died 
at  Pisa  on  29  Nov.  1833,  in  his  seventy-seventh 
year. 

[Gent.  Mag.  1816,  Ixxxvi.  381,  1834,  n.  s. 
i.  555  ;  Annual  Register,  1834,  Ixxvi.  247  ;  Brit. 
Mus.  Cat. ;  the  Lockhart  Papers,  1817,  Prefiice; 
Annual  Biography  and  Obituary,  1835,  xix.  386.] 

T.  F.  T.  D. 

AUGUSTA  SOPHIA  (1768-1840),  prin- 
cess, daughter  of  George  III  and  his  sixth 
child,  was  born  at  Buckingham  House,  Lon- 
don, 8  Nov.  1768.  The  public  reception  on 
lier  birth  took  place  on  Sunday,  13  Nov., 
when  two  young  girls,  discovered  carrying 
away  the  cups  in  which  their  caudle  had  been 
served,  and  secreting  cake,  were  reprimanded 
on  their  knees  {Georf/e  III,  his  Court  and 
Family,  vol.  i.  p.  317).  Princess  Augusta  is 
.several  times  mentioned  in  IMme.  d'Arblay's 
diary ;  she  was  sj)rightly  enough  in  her  man- 
ner to  endure  consideralale  banter  from  *  Mr. 
Turbulent'  1  March  1787,  and  to  be  called 
'  la  Coquette  corrigee '  by  him,  on  her  sup- 
posed attachment  to  the  Prince  lloyal  of 
Denmark,  then  visiting  at  the  castle  {ibid. 
pp.  281  et  seq.).  She  Avas  partner  to  her 
brother,  the  Duke  of  York,  in  the  historical 
country  dance  on  the  evening  of  the  day, 
1  June,  1789,  when  the  duke  had  fought  the 
duel  with  Colonel  Lennox,  and  the  Prince  of 
Wales  had  resented  the  colonel's  presence 
amongst  his  sisters  by  breaking  up  the  ball 
{Annual  Register,  1827,  p.  438).  She  ac- 
companied the  king  and  queen  later  in  the 
nnonth  to  Weymouth,  joining  in  the  chorus 
of  '  God  save  the  King '  at  Lyndhurst  {Diary 
of  lloyal  Tour,  1789).     In  'I8IO  she  was  in 


attendance  on  her  father,  hel])ing  him  to  take 
exercise  at  Windsor.  In  1H16,  2  May,  she 
was  at  Carlton  House  at  tlie  marriage  of  her 
niece,  the  Princess  Charlotte.  In  May  1818 
she  gave  50/.  to  the  National  Society  for  the 
Education  of  the  Poor.  On  15  July  1819, 
she  played  and  sang  some  of  her  own  musi- 
cal compositions  to  Mme.  d'Arblay  {Diary, 
vol.  vii.  p.  270).  In  1820  she  was  again  at 
Windsor  attending  to  her  father,  whose  death 
in  that  year  was  the  occasion  of  her  being 
supplied  with  residences  of  her  own  at  Frog- 
more,  and  at  Clarence  House,  St.  James's. 
In  this  position  of  head  of  an  establishment 
the  princess  showed  the  same  pleasantness 
and  patience  she  had  shown  in  her  parents' 
homes  ;  and  died  at  Clarence  House  22  Sept. 
1840  in  her  72nd  year  {Annual  Reyister, 
1840,  p.  176).  She  was  buried  at  Windsor 
2  Oct. 

[Gent.  Mag.  Ixxxvi.  i.  462  ;  Ixxxvii.  i.  559 ; 
II.  270,  333,  334 ;  Ixxxviii.  i.  462.]  J.  H. 

AUGUSTINE,  St.  {d.  604),  was  the  first 
archbishop  of  Canterbury.  A  famous  story 
tells  how  the  Roman  deacon  Gregory  Avas  at- 
tracted by  the  sight  of  some  fair-haired  boys 
exposed  for  sale  in  the  slave-market  of  Eome, 
and  vowed  to  convert  theseAngles  into  angels. 
Pope  Gregory  I  carried  out  the  design  which 
he  had  formed,  and  sent  to  England  a  body 
of  monks  headed  by  Augustine,  of  whom 
we  only  know  that  he  was  prior  of  Gregory's 
monastery  of  St.  Andrew  in  Rome.  Augus- 
tine does  not  seem  to  have  had  much  of  the 
missionary  spirit.  He  had  not  gone  far  be- 
fore he  returned  to  the  pope,  with  a  request 
from  his  comrades  that  they  should  not  be 
compelled  to  undertake  so  dangerous  a 
journey.  Gregory  I  sent  back  Augustine 
with  Avords  of  exhortation  and  encourage- 
ment. He  had  already  secured  for  his  mis- 
sionaries a  safe-conduct  from  the  Frankish 
rulers  of  Gaul ;  and  Ethelbert,  king  of  Kent, 
had  maiTied  a  Frankish  wife.  Bertha,  daugh- 
ter of  Charibert,  king  of  Paris.  Thus  Au- 
gustine Avas  not  called  upon  to  go  into  an 
entirely  unknown  land,  nor  one  where  Chris- 
tianity was  unheard  of.  Bertha  was  a  chris- 
;  tian,  and  on  her  marriage  had  stipulated 
j  that  she  should  remain  so.  She  brought 
with  her  as  chaplain  Liudhard,  bishop  of 
Senlis,  and  Avas  allowed  to  use  for  christian 
:  serA'ices  the  ruined  church  of  St.  Martin  out- 
side Canterburv,  Avhich  survived  from  Roman 
times  (Bede,  H.  K  i.  26). 

Thus  Augustine  came  to  England  neither 
unexpected  nor  unbefriended.  He  and  his 
company  of  forty  monks  landed  in  Thanet,  and 
announced  their  arriAal  to  Ethelbert.  After 
a  little  consideration  Ethelbert  crossed  to 


Augustine 


256 


Augustine 


Thanet,  and  summoned  the  missionaries  to 
his  presence.  They  found  him  seated  in  the 
open  air  for  fear  of  magical  arts.  They  ad- 
vanced to  meet  him  in  procession,  bearing  a 
silver  cross  and  a  picture  of  the  Crucifixion, 
and  chanting  the  litany.  Augustine,  by 
means  of  an  interpreter,  preached  to  the  king, 
who  answered,  '  Your  words  are  fair,  but  of 
doubtful  meaning ;  I  cannot  forsake  Avhat  I 
have  so  long  believed.  But  as  you  have 
come  from  far  we  will  not  molest  you  ;  you 
may  preach,  and  gain  as  many  as  you  can  to 
your  religion.'  Ethelbert  gave  a  Avorthy 
example  of  good  sense  and  tolerance.  He 
allowed  Augustine  to  come  to  Canterbury, 
which  the  monks  entered  in  procession, 
chanting  the  litany. 

They  worshipped  with  the  queen  in  St. 
Martin's  church,  and  the  influence  of  their 
self-denying  life  rapidly  attracted  followers. 
When  Ethelbert  saw  that  there  was  little 
opposition  to  Christianity  amongst  his  people, 
he  also  was  converted.  The  old  churches 
were  rebuilt,  and  numbers  of  the  Kentish 
men  were  baptised.  Now  that  success  was 
assured  to  the  mission,  Augustine  went  to 
Aries,  and  was  consecrated  '  Bishop  of  the 
English.'  In  Canterbury  he  founded  the  mo- 
nastery of  Christchurch,  on  the  site  of  an  old 
lioman  basilica,  which  he  restored.  This  foun- 
dation of  Augustine's  was  destroyed  by  fire 
in  1067,  and  the  present  cathedral  was  begun 
by  Lanfranc  in  1070.  The  other  foundation 
of  Augustine  was  the  monastery  of  St.  Peter 
and  St.  Paul,  the  patron  saints  of  Rome. 
This,  the  modern  St.  Augustine's,  was  built 
outside  the  walls  of  Canterbury.  It  wovild 
seem  that  Avigustine  wished  to  keep  separate 
his  episcopal  seat  and  the  seat  of  the  mo- 
nastic system  on  which  his  missionary  work 
was  founded.  Augustine  does  not  seem  to 
have  been  a  man  of  great  energy  or  decision. 
The  traditions  of  his  monastic  training  had 
sunk  deeply  into  his  mind.  He  was  beset  by 
small  difficulties  of  organisation,  and  referred 
to  the  pope  for  instructions.  His  inquiries 
of  the  pope  and  Gregory's  answers  (Bede, 
JI.  E.  i.  27)  present  the  picture  of  a  pains- 
taking official,  who  had  great,  trouble  in 
adapting  his  former  principles  to  the  altered 
circumstances  in  which  he  was  placed. 

Augustine  would  have  rested  content  with 
the  conversion  of  the  Kentish  kingdom ;  but 
Gregory  I  had  greater  schemes.  In  601  he 
sent  Augustine  the  pallium,  together  with 
a  supply  of  sacred  vessels,  vestments,  relics, 
and  books.  He  unfolded  a  complete  plan 
for  the  ecclesiastical  organisation  of  England. 
Augustine  was  to  be  bishop  of  London  and 
head  of  the  southern  province,  and  was  to 
have  under  him  twelve  suffragans.   He  was, 


as  soon  as  possible,  to  send  a  bishop  to  York, 
who  should  likewise  appoint  twelve  suffra- 
gans, and  was  to  be  of  equal  dignity  with 
the  bishop  of  London.  With  these  letters 
Gregory  I  sent  a  new  body  of  missionaries, 
and  a  series  of  instructions  to  Augustine 
which  are  marked  with  extreme  sympathy 
for  missionary  difficulties  (Bede,  H.  E.  i.  30). 
At  the  same  time  he  urged  Ethelbert  to 
use  his  influence  in  spreading  Christianity 
amongst  the  other  English  kingdoms. 

Ethelbert  and  Augustine  botli  considered 
that  the  best  mode  for  the  spread  of  Christi- 
anity in  England  was  to  unite  the  Kentish 
church  with  the  church  that  still  existed  in 
the  west  of  Britain.  Aided  by  Ethelbert, 
Augustine  crossed  the  territory  of  the  West 
Saxons  to  the  borders  of  the  Hwiccas,  and 
summoned  the  Welsh  clergy  to  a  conference 
at  a  place  called,  in  Bede's  time,  Augustiiie's 
Oak,  which  is  generally  identified  with  Aust 
on  the  Severn  (Bede,  H.  E.  ii.  2).  The 
Welsh  church  differed  from  Roman  usage  in 
the  date  of  the  celebration  of  Easter,  the  ri- 
tual used  at  baptism,  and  a  few  other  points 
of  detail.  The  first  discussion  led  to  no 
agreement ;  even  a  miracle  wrought  by  Au- 
gustine failed  to  convince  the  obstinate 
Britons.  Before  coming  to  a  second  con- 
ference they  agreed  to  be  guided  by  a  sign 
as  to  the  acceptance  of  Augustine's  teach- 
ing. If  he  rose  to  greet  them,  they  would 
listen  to  him  with  humility ;  if  he  remained 
seated,  they  would  regard  it  as  an  indication 
of  haughtiness,  and  would  refuse  to  be  led 
by  him.  When  they  arrived  Augustine  did 
not  rise.  True  to  their  intention,  they  re- 
fused to  listen  to  him.  The  conference  broke 
up  with  a  solemn  warning  from  Augustine 
that  they  who  would  not  join  with  brethren 
should  fall  before  enemies,  that  those  who 
would  not  preach  life  to  the  English  should 
suffer  death  at  their  hands. 

After  the  failure  of  this  attempt  at  union 
with  the  AVelsh,  Augustine  moved  Ethelbert 
to  allow  him  to  extend  his  missionary  enter- 
prises. In  604  he  sent  Justus,  as  bishop  of 
Rochester,  over  the  Kentish  kingdom,  west 
of  the  Medway,  and  Mellitus  to  preach  to 
the  East  Saxons.  Mellitus  was  so  success- 
ful in  converting  king  Sabert  and  his  people 
that  Ethelbert  built  the  church  of  St.  Paul. 
The  organisation  of  the  missions  of  INIellitus 
and  Justus  seems  to  have  been  the  last  act 
of  Augustine.  He  died  on  26  May  604 
(Whakton,  Anglia  Saa-a). 

Nothing  that  we  know  of  Augustine  leads 
us  to  rank  him  as  a  remarkable  man.  Bede 
tells  many  traits  of  Aidan  and  Cuthberht 
which  fill  us  with  respect  for  their  character. 
In  the  case  of  Augustine  he  only  mention* 


Augustus 


257 


Augustus 


the  miracles  wherebv  he  established  his 
prestige.  Augiistiiies  questions  to  Pope 
Gregory  T  show  a  small  mind  busied  about 
trifles.  Even  the  point  by  which  the  "Welsh 
clergy  judged  his  character  shows  a  decided 
want  of  tact  and  conciliatory  power.  Augus- 
tine succeeded  in  the  conversion  of  Kent,  I 
])ecause  everything  was  prepared  to  assure 
his  success.  He  was  a  zealous  monk,  and  ; 
the  exhibition  of  monastic  life  was  effective 
amongst  the  English.  The  greatest  credit 
to  Augustine  is  that  Gregory  I  chose  him  1 
for  his  work,  and  that  he  diligently  carried 
out  Gregory's  directions  and  sought  his 
advice.  We  cannot  rank  him  higher  than 
a  capable  official  of  the  Roman  church.  [ 

[The  authority  for  Augustine  is  Bede's  His-  ! 
toria  Ecelesiastica,  bk.  i.  ch.  23-l)k.  ii.  ch.  3. 
Bede  incorporates  the  letters  of  Pope  Gregory, 
which  may  also  be  found  in  Gregorii  Epistolae, 
Op.  ii.  The  Acta  Sanctorum,  26  May,  contains 
a  Life  of  Augustine  by  Gocelin,  an  Augustinian 
monk  (circa  1090),  which  adds  little  to  Bede. 
Of  modern  writers.  Bright,  Early  Church  His- 
tory ;  and  Green,  The  Making  of  England.] 

M.  C. 

AUGUSTUS     FREDERICK,     Dttke 

OF  Sussex  (1773-184:3),  sixth  son  and 
ninth  child  of  King  George  III  and  Queen 
Charlotte,  was  born  at  Buckingham  Palace 
27  Jan.  1773.  On  account  of  delicate  health 
he  scarcely  ever  resided  in  England  from  the 
time  that  he  entered  the  university  of  Got- 
tingen  until  1804.  Probably  his  lengthened 
sojourn  on  the  Continent  tended  to  foster  his 
intellectual  tastes,  and  undoubtedly  the  op- 
portunity it  afforded  for  diversified  social  in- 
tercourse assisted  to  liberalise  his  sentiments 
and  to  impart  a  genial  facility  to  his  manner. 
While  resident  in  Rome  in  the  winter  of 
1792,  Prince  Augustus  made  the  acquaint- 
ance of  Lady  Avigusta  Murray,  second 
daughter  of  the  fourth  Earl  of  Dunmore, 
and  after  four  months'  intimacy  offered  her 
his  hand.  The  lady,  who  was  some  years 
older  than  the  prince,  at  first  declined  the 
proposal,  from  regard  to  his  interests ;  but 
on  21  March,  1793,  they  pledged  eternal 
constancy  to  each  other  in  a  solemn  written 
engagement.  This  was  followed  on  4  April 
by  a  marriage  ceremony,  performed  by  a 
clergyman  of  the  Church  of  England  named 
Gunn.  To  guard  against  the  possibility  of 
objections  to  the  marriage  from  the  fact  that 
it  had  taken  place  in  Roman  jurisdiction,  the 
ceremony  was  repeated  at  St.  George's,  Han- 
over Square,  on  5  Dec.  following,  under  the 
disguised  names  of  Augustus  Frederick  and 
Augusta  Murray.  Shoi-tly  after  the  bii-th  of 
a  son  on  13  January,  1794,  news  of  the  mar- 
VOL.   II. 


riage  reached  the  king,  who,  in  accordance 
with  the  regulations  of  the  Royal  Man-iage 
Act  of  1772  (12  George  III,  c.  1 1 ),  declared  it 
void  inAugust  1 794.  There  were  two  children 
born  of  the  marriage,  Augustus  Frederick,  13 
Jan.  1794,  and  Ellen  Augusta,  11  Aug.  1801, 
who  married  Sir  Thomas  Wilde,  afterwards 
Lord  Truro,  and  Lord  Chancellor  of  England. 
Thej'  took  the  surname  of  d'Este,  which  be- 
longed to  common  Italian  ancestors  of  the 
father  and  mother,  for  Lady  Augusta  Murray 
was  also  of  royal  descent.  For  some  years 
the  prince  ignored  the  decision  of  the  court, 
but  ultimately  he  acquiesced,  and  even  in 
1809  applied  for  the  custody  of  his  children, 
because  he  had  heard  that  their  mother  was 
bringing  them  up  in  the  idea  that  *  they  were 
princes  and  princesses.'  In  1806  Lady  Au- 
gusta received  royal  license  to  assume  the 
name  of  D'Ameland  instead  of  Murray.  The 
son.  Sir  Augustus  Frederick  d'Este,  made 
various  effoi-ts  to  get  his  claims  recognised, 
and  in  1831  filed  a  Bill  in  chancery,  *  to  prove 
the  marriage  good  and  valid'  (see  Papers 
elucidating  the  Claims  of  Sir  Auf/ustns  cVEste, 
K.  C.  H.,  1831,  and  A  Letter  to  a  Noble  Lord 
explanatory  of  a  Bill  in  the  Court  of  Chan- 
cery, 1831). 

It  was  not  till  1801  that  Prince  Augustus 
was  raised  to  the  peerage  by  the  title  of 
Baron  Arklow,  Earl  of  Inverness  and  Duke 
of  Sussex.  His  adoption  of  liberal  political 
views  estranged  him  from  his  father  and  the 
court,  and  excluded  him  fi'om  lucrative  em- 
ployments similar  to  those  enjoyed  by  the 
other  royal  dukes.  Indeed,  he  had  incurred 
the  resentment  of  his  father  for  political  con- 
tumacy as  early  as  his  seventh  year,  when 
*  he  was  by  order  of  the  king  locked  up  in 
his  nursery,  and  sent  supperless  to  bed,  for 
wearing  Admiral  Keppel's  election  colours  ' 
(Earl  of  Albemarle,  Fifty  Years  of  my  Life, 
vol.  ii.  p.  103).  The  Duke  of  Sussex  gave  an 
energetic  support  to  all  the  progressive  po- 
litical policy  of  his  time,  including  the  abo- 
lition of  the  slave  trade,  catholic  emancipa- 
tion, the  removal  of  the  civil  disabilities  of 
Jews  and  dissenters,  the  abolition  of  the  corn 
laws,  and  parliamentarj^  reform.  His  inte- 
rest in  the  advancement  of  art  and  science 
was  also  genuine  and  enlightened,  and  he 
readily  lent  his  influence  to  promote  schemes 
of  benevolence.  In  his  later  years  he  was  in 
great  request  as  chairman  at  anniversary  din- 
ners. When  his  eldest  brother  became  Prince 
Regent  in  1811,  he  succeeded  him  as  grand 
master  of  the  freemasons.  He  was  elected 
president  of  the  Society  of  Arts  in  1816,  and 
from  30  Nov.  1830  to  30  Nov.  1839,  was 
president  of  the  Royal  Society.  In  the  latter 
capacity  he  gave  brilliant  receptions  in  his 

s 


Aungerville 


258 


Austen 


apartments  at  Kensington  Palace  to  men  of 
science,  but  the  expense  they  incurred  in- 
duced him  to  resign  the  presidentship,  as  he 
preferred  to  employ  the  money  in  making  ad- 
ditions to  his  library.  This  collection,  which 
amounted  in  all  to  over  50,000  volumes, 
included  about  1,000  editions  of  the  Bible, 
and  many  Hebrew  and  other  ancient  manu- 
scripts, the  duke  being  specially  interested  in 
the  study  of  Hebrew  and  of  biblical  subjects. 
The  Duke  of  Sussex  contracted  a  second  mar- 
riage with  Lady  Cecilia,  ninth  daughter  of 
the  Earl  of  Arran,  and  widow  of  Sir  George 
Buggin.  In  1840  the  lady  was  created  Du- 
chess of  Inverness.  There  was  no  issue  by  the 
marriage,  and  the  duke  died  from  erysipelas 
21  April  1843.  By  his  will  he  directed  that 
liis  remains  should  not  be  interred  with  the 
royal  family  at  Windsor,  but  in  the  public 
cemetery  at  Kensal  Green.  As  was  the  case 
with  his  brothers,  there  was  in  his  character 
a  strong  vein  of  eccentricity  and  wayward- 
ness: but  this  was  tempered  by  intentions 
which,  on  the  wliole,  were  well  meant,  by 
liberal  and  benevolent  sympathies,  and  by 
genuine  intellectual  tastes.  Most  of  the  ad- 
dresses delivered  by  the  Duke  of  Sussex  as 
president  of  the  Royal  Society  have  been  pub- 
lished in  pamphlet  form,  as  has  also  his  speech 
on  the  Roman  Catholic  Relief  Bill  in  1829. 

[G-entleman's  Magazine,  New  Series,  vol.  xix. 
pp.  645-652  ;  S.  L.  Blaiichard.  The  Cemetery 
at  Kensal  Green,  1844;  Gliick-Rosenthal,  Me- 
moir of  the  Duko  of  Sussex,  1846  ;  Fitzgerald, 
Dukes  and  Princes  of  the  Family  of  George  III., 
1882,  vol.  ii.  pp.  40-96;  Catalogue  of  Collection 
of  Manuscripts  and  Music  of  the  Duke  of  Sussex, 
1846;  Catalogue  of  Collections  in  Oil  of  the 
Duke  of  Sussex,  1843  ;  Pettigrew,  Bibliotheca 
}Sussexiana.]  T.  F.  H. 

AUNGERVILLE,  RICHARD.  [See 
Bury,  Richard  de.] 

AURELIUS,  ABRAIIA:Nr  (ir,7o-1632), 
pastor  of  the  French  protestant  church  in 
London,  was  a  son  of  John  Baptist  Aurelius, 
also  a  protestant  minister,  probably  in  Lon- 
don, where  Abraham  was  born.  lie  studied 
at  Leyden,  in  the  Low  Countries,  and  took  his 
degree  there  in  1596.  In  1613,  on  the  occa- 
sion of  the  marriage  of  Frederick  V,  count 
palatine,  and  Elizabeth,  daugliter  of  .Tames  I, 
he  published  a  Latin  Epitlialamium.  He 
died  in  the  beginning  of  1632,  whilst  his  Latin 
paraphrase  on  the  Book  of  Job  was  in  tlie 
press ;  the  dedication  of  the  work  to  Albert 
Joachim,  Belgian  ambassador  at  the  Court 
of  St.  James,  bears  his  signature,  but  the 
paraphrase  itself  is  preceded  by  some  Latin 
verses  in  praise  of  the  deceased  pastor. 


[A.  Aurelius,  Theses  logiese  de  medio  demon- 
strationis  ;  In  nuptias  Frederici,  &c. ;  Jobus,  sive 
de  jiatientia  liber,  poetica  metaphrasi  expliciitiis 
(1632);  Brit.  Mus.  Catal.]  H.  v.  L. 

AUST,  SARAH  (1744-1811),  topo- 
graphical writer,  is  known  as  an  authoress  by 
the  name  of '  The  Hon.  Mrs.  Murray,  of  Kens- 
ington.' Her  first  husband  was  the  Ilon.Wil- 
liam  Murray,  brother  of  the  Earl  of  Dunmore; 
but  after  his  death,  in  1786,  she  man-ied,  for 
the  second  time,  Mr.  George  Aust.  She  died 
at  the  age  of  sixty-seven,  at  Noel  House, 
Kensington,  on  5  Nov.  1811.  Mrs.  Aust 
published  in  1799  '  A  Companion  and  Use- 
ful Guide  to  the  Beauties  of  Scotland,  to  the 
Lakes  of  Westmoreland,  Cumberland,  and 
Lancashire,  and  to  the  Curiosities  in  the 
District  of  Craven,  in  the  West  Riding  of 
Yorkshire ;  to  Avhich  is  added  a  more  par- 
ticular Description  of  Scotland,  especially 
that  part  of  it  called  the  Highlands.'  The 
book  is  written  in  a  lively  style,  and  gives  a 
graphic  picture  of  the  modes  of  locomotion 
of  the  time,  besides  sketching  in  some  detail 
the  social  condition  of  the  northern  pea- 
santry. A  second  edition,  in  which  greater 
attention  was  paid  to  the  Hebrides  and  the 
islands  round  Scotland,  appeared  in  1803,  and 
a  third  in  1810.  In  the  latter  an  appendix 
treated  '  of  the  new  roads  in  Scotland,  and 
of  a  beautiful  cavern  lately  discovered  in  the 
Isle  of  Skye.' 

[Gent.  Mag.  Ixxxi.  part  ii.  586  ;  Watt's  Bi- 
bliotheca Britannica.]  S.  L.  L. 

AUSTEN,   Sir  FRANCIS  WILLIAM 

(1774—1865),  admiral  of  the  fleet,  son  of 
the  Rev.  George  Austen,  rector  of  Steven- 
ton,  in  Hampshire,  and  brother  of  Jane  Aus- 
ten, Avas  born  on  23  April  1774.  In  April 
1786  he  entered  the  Royal  Naval  Academy, 
and  in  December  1788  joined  the  Persever- 
ance fi"igate,  and  served  in  her  in  the  East 
Indies.  In  December  1792  he  was  made  a 
lieutenant,  and  after  six  years  of  active  ser- 
vice was,  on  3  Feb.  1799,  made  a  comman- 
der. In  1801  he  was  posted,  and  in  1805 
was  flag-captain  to  Rear-Admiral  Louis  on 
board  the  Canopus,  in  the  fleet  under  Sir 
John  Duckworth,  and  at  the  battle  of  St. 
Domingo,  6  Feb.  1806.  From  1807  to  1809, 
he  commanded  the  St.  Albans,  of  64  guns,  and 
in  her  made  at  least  two  voyages  to  tlie  East 
Indies  in  charge  of  convoy:  in  the  last  of 
which,  in  1809,  his  success  in-  arranging  a 
dispute  with  the  Chinese  was  honoured  with 
the  approval  of  the  admiralty,  and  substan- 
tially recognised  by  the  East  India  Com- 
pany with  a  present  of  1,000/.  In  Decem- 
ber 1810  he  became  for  some  months  flag- 


Austen 


259 


Austen 


captain  to  Lord  Gambier,  then  commanding 
the  home  fleet,  and  was  afterwards,  1811-14, 
in  the  Elephant,  in  the  North  Sea  and  lialtic. 
He  attained  tlie  rank  of  rear-admiral  in  July 
1830;  vice-admiral,  June  1838;  admiral, 
August  1848;  and  admiral  of  the  fleet,  27 
April  1863.  From  December  1844  to  June 
1848,  he  was  commander-in-chief  in  the  West 
Indies.  In  February  1837  he  was  made 
K.C.B. ;  G.C.B.  in  May  I860 ;  rear-admiral 
of  the  United  Kingdom,  o  June  1862:  vice- 
admiral  of  the  United  Kingdom,  11  Dec, 
1862 ;  and,  full  of  years  and  honours,  he  died 
on  10  Aug.  1865.  " 

[O'Byrne's   Naval    Biographical   Dictionary ; 
■Gent.  Mag.  1865,  ii.  510.]  J.  K.  L. 

AUSTEN,  JANE  (1775-1817),  novelist, 
•was  born  at  Steventon,  near  Basingstoke, 
16  Dec.  1775.  Her  father,  George  Austen, 
yvas  rector  of  Deane  and  Steventon.  He  was 
married  in  1764  to  her  mother,  Cassandra, 
youngest  daughter  of  the  Rev.  Thos.  Leigh, 
and  niece  of  Theophilus  Leigh,  for  more  than 
fifty  years  master  of  Balliol.  Jane  was  the 
youngest  of  seven  children.  Her  brothers 
were  James  (died  1819) ;  Edward,  who  in- 
herited the  propei-ty  and  took  the  name  of 
his  second  cousin,  Mr.  Knight ;  Henry,  a 
clergyman  (died  1850);  Francis  William, 
and  Charles  ;  the  two  last  became  admirals, 
Francis  dying  in  1865,  aged  92  [see  Austkn, 
Francis  William],  and  Charles  in  1832, 
aged  73.  Her  sister,  Cassandra,  Avho  died 
unmarried  in  1845,  Avas  three  years  older 
than  herself.  I^or  the  iiret  twenty-five 
years  of  her  life,  Jane  Austen  lived  with 
lier  family  at  Steventon.  We  are  told  that 
she  took  part  in  some  private  theatricals 
given  in  a  barn  in  summer,  and  the  dining- 
room  in  winter,  between  her  thirteenth  and 
sixteenth  years,  and  occasionally  visited 
Bath,  where  her  uncle.  Dr.  Cooper,  vicar  of 
Sonning,  lived  for  some  years  with  his  fa- 
mily. Her  father  took  pupils  to  increase  a 
modest  income ;  and  Jane  learned  French,  a 
little  Italian,  could  sing  a  few  simple  old 
songs  in  a  sweet  voice,  and  was  remarkably 
dexterous  with  her  needle,  and  '  especially 
great  in  satin-stitch.'  She  read  standard  li- 
terature; was  familiar  with  the  'Spectator;' 
minutely  acquainted  Avith  Richardson ;  fond 
of  Johnson  and  Cooper,  and  s])ecially  devoted 
to  Crabbe,  of  whom  she  used  to  say  that  if 
she  ever  maiTied  at  all,  she  could  fancy  being 
Mrs.  Crabbe.  In  later  yeai's  she  was  charmed 
with  Scott's  poetry,  and  admired  the  first 
Waverley  novels.  In  1801  the  family  moved 
to  Bath,  living  first  at  4  Sydney  Ten-ace,  and 
afterwards  at  Green  Park  Buildings.  She 
spent  some  weeks  at  Lyme  in   1 804 :    and 


upon  her  father's  death  in  February  1805, 
his  widow  and  daughters,  after  a  few  months 
in  lodgings,  moved  to  Castle  Sfiuare,  South- 
ampton, whence  Jane  visited  Kent  and 
liath.  In  1809  they  settled  in  a  cottage  at 
Chawton,  about  a  mile  from  Alton,  on  the 
])roperty  of  her  brother,  Mr.  Knight.  There 
she  spent  the  rest  of  her  life,  Avitli  occasional 
visits  to  London,  till  her  health,  which  had 
given  symptoms  of  decline  in  1816,  broke 
down.  In  3Iay  1817  she  moved  to  Win- 
chester, to  be  near  Mr.  Lyford,  a  doctor  of 
reputation.  She  took  lodgings  in  College 
Street,  where  she  Avas  nursed  by  her  sister 
and  attended  by  her  tAA'o  brothers,  Avho  were 
clergA'men  in  the  neighbourhood.  She  died 
quietly  18  July  1817,  and  AA^as  buried  in  the 
centre  of  the  north  aisle  of  Windiest  erCathe- 
dral.  The  grave  is  marked  by  a  slab  of  black 
marble.  Jane  is  described  as  tall,  slender, 
and  remarkably  gracefid ;  she  Avas  a  clear 
brunette  Avith  a  rich  colour,  hazel  eyes,  fine 
features,  and  curling  broAvn  hair.  Her  do- 
mestic relations  AA'ere  delightful,  and  she  was 
specially  attractive  to  children.  A  vague 
record  is  preserved  of  an  attachment  for  a 
gentleman  AA'hom  she  met  at  the  seaside,  and 
AA'ho  soon  afterwards  died  suddenly.  But 
there  is  no  indication  of  any  serious  disturb- 
ance of  her  habitual  serenity. 

Jane  began  to  Avrite  stories  in  her  child- 
hood. Many  had  been  AATitten  before  she 
Avas  sixteen.  They  Avere  good-humoured  non- 
sense; and  one  of  them — a  burlesque  'co- 
medy ' — is  giA'en  in  her  memoir.  She  began 
'  Pride  and  Prejudice  '  in  October  1796,  and 
finished  it  in  August  1797,  having  already 
written  something  similar  to  'Sense  and 
Sensibility  '  called  '  Eleanor  and  Marianne.' 
'  Northanger  Abbey'  was  AA'ritten  in  1798, 
but  not  prejiared  for  the  press  until  1803. 
At  Bath,  about  1804,  she  began  a  story, 
ncAer  finished,  called  '  The  Watsons.'  In 
the  first  year  at  Chawton  she  prepared  for 
the  press  '  Sense  and  Sensibility,'  begim  in 
NoAember  1797,  and  'Pride  and  Prejudice.' 
BetAveen  February-  1811  and  August  1816 
she  Avrote  '  INIansfield  Park,'  '  Emma,'  and 
'  Persuasion.'  She  then  began,  but  never 
finished,  another  nameless  story.  Besides 
these  she  Avrote  another  story,  called  'Lady 
Susan,'  Avhich,  like  'Sense  and  Sensibility, 
Avhen  first  composed,  was  in  the  form  of 
letters.  Her  father  offered  '  Pride  and  Pre- 
jiidice '  to  Cadell  on  1  Noa'.  1797 ;  but 
the  proposal  Avas  rejected  l)v  return  of  post, 
without  an  inspection  of  the  manuscript. 
'  Northanger  Abbey'  was  sold  to  a  publisher 
in  Bath  for  10/.  in  1803.  He  did  not  ven- 
ture to  print  it,  and  Avas  glad  to  take  back  his 
money  and  return  the  manuscript  to  one  of 

8  2 


Austen 


260 


Austen 


her  brothers  a  few  years  later,  not  knowing, 
till  the  bargain  was  complete,  that  the  writer 
Avas  also  the  author  of  four  popular  novels. 
'Sense  and  Sensibility'  appeared  in  1811; 
'  Pride  and  Prejudice  '  in  1813  ;  '  Mansfield 
Park'  in  1814;  'Emma'  in  1816;  'North- 
anger  Abbey '  and '  Persuasion '  in  1818  (pos- 
thumously). She  received  150/.  from  the 
sale  of '  Sense  and  Sensibility ; '  and  under 
700/.  up  to  the  time  of  her  death  from  the 
four  then  published.  Egerton  was  the  pub- 
lisher of  the  first,  and  Mun'ay  of  the  last 
three.  They  were  published  anonymously, 
though  the  authorship  was  an  open  secret  to 
her  friends.  It  was  first  made  public  in  a 
short  biographical  notice  prefixed  to  the  two 
posthumous  novels  in  1818.  Miss  Austen's 
genius  received  little  recognition  during  her 
life.  In  1815  she  was  nursing  her  brother 
in  London,  when  the  Prince  Regent,  hearing 
of  her  visit  through  one  of  his  physicians,  sent 
his  chaplain,  Mr.  Clarke,  to  wait  upon  her, 
to  show  her  Carlton  House,  and  to  give  her 
permission,  of  which  she  took  advantage,  to 
dedicate  her  next  novel  ('  Emma ')  to  him, 
Mr.  Clarke  recommended  her  to  describe  an 
accomplished  clergyman,  who  should  re- 
semble Beattie's  minstrel  and  the  vicar  of 
A\  akefield ;  and,  upon  Miss  Austen's  declar- 
ing her  incompetence  for  such  a  task,  sug- 
gested that  a  'romance  illustrative  of  the 
august  house  of  Cobourg  would  just  now  be 
very  interesting.'  Miss  Austen  politely  ridi- 
culed this  brilliant  suggestion.  No  wi-iter 
ever  understood  better  the  precise  limits  of 
her  own  powers.  She  speaks  of  the  '  little 
bit  (two  inches  wide)  of  ivory  on  which  I 
work  with  so  fine  a  brush  as  produces  little 
eftect  after  much  labour.'  All  critics  agree 
to  the  unequalled  fineness  of  her  literary  tact ; 
no  author  ever  lived,  as  G.  II.  Lewes  told 
Miss  Bronte  (Mrs.  Gaskell's  Life  of  Char- 
lotte Bronte,  ch.  xvi.),  with  a  nicer  sense  of 
proportioning  means  to  ends.  Given  the  end, 
the  lifelike  portraiture  of  the  social  aspects 
with  wliich  alone  she  was  familiar,  the  execu- 
tion  is  flawless.  The  unconscious  charm  of 
'  the  domestic  atmosphere  of  the  stories,  and  the 
delicate  subsatirical  humour  which  pervades 
them,  have  won  her  the  admiration,  even  to 
fanaticism,  of  innumerable  i-eaders.  Miss 
Bronte  acknowledged  the  statement  quoted 
from  Lewes,  but  would  not  admit  his  further 
assertion  that  Miss  Austen  was  also  amongst 
the  greatest  artists  or  portrayers  of  human 
character.  She  was,  Miss  Bronte  admitted, 
shrewd  and  observant,  but  devoid  of  poetry 
or  sentiment.  Such  criticism  applies  to  the 
limits  of  her  sphere,  not  to  her  perfection 
within  it.  Miss  Austen  was  first  reviewed 
in  the  '  Quarterly '  for  October  1815,  and 


afterwards  (by  Whately)  in  the  same  re- 
view for  July  1821,  Amongst  her  admirers 
were  Warren  Hastings,  Southey,  Coleridge, 
Sir  Jas,  Mackintosh,  Lord  Holland,  Sydney 
Smith,  and  Sir  Henry  Holland.  G.  H. 
Lewes  says  that  he  Avould  rather  have  writ- 
ten 'Pride  and  Prejudice,'  or  'Tom  Jones,' 
than  any  of  the  Waverley  novels.  Lord 
Macaulay  declares  (art.  on  Mme.  d'Arblay) 
that  she  approaches  Shakespeare  nearer  than 
any  of  our  writers  in  di-awing  character ;  and 
he  once  proposed  to  edit  her  Avorks  with  a 
memoir  to  raise  funds  for  a  monument.  Sir 
Walter  Scott  declared  (diary  for  14  March 
1826)  Miss  Austen's  talent  to  be  'the 
most  wonderful  he  had  e^er  met  with : ' 
'  The  big  bow-wow  strain  I  can  do  myself 
like  any  now  going ;  but  the  exquisite  touch 
which  renders  ordinaiy  common-place  things 
and  characters  interesting  from  the  truth  of 
the  description  and  the  sentiment  is  denied 
to  me.  What  a  pity  such  a  gifted  creature 
died  so  young !  Her  first  biographer  in 
1818  had  only  ventured  to  say  that  some 
readers  ventured  to  place  her  books  beside- 
those  of  Miss  Burney  and  Miss  Edgeworth, 
[Memoir  of  Jane  Austen,  by  her  nephew,  J.  E. 
Austen  Leigh,  London.  This  contains  some  let- 
ters and  a  few  fragments  of  verse  and  other 
trifles.  To  the  second  edition,  1871,  are  added 
'  Lady  Susan '  and  the  imperfect  '  The  Watsons.'' 
Letters  of  Jane  Austen,  edited  by  Lord  Bra- 
bourne  (1884),  is  a  collection  of  letters  to  her 
sister  Cassandra  from  1796  to  1816.  They  are 
trivial,  and  give  no  new  facts.]  L.  S. 

AUSTEN,  RALPH  (d.  1676),  writer  on 
gardening,  was,  according  to  Anthony  a 
Wood,  a  native  of  Staffordshire,  and  became 
a  student  of  Magdalen  College,  Oxford.  On 
7  April  1630  he  was  chosen  a  \miversity 
proctor,  and  he  spent  the  remainder  of  his 
life  in  Oxford,  devoting  most  of  his  time  to- 
gardening  and  the  raising  of  fruit-trees.  In 
1647  he  became  deputy-registrary  to  the 
visitors,  and  subsequently  registrary  in  his 
own  right.  According  to  Wood  he  was,, 
in  1652,  admitted  into  the  public  library  to 
find  materials  for  a  book  he  was  then  medi- 
tating. In  the  following  year  he  published 
'A  Treatise  on  Fruit-trees,  shoAving  the 
manner  of  grafting,  setting,  pruning,  and 
ordering  of  them  in  all  respects,'  and  along" 
with  it  a  voluminous  pamphlet  on  the  '  Spiri- 
tual Use  of  an  Orchard.'  It  Avas  in  all 
probability  to  find  materials  for  the  latter 
book  that  he  desired  admission  to  the  uni- 
A'ersity;  for  in  his  preface  to  the  'Treatise 
on  Fruit-trees'  he  states  that  he  'had  set 
himself  to  the  practice  of  this  work  about 
twenty  years,  endeaAOuring  to  find  out  things- 
of  use  and  profit  by  practice  and  experience 


Austin 


261 


Austin 


that  he  might  speak  upon  better  and  surer 
Ifrounds  than  some  others  who  have  written 
on  this  subject.'    A  second  edition  of  the 

*  Treatise,' with  additions  and  improvements, 
appeared  in  1657.  Wood  states  that  its  sale 
was  hindered  by  its  association  with  the 
treatise  on  the  *  Spiritual  Use  of  an  Orchard,' 

*  which  being  all  divinity,  and  nothing  there- 
in of  the  practice  part  of  gardening,  many 
refused  to  buy  it ;  but  both  Johnson  and 
Watt  mention  editions  in  1662  and  1667. 
The  treatise  on  the  '  Spiritual  Use  of  an 
Orchard '  was  reprinted  separately  at  London 
in  1847.  In  1658  Austen  published  '  Obser- 
vations on  some  parts  of  Sir  Francis  Bacon's 
Naturall  History  as  it  concerns  Fruit-trees, 
Fruits,  and  Flowers.'  Possibly  through 
some  misreading  of  the  title-page,  this  work 
has  been  attributed  by  some  to  a  Francis 
Austen,  and  there  is  apparently  no  founda- 
tion for  the  statement  that  it  was  published 
originally  in  1631  and  again  in  1657.  Ac- 
cording to  Wood,  Austen  was  the  author 
of  *  A  Dialogue  or  Familiar  Discourse  and 
Conference  between  the  Husbandman  and 
Fruiterer  in  his  Nurseries,  Orchards,  and 
Gardens,'  published  in  1676  and  1679,  and 
containing  much  of  the  substance  of  his 
earlier  treatise.  Watt  erroneously  attributes 
to  Ralph  Austen  two  books  by  John  Austen. 
A  work  by  a  Ralph  Austen  appeared  at  Lon- 
don in  1676  entitled  '  The  Strong  Man 
Armed  ; '  but  the  fact  that  it  was  published 
at  London,  not  at  Oxford,  and  that  it  is  en- 
tirely controversial,  and  contains  no  reference 
to  gardening,  militates  against  the  supposi- 
tion that  its  author  was  identical  with  the 
subject  of  the  present  notice.  According  to 
Wood,  Austen  died  in  his  house  in  the  parish 
of  St.  Peter-le-Bailey,  Oxford,  and  was 
buried  in  the  church  belonging  thereunto,  in 
the  aisle  adjoining  the  south  side  of  the 
chancel,  26  Oct.  1676,  after  he  had  been  a 
practiser  in  gardening  and  planting  trees 
fifty  years. 

[Anthony  a  Wood's  Fasti  Oxonienses,  ed.  Bliss, 
j.  453,  ii.  174;  Johnson's  History  of  English 
Gardening,  93,  98 ;  Felton's  Portraits  of  English 
Authors  on  Gardening,  18,  19;  Watt's  Biblio- 
theca  Britanniea ;  S.  D.  U.  K.  Biog.  Diet.  ; 
Burrow's  Eegister  of  the  Visitors  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Oxford,  published  by  the  Camden 
Society  (1881),  pp.  viii,  84,  312,  357.] 

T.  F.  H. 

AUSTIN,  CILVRLES  (1799-1874),  law- 
yer, the  second  son  of  Jonathan  Austin,  of 
Greeting  Mill,  in  the  county  of  Suftblk,  was 
bom  in  1799.  He  was  educated  at  Bury  St. 
Edmunds  grammar  school.  He  was  for  a 
time  apprenticed  to  a  surgeon  at  Norwicli, 
but  disliking  that  occupation  he  quitted  it. 


and  was  sent  to  Cambridge,  entering  at  Jesus 
College.  In  1822  he  won,  much  to  the 
amazement  of  his  friends  who  knew  his 
heterodox  opinions,  the  Hulsean  prize  for  an 
essay  on  Christian  evidence.  In  1824  he 
graduated  B.A.  The  late  Mr,  John  Stuart 
Mill,  in  his  '  Autobiography,'  lias  described 
the  immense  influence  exercised  by  Austin 
over  his  contemporaries  at  Cambridge  in 
terms  which  might  seem  exaggerated  but  for 
the  concun-ent  testimony  of  others.  *  The 
impression  he  gave,'  writes  Mr,  Mill,  was 
that  of  boundless  strength,  together  with 
talents  which,  combined  with  much  force  of 
will  and  character,  seemed  capable  of  domi- 
nating the  world.'  An  ardent,  brilliant,  and 
paradoxical  exponent  of  the  doctrines  of 
Bentham  at  a  time  when  utilitarianism  had 
the  zest  of  novelty,  a  militant  radical  of  a 
type  new  at  Cambridge,  he  won  admiration  in 
debates  at  the  union  and  in  conversation  with 
his  most  distinguished  rivals.  It  is  recorded 
as  one  proof  of  his  influence  that  the  opinions 
which  Macaulay  brought  from  his  Clapham 
home  were  modified  by  converse  with  Austin, 
Austin  was  one  of  a  brilliant  group,  includ- 
ing Macaulay,  Praed,  Moultrie,  Lord  Belper, 
Romilly,  Buller,  and  Cockbum ;  and  none  of 
these  young  men  who  rose  to  distinction 
gave  more  promise  than  Charles  Austin. 
Moultrie,  who  has  sketched  that  gi-oup  in  his 
poem,  '  The  Dream  of  Life,'  describes  Austin 
as 

A  pale  spare  man  of  high  and  massive  brow. 
Already  furrowed  with  deep  lines  of  thought 
And  speculative  effort — grave,  sedate. 
And  (if  the  looks  may  indicate  the  age) 
Our  senior  some  few  years.     No  keener  wit, 
No  intellect  more  subtle,  none  more  bold, 
Was  found  in  all  our  host. 

Mr.  Trevelyan,  in  his  'Life  of  Lord  Mac- 
aulay,' tells  a  stoiy  which  illustrates  Austin's 
brilliancy  as  a  converser,  while  on  a  visit  to 
Lord  Lansdowiie  at  Bowood.  Macaulay  and 
Austin  happened  to  get  upon  college  topics 
one  moniing  at  breakfast.  '  When  the  meal 
was  finished  they  drew  their  chairs  to  either 
end  of  the  chimneypiece,  and  talked  to  each 
other  across  the  hearthrug,  as  if  they  were 
on  a  first-floor  in  the  old  court  of  Trinity. 
The  whole  company — ladies,  artists,  politi- 
cians, and  diners-out — formed  a  silent  circle 
round  the  two  Cantabs,  and,  with  a  short 
break  for  lunch,  never  stin-ed  till  the  bell 
warned  them  that  it  was  time  to  dress  for 
dinner.'  Having  chosen  law  as  a  profession, 
Austin  entered  as  a  student  at  the  Middle 
Temple,  read  in  the  chambers  of  Sir  William 
Follett,  then  in  the  height  of  his  fame  as  an 
advocate,  and  was  called  to  the  bar  in  1827. 
He  joined  the  Norfolk  circuit,  and  went  the 


Austin 


262 


Austin 


Ipswich,  Bury,  and  Norwich  sessions.  The 
reputation  which  he  brought  from  Cambridge 
was  sustained  in  London,  and  his  conversa- 
tional powers  were  regarded  by  those  who 
knew  Macaulay  and  Sydney  Smith  as  un- 
matched, lie  wrote  much  for  the  '  Parlia- 
mentary History  and  RevieAv,'  and  contri- 
buted occasionally  for  the  '  Retrospective 
Review '  and  the  '  Westminster  Review.' 
But  his  rapid  success  at  the  bar  soon  led  him 
to  quit  all  literary  labour.  The  late  INIr. 
Sumner,  who  met  Austin  frequently  in  1839, 
describes  him  as  '  the  first  lawyer  in  England 
me  judice,^  adding  that  he  Avas  '  a  more  ani- 
mated speaker  than  Follett ;  perhaps  not  so 
smooth  and  gentle,  neither  is  he  ready  or  in- 
stinctively sagacious  in  a  law  argument,  and 
yet  he  is  powerful  here,  and  immeasurably 
before  Follett  in  accomplishments  and  libe- 
rality of  view.  He  is  a  fine  scholar,  and 
deeply  versed  in  English  literature  and  the 
British  constitution.'  It  was  the  wish  of 
Austin's  friends  that  he  should  enter  parlia- 
ment, and  the  elder  Mill  used  his  offices  with 
Joseph  Hume  to  get  him  returned  for  Bath. 
But  he  never  presented  himself  as  a  candidate 
to  any  constituency.  In  1841  he  was  made 
queen's  counsel.  Such  was  his  professional 
position  that  he  is  said  to  have  been  offered 
the  solicitor-generalship.  His  success  at  the  ; 
parliamentary  bar  was  unprecedented.  In  ' 
1847,theyearof  the  railway  mania,  his  income 
was  enormous — the  computations  of  it  vary 
from  40,000/.  to  100,000/.  There  is  a  story 
that,  when  he  left  his  chambers  one  morning 
in  the  year  of  the  great  gold  discoveries, 
some  one  Avi-ote  on  the  door  '  Gone  to  Cali- 
fornia ; '  and  there  is  another  of  his  having 
been  seen  riding  in  the  p^k  during  the  height 
of  the  parliamentary  session,  and  of  his  say- 
ing to  one  who  asked  how  he  came  to  be  | 
there,  that  he  was  doing  equal  justice  to  all  I 
his  clients.  At  the  pai-liamentary  bar  there 
linger  traditions  of  his  skill  as  a  cross-ex- 
aminer and  his  oratorical  force.  The  trying 
work  of  his  profession  had  overtaxed  a  con- 
stitution never  very  strong;  and  in  1848  he 
retired  from  practice  with  a  large  fortune. 
From  that  time  to  that  of  his  death  he  lived 
in  retirement,  reading  much,  interested  in 
public  affairs,  but  withdrawn  from  all  active 
participation  in  them,  and  content  to  do  his 
duties  as  a  landlord.  He  indulged  his  pas- 
sion for  the  ancient  classics,  and  kept  abreast 
of  modern  literature.  He  lost  the  anti-theo- 
logical asperity  wliich  had  in  early  years 
marked  his  speculative  opinions,  and  '  wisely 
or  unwisely,'  writes  one  who  knew  him  well, 
'  in  his  later  years  he  accepted  the  religion  of 
his  country  in  the  manner  sanctioned  by 
Elisha  and  practised  by  Socrates.'     He  was 


high-steward  of  Ipswich  and  chairman  of  the 
(juarter-sessions  of  East  Suffolk,  and  his 
duties  in  that  position  he  performed  admi- 
rably. Throughout  the  twenty-six  years  which 
elapsed  between  his  quitting  the  bar  and  his 
death  the  world  received  no  hint  that  the 
forensic  equal  of  Follett  and  Scarlett,  the 
most  eloquent  disciple  of  Bentham,  the  rival 
in  conversation  of  Macaulay  and  Sydney 
Smith,  was  still  living ;  and  the  news  of  his 
death,  on  21  Dec.  1874,  was  a  surprise  to 
many  of  his  old  friends  who  believed  that  he 
had  long  ago  passed  away.  He  married,  in 
1856,  Han'iet  Jane,  daughter  of  the  late 
Captain  Ralph  IMitford  Preston  Ingelby.  He 
died  at  Brandeston  Hall,  near  Wickham 
Market,  on  21  Dec.  1874. 

[Fortniji-htly  Review,  Marcli  1875;  Law  Times, 
2  Jan.  187o  ;  Bain's  Life  of  James  Mill ;  John 
Stuart  Mill's  Autobiography ;  Moultrie's  Dream 
of  Life.]  J.  M-L. 

AUSTIN,  HENRY  (17th  cent.),  Avas  the 
author  of  a  poem  called  *  The  Scourge  of 
Yenus,  or  the  AVanton  Lady.  With  the 
Rare  Birth  of  Adonis.  The  Second  Impres- 
sion, corrected  and  enlarged,  by  H.  A.'' 
(1614).  It  lias  been  reprinted  in  Di'.  Gro- 
sart's  '  Occasional  Issues  of  Unique  and  Ex- 
tremely Rare  Books'  (1876).  The  poem  was 
for  long  anonymous  beyon^  its  initials  on  the 
title-page  and  the  '  epistle  to  the  reader,'  but 
an  incidental  reference  to  it  by  Thomas  Hey- 
wood  discloses  its  authorship.  In  his  address 
to  the  reader  before  his  '  Brazen  Age  '  (1613) 
Heywood  "writes  : — '  What  imperfection  so- 
euer  it  haue,  hauing  a  brazen  face  it  cannot 
blush  ;  much  like  a  Pedant  about  this  Towne^ 
who,  when  all  trades  fail'd,  turn'd  Pedagogue, 
and  once  insinuating  witli  me,  borrowed  fro 
me  certaine  Translations  of  Ouid,  as  his  three 
books  "  De  Arte  Amandi,"  and  two,  "  De  Re- 
medio  Amoris,"  which  since,  his  most  brazen 
face  hath  most  impudently  challenged  as  his 
own,  wherefore  I  must  needs  proclaime  it  as 
far  as  Ham,  where  he  now  keeps  schoole,  Has 
eyo  versiculos  feci,  tulit  alter  honores,  they 
were  things  which  out  of  my  iuniority  and 
want  of  iudgement,  I  committed  to  the  veiw 
of  some  priuate  friends,  but  with  no  purpose 
of  publishing,  or  further  comunicating  the. 
Therfore  I  wold  entreate  that  Austin,  for  so 
his  name  is,  to  acknowledge  his  wi'ong  to 
me  in  sheAving  them,  and  his  owne  impu- 
dence and  ignorance  in  challenging  the.  But 
courteous  Reader,  I  can  onely  excuse  liim  in. 
this,  that  this  is  the  Brazen  Age.' 

This  invective  referred  to  the  first  edition 
of  the  'Scourge,'  published  in  1613.  It  is 
noticeable  and  suggestive  that  II[enry] 
A[ustin],  so  far  from  pleading  guilty  or  ac- 


Austin 


263 


Austin 


knowledging  Ileywood's  claim,  quietly  re- 
published liis  poem, and,  what  must  have  been 
exasperating  to  lleywood,  with  Heywood's 
own  publisher  of  the  '  Brazen  Age.'  A  third 
edition  appeared  in  1620,  also  printed  by 
Nicholas  Okes.  The  full  justice  of  Hey- 
wood's accusation  may  be  reasonably  doubted. 
Its  ffravamen  seems  at  most  to  amount  to  this, 
that  Austin  had  constructed  his  poem  by  help 
of  Heywood's  'juvenile'  translations,  and  in 
his  rather  ambiguous  epistle  to  the  reader 
Austin  apparently  admits  so  much.  '  If  it 
were  my  owne  wit,'  he  says  in  reference  to 
his  book,  '  and  you  c(mdemne  it,  I  should  be 
ashamed  of  my  publike  intrusion  ;  but  since 
it  was  the  labour  of  a  man  wel-deseruing, 
forbeare  open  reprehending :  For  as  I  haue 
heard,  'twas  done  for  his  pleasure,  without 
any  intent  of  an  Impression :  thus  much  I 
excuse  him  that  I  know  not,  and  commend 
that  which  deserueth  Avell.  If  I  be  partiall, 
I  pray  patience.'  The  '  Scourge  of  Venus ' 
shows  traces  of  the  influence  of  Shake- 
speare's poems  upon  its  author. 

[Dr.  Grosart's  Occasional  Issues  (1876),  as 
above.]  A.  B.  G. 

AUSTIN,  JOHN  (1613-1669),  a  catholic 
writer  under  the  pseudonym  of  William 
BiRCHLEY,  was  born  in  1613  at  Walpole  in 
Norfolk,  and  studied  under  Mr.  Trevillian  in 
the  gi-ammar  school  of  Sleaford,  Lincolnshire, 
for  a  year  and  a  half  before  entering  the  uni- 
versity of  Cambridge,  where  he  was  admitted 
a  pensioner  of  St.  John's  College  under  Mr. 
Clerke.  He  remained  at  St.  John's  till  about 
1640,  when,  having  embraced  the  catholic 
religion,  he  found  it  necessary  to  quit  the 
university.  He  entered  as  a  student  at 
Lincoln's  Inn,  and  there  is  reason  to  believe 
that  he  distinguished  himself  as  a  lawyer ; 
but  the  turbulence  of  the  times  and  his  re- 
ligious belief  prevented  him  from  continuing 
the  practice  of  his  profession  as  a  means  of 
livelihood.  During  the  civil  war  he  resided 
for  some  time  as  tutor  in  the  family  of  Walter 
Fowler,  Esq.,  of  St.  Thomas  in  Staffordshire. 
About  1650  he  returned  to  London.  In  a 
postscript  to  one  of  his  works,  the  second  part 
of  the  'Christian  Moderator'  (16o2),  Austin 
alludes  to  a  mournful  event,  by  which  he  was 
unexpectedly  called  into  the  country ;  and 
as,  after  this  date,  he  was  enabled  to  retire 
to  private  lodgings  in  the  metropolis,  it  has 
been  inferred  that  he  had  acquired  some  pro- 
perty by  the  death  of  a  relative.  His  death 
occurred  in  Bow  Street,  Covent  Garden,  in 
the  summer  of  1669,  and  he  was  buried  in 
the  parish  church  of  St.  Paul. 

The  Rev.  John  Sergeant,  in  the  epistle 
dedicatory  to  the  second  edition  of  Austin's 


*  Devotions '  (Rouen,  1672),  says  of  his  de- 
ceased frieiid  the  author  :  '  He  was  a  Gentle- 
man, so  far  from  retirement,  that  his  Chamber 
was  generally  open  to  Multitudes,  who  either 
lov'd  his  friendly  Affability,  or  needed  his 
useful  Advice  or  Charitable  Assistance.  His 
Conversation  and  outward  behaviour  were 
exceedingly  cheerful  and  pleasant.  He  ap- 
pear'd  Severe  in  nothing  but  sincere  Honesty, 
in  nothing  Singular  but  perfect  Innocence 
consistent  with  so  much  Freedom.  The  Great 
Business  of  his  Life,  that  concern'd  Heaven, 
was  transacted  in  the  inmost  recess  of  his 
Soul,  and  never  disclos'd  it  self  without  re- 
luctancy  and  constraint.  He  was  a  Traveller, 
and  brought  home  from  Forreign  Countries  alt 
that  could  conduce  to  a  Manly  becomingness 
and  wise  carriage,  leaving  the  Extravagancies 
and  follies  where  he  found  them.  He  was 
well  skill'd  in  the  best  of  our  European  Lan- 
guages, and  an  absolute  Master  of  our  own.' 
And  Dodd  {Church  History,  iii.  257)  says: 

*  Mr.  Austin  was  a  gentleman  of  singular 
parts  and  accomplishments,  and  so  great  a 
master  of  the  English  tongue  that  his  stile 
still  continues  to  be  a  pattern  for  politeness. 
His  time  was  wholly  spent  in  books  and 
leai'ned  conversation ;  having  the  advantage 
of  several  ingenious  persons' familiarity,  who 
made  a  kind  of  Junto  in  the  way  of  learning 
— viz.,  Mr.  Thomas  Blount,  Mr.  Blackloe, 
Francis  St.  Clare  [Christopher  Davenport], 
Mr.  John  Serjeant,  Mr.  Belson,  Mr.  Keightley, 
&c.,  all  men  of  great  parts  and  erudition,  who 
were  assistants  to  one  another  in  their 
writings.' 

Austin's  works  are :  1.  '  The  Christian 
Moderator,  or  Persecution  for  Religion  con- 
demned ;  By  the  Light  of  Nature,  Law  of 
God,  Evidence  of  our  own  Principles  '  [Lon- 
don], 1651,  4to,  pp.  28.  The  postscript  Is 
signed  William  Birchley.  This  first  part  was 
reprinted  in  '  An  Introduction  to  the  Bishop 
of  Bangor's  Intended  Collection  of  Authori- 
ties,' 1718.  A  second  part  appeared  in  1652 
'with  an  Explanatioii  of  the  Roman  Catholick 
Belief,  concerning  these  four  points :  Their 
Church,  Worship,  Justification,  and  CiviU 
Government.'  A  third  part  was  published  in 
1653,  entitled  'The  Christian  Moderator,  or 
The  Oath  of  Abjuration  arraign'd  by  the 
Common  LaAv  and  Common  sence.  Ancient 
and  modern  Acts  of  Pari.,  Declarations  of  the 
Army,Law  of  God  and  consent  of  Reformed  Di- 
vines. And  humbly  submitted  to  receive  Judg- 
ment from  this  Honorable  Representative.' 
The  anonymous  author  of '  The  Beacon  flaming 
with  a  Non  obstante  '  (1652)  asserts  that  the 
'Christian  Moderator' was  written  by  Father 
Christopher  Davenport,  better  known  as  Fran- 
ciscus  a  Sancta  Clara ;  but  Anthony  h  Wood 


Austin 


264 


Austin 


informs  us  that  the  Rev.  John  Sergeant  as- 
sured him  that  it  was  the  production  of  Aus- 
tin, who  was  his  particular  friend,  and  formerly 
his  contemporary  at  St.  John's  College,  Cam- 
bridge. Dodd  and  Butler  are  of  the  same 
opinion.  In  this  work  Austin,  assuming  the 
disguise  of  an  independent,  shows  that  catho- 
lics did  not  really  hold  the  odious  doctrines 
vulgarly  attributed  to  them,  and  makes  an 
energetic  appeal  to  the  independents  to  extend 
to  the  adherents  of  the  persecuted  church  such 
rights  and  privileges  as  were  granted  to  other 
religious  bodies.  A  violent  reply  to  this  plea 
for  toleration  was  published  in  a  book  called 
'  Legenda  Lignea,'  by  D.  Y.,  1652.  2.  '  Re- 
flexions upon  the  Oaths  of  Supremacy  and 
Allegiance ;  or,  The  Christian  Moderator,  the  j 
fourth  part.  By  a  Catholick  gentleman,  an 
obedient  son  of  the  Church,  and  loyal  subject 
of  His  Majesty,' 1661.  3.  'Devotions.  First! 
part,  In  the  Antient  Way  of  Offices.  With  | 
Psalms,  Hymns,  and  Pray'rs  ;  for  every  day 
in  the  Week,  and  every  Holiday  in  the  Year,' 
second  edition,  corrected  and  augmented, 
Rouen,  1672,  8vo.  Tliis  was  a  posthumous 
edition  brought  out  by  Sergeant,  who  remarks  I 
that  Austin  composed  these  '  Devotions,'  ; 
which  *  were  long  used  by  divers  private  \ 
friends,  and  transcripts  of  them  so  multiply'd, 
that  they  were  already  become  half  publick, 
ere  he  thought  fit  to  let  them  be  printed.' 
Sergeant  adds  that  '  less  then  a  year  had  | 
vended  the  whole  first  impression ; '  but  when  i 
or  where  the  first  edition  was  published  is  | 
unknown.  There  was  an  edition  at  Paris  in 
1675,  and  a  third  volume  of  the  work  was  ] 
written,  but  never  published.  Dodd  men- 
tions that  the  prayers  were  added  to  the  work 
by  Austin's  friend,  Mr.  Keightley,  'which 
some  have  been  pleased  to  quarrel  with,  upon 
a  pretence  that  they  favour'd  Mr.  Blackloe's 
opinion  concerning  the  middle  state  of  souls. 
A  handsomely  printed  edition  of  the  '  Devo- 
tions '  was  published  at  Edinburgh  in  1789. 
In  the  preface  it  is  stated  that  '  the  "  Devo- 
tions "  were  at  first  published  in  two  volumes. 
The  second,  from  what  cause  we  know  not, 
is  now  almost  neglected.  It  consisted  of  the 
four  gospels  reduced  to  the  form  of  lessons ; 
besides  which  a  third  volume  remains  in 
manuscript.'  Numerous  editions  of  the  '  De- 
votions '  were  published  by  the  celebrated  Dr. 
Hicks  for  the  use  of  his  protestant  congre- 
gation, and  conseqiiently  the  book  was  com- 
monly known  among  protestants  as  '  Hicks's 
Devotions.'  4.  '  The  Four  Gospels  in  One,' 
in  short  chapters,  with  a  vei'se  and  prayer  at 
the  end  of  each ;  mentioned  by  Butler,  who 
gives  no  date  nor  imprint.  This  doubtless 
formed  the  second  volume  of  the  first  edition 
of  the  *  Devotions.'     A  '  protestantized '  ver- 


sion of  it  was  published  under  the  title  of 
'  The  Harmony  of  the  Holy  Gospels,  digested 
into  one  History,  according  to  the  order  of 
time,  done  originally  by  the  author  of  the 
Devotions  by  way  of  Offices,  publish'd  by  Dr. 
Hicks.  Reformed  and  Improved  by  James 
Bonnel,'  London,  1705.  5.  '  A  Letter  from 
a  Cavalier  in  Yorkshii-e  to  a  Friend.'  6.  '  A 
Punctual  Answer  to  Dr.  John  Tillotson's 
Book,  called  the  Rule  of  Faith ; '  an  unfinished 
work,  only  six  sheets  being  printed.  7.  Several 
anonymous  pamphlets  against  the  Assembly 
of  Divines  at  Westminster. 

[MS.  Addit.  5862  f .  9  6  ;  Dodd's  Church  Hist, 
iii.  256  ;  Wood's  Athen.  Oxon.  ed.  Bliss,  iii.  149, 
150,  1226,  1227;  Mr.  George  BuUen,  in  Biog. 
Diet.  Soc.  D.  U.  K. ;  Life  of  Austin  prefixed  to 
his  Devotions,  Edinb.  1789;  Butler's  Hist.  Me- 
moirs of  the  English  Catholics,  3rd  ed.  iv.  459.] 

T.  C. 

AUSTIN,  JOHN  (1717-1784),  an  Irish 
Jesuit,  was  born  in  Dublin  12  April  1717, 
and  entered  the  Society  of  Jesus  in  Cham- 
pagne 27  Nov.  1735.  After  completing  the 
higher  studies,  he  was  employed  in  teaching 
humanities  for  several  years,  and  he  held 
the  office  of  prefect  of  the  Irish  College  at 
Poitiers.  In  1750  he  returned  to  Dublin, 
where  he  obtained  renown  as  a  preacher.  He 
was  professed  of  the  four  vows  2  Feb.  1754. 
Topham  Bowden,  an  English  protestant,  in 
his  'Tour  through  Ireland'  (1791),  remarks 
'  that  Austin  was  a  very  remarkable  charac- 
ter, of  extraordinary  learning  and  piety  ;  he 
was  a  great  preacher,  and  injured  his  health 
by  his  exertions  in  the  pulpit.'  Father  Aus- 
tin died  in  Dublin  29  Sept.  1784,  and  was 
buried  in  St.  Kevin's  churchyard.  The  in- 
scription over  his  grave  describes  him  as 
'  pius,  doctus,  indefessus  operarius,  apostoli- 
cis  confectus  laboribus.  Divites  admonuit, 
pauperes  sublevavit,  juventvitem  erudivit,  or- 
phanis  loco  parentis  fuit,  de  omni  hominum 
genere  prseclare  meruit,  omnibus  omnia  factus 
ut  omnes  Christo  lucrifaceret.'  His  portrait, 
painted  by  Petrie,  and  engraved  by  Brocas, 
was  published  in  1792. 

[Hogan's  Chronological  Cat.  of  the  Irish  Pro- 
vince S.  J.  73 ;  Oliver's  Collectanea  S.  J.  232 ; 
Evans'sCat.  of  Engraved  Portraits,  i.  13.]  T.  C. 

AUSTIN,  JOHN  (Ji.  1820),  a  Scotch  in- 
ventor, was  a  native  of  Craigton.  He  pub- 
lished at  Glasgow,  in  or  about  1800,  a  system 
of  '  Stenography  which  may  be  learned  in 
an  hour,'  on  a  single  folio  engraved  sheet, 
price  2s.  6d.  A  note  at  the  end  announces 
the  publication  of  a  complete  system  by  the 
same  author,  price  one  guinea,  but  this  does 
not  appear  to  have  been  brought  out.  He 
was  also  the  author  of  an  elaborate  work 


Austin 


265 


Austin 


entitled  '  A  System  of  Steuographic  Music, 
invented  by  .1.  Austin,  Glasgow.  Dedicated 
to  the  Musical  World,  in  English,  French, 
Italian,  German,  and  other  Languages,' 
Glasgow,  50  engraved  pages,  oblong  folio, 
no  date,  but  published,  according  to  the 
British  Museum  catalogue,  about  1820.  ()n 
the  title-page  is  an  engraved  portrait  of  the 
author,  who  states  in  the  preface  that  'the 
design  of  this  work  is  to  represent  to  the 
musical  world  a  new,  easy,  concise,  and  uni- 
versal method  of  writing  music  completely 
on  one  line  only,  and  adajrted  to  all  kinds 
of  vocal  and  instrumental  music  and  musical 
instruments,  whereby  an  expert  writer  may 
note  it  down  as  he  hears  it  performed,  so 
that  to  those  who  make  it  their  amusement 
or  profession  it  will  be  equally  interesting, 
together  with  the  pleasure  of  improving  and 
profiting  by  the  art,'  and,  in  conclusion,  he 
remarks  that  '  if  the  shorthand  writer  is 
pleased  in  taking  from  the  mouth  of  an 
orator,  the  musical  stenogi-apher  will  be  no 
less  so  when  catching  those  dulcet  sounds 
which  vibrate  through  the  soul,  convincing 
her  that  she  is  more  than  mortal.'  Austin 
likewise  appears  to  have  turned  his  attention 
to  the  improvement  of  weaving  machines. 

[Thompson  Cooper,  in  Notes  and  Queries,  3rd 
series,  ix.  533 ;  Works  cited  above ;  Evans's 
Catalogue  of  Portraits,  ii.  20.]  T.  C. 

^  AUSTIN,  JOHN  (1790-1859),  the  cele- 
« .  ^brated  jurist,  was  born  3  March  1790.  He 
was  the  eldest  son  of  Jonathan  Austin,  of 
L  X  Creeting  Mill,  in  Suffolk — a  remarkable  man 
■^  ^  ;^  of  sturdy  good  sense  and  great  mental  vigour, 
■who  had  made  a  fortune  h\  taking  govern- 
ment contracts  during  the  French  war.  About 
the  age  of  sixteen,  John  Austin  entered  the 
army,  and  served  for  several  months  with 
his  regiment  in  Sicily,  under  the  command 
of  Lord  William  Bentinck.  He  remained 
in  the  army  about  five  years,  and  then  sold 
his  commission  and  began  to  study  for  the 
bar,  to  which  he  was  called  in  1818  by  the 
Inner  Temple.  His  name  appears  for  the 
first  time  in  1819,  in  the  '  Law  List,'  as  an 
■ec^uity  draftsman,  practising  at  2  Old  Square, 
Lmcoln's  Inn.  He  is  said  to  have  gone 
the  Norfolk  circuit ;  but  his  name  does  not 
occur  in  the  list  of  counsel  practising  upon 
it.  About  this  time  Austin  became  ac-  1 
quainted  with  James  Mill  and  his  son,  John  I 
Stuart  Mill.  With  the  latter  in  the  winter 
of  1820-21  he  went  through  a  course  of  legal 
reading.  It  included  a  considerable  part  of  : 
Blackstone  and  Ileineccius.  In  1820  Austin 
married  a  gifted  lady.  Miss  Sarah  Taylor,  of 
Norwich.  In  June  1821  their  only  child, 
Lucie,afterward8  Lady  DufFG  ordon,was  bom. 


*  They  lived,'  writes  Mrs.  lloss,  in  a  sketch  of 
her  grandfather's  and  grandmother's  lives, '  in 
Queen  Sqiuire,W^estminster,  almost  next  door 
to  the  house  belonging  to  Mr.  James  Mill,  the 
historian  of  British  India,  and  their  windows 
looked  into  the  garden  of  Jeremy  Bentham. 
These  were  the  most  intimate  friends  of  John 
Austin  ;  and  here,  it  may  be  said,  the  utili- 
tarian philosophy  of  the  nineteenth  century 
Avas  born.  Bentham's  garden  was  the  play- 
ground of  Lucie  Austin  and  the  young  Mills; 
his  coachhouse  was  turned  into  a  gymna- 
sium, and  his  flower-beds  were  intersected  by 
threads  and  ropes  to  represent  the  passages 
of  a  panopticon  prison.'  In  the  drawing-room 
of  the  modest  London  house  of  the  Austins 
was  often  found  a  brilliant  company.  There 
might  be  seen,  in  his  old  age,  Bentham,  the 
two  Mills,  Carlyle,  the  rising  la^v^j-ers  Bicker- 
steth,  Erie,  and  llomilly ;  wits  of  the  bril- 
liancy of  Charles  Buller,  Sydney  Smith,  and 
Luttrell ;  and  among  poets,  critics,  and 
statesmen,  Rogers,  Jeffrey,  and  Lansdowne. 
Austin  did  not  obtain  at  the  bar  the  success 
to  which  his  great  talents,  acuteness,  and 
powers  of  lucid  and  eloquent  exposition  en- 
titled him  in  the  opinion  of  his  friends.  His 
inability  to  work  rapidly,  his  habit  of  taking 
trouble  quite  out  of  proportion  to  the  im- 
portance of  the  matter  in  hand,  were  grave 
obstacles.  His  health  was  uncertain ;  he 
was  subject  to  fits  of  feverishness  which 
left  him  in  a  state  of  extreme  debility.  '  If 
John  Austin  had  had  health,  neither  Lynd- 
hurst  nor  I  should  have  been  chancellor,' 
Brougham  is  said  to  have  observed :  and,  no 
doubt,  Austin's  friends  entei'tained  the  highest 
hopes  of  his  success.  Finding  his  profession 
unremunerative  and  uncongenial,  he  gave  up 
in  1825  all  thoughts  of  practice,  though  not 
until  1829  did  his  name  disappear  from  the 
list  of  those  who  took  oiit  certificates  as 
equity  draftsmen.  In  1826  the  university 
of  London  (now  University  College)  was 
established  mainly  through  the  efforts  of 
Austin's  friends ;  and  he  was  appointed  by 
the  council  to  the  chair  of  jurisprudence. 
He  took  great  pains  to  prepare  himself  for 
the  task.  He  resolved  to  go  to  Germany,  and 
profit  by  the  teaching  of  the  gi'eat  jurists 
who  flourished  there.  He  visited  Heidel- 
berg, where  Thibaut  then  taught  the  civil 
law.  He  then  settled  for  six  months  at  Bonn, 
where  a  group  of  brilliant  scholars,  including 
Niebuhr,  Brandis,  Schlegel,  Amdt,  Mackel- 
dey,  and  Heft'ter,  resided.  There,  with  the 
assistance  of  a  young  privafdocenf,  he  read 
many  German  works  on  law.  He  returned 
to  England  in  the  spring  of  1828,  and  began 
his  lectures  at  University  College.  His  class 
was  never  large ;  but  it  included  several  men 


Austin 


266 


Austin 


who  rose  to  eminence,  among  others  Sir 
George  Cornewall  Lewis,  Lord  Belper,  Lord 
llomilly.  Lord  Clarendon,  Mr.  Charles  Vil- 
liers,  Mr.  Hare,  and  Mr.  Whiteside,  subse- 
quently lord  chief  justice  of  Ireland.  Con- 
genial occupation  seemed  to  be  before  him. 
lie  was  enthusiastic  and  zealous,  and  his 
earnest  and  eloquent  exposition  seemed  likely 
to  attract  many  students.  '  Demand  expla- 
nations and  ply  me  with  objections — turn 
me  inside  out,'  was  his  characteristic  advice 
to  them.  But  again  he  was  unsuccessful. 
Pupils  flocked  to  the  lecture-room  of  his  col- 
league, Mr.  Amos  ;  his  Avas  almost  deserted. 
The  number  of  men  attending  his  lectures 
dwindled  down  to  five  (Sakgant's  Essays) ; 
and  it  soon  became  plain  that  there  was  in 
England  no  demand  for  teaching-  of  a  high 
order  in  jurisprudence.  '  There  is  some 
hope,'  said  the  '  Law  Magazine  '  in  1832,  '  of 
his  being  induced  to  prepare  a  course  on  the 
lloman  law,  or  the  laAv  of  nations,  for  the 
ensuing  session.  But  it  is  almost  too  much 
to  ask  him  to  make  an  extraordinary  exertion 
for  such  a  meagre  audience  as  he  hitherto  has 
had.'  Seeing  no  prospect  of  obtaining  even 
the  small  audience  Avith  which  he  Avould 
have  been  content,  he  resigned  his  chair  in 
1832.  The  year  before  he  published  an  *  out- 
line '  of  his  course  of  lectures ;  and  this,  cor- 
rected and  enlarged,  was  appended  to  his 
work, '  The  Province  of  Jurisprudence  deter- 
mined,' which  was  published  in  1832.  It 
was,  at  first,  little  read ;  and  its  value  was  riot 
always  appreciated  by  the  few  Avho  read  it. 
Lord  Melbourne's  remark  about  it,  as  recorded 
in  the  Greville  memoirs,  expressed  a  too  com- 
mon opinion.  '  In  answer  to  the  observation 
that  "  the  Austins  were  not  fools,"  he  said, 
"  Austin  ?  Oh,  a  damned  fool !  Did  you 
ever  read  his  book  on  Jurisprudence  ?"  I  said 
I  had  read  a  great  part  of  it,  and  that  it  did 
not  appear  to  be  the  work  of  a  fool.  He  said 
that  he  had  read  it  all,  and  tliat  it  was  the 
dullest  book  he  ever  read,  and  full  of  truisms 
elaborately  set  forth'  (iii.  138).  In  1833 
Austin  was  appointed  by  Lord  Brougham  a 
member  of  the  Criminal  Law  Commission. 
He  did  not  find  the  position  or  the  o])poi-tuni- 
ties  of  giving  effect  to  his  views  all  that  he 
desired.  'He  used  to  come  home,' writes  his 
wife,  *  from  every  meeting  of  the  commission 
disturbed  and  agitated,  and  to  express  his  re- 
pugnance to  receiving  the  public  money  for 
work  from  which  he  thought  the  public  would 
derive  little  or  no  benefit.  Some  blun-ed  and 
bl  otted  sheets  which  I  have  found  bear  painful 
aiul  aifecting  marks  of  the  struggle  that  was 
going  on  in  his  mind  between  his  own  lofty 
sense  of  dignity  and  duty  and  the  more  ordi- 
nary sense  of  duty  Avhich  subordinates  public 


to  private  obligation.'  He  accordingly  re- 
signed his  position  upon  the  commission.  In 
1834  he  Avas  requested  by  the  society  of  the- 
Inner  Temple  to  deliver  a  course  of  lectures 
on  jurisprudence ;  but  they,  too,  failed  to 
attract  students,  and  they  were  soon  discon- 
tinued. His  poAverful  friends,  however,  still 
entertained  the  highest  opinion  of  his  ca- 
pacity, and  a  new  channel  of  activity  vA^as 
opened  to  him.  In  1836  he  and  his  friend, 
Sir  George  Cornewall  Lewis,  were  appointed 
commissioners  to  inquire  into  the  admini- 
stration and  state  of  gOA^emment  of  the- 
island  of  Malta.  The  task  was  eminently 
congenial  to  a  man  of  Austin's  acquirements. 
The  commissioners  were  instructed  to  ex- 
amine into  the  laAA'S  and  usages,  the  admi- 
nistration of  the  government,  the  state  of 
the  judicature,  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical 
establishments,  the  revenue,  trade,  and  re- 
sources of  the  island ;  and  they  were  also 
requested  to  make  suggestions  as  to  changes 
Avhich  they  thought  advisable.  No  commis- 
sion ever  did  its  work  more  carefully,  and 
its  reports  to  the  colonial  ofiice  are  re- 
markable papers,  dealing  with  great  ability 
and  thoroughness  with  some  of  the  most 
important  questions  of  political  economy  and 
jurisprudence,  Among  those  possessed  of 
permanent  interest  are  the  despatch  urging 
the  establishment  in  Malta  of  liberty  of 
printing  and  publishing  ;  the  history  of  the 
origin  of  the  corn  monopoly  in  that  island  ; 
the  account  of  the  government  charities,  of 
which  last  paper  Lord  Glenelg,  the  colonial 
secretary,  said :  *  It  is  impossible  that  all  the 
necessary  facts  should  have  been  brought  to- 
gether with  greater  brevity  and  clearness,  or 
that  the  principles  Avhich  should  direct  his 
Majesty's  government  should  haA'e  been  stated 
with  greater  force  and  perspicuity.'  The  reform 
of  the  tarifli"  which  the  commission  eflfected  was 
pronounced  by  Sir  James  Stephen  '  the  most 
successful  legislatiA^e  experiment  he  had  seen 
in  his  time.'  What  Avas  the  precise  share  which 
Austin  had  in  the  laborious  work  is  a  little 
uncertain ;  but  his  peculiar  ideas  and  vigorous 
language  are  often  clearly  discernible — for  ex- 
ample, in  the  account  of  the  history  of  Mal- 
tese laAA'and  the  proposals  A\'ith  respect  to  legal 
education.  The  elaborate  ordinance  as  to 
liberty  of  printing  and  publishing  is  interest- 
ing as  a  sample  of  his  style  of  legal  drafting. 
The  commission  did  not  accomplish  all  that 
was  anticipated,  and  the  government  of  Malta 
has  been  repeatedly  subjected  to  considerable 
changes  since  1837.  But  Austin  did  much 
to  improve  the  institutions  of  the  island. 
Being  ill  Avhen  he  returned  from  Malta,  he 
went  to  Carlsbad,  and  spent  there  the  sum- 
mers of  1841,  1842,  and  1843.     The  winters- 


Austin 


267 


Austin 


lie  passed  in  Dresden  and  Berlin,  where  he 
and  his  wife  knew  most  of  the  eminent  men 
of  the  time.  While  living  at  Dresden  he 
wrote  for  the  '  Edinburgh  Review '  a  refuta- 
t  ion  of  the  arguments  in  favour  of  protection- 
ism propounded  by  Dr.  List  in '  Das  nationale 
System  der  politischen  Oekonomie.'  Though 
regarding  Dr.  List's  'desultory '  treatise  as  '  a 
theory  of  trade  unworthy  of  grave  criticism,' 
he  refuted  it  with  unsparing  thoroughness. 
To  see  his  copy  of  List's  work  preserved  in  the 
Austin  collection  in  the  Inner Tem])le  Library 
— the  book  copiously  annotated  in  a  bold,  clear 
hand,  and  scored  us  a  lawyer  might  score  his 
brief — is  to  get  an  idea  of  the  conscientious 
zeal  which  Austin  carried  into  all  he  executed. 
Austin  was  at  this  time  under  the  spell  of 
Gennan  scholarship,  and  he  wrote  with 
fervour  of  his  obligation  to  a  land  in  which 
he  and  his  wife  had  so  long  lived.  '  German a=- 
is  one  of  the  countries  which  we  respect 
the  most,  and  to  which  we  are  the  most 
attracted,  having  found  in  the  Avorks  of , 
her  philosophers,  her  historians,  and  her 
scholars,  exhaustless  mines  of  knoAvledge 
and  instruction,  and  exhaustless  power  of 
pleasure  or  consolation.  Above  all  we  ad- 
mire the  spirit  of  comprehensive  humanity  , 
which  generally  comes  through  the  writings  : 
of  her  classical  authors  ;  and  it  is  one  of  the  ' 
causes  of  quarrel  with  Dr.  List  that  he  la- 
bours to  diffuse  a  spirit  of  exclusive  and  bar- 
barous nationality  in  the  country  of  Leibnitz, 
Kant,  and  Lessing.'  To  the  '  Edinburgh 
Review '  of  January  1847  he  contributed  an 
elaborate  ai-ticle  on  centralisation.  Taking 
as  his  text  'De  la  Centralisation,'  by  Timon, 
and  other  French  works,  he  endeaAoured  to 
dissipate  the  crowd  of  fallacies  which  had 
gathered  round  the  idea  of  centralisation. 
He  sought  to  clear  up  certain  ideas  concerning 
it,  and,  among  them,  the  confusion  between 
centralisation  and  over-government,  and  the 
common  assumption  that  the  former  is  in- 
compatible with  free  or  popular  government, 
or  local  government  of  popular  origin.  The 
article  concluded  with  two  suggestions  still 
well  worthy  of  consideration — one  that  the 
function  of  private  or  specific  legislation 
ought  to  be  delegated  to  subordinate  judicial 
functionaries;  the  other  that  there  should 
be  a  permanent  commission,  composed  of  ex- 
perienced lawyers,  Avhose  business  it  would 
be  to  examine  and  repoi-t  upon  bills  sub- 
mitted to  either  house  of  parliament. 

Li  1844-48  Austin  lived  in  Paris.  Shortly 
after  his  an-ival  he  was  made  by  the  Institute 
a  corresponding  member  of  the  moral  and 
political  class.  Driven  from  France  by  the 
revolution,  he  settled  with  his  wife  at  Wey- 
bridge  in  Surrey,  where  they  took  a  '  long, 


low  rambling  old  house,'  and  there  the 
remainder  of  his  days  was  spent  in  retire- 
ment. It  was  the  happiest  period  of  his  life. 
His  interest  in  jurisprudence,  political  ec<^ 
nomy,  and  politics  was  undiminished.  lie  fol- 
lowed the  course  of  events  with  unflagging 
interest.  The  coi^p  d'etat  deeply  excited  hi* 
wrath,  and  Napoleon  III  was  an  especial  ob- 
ject of  aversion  to  him.  '  I  can  see  him  now,' 
WTites  a  relative,  'with  his  magnificent  hazel 
eyes  flashing  as  he  struck  the  table  with  his 
fist,  saying  "  By  God,  sir,  he  is  a  scoundrel ! " ' 
Dissatisfied  with  all  he  did,  Austin  wrote' 
little.  He  could  not  even  be  induced  to  pre- 
pare a  second  edition  of  his  work  on  juris- 
prudence. In  1859  he  Avrote  an  article  in- 
tended as  a  review  in  one  of  the  quarterlies 
of  Earl  Grey's  book  on  '  Parliamentary  Re- 
form.' It  was  rejected  by  the  editor,  and  he 
published  it  as  a  pamphlet  under  the  title  of 
'  A  Plea  for  the  Constitution.'  It  was  an  acute 
defence  of  theEnglish  const  itut  ion  as  it  existed 
and  a  warning  of  the  danger  of  widening  the 
suffrage  and  putting  political  poAver  into  the 
hands  of  people  Avho  Avere  not  fit  to  use  it. 
'  It  Avill  be  remarked,'  he  says  in  a  sentence 
in  the  preface,  aa-IucIi  strikes  the  keynote  of 
the  pamphlet, '  by  those  Avho  do  me  the  honour 
of  reading  the  essay,  that  the  consequences  I 
anticipate  from  any  parliamentary  reform  are 
all  of  them  mischieAOUs.'  The  Avhole  essay 
indicates  that  Austin's  political  opinions  had 
been  much  influenced  by  his  residence  abroad  j 
that  the  '  insane  '  revolution  of  1848  had  in- 
spired him  AA'ith  dread  of  democracy,  and  that 
he  had  abandoned  most  of  the  political  ideas 
of  Bentham  and  the  radical  friends  of  his 
youth.  He  died  in  December  1859,  just  as 
his  principles  with  respect  to  codification  were 
triumphing  in  India.  His  death  w^as  little 
noted ;  eA'en  the  legal  journals  of  the  time  did 
not  mention  it ;  and  Mr.  J.  S.  Mill's  article 
in  the  '  Edinburgh  RevieAv '  of  October  1863 
AA'as  the  first  intimation  to  the  majority  eA  en 
of  English  hiAvyers  that  they  had  lost  a  great 
jurist.  In  1861  his  Avidow  edited  a  new 
edition  of  the  '  Province  of  Jurisprudence,' 
and  added  to  it  a  preface,  in  AA'hich  she  told 
the  chief  facts  of  her  husband's  life  with  much 
pathos.  Two  years  afterwards  she  published 
two  volumes  of  his  lectures,  or  such  remains, 
of  them  as  she,  AAdth  remarkable  sagacity  and 
zeal,  could  discover.  She  was  engaged  in 
preparing  another  edition  when  she  died,  and 
the  work  was  completed  by  IMr.  Robert  Camp- 
bell. "  The  record  of  Austin's  life  is,  in  many 
respects,  one  of  failure  and  disappointment. 
'I  Avas  bom  out  of  time  and  place,'  he  himself 
said.  '  I  ought  to  have  been  a  schoolman  of  the 
tAA-elfth  century  or  a  German  professor.'  Asked 
why  he  did  not  do  more  for  his  brother,  the 


Austin 


268 


Austin 


brilliant  and  successful  Charles  Austin  said : 
'John  is  much  cleverer  than  I,  but  he  is  al- 
ways knocking  his  head  against  principles.' 
He  found  for  his  teaching  no  appreciative 
public.  When  first  published  his  '  Province 
of  Jurisprudence'  was  little  noticed.  The 
hope  expressed  in  one  of  his  lectures  that 
laymen  Avould  come  to  take  an  interest  in 
jurisprudence  was  crushed  by  his  failure  to 
procure  the  attention  even  of  lawyers. 
Abroad  he  was,  and  still  is,  little  known. 
His  name  is  not  found  in  such  a  work  as 
*Holtzendorli''s  Rechts-Lexicon,'  which  con- 
tains notices  of  almost  every  obscure  me- 
diaeval jurist;  and  German  jurists  still  con- 
found law  proper  with  morality,  as  if  he  had 
never  written.  It  is  doubtful  whether  he 
even  made  in  the  last  forty-two  years  of  his 
life,  by  his  profession,  by  his  pen,  or  as  a  lec- 
turer, a  hundred  pounds.  The  end  of  his  life 
was,  to  use  his  wife's  words,  one  of  obscure 
and  honourable  poverty.  There  is  no  reason, 
however,  to  lay  the  blame  of  this  neglect 
solely  upon  an  inappreciative  generation. 
He  was  not  well  equipped  for  active  work. 
Outwardly  austere,  he  had  also  a  softness  of 
nature  which  unfitted  him  for  the  battle  of 
life.  His  friend,  John  Stuart  Mill,  who 
has  sketched  his  character  with  kindly  but 
truthful  touches,  points  out  one  signal  weak- 
ness when  he  says:  'The  strength  of  Avill 
of  which  his  manner  seemed  to  give  such 
.strong  assurance  expended  itself  principally 
in  manner.  He  spent  so  much  time  and  ex- 
ertion on  superfluous  study  and  thought  that, 
when  his  work  ought  to  have  been  completed, 
he  had  generally  worked  himself  into  an  ill- 
ness without  having  finished  what  he  under- 
took.' His  style,  too,  militated  against  him. 
It  was  clear,  and  occasionally  eloquent ;  but 
it  abounded  in  repetitions  and  amplifications 
which,  however  suitable  in  an  instrument 
settled  by  an  equity  draftsman,  Avere  repul- 
sive even  to  intelligent  readers.  Though  a 
brilliant  talker  —  Macaulay  said  that  he 
scarcely  knew  his  superior — he  wrote  in  a 
manner  which  repelled  and  disheartened 
even  his  admirers.  In  some  respects  his 
labours  have  been  as  successful  as  he  could 
have  desired.  He  helped  to  revolutionise 
jurisprudence.  He  found  it,  in  spite  of 
Hobbes's  and  of  Bentham's  labours,  an  un- 
digested mass  of  loose  theories  and  vague  ter- 
minology. The  late  Mr.  Phillimore,  speaking 
of  the  terminology  used  by  English  lawyers, 
compares  it  with  too  much  appropriateness 
to  *  the  gabble  of  bushmen  in  a  craal.'  Austin 
introduced  exactness  of  thought  and  expres- 
sion. He  gave  to  such  terms  as '  law,'  *  status,' 
*  sovereignty,'  a  degree  of  precision  unknown 
before.     He  clearly  distinguished  law  proper 


from  objects  to  Avhich,  by  metaphor  or  ana- 
logy, it  is  extended.  He  showed  the  relation 
of  custom  to  law.  He  described  the  nature 
of  judicial  legislation  and  its  disadvantages 
without  repeating  Bentham's  exaggerated  vi- 
tuperation. Xot  the  least  of  Austin's  services 
is  that  he  gave  a  great  impetus  to  the  work  of 
codification.  It  is  inaccurate  to  speak  of  his 
main  doctrines  as  truisms.  The  best  proof 
of  this  is  that  they  are  still  unknown  to,  or 
opposed  by,  the  chief  jurists  of  Gennany  and 
France.  A  reaction  against  his  teaching  has, 
it  is  true,  begun.  Sir  Henry  Maine  and  other 
students  of  law  from  its  historical  side  have 
criticised  his  conception  of  law  —  general 
commands  of  a  superior  enforced  by  sanctions 
— as  inapplicable  to  much  that  should  form 
part  of  jurisprudence;  and  the  tendency  is 
to  extend  that  science  beyond  positive  law, 
to  which  he  Avould  confine  it.  It  is  said  that 
he  did  not  take  sufficient  account  of  the 
genesis  of  law.  He  confined  the  domain  of 
positive  law  to  '  law  set  by  a  sovereign  body 
of  persons,  to  a  member  of  the  independent 
political  society  wherein  that  person  or  body 
is  sovereign  or  supreme.'  Having  regard  to 
Austin's  definitions  of  sovereign  and  political 
society,  it  is  often  objected  that  he  Avould 
exclude  from  jurisprudence  law  as  known  in 
all  barbarous  and  semi-barbarous  and  not  a 
few  civilised  societies.  It  is  also  urged  that 
his  account  of  customary  law  as  being  either 
positive  morality  or  law  properly  so  called, 
only  by  reason  of  its  being  the  command  of 
the  sovereign,  is  violently  at  variance  with 
facts.  There  is  not  universal  agreement  as 
to  the  accuracy  of  his  criticisms  on  the  clas- 
sification of  Gains  and  Justinian.  It  is  often 
also  objected  that  he  who  sought  to  confine 
jurisprudence  to  its  true  domain  too  fre- 
quently diverges  into  the  region  of  politics, 
religion,  or  ethics.  But  his  work  Juis  stood 
I'emarkably  well  the  test  of  criticism.  The 
majority  of  the  objections  to  Austin's  method 
and  conclusions  come  to  little  more  than  a 
contention  that  jurisprudence  may  with  ad- 
vantage be  studied  historically  as  well  as 
analytically,  and  that  a  large  class  of  facts 
excluded  by  his  definition  from  that  science 
must  always  have  especial  interest  for  the 
jurist. 

[Austin's  Introduction  to  Lectures  on  Juris- 
prudence; Mill's  Autol)iography;  Parliamentary 
Papers  for  1839,  vol.  xvii. ;  Times  12  Aug.  1867  ; 
Mrs.  Ross's  Preface  to  Lady  Duff  Grordou's  Let- 
ters from  Egypt.]  •  J.  M-i.. 

AUSTIN,  EGBERT,  D.D.  {Jl.  1644), 
puritan  divine,  published  in  1644  a  tract, 
entitled  '  Allegiance  not  impeached,  viz.  by 
the  Parliament's  taking  up  of  Arms  (though 


Austin     \ 


269 


Austin 


against  the  King's  Personall  Commands)  for 
the  just  Defence  of  the  Kings  Person,  Crown, 
and  Dignity,  the  Laws  of  the  Land,  Liberties 
of  the  Subject,  &c.,' 4to.  In  an 'address  to 
the  reader,'  the  author  protests  that  he  had 
lost  much  by  siding  with  tlie  parliament ; 
that  he  had  been  actuated  solely  by  motives 
of  patriotism  in  publishing  his  views  to  the 
world ;  and  that  he  looked  forward  to  the 
time  when  the  king  would  '  return  in  safety, 
and  his  throne  be  established  in  judgment 
and  in  justice.'  In  1647  Austin  published 
*  The  Parliaments  Rules  and  Directions  con- 
cerning Sacramental  Knowledge  drawn  into 
Questions  and  Answers,'  a  duodecimo  of 
eight  leaves. 


[Works.] 


A.  H.  B. 


AUSTIN,  SAMUEL,  the  elder  {ft.  1629), 
religious  poet,  was  the  son  of  Thomas  Austin, 
Esq.,  of  Lostwithiel,  Cornwall.  He  entered 
Exeter  College,  Oxford,  in  1623,  at  the  age  of 
seventeen,  took  the  degree  of  B.A.  in  1627, 
and  that  of  M.A.  in  1630,  *  about  which  time, 
being  numbered  with  the  Levites,'  he  '  was 
beneficed  in  his  own  country '  (Wood,  Athen. 
Oxon.  ed.  Bliss,  ii.  499).  At  Oxford  he  spent 
much  time  in  composing  a  long  poem  on 
scriptural  subjects,  Avhich  was  given  to  the 
Avorld  in  1029  under  the  title  of  '  Austin's 
Urania,  or  the  Heavenly  Muse,'  8vo.  In  the 
dedication  to  Dr.  Prideaux,  rector  of  Exeter 
College,  the  author  describes  the  difficulties 
under  which  the  book  was  written  :  '  If  you 
knew  but  the  painesi  have  sutfer'd  in  travell 
hereof,  how  many  precious  houres  and  dayes 
I  have  detain'd  from  those  sports  and  vanities 
which  are  common  to  others ;  yea,  how  much 
time  I  have  stolne  from  my  other  private 
studies  (which  lay  of  necessitie  on  mee  in 
this  place),  and  sacred  them  only  to  this  .  .  . 
in  briefe,  what  heavy  and  hard  conflicts,  and 
what  a  tedious  travell  I  have  had  (as  God 
knowes)  in  the  producing  of  it,  I  dare  pro- 
mise my  selfe  it  would  make  your  yielding 
heart  e'en  bleed  to  thinkeon't.  .  .  .  But  now 
(thankes  bee  to  my  God)  I  have  at  length 
finished  it.'  Such  prefatory  words  as  these 
do  not  tempt  the  reader  to  proceed  ;  but  on 
the  next  page  is  a  most  interesting  address 
in  verse  to  '  my  ever  honoured  friends,  those 
most  refined  wits  and  favourers  of  most  ex- 
quisite learning,  Mr.  M.  Drayton,  Mr.  Will. 
Browne,  and  my  most  ingenious  kinsman, 
Mr.  Andrew  Pollexfen.'  It  is  pleasant  to 
see  with  what  affection  and  respect  this  de- 
vout young  aspirant  to  poetic  honours  ad- 
dresses the  authors  of  the  '  Polyolbion  '  and 
of  *  Britannia's  Pastorals,'  and  implores  them 
to  neglect  the  rural  Pan  and  sing  the  praises 
of  Divine  Providence.     Was  it  in  answer  to 


this  appeal  that  Michael  Drayton,  in  1630, 
when  publishing  his  *  Muses'  Elysium,'  ap- 
pended to  the  dainty  pastorals,  as  leaden 
weights  to  drag  them  down,  his  '  Noah'» 
Floud'  and  'David  and  Goliath'?  The 
'  Urania '  itself  is  not  so  poor  as  one  would 
have  supposed  from  the  author's  admissions 
in  the  dedication.  Book  i.  describes  the  Fall 
of  Man,  and  book  ii.  deals  with  the  Redemp- 
tion. The  verse  runs  fluently,  and  is  not 
disfigiu'ed  by  harsh  grammatical  construc- 
tions. Evidently  the  Avriter  had  given  a 
close  study  to  '  Britannia's  Pastorals ; '  but 
though  there  is  little  to  blame,  there  is  little 
to  commend,  and  Ave  must  be  content  to  ad- 
mire the  piety  rather  than  the  poetry  of 
Austin's  '  Urania.' 

[Wood,  Athen.  Oxon.  ed.  Bliss,  ii.  499 ; 
Corser's  Collectanea,  i.  85-90  ;  Boase  and  Court- 
ney, Biblioth.  Cornub.  i.  8.]  A.  H.  B. 

AUSTIN,  SAMUEL,  the  younger 
{Jl.  1658),  poetical  writer,  inherited  little  of 
his  father's  humility,  and  seems,  indeed,  to 
have  been  an  arrant  coxcomb.  He  became 
a  commoner  of  Wadham  College,  Oxford,  in 
1652,  took  his  B.A.  degi-ee  in  1656,  and 
afterwards  migrated  to  Cambridge.  At  Ox- 
ford he  made  a  laughing-stock  of  himself  by 
his  inordinate  self-conceit.  Wood  is  very 
severe  on  him  :  '  Such  was  the  vanity  of  this 
person  that  he,  being  extremely  conceited  of 
his  own  worth,  and  overvaluing  his  poetical 
fancy  more  than  that  of  Cleveland,  who  was 
then  accounted  the  "  hectoring  prince  of 
poets,"  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  satyrical 
wits  of  this  university,  who,  having  got 
some  of  his  prose  and  poetry,  served  him  as 
the  wits  did  Tho.  Coryat  in  his  time.'  These 
pieces  of  verse  and  prose,  rendered  more  ri- 
diculous by  grotesque  alterations  and  addi- 
tions, were  published  in  1658  '  by  express 
order  fi-om  the  Wits,'  under  the  title  of  '  Naps 
upon  Parnassus;  a  sleepy  Muse  nipt  and 
pincht,  though  not  awakened.'  A  number  of 
satirical  commendatory  verses  is  prefixed, 
among  the  contributors  to  which  Avere 
Thomas  Flatman,  fellow  of  New  College; 
Thomas  Sprat,  of  Wadham  College,  after- 
wards bishop  of  Rochester ;  George  Castle,  of 
All  Souls' ;  Alexander  Amidei,  a  JeAv  and 
teacher  of  Hebrew  at  Oxford ;  Sylvanus  Tay- 
lour,  of  All  Souls',  and  others.  At  the  re- 
storation of  Charles  II,  Austin  came  before 
the  public  with  a  fulsome  '  Panegyrick ' 
(1661).  Luckily  this  awkward  attempt  in 
the  Pindaric  measure  fell  stillborn  from  the 
press.  In  a  prefatory  note  to  the '  Panegyrick ' 
he  threatens  that  '  the  author,  according  as 
these  find  acceptance,  intends  a  larger  book 
of  poems.'    Then  he  enumerates  the  subjects 


Austin 


270 


Austin 


that  he  intends  to  take  in  hand,  among  which 
are  '  Christ's  Love  to  liis  Church,  shadowed 
out  in  Joseph  and  Potiphar's  Daughter  in  a 
familiar  Dialogue  betwixt  them,'  '  Two 
Ijovers  in  one  Heart,'  '  The  Young  3Iau's 
.speech  to  a  silent  Woman,'  &c.  AVhat  be- 
came of  him  after  the  publication  of  the 
*  Panegyrick  '  is  not  known. 

[Wood,  Athen.  Oxon.  ed.  Bliss,  ii.  499,  iii. 
675 ;  Cursor's  Collectanea,  i.  90-93  ;  Boase  and 
Courtney,  Bihlioth.  Cornul).  i.  8.]       A.  H.  B. 

AUSTIN,  SAMUEL  {d.  1834),  water- 
colour  painter,  was  a  native  of  Liverpool. 
lie  commenced  life  as  a  banker's  clerk,  but 
eventually  gave  up  a  good  position  in  order 
to  devote  himself  entirely  to  the  art  in  which 
lie  had  excelled  as  an  amateur,  and  of  which 
he  was  enthusiastically  fond.  He  exhibited 
Avater-colour  drawmgs  at  the  Society  of 
British  Artists  from  1824  to  1826,  and  from 
1 827  at  the  annual  exhibitions  of  the  Society 
of  Painters  in  Water-Colours,  of  which  body 
he  was  elected  an  associate  in  the  last-named 
year.  lie  painted  landscapes,  and  occasionally 
rustic  figui'es :  but  his  best  Avorks  were  coast 
scenes,  introducing  boats  and  figures,  some  of 
which  were  from  sketches  in  Holland,  France, 
and  on  the  Rhine.  An  example  of  his  work, 
'  Shakespeare's  Cliff,  Dover,  with  Luggers  on 
the  Beach,'  is  in  the  South  Kensington  Mu- 
seum. A  '  View  of  Dort '  has  been  engraved 
after  him  by  William  Miller.  He  died  at 
Liverpool  in  July  1834. 

[Redgrave's  Dictionary  of  Artists  of  the 
English  School,  1878;  Society  of  Briti.«h  Artists, 
Exhibition  Catalogues,  1824-6;  Society  of 
Painters  in  Water-Colours,  Exhibition  Cata- 
logues, 1827-34.]  E.  E.  G. 

AUSTIN,  SARAH  (1793-1867),  transla- 
tor, wife  of  .John  Austin  the  jurist,  was  born 
at  Norwich  in  1 793.  Her  father,  .John  Taylor, 
a  yam  maker  of  that  city,  and  a  descendant  of 
John  Taylor,  a  celebrated  divine,  was  a  man 
of  literary  tastes.  Her  mother,  whose  maiden 
name  was  Susaniia  Cook,  was  accomplished 
and  beautiful.  Sai-ah  Austin,  who  was  the 
youngest  of  her  family,  received  an  excel- 
lent education  under  the  direction  of  her 
mother.  She  was  remarkably  handsome  and 
attractive,  and  it  caused  some  sui-prise  in 
Norwich  when  she  married  the  grave  .John 
Austin  [see  Austix,  John].  The  marriage, 
which  took  place  in  1820,  was  a  union  of 
rare  intellectual  sympathy,  and  one  to  which 
she  brought  an  unusual  share  of  devotion. 
During  the  first  years  of  their  maiTied  life 
they  lived  in  Queen's  Square,  Westminster. 
Mrs.  Austin's  stately  yet  charming  manners, 
her  talk  always  full  of  information,  interest- 


ing and  sensible,  if  not  brilliant,  and  her 
many-sided  nature  made  her  many  warm 
friends.  The  younger  Mill  testified  the 
esteem  Avhich  he  felt  for  her  by  the  title  of 
Mutter,  by  which  he  always  addressed  her. 
The  only  child  of  the  marriage,  Lucie  (after- 
wards Lady  Duff  Gordon),  was  born  in  1821. 
Her  husband's  scanty  measure  of  success 
stimulated  Mrs.  Austin's  literaiy  labours, 
and  for  many  years  she  was  unceasingly 
busy  with  her  pen.  In  1833  she  pub- 
lished *  Selections  from  the  Old  Testament,' 
arranged  under  heads  to  illustrate  the  reli- 
gion, morality,  and  poetry  of  the  Hebrew 
Scriptures.  '  My  sole  object  has  been,'  she 
wrote  in  the  preface,  Ho  put  together  all 
that  presented  itself  to  my  own  heart  and 
mind  us  most  persuasive,  consolatory,  or  ele- 
vating, in  such  a  form  and  order  as  to  be 
easy  of  reference,  conveniently  arranged  and 
divided,  and  freed  from  matter  either  hard 
to  be  understood,  unattractive,  or  unprofit- 
able (to  say  the  least)  for  young  and  pure, 
eyes.'  In  the  same  year  she  published  one 
of  the  many  admirable  translations  b}^  which 
she  is  best  known :  '  Characteristics  of  Goethe 
from  the  German  of  Falk,  Von  Miiller,  and 
others,'  with  valuable  original  notes,  illus- 
trative of  German  literature.  Her  own  criti- 
cisms are  few,  but  they  are  excellent,  and 
are  marked  by  that  temperance  and  good 
sense  which  distinguished  every  line  she 
wrote. 

In  1834  she  translated  '  The  Story  with- 
out an  End '  by  Carove,  and  this  admirable 
translation  has  since  been  often  republished. 
In  the  same  year  she  translated  the  famous 
report  on  the  '  State  of  Public  Instruction 
in  Prussia,'  addressed  by  Cousin  to  Count 
Montalivet,  minister  of  public  instruction. 
In  the  preface  she  pleads  eloquently  for  the 
cause  of  national  education.  '  Society,'  she 
says,  'is  no  longer  a  calm  current,  but  a 
tossing  sea;  reverence  for  tradition, for  autho- 
rity, is  gone.  In  such  a  state  of  things  who 
can  deny  the  absolute  necessity  of  national 
education  .P'  In  1839  she  returned  to  the 
same  subject  in  a  pamphlet,  originally  pub- 
lished in  a  short-lived  periodical,  Coclirane's 
'  Foreign  Quarterly  Review.'  Arguing  from 
the  experience  of  Prussia  and  France,  she 
urged  the  establishment  in  England  of  a 
national  system  of  education.  One  of  her 
last  publications  (18.59)  consisted  of  two  let- 
tei's  addressed  to  the  '  Athenaeum '  on  girls' 
schools  and  on  the  training  of  working 
women.  In  these  she  shows  that  she  had 
modified  her  opinions.  Speaking  of  the  old 
village  schools,  she  admits  that  the  teachers 
possessed  little  book  lore.  They  were  often 
widows   'better  versed    in    the    toils    and 


Austin 


271 


Austin 


troubles  of  life  than  in  cliemistrj'  or  astro- 
nomy. .  .  .  But  the  wiser  among  them  taught 
1  he  great  lessons  of  obedience,  reverence  for 
lionoured  eld,  industry,  neatness,  decent 
n-der,  and  other  virtues  of  their  sex  and 
•  tations,' and  trained  their  pupils  to  be  the 
wives  of  working  men.  In  1827  Mrs.  Austin 
went  with  her  husband  to  Germany  and 
settled  in  Bonn.  She  collected  in  her  long 
residence  abroad  materials  for  her  Avork, 
■  Germany  from  1760  to  1814,'  which  was 
published  in  1854.  Some  chapters  of  it 
had  previously  appeared  as  articles  in  the 
'Edinburgh  Keview'and  the  'British  and 
Foreign  KevieAv.'  This  book,  by  which  she 
is  best  known,  still  holds  its  place  as  an  in- 
teresting and  thoughtful  survey  of  German 
institutions  and  manners.  In  the  autumn 
of  1836  she  accompanied  her  husband  to 
Malta,  busying  herself  while  there  with  in- 
vestigations into  the  remains  of  Maltese  art. 
On  their  return  from  that  ishind,  she  and 
her  husband  went  to  Gernumy.  Thence  they 
passed  to  Paris,  Avhere  they  remained  until 
they  were  driven  home  bv  the  revolution  of 
1848.  In  1840  she  translatec\  Ranke's  '  His- 
tory of  the  Popes,'  which  was  warmly 
praised  by  Lord  Macaulay  and  Dean  ]Milman. 
When  this  translation  was  published,  her 
intimate  friend  Sir  George  C.  Lewis  wrote 
to  her  saying,  '  Murray  is  very  desirous  that 
you  should  undertake  some  original  work. 
Do  you  feel  a  Bervf  of  this  sort  ?  '  But  she 
did  not  feel  such  a  Beruf;  most  of  her  sub- 
.sequent  works  consisted  of  translations.  In 
1861  she  wrote,  as  a  preface  to  a  new  edi- 
tion of  '  The  Province  of  Jurisprudence  de- 
termined,' a  memoir  of  her  husband  full  of 
pathos.  From  that  time  to  1863  she  was 
laboriously  engaged  in  preparing  for  the 
press  a  large  mass  of  manuscript  notes  of 
his  lectures,  and  in  that  year  appeared 
'  Lectui'es  on  Jurisprudence,  or  the  Science 
of  Positive  Law.'  She  was  meditating  the 
preparation  of  a  new  edition  when  she  died 
<m  8  Aug.  1867  at  Weybridge  from  an  acute 
attack  of  heart  disease.  Sarah  Austin  did 
not  possess  genius,  but  all  she  Avrote  is 
marked  by  nice  discrimination  and  the  touch 
of  the  true  literary  artist.  Her  style  is 
clear,  unaffected,  and  forcible.  She  had  a 
high  standard  of  the  duties  of  a  translator, 
and  she  sought  to  conform  rigorously  to  it. 
'It  has  been  my  invariable  ])ractice,'  she 
herself  said,  '  as  soon  as  I  have  engaged  to 
translate  a  work,  to  write  to  the  author  of 
it,  announcing  my  intention,  and  adding 
that  if  he  has  any  correction,  omission,  or 
addition  to  make,  he  might  depend  on  my 
paying  attention  to  his  suggestions.'  She  did 
much  to  make  the  best  minds  of  Germany 


familiar  to  Englishmen,  and  she  left  a  lite- 
rary reputation  due  as  much  to  her  conver- 
sation and  wide  correspondence  Avith  illus- 
trious men  of  letters  as  to  her  works. 

The  following  isalist  of  her  principal  works, 
besides  those  already  named:  1.  'Translation 
of  a  Tour  in  England,  Ireland,  and  France 
by  a  German  Prince,' 1832.  2.  'Translation  of 
Kaumer's  England  in  1835,' 1836.  3.  'Ranke's 
History  of  the  Popes,'  1840.  4.  'P'ragments 
from  German  Prose  Writers,'  1841.  5.  '  Ts  ie- 
buhr's  Stories  of  the  Gods  and  Heroes  of 
Greece,'  1843.  «.  '  Ranke's  History  of  the 
Reformation  in  Germany,'  1845.  7.  '  Trans- 
lation of  Guizot  on  the  Causes  of  the  Success 
of  the  English  ReA^olution,'  1850.  8.  '  Let- 
ters of  Sydney  Smith,'  1855  (second  volume 
of  Lady  Holland's  Life  and  Letters).  9. '  Me- 
moirs of  tlie  Duchess  of  Orleans,'  1859. 
10.  'Lady  Duff  Gordon's  Letters  from  Egypt,' 
edited  by  Mrs.  Austin,  1865. 

[John  Stuart  Mill's  Autobiography ;  Sir  George 
C.  Lewis's  Letters;  Times,  12  Aug.  1867  ;  Athe- 
ngeuni,  August  1867.]  J.  M-i,. 

AUSTIN,  WILLIAM  (1587-1634),  mis- 
cellaneous AAa-iter,  Avas  a  barrister  of  Lin- 
coln's Inn,  and  resided  for  many  years  in 
SouthAvark,  Avhere  he  acquired  a  great  local 
reputation.  His  works,  which  are  mainly  of 
a  religious  character,  Avere  all  published  pos- 
thumously, but  in  his  lifetime  he  distributed 
copies  of  them  among  his  friends,  among 
Avhom  he  reckoned  James  HoAvell,  the  author 
of  the  '  Epistolje  Ho-Elianse,'  and  his  neigh- 
bour, EdAA-ard  Alleyn,  the  founder  of  Dul- 
Avich  College.  Austin's  name  appeared,  Avith 
those  of  the  chief  contemporaiy  men  of  let- 
ters, on  the  proposed  list  of  members  of  the 
Royal  Academy  of  Literature,  projected  in 
1620,  but  subsequently  abandoned  {Archceo- 
logia,  xxxii.  142).  In  a  letter  dated  20  Aug. 
1628  HoAvell  thanks  Austin  in  extraAagant 
terms  for '  that  excellent  poem  .  .  .  upon  the 
Passion  of  Christ '  AA'hich  '  transported  mtj 
into  a  true  Elysium,'  and  urges  him  to  pub- 
lish 'the  other  precious  pieces  of  yours  which 
you  have  been  pleased  to  impart  unto  me ' 
{Epist.  Ho-EI.  bk.  i.  sect.  5,  §  12).  But  Aus- 
tin died  on  16  Jan.  1633—4  at  the  age  of 
forty-seven  Avithout  having  followed  liis 
friend's  advice.  He  was  buried  in  the  parish 
church  of  St.  Mary  Overy  or  St.  Saviour's, 
Southwark,  on  which  he  and  his  family  had 
bestowed  many  rich  gifts  (Stoav,  Survey  of 
London  (1633),  453  b).  An  elaborate  monu- 
ment still  stands  aboA^e  his  grave.  It  bears 
a  curious  inscription,  and  was  erected  by 
Austin  himself  from  his  OAvn  designs  to  the 
memory  of  his  first  wife. 

In  1635  there  appeared  a  folio  volume  en- 


Austin 


272 


Austin 


titled  'Devotionis  Aug'ustinianne  Flamma,  or 
Certayne  Devovit,  Godly,  and  Learned  Medita- 
tions: written  by  the  Excelently  Acomplisht 
Gentleman,  William  Austin  of  Lincolnes 
Inne,  Esq[uier.'  The  title-page,  which  contains 
an  admirably  engraved  portrait  of  the  author, 
states  that  the  work  had  been  *  set  forth 
after  his  decease  by  his  deare  Avife  and  exe- 
cutrix, Mrs.  Anne  Austin.'  Tlie  book  opens 
with  a  meditation  for  Lady  day,  written  in 
1621,  and  closes  with  a  funeral  sermon  in 
prose,  and  an  epicedivim  or  funeral  dirge  in 
verse,  composed  by  Austin  for  himself,  in 
which  he  deplores  the  loss  of  his  first  wife 
and  many  of  his  children.  Two  series  of 
poems,  entitled  respectively  '  Carols  for 
Christmas  Day '  and  '  Meditations  for  Good 
Friday,'  are  included  in  the  volume,  and  to 
the  latter  Howell  probably  referred  in  the 
letter  already  noticed.  Almost  every  page 
of  the  book  displays  a  wide  knowledge  of  the 
Bible  and  patristic  literature,  and  justifies  to 
some  extent  a  friend's  estimate  of  Austin  as 
*  a  gentleman  highly  approved  for  his  religion, 
learning,  and  exquisite  ingenuity.'  A  second 
edition  of  the  '  Meditations  '  was  published 
in  1637,  and  its  success  encouraged  Austin's 
friends  to  produce  in  the  same  year  another 
of  his  works  entitled  '  Hfec  Homo,  wherein 
the  Excellency  of  the  Creation  of  Woman  is 
described  by  way  of  an  Essay,'  12mo.  The 
book  consists  of  dreary  scholastic  disquisi- 
tions based  on  scriptural  and  classical  quota- 
tions, and  is  said  to  have  been  suggested  by 
Agrippa's  '  De  Nobilitate  et  Prsecellentia  Fce- 
minei  Sexus.'  It  is  inscribed  to  '  Mistresse 
Mary  Griffith,'  to  whom  the  editors  refer  as 
the  author's  '  paterne.'  Before  1671,  a  third 
work  of  Austin's,  a  translation  of  Cicero's 
'  Cato  Maior,  or  the  Book  of  Old  Age  .  .  , 
with  annotations  upon  the  men  and  places,' 
12mo,  was  published  by  a  London  stationer 
into  whose  hands  the  manuscript  had  acci- 
dentally fallen.  It  reached  a  second  edition 
in  1671,  and  a  third  in  1684. 

[Corser's  Collectanea  Anglo-Poetica,  i.  94 ; 
Lowndes's  Bibliographers'  Manual ;  Prefatory 
Addresses  in  Austin's  Hsec  Homo  and  Cato  Maior; 
Eendle's  Old  South wark,  pp.  188-90;  Le  Neve, 
Monumenta  Anglieana,  1600-49,  p.  146;  Stew's 
Survey  of  London,  ed.  Strype,  ii.  15.]  S.  L.  L. 

AUSTIN,  WILLIAM  {fi.  1662),  a  writer 
of  verse  and  classical  scholar,  was  the  son  of 
William  Austin,  the  religious  writer,  and 
Avas  a  barrister  of  Gray's  Inn.  On  the  mar- 
riage of  Charles  II  with  Catherine  of  Bra- 
ganza,  Austin  wrote  two  poems  to  celebrate 
the  union,  which  were  '  presented  to  their 
majesties'  on  their  passage  down  the  Thames 
from  Hampton  Court  to  Whitehall  (23  Aug. 


1662).    The  first  was  entitled '  A  Joyous  Wel- 
come to  the  most  Serene  and  most  Illustrious 
Queen  of  Brides,  Catherine  the  Royal  Spouse 
and  Consort  of  Charles  II,'  London,  1662 
folio,  and  the  second  '  Triumphus  Hymenfeus, 
London's  solemn  Jubilee  for  the  most  auspi- 
■  cious   Nuptials    of    their   great   Sovereign. 
I  Charles   the  Second,'   London,    1662,   folio. 
I  Both  poems  were  elaborately  printed,  and 
are  now  highly  prized  as  bibliographical  rari- 
ties.   They  are  full  of  bombastic  eulogy,  and 
are    crowded  with   classical   allusions,   ex- 
plained in   voluminous  and  learned   notes. 
In  an  address  to  the  reader  Austin  not  in- 
aptly refers  to  his  work   as   '  this   tliatcht 
i  Tugurium  of  Poesie.'     In  1664  he  produced 
\  a  doggerel  poem  of  similar  calibre,  bearing 
i  the   title   of  'Atlas   under   Olympus.     An 
I  Heroick  Poem  by  William  Austin,  of  Gray's 
Inn,  Esq.    London,  printed  for  the  author, 
1664,'  8vo.     It  was  dedicated  to  Charles  II 
and  Monck,  duke  of  Albemarle,  and  was  a 
fulsome  paneygric  upon  their  achievements. 
Almost  every  line  is  based  on  a  classical 
quotation,  which  is  printed  in  each  case  at 
the  foot  of  the  page.    Austin's  most  readable 
production  is  a  prosaic  description  in  verse 
of  the  plague  of  London.     Its  title  runs: 
'  'ETTtkoliJiia  ent] "  or  the  Anatomy  of  the  Pesti- 
lence.  A  Poem  in  three  parts,  describing  the 
deplorable  condition  of  the  city  of  London 
under  its  merciless  dominion,  1665.     What 
the  Plague  is,  together  with  the  causes  of  it. 
As  also,  the  Prognosticks  and  most  eftectual 
meanes  of  safety  both  preservative  and  cura- 
tive.    By  William  Austin,  of  Grayes  Inne, 
Esq.'    London,  1666,  Svo.     In  an  address  to 
the  reader  it  is  stated  that  the  poem  was 
written  at  the  request  of  '  very  worthy  per- 
sons in  the  countrey  at  the  time  of  the  sick- 
ness when  the  mortality  in  London '  I'eached 
*  seven  or  eight  thousand  a  week  with  some 
hundreds  over  and  above.'    Although  Austin 
here  dispenses  Avith  classical  allusions  and 
annotations,  he  employs  a  number  of  Latin 
and  Greek  Avords  in  a  slightly  anglicised  form. 
A  poi-trait  of  the  author  is  prefixed  to  the 
A'olume.     Austin  Avas  buried  in  the  parish 
church  of  SouthAvark,  near  the  monument  of 
his  father,  but  tlie  year  of  his  death  is  un- 
certain. 

[Corser's  Collectanea  Anglo-Poet iea,  i.  93-6  ; 
Hnzlitt's  Bibliographical  Collections ;  prefatorj' 
addresses  in  Austin's  Poems  ;  Stow's  Survey  of 
London,  ed.  Strype,  ii.  15.]  S.  L.  L. 

AUSTIN,  WILLIAM  (1754-1793),  a 
physician  of  extensiA'e  practice,  and  author 
of  a  treatise  on  the  stone,  was  born  at  Wotton- 
under-Edge,  in  Gloucestershire,  28  Dec.  1754. 
His  forefathers  for  several  generations  had 


Austin 


273 


Austin 


been  clothiers  in  the  town.  "William  was  the 
youngest  of  eight  children.  After  receiving 
a  classical  education  at  tlie  local  grammar 
school  ho  was  admitted,  in  1 77^,  a  commoner 
of  W'adham  College,  Oxford.  Here  he  began 
the  study  of  Hebrew,  and  had  in  a  short  time 
made  suHicient  progress  to  obtain  an  exhibi- 
tion. In  body  as  well  as  mind  he  was  dis- 
tinguished by  the  extraordinary  energy  which 
he  threw  into  his  pursuits.  He  often  walked 
from  Oxford  to  London  in  a  day,  and,  though 
a  man  of  slender  make,  mowed  an  acre  of 
heavy  grass  in  a  single  day  with  liis  unaided 
scythe.  He  became  a  scholar  of  his  college, 
and,  as  he  had  successfully  studied  Hebrew 
to  obtain  one  exhibition,  now  mastered  botany 
to  gain  another.  His  studies  in  botany  de- 
termined his  choice  of  a  profession  in  the 
direction  of  physic.  He  made,  however,  one 
more  learned  digression,  and,  after  graduating 
B.A.  in  1776,  Avas  elected  assistant  txitor  to 
Dr.  White,  liaudian  professor  of  Arabic. 
After  giving  some  lectures  on  Arabic,  Austin 
in  1779  came  to  London  and  began  his  medical 
studies  in  earnest  at  St.  Bartholomew's  Hos- 
pital. Percival  Pott,  the  famous  surgeon, 
formed  a  high  opinion  of  Austin,  and  said  to 
Earle,  his  colleague :  '  You  will  see  Austin  at 
the  head  of  his  profession.'  Austin  went 
back  to  Oxford,  and  proceeded  M.A.  1780, 
M.B.  1782,  M.l).  1788.  Among  his  many 
tastes  was  one  for  mathematics,  and  in  1781 
he  published  some  remarks  on  Euclid,  Books 
I.  to  VL  In  the  same  year,  and  after  he 
had  begun  to  practise  as  a  physician  at  Ox- 
ford, he  lectured  on  mathematics  during  the 
absence  of  the  Savilian  ])rofessor  of  geometry. 
In  1784  he  planned,  but  did  not  deliver,  a 
course  of  lectures  on  physiology,  and  in  1785 
he  was  elected  professor  of  chemistry.  He 
became  also  physician  to  the  lladclitfe  In- 
firmary. In  1786,  on  a  vacancy  at  St.  Bar- 
tholomew's, Dr.  Austin  was  elected  physician 
to  that  hospital,  and  removed  to  London. 
He  rapidly  acquired  a  large  private  practice, 
but  continued  his  chemical  studies,  and  was 
the  first  to  institute  regular  chemical  lectures 
in  the  school  of  St.  Bartholomew's.  In  1790 
he  delivered  the  Gulstonian  Lectures  at  the 
College  of  Physicians,  of  which  he  had  been 
elected  a  fellow  in  1787.  The  lectures  were 
on  the  stone,  and  were  published  in  1791. 
Dr.  Austin  was  twice  married,  and  left  four 
children  by  Miss  Margaret  Alanson,  his  second 
wife.  He  died  on  21  .Tan.  1793  of  a  rapid 
febrile  disorder.  He  is  known  to  have  written 
sermons,  but  none  of  these  have  been  printed, 
and  his  short  mathematical  treatise  is  not 
now  to  be  found.  Two  papers  (1788  and 
1789)  of  his  on  '  Heavy  Inflammable  Air ' 
■were  read  before  the  Royal  Society  {Phil. 

TOL.    II. 


TrauH.  Ixxx.  51).  His  Gulstonian  Lecture- 
are  printed  as  *  A  Treatise  on  the  Origin  and 
Component  Parts  of  the  Stone  in  the  Urinary 
Bladder'  (London,  1791).  This  work  con- 
tains a  series  of  experiments  made  according 
to  the  defective  chemistry  of  tlieir  time  and 
of  no  permanent  value.  Their  erroneous 
result  is  '  that  the  stone  is  foi-med  generally 
in  very  small  part,  and  often  in  no  degree 
Avhatever,  from  the  urine  as  secreted  by  the 
kidneys,  but  chiefly  from  the  mucus  pro- 
duced from  the  sides  of  the  different  cavities 
through  which  the  urine  passes ; '  and  this  led 
the  author  to  a  melancholy  conclusion  as  to 
a  common  form  of  the  affection :  that  '  those 
who  suffer  this  species  of  the  disorder  must 
either  bear  it  for  life  or  submit  to  a  dreadful 
alternative,  to  an  operation  which  few  sur- 
geons ever  acquire  the  art  of  performing 
dexterously,  and  which,  performed  even  by 
the  most  skilful,  is  by  far  the  most  dangerous 
of  any  that  is  practised  in  surgery.'  The 
imperfect  chemistry  of  his  time  was  sufticient 
to  lead  Austin  to  one  accurate  conclusion, 
the  variety  of  composition  of  hard  concre- 
tions found  throughout  the  body ;  and  he  also 
points  out  correctly  that  the  hard  matter 
found  in  the  arteries  of  old  people  is  cal- 
careous, while  the  white  substance  covering 
the  surface  of  gouty  joints  is  not  so.  His 
last  remark  as  to  lithotomy  led  his  surgical 
colleague,  James  Earle,  to  write  a  defence  of 
the  operation,  in  which  he  states  that  Austin 
aftei-wards  modified  his  gloomy  views  as  to 
the  treatment  of  stone.  Earle  showed  his 
remarks  to  Austin  shortly  before  the  doctor's 
death,  and  is  the  author  of  the  kindly  me- 
moir of  Austin  prefixed  to  'Practical  Ob- 
servations on  the  Operation  for  the  Stone,' 
London,  1796. 

[Ei\rle's  Memoir ;  Mimk's  College  of  Physi- 
cians, ii.  377.]  N.  M. 

AUSTIN,  WILLIAM  (1721-1820),  en- 
graver and  draftsman,  was  born  in  London 
in  1721.  He  was  a  pupil  of  George  Bick- 
ham ;  but  after  having  engraved  a  few  plates, 
chiefly  landscapes  of  no  great  merit,  he  re- 
linqilished  the  practice  of  the  art,  and  de- 
voted the  remainder  of  his  life  to  teaching 
drawing,  first  in  London  and  afterwards  in 
Brighton.  Among  his  engravings  are  four 
plates  of  the  *  Ruins  of  Ancient  Rome,'  after 
Pannini,  four  plates  of  the  'Ruins  of  Pal- 
myra,' six  '  Sea-pieces,'  after  Van  Goyen, 
and  *  The  Four  Times  of  the  Day,'  views  in 
Holland  after  Waterloo,  Ruisdael,  Van 
Goyen,  and  Van  der  Neer.  He  likewise  en- 
graved with  Paul  Sandby,  A'ivares,  and 
others,  some  views  of  '  Windsor  Park '  and 
*  Virginia  Water,'  and  also  published  in  1781 


Avondale 


274 


Avery 


a  series  of  thirty  plates,  slightly  etched  from 
drawings  by  Andrea  Locatelli,  entitled  '  A 
Specimen  of  Sketching  Landscapes.'  He  for 
some  time  kept  a  print-shop,  and  published 
some  political  caricatures,  which  were  mostly 
directed  against  the  French,  and  in  support 
of  the  administration  of  Charles  James  Fox. 
Six  of  these,  *  French  Spies  attacked  by 
British  Bees,'  and  others,  were  engraved 
by  himself  in  1780.  He  died  at  Brighton 
11  IMay  1820,  at  the  advanced  age  of  ninety- 
nine. 

[Ottley's  Notices  of  Engravers,  1831;  G-ent. 
Mag.  1820,  i.  476.]  R.  E.  G. 

AVONDALE,  Lokd.     [See  Stewart.] 

AVELING,  THOMAS  WILLIAM 
BAXTER  {A.  1884),  independent  minister, 
received  his  theological  training  at  Highbury 
College,  and  in  1838  was  appointed  to  the 
])astorate  of  the  Kingsland  Congregational 
Church.  Here  he  acquired  a  high  reput  at  ion 
for  eloquence  and  learning,  his  popularity 
with  his  flock  being  evinced  by  the  fact  that 
his  connect  ion  with  them  was  only  terminated 
by  his  death,  which  took  place  at  Reedham, 
near  Croydon,  3  July  1884.  In  1876  he  was 
appointed  chairman  of  the  Congregational 
L^nion.  He  was  also  for  many  years  the 
honorary  secretary  of  the  Asylum  for  Father- 
less Children  at  Reedham.  Some  years  be- 
fore his  death  he  received  from  the  Washing- 
ton University  the  degree  of  D.D.  During 
his  half-century  of  ministerial  labour  he 
published  a  large  number  of  sermons  and 
other  fugitive  pieces,  and  one  work  of  a  more 
substantial  character,  viz.  '  Memorials  of  the 
Clayton  Family,'  8vo,  18G7,  Avhich,  as  it  con- 
tains con-espondence  never  before  published 
of  the  Countess  of  Huntingdon  and  other 
persons  eminent  in  the  religious  world  of  the 
last  century,  has  some  pretensions  to  the 
character  of  an  original  authority. 

[Times,  5  July  1884;  Congregational  Year- 
book ;  Erit.  Mus.  Cat.]  J.  M.  R. 

AVERELL,  ADAM  (1754-1847),  Irish 
primitive  Wesleyan  clergyman,  was  born 
on  7  May  1754  at  Mullan,  county  Tyrone, 
where  his  family  had  settled  in  the  sixteenth 
century.  His  parents  were  of  the  established 
church,  and  related  to  Dr.  John  Averell, 
bishop  of  Limerick,  who  died  in  1771,  aged  58. 
In  1773  Averell  went  to  Trinity  College,  Dub- 
lin, the  provost  being  the  Right  Hon.  Francis 
Andrews,  nephew  of  Bishop  Averell.  In 
1774  he  became  private  tutor  to  Sir  Richard 
St.  George.  He  was  ordained  at  Clonfert 
by  Bishop  Cope  on  25  July  1777,  but  took 
no  charge.     At  this   period  he   met  John 


Wesley  in  Dublin,  and  heard  him  preach. 
I  In  1781  he  went  to  Eton  with  his  pupils; 
the  next  year  he  became  alienated  from  his 
\  patron,  St.  George.      On  18  Dec.   1785  he 
!  married  the  daughter  and  heiress  of  the  Rev. 
\  R.  Gregory  of  Tentower,  Queen's  County. 
j  He  was  at  this  time  in  the  habit  of  preach- 
:  ing  against  the  methodists,  and  lived  as  a 
'  man  of  the  world,  enjoying  cards,  hunting, 
and  dancing.     Two  circumstances  produced 
I  a  change — the  reading  of  Wesley's  '  Appeal,' 
'  and  an  illness  which  seized  him  during  some 
private  theatricals.      Becoming  evangelical 
in  his  views  and  habits,  he  acted  as  curate 
to  Dr.  Ledwich  at  Aghaboe,  1789-91.     He 
was  offered  in  1792  a  curacj^  at  Madeley, 
but  preferred  to  exercise  a  gratuitous  ministry 
nearer  home.     On  7  Oct.  1792  he  preached 
i  for  the  first  time  to  a  methodist  congrega- 
tion ;  in  1796  the  Dublin  conference  admitted 
him  to  full  connection.     In  1797  he  was  se- 
parated from  his  wife.    In  the  division  which 
was  the  result  of  the  controversy  respecting 
the  administration  of  the  sacraments  by  the 
preachers  (1814-18),  Averell  took  a  promi- 
nent part  with  the  conservatives  who  ad- 
hered to  Wesley's  polity,  declaring  on  21  Jan. 
1818  at  Clones  that  the  methodists  '  are  not 
a  church  but  a  religious  society.'     The  first 
meeting  of  the  Primitive  Wesleyan  Metho- 
dist Conference  was  held  on  10  July  1818 ; 
Averell  was  elected  president,  and  constantly 
re-elected  till  after  1841,  when  his  infirmi- 
ties led  him  to  decline  office.     He  died  on 
\  16  Jan.  1847.   The  primitive  Wesleyan  body 
he  represented  (re-united  since  1878,  with 
few  exceptions,  to  the  Irish  Wesleyan  Con- 
ference) must  not  be  confounded  with  the 
primitive  methodists  of  English  origin,  who 
j  go  to  an  opposite  extreme. 

I       [Memoirs  by  Alexander  Stewart  and  George 

Revington,  1849,  where  a  portrait  is  given.] 
j  A.  G. 

AVERY,  BENJAMIN,  LL.D.  (rf.  1764), 
physician,  was  originally  a  presbyterian  mi- 
nister at  Bartholomew  Close,  London,  but 
quitted  the  ministry  in  1720,  in  consequence 
of  the  Salters'  Hall  controversy  on  subscrip- 
tion, 1719.  He  practised  as  a  physician,  and 
was  t  reasurer  of  Guy's  Hospital.  He  retained 
the  confidence  of  his  presbyterian  brethren, 
and  acted  for  several  years  as  secretary  to 
the  dissenting  deputies,  organised  1732,  for 
the  protection  of  the  rights  and  redress  of 
the  grievances  of  the  three  denominations. 
He  also  rendered  important  services  to  poli- 
tical and  theological  liberalism  by  contri- 
buting to  the  '  Occasional  Papers,'  collected 
in  three  volumes,  1716-19,  sometimes  called 
the  *  Bagweell '  papers,  from  a  word  formed 


Avery 


275 


Avvdelay 


by  the  initials  of  their  authors'  surnames 
(Simon  Bi'owne,  Avery,  B.  Grosvenor,  D.D., 
Sam  Wright,  D.D.,  John  Evans,  D.D.,  Jabez 
Eai-le,  U.D.,  Moses  J^owman,  Nathaniel 
Lardner;  see  Monthly  Itepos.,  1813,  p.  443. 
Lowndes,  under  '  Occasional  Papers,'  errone- 
ously gives  Barnes  for  Browne,  Eanies  for 
Earie,  and  omits  Lardner),  and  not  to  be 
confounded  with  the  '  Occasional  Paper,' 
1697-H,  by  Bishop  "Willis.  Avery  also  con- 
ducted the  '  Old  Whig,  or  Consistent  Pro- 
testant,' a  weekly  publication,  13  March  1735 
to  13  March  1738,  his  chief  coadjutors  being 
O.  Benson,  S.  Chandler,  B.  Grosvenor,  C. 
Fleming,  J.  Foster,  and  M.  Towgood;  the 
collected  issue,  in  two  volumes,  l739,  is  not 
complete.  In  17:?8  Avery  edited  James 
Peirce's  posthumous  seraions  and  '  Scripture 
Catechism : '  he  was  probably  the  author  of 
the  Latin  inscrij)tion  prepared  for  Peirce's 
tomb.  He  was  not  concerned  in  the  '  In- 
dependent Whig,'  :20  Jan.  1720  to  4  Jan. 
1721,  edited  by  Thomas  Gordon  (reissued 
1732-5  and  174*3).  He  was  a  trustee  of  Dr. 
Williams's  Library,  1728-64,  and  his  portrait 
hangs  in  the  library.     He  died  23  July  1764. 

[Evans's  List,  Dr.  Williams's  Library ;  Bohn's 
Lowndes,  1864,  pp.  1714,  2892;  Turner's  Lives 
•of  Eminent  Unitarians,  18-10,  i.  207;  Christian 
Reformer,  1848,  p.  162;  Inquirer,  29  June  1878.] 

A.  a. 

AVERY,  JOHN  ?  {Jl.  1695),  was  a  pirate, 
"whose  depredations  in  the  Eastern  seas,  in 
the  year  1695,  occasioned  much  embarrass- 
ment to  the  East  India  Company  and  to  the 
government.  Having  fitted  out  in  the  West 
Indies  a  ship  mounting  46  guns,  and  with  a 
motley  crew  of  130  men,  he  established  liim- 
self  at  Perim  and  levied  toll  on  all  vessels 
passing  in  or  out  of  the  Red  Sea,  and  es- 
pecially f)n  a  large  ship  belonging  to  the 
Mogul  liimself,  which  he  taxed  to  the  extent 
of  upwards  of  300,000/.  The  Mogul  retaliated 
on  the  company's  officers  at  Surat,  and  put  a 
stop  to  the  English  trade ;  but  Avery,  satis- 
fied, for  the  time  being,  with  his  booty,  and 
perhaps  anticipating  danger,  returned  to  the 
West  Indies,  sold  liis  ship,  and  dispersed  the 
crew.  Several  of  these  were  aftei-wards 
caught  in  Ireland  or  England,  and  some 
were  executed  ;  but  of  Avery  himself — not- 
withstanding large  rewards  offered  for  his 
appi'ehension  by  both  the  government  and 
the  company — nothing  was  ever  positively 
known.  The  received  stoiy  is  that  he  was  a 
native  of  Plymouth  ;  that,  on  his  return  to 
England,  he  lived  for  some  time  at  Bide- 
ford;  and  that,  having  been  cheated  out  of  his 
vast  wealth  by  some  Bristol  merchants,  he 
died  there,  of  rage  and  vexation,  in  extreme 


poverty.  But  the  authority  for  these  state- 
ments is  extremely  doubtful. 

[John  Bruce's  Annals  of  the  Hon.  East  India 
Company,  vol.  iii.  pp.  188-223 ;  Hamilton's 
New  Account  of  the  Eii.1t  Indies  (1727),  vol.  i. 
p.  42  ;  Captain  Johnson's  General  History  of  the 
Pyrates  (1724),  p.  45,  &c.  Other  and  more  de- 
tailed accounts — e.g.  '  The  Life  and  Adventures 
of  Captain  John  Avery  .  .  .  now  in  possession 
of  Madagascar,  written  by  a  person  who  matle 
liis  escape  from  thence  (1700) ; '  or, '  The  King  of 
Pirates,  being  an  account  of  the  famous  enter- 
prizes  of  Captain  Avery,  the  mock  king  of  Mada- 
gascar, in  two  letters  from  himself  (1720),  which 
has  been  attributed  to  Deibe  — are  fiction,  with 
scarcely  a  substratum  of  fact.]  J.  K.  L. 

AVESBURY,  ROBERT  of.  [See 
Robert.] 

AVERSHAWE,  LOUIS  JEREMIAH. 

[See  Abekshaw.] 

AVISON,  CHARLES  (1710  P-1770),  mu- 
sician, born  at  Newcastle,  studied  music  in 
Italy,  and  on  his  return  to  England  became  a 
pvipil  of  Geminiani.  In  1736  he  was  appointed 
organist  of  St.  Nicholas,  at  Newcastle,  in 
which  town  he  spent  the  remainder  of  his  life. 
In  1752  he  published  his  celebrated '  Essay  on 
Musical  Expression,'  a  work  which  created 

j  at  the  time  considerable  sensation  by  the 
boldness  the  author  displayed  in  acknowledg- 

l  ing  his  preference  for  the  French  and  Italian 
school,  and  depreciating  the  Germans,  with 
Handel  at  their  head.  The  essay  was  trans- 
lated into  German,  and  was  answered  in  1753 

\  by  Dr.  Hayes's  '  Remarks  on  Mr.  Avison's 
Essay,'  which  was  published  anonymously, 

j  though  the  name  of  the  author  was  an  open 

:  secret.      Avison  replied  in  the  same  yeai", 

:  but  it  Avas  generally  considered  that  Hayes 
had  the  best  of  the  argument,  although  Avi- 
son's work  was  superior  from  a  literary  point 

I  of  view.     Avison  died  at  Newcastle  9  May 

I  1770.  Besides  his  essay  he  published  several 
sets  of  sonatas  and  concertos,  some  of  which 

\  long  continued  popular,  and  he  also  edited 
an  edition  in  eight  volumes  of  Marcello's 
Psalms.     A  life  by  Avison  is  prefixed  to  the 

I  first.  Very  little  is  known  of  his  life,  but 
he  had  the  reputation  of  being  a  man  ot 
great  culture  and  polish,  and  for  many  years 
was  the  chief  of  a  small  circle  of  musical 
amateurs  in  the  north  of  England  who  were 
devoted  to  his  views. 

[Hawkins's  History  of  Music,  vol.ii.  (ed.  1875); 
tlie  Georgian  Era,  A'ol.  iii.  1834;  Gent.  Mag. 
for  1808;  article  l)y  E.  Taylor  in  S.  D.  U.  K. 
Dictionary.]  W.  B.  S. 

AVONMORE,  Lord.   [See  Yelteetoit.] 
AWDELAY,  JOHN  (/.  1426),  was  a 
canon  of  the  monastery  of  Ilaghmon,  Shrop- 

T  2 


Awdelay 


276 


Axtel 


shire,  in  the  early  part  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury. He  -wTote  some  verses,  chiefly  devo- 
tional, which  are  preserved  among  the  Douce 
MSS.  in  the  Bodleian  Library.  A  selection 
from  these  pieces  was  made  bv  ]Mr.  J.  O.  Hal- 
liweU  in  1844  for  the  Percy  Society.  The 
author  describes  himself  as  deaf  and  blind. 
Judged  by  his  Actings,  he  seems  to  have 
been  of  an  iinworldly  and  devout  character. 
The  verses  have  some  interest  as  being  early 
specimens  of  the  Salopian  dialect. 

fPercy  Society  Publications,  1844.] 

A.  H.  B. 

AWDELAY,  or  AWDELEY,  JOHX, 

otherwise  called  John  Sampsox  and  Samp- 
BON  AwDELAX  {Jl.  1559-1677),  was  a  London 
printer  and  miscellaneous  writer.  Dibdin 
assumed  that  he  was  an  original  member  of 
the  Stationers'  Company,  which  was  incor- 
porated by  charter  in  1556 ;  but  from  a  re- 
ference to  him  in  the  company's  register  of 
that  date,  he  would  appear  to  have  been 
merely  a  printer's  apprentice  at  the  time 
(Arber's  Transcript  of  the  Stationers^  Jte- 
f/ister,  i.  47).  Before  1559,  however,  he  had 
become  a  ft-eeman  of  the  company;  on  24  Aug. 
of  that  year  he  '  presented '  an  apprentice  of 
his  own,  and  on  6  Nov.  obtained  licenses  for 
printing  his  first  publication,  a  'morning  and 
evenyng  prayer.'  From  1561  to  1571  his 
name  occurs  i-epeatedly  in  the  Stationers' 
llegistei's  as  obtaining  licenses  for  printing 
books  and  pamphlets,  and  as  'presenting' ap- 
prentices, and  throughout  those  years  he  ap- 
parently drove  a  thriving  trade.  On  several 
occasions  he  was  fined  for  illegally  printing 
'  other  men's  copy,'  and  on  22  July  1561  a 
penalty  of  '  xij"* '  was  imposed  on  him  '  for 
that  he  ded  revile  Rychard  Lante  with  un- 
seemely  words.'  The  last  mention  of  him  in 
the  Stationers'  Registers  is  under  the  year 
1577,  when  with  other  printers  he  signed  a 
petition  to  the  queen  against  certain  mono- 
polies in  printing  recently  gi'anted  by  her, 
and  nothing  is  known  of  him  after  that  date. 
lie  dwelt  in  Little  Britain  Street,  described 
on  his  title-pages  as  'without  Aldersgate'  or 
'  by  Great  S.  Bartholomew's.' 

Awdelay's  publications  were  of  an  essen- 
tially popular  kind,  and  consisted  mainly  of 
ballads,  news  sheets,  and  religious  tracts. 
One  of  the  most  important  books  reprinted 
and  published  by  him  was  Fitzherbert's '  Boke 
of  Husbandry.  ]Many  of  his  publications 
were  of  liis  own  composition.  One  of  the 
earliest  of  them,  '  The  Wonders  of  England,' 
1559,  a  folio  sheet  of  eleven  ten-line  stanzas, 
relating  to  English  historical  events  from  the 
death  of  Edward  VI  to  the  accession  of 
Elizabeth,  was  from  his  pen.     But  the  most 


important  of  his  literary  efforts  was  a  little- 
volume  entitled  *  The  Fraternitye  of  Vaca- 
bondes,'  licensed  abovit  July  1561,  and  pub- 
lished by  himself  in  1565.  It  is  an  elaborate 
description  of  the  habits  and  organisation 
of  the  beggars  of  the  day,  and  is  of  great 
A'alue  to  the  student  of  social  history.  On 
the  back  of  the  title-page  are  some  doggerel 
verses  by  the  author.  It  was  reprinted  in 
1565  and  in  1575,  and  Harman's  '  Caveat,' 
a  book  on  the  same  subject  published  in 
1575,  was  obviously  largely  indebted  to  it. 
Awdelay  was  strongly  opposed  to  Catholicism, 
and  Avrote  some  verses  to  Avarn  '  the  symple 
sorte '  against  its  delusions,  as  a  preface  to 
'  A  briefe  Treatise  agaynst  certayn  Errors  of 
the  Romish  Church,  by  Gregory  Scot,'  pub- 
lished by  him  in  1574.  Awdelay's  other 
works  were :  1.  '  Ecclesi.  xx..  Remember 
death  and  thou  shalt  never  sinne,'  30  April 
1569  (sheet).  2.  'Cruel  Assault  of  God's 
Fort,'  in  verse  (sheet).  3.  '  Epitaphe  upon 
Death  of  Mayster  John  ^'eron,  preacher. 
Quod  John  Awdelay'  (fol.  sheet).  4.  'A 
Godly  Ditty  or  Prayer  to  be  song  unto  God 
for  the  preservation  of  his  Church,  our  Queene 
and  Realme,  against  all  Tray  tours,  Rebels,  and 
Papistical  Enemies,  by  John  Awdelay,'  1570' 
(broadside).  5,  6.  It  is  probable  that  the 
epitaphs  of  'Doctour  Hodden'  and  '  Masterr 
Fraunces  Beuyson,'  published  by  AAvdelay 
in  1570-1,  were  also  written  by  him. 

[Arber's  Transcript  of  the  Stationers'  Kegisters,. 
i.  47-442  passim ;  Hazlitt's  BiLliogra  phi  cat  Hand- 
book, p.  18;  Hazlitt's  Collections  (1867-1876), 
p.  18;  Ames's  Tj^pographical  Antiq.  ed.  Herbert 
and  Dibdin,  iv.  563  ;  Watt's  Bibliotheca  Britan- 
nica ;  Collier's  Stationers'  Registers,  i.  23,  42 ; 
Awdelay's  Fraternitye  of  Vacabondcs,  ed.  Viles 
and  Furnivall,  reprinted  for  the  Early  English 
Text  Society  in  1869,  and  for  the  New  Shakspere 
Society  in  1880.]  S.  L.  L. 

AXTEL,  DANIEL  {d.  1660),  parliamen-  '''' 
tarian,  of  whose  early  life  nothing  is  kno-svn, 
was  of  good  family,  and  apprentice  to  a  grocer 
in  Watling  Street — facts  not  then  inconsisten  i 
with  each  other.  At  a  fast-day  sennon  he 
was  convinced  of  the  righteousness  of  the  '^  ^ 
parliament  cause,  and  forthwith  entered  the- 
army.  He  rose  to  the  rank  of  lieutenant- 
colonel,  and  was  active  in  the  '  Purge  '  asso- 
ciated with  the  name  of  Colonel  Pride,  and 
in  the  subsequent  transactions  leading  to  the 
king's  trial.  On  that  occasion  he  commanded 
the  soldiers  in  Westminster  Hall.  He  ac- 
companied Cromwell  in  his  Irish  expedition, 
and  was  appointed  governor  of  Kilkenny. 
When  the  Long  parliament  had  been  expelled 
and  Henry  Cromwell  took  charge  of  Ireland, 
Axtel  was  one  of  the  malcontents  who  de- 


Aylesbury 


277 


Aylesbury 


muired  to  his  authority  and  resigned  their 
commissions,  but  resumed  his  positionin  1659. 
After  the  Cromwell  family  hud  fallen  from 
power,  and  Ludlow  liad  taken  the  command 
of  the  soldiei's  in  Ireland,  Axtel  was  one  of 
those  sent  back  to  England  to  maintain  the 
republic  against  the  imminent  Restoration. 
But  when  Monk  was  marching  on  London, 
and  Lambert  advanced  to  oppose  him,  Lam- 
bert's troops,  the  Irisli  contingent  of  which 
was  under  Ludlow's  officers,  revolted  to  their 
former  Cromwellian  commanders,  and  so 
weakened  Lambert 's  army  that  Monk  marched 
on  peaceably  to  London.  Axtel  retired  into 
private  life,  only  emerging  to  support  Lam- 
bert in  his  futile  attem])t  to  revolt,  April 
1660.  At  the  Restoration  Axtel  was  ex- 
cepted from  the  bill  of  indemnity  in  July,  and 
from  the  general  pardon  in  August.  On 
10  Oct.  he  was  arraigned  at  the  Old  Bailey 
for  compassing  and  imagining  the  death  of 
the  king.  The  chief  overt  acts  adduced  in 
support  of  the  charge  were  his  command  of 
soldiers  at  the  trial,  his  threat  to  shoot  Lady 
Fairfax  for  her  interruption  of  the  proceed- 
ings, his  beating  the  soldiers  to  make  them 
cry  '  jiLstice '  and'  execution,'  and  his  personal 
insults  to  Charles.  These  last  he  positively 
denied  ;  for  the  rest  he  pleaded  justification, 
since  what  he  had  done  was  by  the  authority 
of  parliament  and  the  command  of  Fairfax. 
He  made  the  absurd  suggestion  that  he  might 
have  beaten  the  soldiers  for  crying  out,  and 
repeated  their  words, '  I'll  justice  you  ! '  '  I'll 
execution  you  ! '  and  added,  '  But  the  word 
■execution  of  justice  is  a  high  and  glorious 
word.'  The  coui't  disposed  of  his  main  plea 
by  the  reminder  that  the  House  of  Commons 
had  been  reduced  to  its  eighth  ])art  by  the 
violence  of  the  army,  twenty-six  only  voting 
for  the  act  in  question,  and  that,  even  had  the 
house  retained  its  full  numbers,  it  could  still 
have  possessed  no  coercive  power  over  the 
sovereign.  After  protesting  that  he  had 
had  no  hand  in  the  king's  death,  Axtel 
"was  condemned.  Then  his  self-confidence 
returned.  He  was  murdered,  he  said,  for  the 
good  old  cause.  He  assumed  the  tone  of  a 
martyr,  and  even  ventured  a  prophecy  that 
the  surplice  and  Common  Prayer  Book  would 
not  be  long  in  England.  He  bewailed  his 
general  depravity,  but  justified  eveiy thing  he 
had  done,  and  hinted  a  parallel  between  his 
own  suiferings  and  those  of  the  Redeemer. 
The  sentence  for  treason  was  fully  carried  out, 
and  his  head  was  set  up  '  on  the  further  end 
of  Westminster  Hall.' 

[Ludlow's  Memoirs ;  State  Trials.]   K.  C.  B. 

AYLESBURY,   Sik  THOMAS  (1576- 
1657),  a  patron  of  mathematical  learning,  was 


I  bom  in  London  in  1576,  the  second  son  of 
j  William  Aylesburj-  and  Anne  Poole,  his  wife. 
Of  his  father's  position  not  hing  is  known  be- 
yond the  fact  mentioned  by  Lloyd  (Memoirs 
(1677 ),  p.  699),  that  his  ancestors  were  high- 
sherifls  of  Bedfordshire  and  Buckingham- 
shire in  the  reigns  of  the  second  and  third 
Edwards.  From  Westminster  School  Ayles- 
bury passed  in  1598  to  Christ  Church,  Oxford, 
where  he  took  the  degi-ees  of  B.A.  and  M.A. 
in  1602  and  1605  respectively.  His  strict 
application  to  study,  especially  of  a  mathe- 
matical kind,  brought  him  into  favourable 
notice ;  and  on  quitting  college  he  was  ap- 
pointed secretary  to  the  Earl  of  Nottingham, 
lord  high  admiral  of  England.  So  well  did 
he  use  tlie  opportunities  both  of  improvement 
and  distinction  oflfered  by  this  post,  that  he 
was  continued  in  it  by  Buckingham,  Notting- 
ham's successor  (1618),  who  befriended  him 
actively,  procuring  for  him  the  additional 
offices  of  one  of  the  masters  of  requests  and 
master  of  the  mint,  with  (19  April  1627)  the 
title  of  baronet.  This  prosperity  enabled 
him  to  exercise  the  utmost  liberality  towards 
men  of  learning.  To  the  indigent  he  allowed 
regular  pensions,  or  maintained  them  at  his 
country  seat  in  Windsor  Park,  while  many 
more  enjoyed  his  patronage  and  the  hospi- 
tality of  his  table  in  London.  Amongst  his 
dependants  were  Thomas  Warner,  a  mathe- 
matician, who  at  his  request  wrote  a  trea- 
tise on  coins  and  coinage ;  Thomas  Allen,  of 
Oxford,  whom  he  recommended  to  Bucking- 
ham, and  Avho  made  him  the  depositary  of 
his  astrological  writings ;  and  the  celebrated 
Thomas  llarriot,  who  bequeathed  to  him, 
with  Viscount  Lisle  and  Robert  Sidney,  the 
whole  of  his  valuable  papers.  Many  of  these, 
with  other  precious  manuscripts  and  rare 
books  collected  by  or  bestowed  upon  him, 
were  either  lost  during  the  civil  war,  or  sold 
in  Aylesbury's  time  of  distress  abroad.  For 
in  1642  he  Avas,  as  a  steady  royalist,  stripped 
of  his  fortune  and  places,  and  on  the  death  of 
the  king  retired  with  his  family  to  Antwei"p, 
whence  he  removed  in  1652  to  Breda,  and 
there  died  in  1657  at  the  age  of  81.  He  was, 
Anthony  a  Wood  says,  *  a  learned  man,  and 
as  great  a  lover  and  encourager  of  learning 
and  learned  men,  especially  of  mathema- 
ticians (he  being  one  himself),  as  any  man  in 
his  time.'  He  had  issue  one  son,  William 
Aylesbury,  and  a  daughter  Frances,  married 
to  the  gi-eat  Earl  of  Clarendon,  by  whom  she 
became  the  mother  of  Anne  Hyde,  first  wife 
of  James  II.,  and  mother  of  the  two  queens, 
Mary  and  Anne. 

[Biog.   Brit.    (1747),   i.    308;    Wood,   Fasti 
Oxon.  i.  306;  Archfeologia,  xxxii.  142.] 

A.  M.  C. 


Aylesbury 


278 


Aylesford 


AYLESBURY,    THOMAS    (/.   1622- 

1659),  theologian,  was  educated  at  Cambridge, 
wliere  he  took  the  degrees  of  M.A.  and  B.D. 
By  incorporation  he  was  granted  similar  de- 
grees at  Oxford,  the  first  on  9  July  1622,  and 
the  second  on  10  July  1626.  He  was  the 
author  of:  1.  'Sermon  preached  on  Paul's 
Cross,  June  1622,  on  Luke  xvii.  37,' London, 
1623.  2.  '  Paganisme  and  Papisme  parallel'd 
and  set  forth  in  a  Sermon  at  the  Temple 
Church  upon  the  Feast  Day  of  All  Saints, 
1623,  by  Thomas  Ailesbury,  Student  in  Diui- 
nite '  (dedicated  to  the  Earl  of  Southampton). 
3.  *  Treatise  of  the  Confession  of  Sin,  with 
the  Power  of  the  Keys,'  1657.  4.  '  Diatribse 
de  seterno  divini  beneplaciti  circa  creaturas 
intellectuales  decreto,  ubi  patrum  considta, 
scholasticorum  scita  et  modernorum  placita 
ad  Sacrje  Script  urre  amussim  et  orthodoxfe 
ecclesife  tribunal  deferuntiu*,'  Cambridge, 
1659,  and  republished  (according  to  Watt) 
in  1661.  This  work,  which,  like  all  Ayles- 
bury's writings,  was  of  a  strongly  Calvinistic 
character,  was  dedicated  to  the  protestant 
churches  of  Europe. 

[Wood's  Fasti  Oxon.  (ed.  Bliss),  i.  408,  427  ; 
AVatt's  Bibliotheca  Britannica ;  .S.  D.  U.  K.  Biog. 
Diet. ;  Brit.  Mus.  Cat.]  «.  L.  L. 

AYLESBURY,  WILLIAM  (1615-1656), 

a  translator  from  the  Italian,  who,  although 
a  supporter  of  Charles  I,  obtained  an  office 
under  the  CommouAvealth,  was  the  son  of 
Sir  Thomas  Aylesbvuy  [see  Aylesbvkt,  Sik 
TiiOJiAs] ;  in  1628  he  became  a  gentleman- 
commoner  at  Christ  Church,  Oxford,  and  took 
his  bachelor's  degi'ee  in  1631,  at  the  early 
age  of  sixteen  (Wood,  Fasti  Oxon.  i.  460). 
His  sister  Frances  married  Sir  Edward  Hyde, 
afterwards  Lord  Clarendon.  Although  pos- 
sessing a  large  fortune,  Aylesbury  soon  after- 
wards became,  at  the  invitation  of  Charles  I, 
governor  to  the  young  Duke  of  Buckingham 
and  his  brother.  Lord  Francis  Villiers,  and 
travelled  with  them  through  France  and  Italy. 
In  1640  Aylesbury  was  residing  at  Paris,  and 
in  his  correspondence  with  liis  brother-in- 
law,  Sir  Edward  Hyde,  which  is  preserved  in 
the  Bodleian  Library  among  the  '  Clarendon 
Papers,'  bitterly  lamented  the  course  of  Eng- 
lish politics  under  the  Long  parliament.  In 
the  middle  of  May  1641  he  returned  from 
Paris  to  London  with  the  Earl  of  Leicester, 
the  English  ambassador  at  the  French  coui*t, 
with  whom  he  had  been  apparently  living  in 
an  official  capacity  for  some  months  {Cal. 
State  Papei-s,  1640-1,  pp.  558,  561,  562). 
Shortly  afterwards  he  presented  his  former 
])upils  to  the  king  at  Oxford,  who  promised 
him  the  next  vacancy  among  the  grooms  of 
the  chambers,  but  the  promise  Avas  never 


fulfilled,  and  Aylesbury  continued  in  the 
service  of  the  Duke  of  Buckingham,  as 
his  agent,  until  the  final  defeat  of  the 
royalists. 

During  his  interview  with  Charles  I,  the 
king  urged  Aylesbuiy,  who  Avas  well  ac- 
quainted Avith  Italian,  to  continue  a  transla- 
tion of  DaA'ila's  '  History  of  the  French  CiAil 
Wars,'  which  he  had  just  begun,  and  during 
the  following  years  he  Avas  mainly  engaged 
in  the  Avork ;  but  he  Avas  only  in  England  at 
interA'als,  and  witnessed  his  royal  patron's 
disasters  from  the  safe  distance  of  Paris  or 
Rome.  He  and  his  friend,  Sir  Charles  Cotte- 
rel,  Avho  materially  aided  him,  receiAcd,  Iioav- 
ever,  frequent  encouragement  from  the  king. 
In  spite  of  his  political  troubles,  Charles, 
in  fact,  read  through  the  Avhole  of  the  manu- 
script before  the  book  AA'as  printed.  The 
translation  was  published  with  a  dedica- 
tion to  the  king  in  1647,  and  bore  the 
title,  *  The  Historic  of  the  Civil  AVarres  of 
France,  written  in  Italian  by  H.  C.  Davila. 
Translated  out  of  the  originall.'  London,. 
1647,  fol. 

On  the  fall  of  Charles  I,  Aylesbury  sought 
refuge  Avith  his  father,  first  at  Amsterdam, 
and  afterAvards  at  AntA\-ei-p;  and  he  took 
under  his  protection  his  sister.  Lady  Hyde. 
But  his  poverty,  caused  by  the  confiscation 
of  the  property  of  his  family,  forced  him  in 
1650  to  return  to  England,  and  retiring  to 
the  neighbourhood  of  Oxford,  he  lived  on 
the  charity  of  his  more  fortunate  friends. 
Early  in  1656,  however,  he  obtained  the 
office  of  secretary  to  Major-general  Sedg- 
wick, who  had  just  been  appointed  governor 
of  Jamaica,  and  finally  left  England.  For  a 
few  months  he  took  an  active  part  in  the 
government  of  the  island,  but  he  died  on 
24  Aug.  in  the  same  year.  A  letter  con- 
veying the  ncAA's  of  his  death  to  Secretary 
Thurloe  describes  him  as  '  a  man  Avell  versed 
in  the  Aveighty  aftairs  of  state,  Avho  in  his 
counsels  and  advice,  both  to  army  and  fleet, 
was  ACiy  useful,  for  the  want  of  which  we 
shall  have  more  and  more  to  gi'ieve.'  Ayles- 
buiy's  translation  of  Davila  was  republished 
in  1678  with  a  preface  by  Sir  Charles  Cotte- 
rel,  who  there  claimed  for  himself  the  ex- 
ecution of  the  greater  part  of  the  original 
Aversion. 

[Wood,  Athen.  Oxon.  (ed.  Bliss),  iii.  440;  Bio- 
graphia  Britannica ;  Macray's  Calendar  of  Cla- 
rendon State  Papers,  i.  and  ii. ;  Addit.  M8. 
15857,  f.  23;  Thurloe's  State  Papers,  v.  154, 
155, 170  ;  Dedication  to  the  translation  of  Davila 
(1647);  Prefatory  Address  to  the  edition  of 
1678.]  S.  L.  L. 

AYLESFORD,  Eakl  of.     [See  Finch.] 


Aylett 


279 


Ayliffe 


AYLETT,  ROBEKT  (1583-1655?),  was 
author  of  a  volume  of  religious  verse  en- 
titled 'Divine  and  Moral  Speculations  in 
Metrical  Numbers  upon  Various  Subjects. 
By  Doctor  R.  Aylet,  one  of  the  Masters  of 
the  High  Court  of  Chancery.  London  .  .  . 
1664.'  It  was  dedicated  to  'Henry  Lord 
Marquesso  of  Dorchester  and  his  incompar- 
able lady,'  as  'the  humblest  of  their  servants.' 
There  are  prefixed  commendatory  poems  by 
Sir  Robert  Beaumont,  Bart.,  and  James 
Howell,  and  a  W.  Martin.  In  some  copies 
there  is  inserted  before  the  title-page  a 
cunningly  engraved  portrait,  with  this  in- 
scription on  the  upper  left-hand  corner, '  ^t. 
52, 1635.'  Aylett  was  thus  born  about  1583. 
He  was  educated  at  Trinity  Hall,  Cambridge, 
and  commenced  LL.D.  in  1614.  He  is  re- 
presented as  a  hard  student  who  lightened 
his  professional  labours  with  '  the  relaxation 
of  poetry.'  Except  his  odd '  A  Wife  not  ready- 
made  but  bespoke,  by  Dicus  the  Batchelor, 
and  made  iip  for  him  by  his  fellow  shepheard 
Tityrus;  in  four  pastoral  eclogues'  (1653), 
his  entire  verse  is  '  sacred.'  Its  main  feature 
is  pious  aphoristic  thought,  after  the  type  of 
George  Herbert's  poems  of '  The  Temple.'  His 
'  Divine  and  Moral  Speculations  '  start  with 
a  semi-paraphrase  of  the  '  Song  of  Songs,' 
which  is  succeeded  by  *  The  Brides  Orna- 
ments ' — a  series  of  meditations  of  '  Heavenly 
Love,'  '  Humility,'  '  Repentance,'  Faith,' 
'Hope,' '  Justice  and  Righteousness,' '  Truth,' 
'  Mercy,' '  Fortitude,' '  Heavenly  Knowledge,' 
'  Zeal,'  '  Temperance,'  '  Bounty,' '  Joy,' '  Pru- 
dence,' '  Obedience,'  '  Meeknesse,'  '  God's 
Word,'  '  Prayer,'  &c.  These  '  four  books  '  of 
meditations  are  followed  firstly  by  '  Five 
Moral  Meditations '  of  '  Concord  and  Peace, 
Chastity,  Constancy, Courtesy, and  Gravity;' 
and  secondly  by  'Five  Divine  and  Moral  Me- 
ditations '  of  '  Frugality,  Providence,  Dili- 
gence, Labour  and  Care,  and  Death.'  The 
whole  closes  with  '  A  Funerall  Elegy,  conse- 
crated to  the  memorj'  of  his  ever  honoured 
lord  John  King,  late  Lord  Bishop  of  London.' 
We  gather  from  the  volume  two  personal 
facts,  (a)  that  his  'muse'  had  been  '  whilome 
swayd  bylust  of  youth 'to  spend 'her  strength 
in  idle  wanton  toys,'  but  was  now  summoned 
to  holy  strains;  {b)  that  he  was  in  1654  a 
sufferer  from  ague  (p.  476). 

The '  Divine  and  5loral  Speculations '  were 
probably  published  separately  long  before 
1654.  Earlier  impressions  are  found  of  two 
other  poems  by  Aylett :  '  Svsanna,  or  the 
Arraignment  of  the  Two  Unjust  Elders'  (in 
four  books),  and  '  Joseph,  or  Pharaoh's  Fa- 
vorite ' — both  of  which  are  often  bound  up 
Avith  the  '  Speculations,'  and  usually  dated 
1654.     Of  '  Svsanna '  an  anonymous  R.  C. 


j  (wrongly  assigned    to    Richard    Crashaw) 
I  wrote: — 

I      In  all  thy  poems  thou  dost  wondrous  well, 
But  thy  Susanna  doth  thorn  all  cxcell. 

;  Of  '  Joseph  '  another  wrote : — 

1       Susjinna  was  of  all  thy  poems  lx!st, 
I      But  Joseph  her  excels,  as  she  the  rest. 

'  Peace  with  her  Four  Gardens '  (1622) 
(mentioned  along  with  others  in  Censura 
Literaria,  vol.  v.)  was  incorporated  with 
the  '  Meditations  '  above  enumerated,  as  was 
'  Thrift's  Eqiiipage  '  (1622). 

Anthony  a  ^A'ood  queried  whether  Dr. 
Aylett  were  not  author  of  '  Britannia  An- 
tiqua  niustrata,'  published  under  the  name 
of  Aylett  Sammes.  Aylett  disappears  about 
1655. 

[Works,  ut  supra  ;  Cens.  Liter. ;  Wood's  Fasti 
Oxon.  (Bliss),  i.  328,  ii.  363 ;  Granger's  Portraits; 
Hazlitt's  Handbook.]  A.  B.  G. 

AYLIFFE,  JOHN,  LL.D.  (1670-1732), 
jurist,  was  born  at  Pember,  Hampshire,  in 
1676.  He  was  educated  at  Winchester  and 
New  College,  Oxford,  where  he  matriculated 
February  169G,  became  B.A.  1699,  M.A. 
1703,  LL.B.  and  LL.D.  1710.  Up  to  1710 
he  practised  as  a  proctor  in  the  chancellor's 
court,  and  '  had  a  prospect,'  he  tells  us,  *  of 
succeeding  to  some  chancellorship  or  other 
preferment  in  the  church  of  the  like  nature.' 
But  his  political  opinions  stood  in  the  way. 
He  was  an  ardent  whig  at  a  time  Avhen  Ox- 
ford was  the  home  of  Jacobitism  ;  and  as  he 
seems  to  have  omitted  no  occasion  of  making 
his  opinions  known,  he  was  subjected,  ac- 
cording to  his  own  account,  to  '  lawsuits  and 
other  persecutions,  for  the  sake  of  my  ad- 
hering to  the  principles  of  the  Revolution; 
which  shall  be  the  test  of  my  loyalty  so  long 
as  I  live.'  What  these  lawsuits  and  other 
persecutions  were  we  have  no  means  of 
knowing;  but  the  publication  of  the  book 
from  which  we  quote  this  complaint  brought 
his  sufferings  to  a  climax.  In  1712,  on  the 
advice  of  his  friends,  he  issued  a  specimen  of 
a  work  on  Oxford  for  which  he  had  collected 
materials  while  practising  in  the  chancellor's 
court ;  but,  whether  from  a  belief  that  he 
would  so  sketch  the  history  of  the  university 
as  to  malign  the  Stuarts,  or  that  he  would 
pry  too  curiously  into  the  internal  affairs  of 
colleges,  the  scheme  was  received  with  such 
disfavour  that  he  had  thoughts  of  abandon- 
ing it.  The  book  was  published,  however, 
in  1714,  about  a  week  before  the  queen's 
death.  A  few  months  afteiTN^ards  Aylifte  was 
summoned  before  the  university  court  at  the 
suits  of  Dr.  Gardiner,  then  vice-chancellor, 
and  of  Dr.   Braithwaite,  the  former  vice- 


Ayliffe 


280 


Ayliffe 


chancellor,  for  certain  words  higlily  reflecting 
on  tliem.  In  the  passage  which  gave  olFence 
(i.  216)  he  had  gone  out  of  his  way  to  say 
that  the  funds  of  the  Clarendon  Printing 
House  liad  been  misappropriated — an  accusa- 
tion which  he  afterwards  said  should  have 
been  made  more  specifically,  as  he  had  evi- 
dence to  prove  that  Gardiner  was  a  partaker 
in  the  spoil.  The  result  was  that  Ayliffe 
was  expelled  from  the  university,  and  de- 
prived of  all  privileges  and  degrees.  Mean- 
while he  was  attacked  by  Oobb,  the  warden 
of  New  College,  for  another  passage  (i.  322), 
where  he  remarked  on  the  thin  crop  of  emi- 
nent men  of  Avhich  that  college  could  then 
boast  *  through  the  supine  negligence  of  a  late 
warden,  and  the  discouragements  arising  from 
domestick  quarrels,  and  the  forgetfulness  of 
such  as  owe  some  gi-atitude  to  the  memoiy 
of  a  munificent  founder.'  He  was  accused, 
moreover,  of  disobedience,  and  of  having  in  a 
conversation  with  one  Prince  threatened  to 
pistol  the  warden.  This  last  charge  Ayliffe 
did  not  deny.  According  to  his  own  account 
he  had  said  '  that  if  the  warden  shou'd  dis- 
tress liim  by  any  unjust  expulsion,  he  might 
be  driven  to  such  an  extremity  for  want  of 
a  subsistence  (having  only  a  fellowship  to 
live  on)  as  to  pistol  the  warden;  and  the 
said  Prince  did  readily  agree  with  this  re- 
spondent, that  it  was  only  doing  himself 
justice.'  Rather  than  make  submission  he 
resigned  his  fellowship.  The  whole  story  is 
told  in  a  pamphlet,  called  the  *  Case  of  Dr. 
Ayliffe  at  Oxford,'  and  published  in  1716. 
In  the  '  Gent.  Mag.'  (Ixxiv.  646)  the  pamph- 
let is  refeiTed  to  as  '  a  vindication  of  himself,' 
and  certainly  its  heated  style  and  the  nature 
of  the  legal  knowledge  which  it  displays 
leave  little  doubt  that  Ayliffe  either  Avrote 
or  inspired  it.  Apart  from  the  matters  di- 
rectly in  question  he  mentions  among  the 
real  causes  of  tlie  proceedings  his  insinuation 
that  the  unwillingness  of  several  colleges  to 
give  him  an  account  of  their  benefactors  was 
*  an  argument  of  their  perverting  the  iises  of 
the  charity,'  his  protest  against  the  negative 
voice  claimed  by  some  heads  of  colleges,  and 
his  political  opinions.  On  the  last  point 
there  is  some  confirmation  in  a  letter  from 
Oxford  published  in  the  *  Political  State  of 
Great  Britain'  (1716,  xii.  649).  The  writer 
gives  instances  to  show  how  difficult  it  was 
for  a  whig  to  live  at  Oxford,  and  says :  *  Dr. 
Ayliffe  too  must  be  publicly  expelled. 
Several  points  were  pretended,  but  they 
were  easily  seen  thro'.  If  Oxford  be  a  Jaco- 
bite seminary,  who  can  expect  Hanoverian 
principles  should  be  there  tolerated  ? '  And 
Amherst  tells  us  of  a  public  speech  delivered 
just  after  the  king's  accession,  in  which  Ay- 


liffe was  violently  abused,  and  which  con- 
tained the  words  :  *  hisce  mediis  ad  aulam 
affectat  viam ;  abeat,  discedat ;  conveniunt 
mores '  ( TerrcB  Filim,  xiv.)  The  greater  part 
of  Ayliffe's  *  Ancient  and  Present  State  of 
Oxford,'  which  occasioned  these  attacks,  is 
avowedly  an  abridgment  of  Wood's  *  Ilis- 
tory  and  Antiquities  of  Oxford,'  *  deliver'd,' 
as  he  says,  *  from  the  many  errors  and  evident 
partiality  of  that  laborious  undertaker  and 
searcher  into  antiquities.'  The  work  enters 
into  legal  details  at  tedious  length,  and  is 
now  nearly  forgotten.  Aylifie's  chief  titles 
to  fame  are  his  two  treatises  on  the  canon 
law  and  the  civil  law,  into  which  he  threw 
the  whole  learning  of  his  life.  The '  Parergon 
Juris  Canonici  Anglicani '  appeared  in  1726, 
and,  though  time  and  the  labours  of  later 
writers  on  ecclesiastical  law  have  diminished 
its  value,  it  is  still  regarded  as  a  work  of 
high  authority  (see  '  Veley  v.  Burder,'  12  A. 
and  E.  302).  He  died  5  Nov.  1732.  In 
1734  was  published  the  first  volume  of  a 

*  New  Pandect  of  the  Civil  Law,'  which  he 
had  written  some  years  before,  but  had 
kept  back  from  lack  of  subscriptions.  There 
was  at  the  time  an  awakening  interest 
in  the  civil  law,  and  Aylifte  designed  his 
book  not  only  for  the  lawyer,  but  also  for 
the  politician  and  the  diplomatist.  He  con- 
sidered, moreover,  that  his  subject  had  a 
higher  educational  value   than  philosophy. 

*  Whoever  consults  Justinian's  Institutes,' 
he  had  said  in  his  history  of  Oxford,  '  will 
find  more  sound  reasoning  therein  than  in 
all  the  works  of  Ramus,  Ockham,  and  the 
rest  of  that  tribe.'  Ayliffe's  treatise  has  been 
described  as  dull,  tedious,  and  confused 
(Browne's  Comp.  View  of  the  CivilLaw,  p.  ii), 
and  with  some  justice ;  for  under  his  great 
weight  of  learning  he  did  not  move  easily. 
And  this  may  be  the  reason  Avhy,  in  spite  of 
its  comprehensiveness  and  accuracy,  it  has 
not  had  the  reputation  of  works  so  much  in- 
ferior as  Wood's  *  Institutes '  and  Taylor's 

*  Elements.'  Though  never  finished,  it  re- 
mains to  our  own  day  the  most  elaborate 
treatise  on  modern  Roman  law  wiutten  in 
English. 

1.  'The  Ancieht  and  Present  State  of  the 
University  of  Oxford,'  2  vols,  1714,  reprinted 
in  1723.  The  appendix  contains  a  number 
of  charters,  decrees,  &:c.,  relating  both  to 
Oxford  and  Cambridge.  2.  '  The  Case  of 
Dr.  Ajdiffe  at  Oxford  :  giving,  first,  an  Ac- 
count of  the  Unjust  and  Malicious  Prosecu- 
tion of  him  in  the  Chancellor's  Court  of  that 
University,  for  Writing  and  Publishing  a 
'^o6k,Bwt\tviiedLi\\GA7itient  and  Present  State 
of  the  University  of  Oxford :  KnA  secondly,  an 
Account  of  the  Proceedings  had  against  him 


Aylmer  2 

in  his  College,  chiefly  founded  on  the  Prose- 
cution of  the  University ;  whereby  he  was 
oblig'd  to  quit  the  one,  and  was  expell'd  the 
other,'  1716.  Probably  written  by  Aylifle.) 
■I?.  '  Parergon  Juris  Canonici  Anglicani ;  or 
ii  Commentary  by  way  of  Supplement  to  the 
Canons  and  Constitutions  of  the  Church  of 
England,'  &c.,  1726;  2nd  edition,  1734. 
The  titles  are  alphabetically  an-anged. 
There  is  an  historical  introduction,  and  ap- 
pended to  the  work  is  a  catalogue  of  the  mo- 
nastic and  religious  houses  dissolved  by 
Henry  YIII,  with  their  yearly  value, 
t.  *  The  Law  of  Pledges,  or  Pawns,  as  it  was 
in  use  among  the  Komans,  and  as  it  is  now 
practiced  in  most  foreign  Nations,'  1732. 
This  was  a  publication  by  anticipation  of 
Book  lY.  Tit.  18  of  the  work  on  the  civil 
law,  and  was  addressed  to  the  House  of 
Commons,  then  making  inquiries  into  what 
Aylift'e  called  '  the  dark  recesses  and  male- 
practices  of  pawn-brokers  and  their  accom- 
plices in  iniquity.'  5.  *  A  New  Pandect  of 
Roman  Civil  Law,  as  anciently  established 
in  that  Empire,  and  now  received  and  prac- 
ticed in  most  European  Nations,'  &c.,  vol.  i., 
1734.  The  second  volume  never  appeared. 
The  entry  of '  2  vols. '  in  the  '  Biblioth.  Jurid. ' 
of  Lipenius  is  a  mistake. 

[The  Case  of  Dr.  Ayliffe  at  Oxford  ;  refer- 
ences to  himself  in  his  other  works  ;  Notice  by 
Burton  in  S.  D.  U.  K.  Biog.  Diet. ;  Gent.  Mag. 
Ixxiv.  646,  855,  Ixxxix.  956  ;  Eawlinson's  MS.S. 
fol.  16,  105.]  a.  P.M. 

AYLMER,  CHARLES,  D.D.  (1786- 
1847),  an  Irish  Jesuit,  born  at  Painstown, 
county  Kildare,  29  Aug.  1786.  He  entered 
the  Society  of  Jesus  at  Stonyhurst  College, 
in  Lancashire,  and  was  created  D.D.  in  1814 
while  at  Palermo,  where  he  was  stationed  | 
for  several  years.  For  the  use  of  the  British 
catholics  in  that  city  he,  in  conjunction  with 
two  of  his  brethren,  Paiil  Ferley  and  Bar- 
tliolomew  Esmonde,  compiled  *  A  short  Ex- 
planation of  the  Principal  Articles  of  the 
Catholic  Faith'  (Palermo,  at  the  royal 
printing-office),  1812,  12mo ;  and  *  The  De- 
vout Christian's  Daily  Companion,  being  a 
Selection  of  pious  Exercises  for  the  use  of 
Catholics'  (Palermo,  1812,  12mo).  He  be- 
came rector  of  Clongowes  College,  in  Ireland, 
in  1817,  was  professed  of  the  four  vows 
16  Jan.  1820,  and  lived  in  Dublin  from  about 
the  year  1821  till  his  death  on  4  July  1847. 
He  was  superior  of  the  Dublin  Residence  in 
1816,  1822,  and  1829  (when  the  first  stone 
of  the  church  in  Gardiner  Street  Avas  laid), 
and  again  in  1841.  Father  Aylmer  promoted 
in  Dublin  a  society  for  the  printing  of  catho- 
lic books.     His  brother  was   an   officer  of 


Aylmer 


Austrian  cuirassiers,  and  was  considered  one 
of  the  best  swordsmen  in  that  service. 

[Caballero,  Bibliothecaj  Scriptorum  Soc.  Jesu 
Snpplementa.  Supplementiim  altenim  (Rome, 
1816),  3;  Hogan's  Chronological  Cat.  of  tho 
Irish  Province  S.  J.  88 ;  Narbonc's  Bibliografia 
Sicola,  iii.  .342 ;  De  Backer's  Bibliothique  des 
Ecrivaiiis  de  la  Societe  de  Jesus  (1869),  348.] 

T.  C. 

AYLMER,  JOHN  (1521-1594),  bishop 
of  London,  whose  name,  contracted  from  the 
Saxon  .^tlielmaer,  appears  also  as  yElmer  or 
Elmer,  was  bom  of  an  ancient  family  long 
resident  at  their  ancestral  seat  of  Aylmer 
Hall,  in  the  parish  of  Tivetshall  St.  Mary, 
Norfolk.  AVhen  a  schoolboy  he  attracted 
•the  notice  of  Henry  Grey,  marquis  of  Dorset, 
and  afterwards  duke  of  Suffolk,  by  whose 
liberality  he  was  sent  to  be  educated  at 
Cambridge.  He  is  said  to  have  been  a  fel- 
low of  Queens'  College,  at  that  time  a  noted 
resort  of  the  more  advanced  reformers,  but 
this  is  a  matter  of  some  uncertainty.  He 
proceeded  B.A.  in  1541,  and,  shortly  after 
taking  orders,  was  installed  by  his  patron  as 
his  private  chaplain  and  also  as  tutor  to  his 
children  at  Bradgate  in  Leicestersliire.  In 
this  latter  capacity  he  became  the  instructor 
of  Lady  Jane  Grey,  whose  testimony  to  his 
merits  as  one  who  taught  *  gently,'  '  pleas- 
antly,' and  '  with  such  fair  allurements  to 
learning,'  is  preserved  in  the  well-known 
story  told  by  Ascham  {Scholemaster,  ed. 
Mayor,  pp.  33-34).  He  appears  to  have 
turned  his  advantages  a't  Cambridge  to  good 
account,  for  Thomas  Becon,  in  his  *  Jewel  of 
Joy '  (  Works,  ed.  Ayre,  ii.  424),  speaks  of 
him  as  being  at  this  time  '  excellently  well 
learned  '  in  both  Latin  and  Greek. 

On  15  June,  1553,  Aylmer  was  installed 
archdeacon  of  Stow,  in  the  diocese  of  Lin- 
coln, but  having  ventui'ed  in  convocation  to 
oppose  the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation,  he 
was  deprived  of  all  his  preferments,  and 
soon  afterwards  fled  for  safety  to  the  Con- 
tinent. He  resided  first  at  Strassburg,  and 
afterwards  at  Ziirich,  both  chief  centres  of 
reunion  for  the  Marian  exiles,  until  the 
accession  of  Elizabeth.  During  tliese  years 
he  occupied  himself  with  the  instruction  of 
siuidry  young  English  gentlemen  who  had 
also  temporarily  quitted  their  country,  and 
also  in  assisting  John  Fox,  the  martyrologist, 
in  a  Latin  translation  of  the  'Acts  and 
Monuments.'  The  fact  that  Aylmer  Avas 
solicited  by  Fox  to  render  liim  this  assistance 
is  evidence  of  his  reputation  as  an  accurate 
Latin  scholar,  while  Aylmer's  testimony 
(that  of  no  lenient  critic)  to  the  correct- 
ness and  merits  of  Fox's  great  work  is  still 


Aylmer 


282 


Aylmer 


on  record  (Sxkype,  Uife  of  Aylmer,  pp.  8-  I 

10).  ! 

On  the  accession  of  Elizabeth  he  returned 
to  England,  and  was  appointed  one  of  eight 
divines  to  hold  a  disputation  at  Westmin- 
ster with  a  corresponding  number  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  persuasion.  In  1562,  through 
the  influence  of  one  of  his  pupils  abroad 
(Thomas  Dannet)  with  Cecil,  he  was  pro- 
moted to  the  valuable  archdeaconry  of  Lin- 
coln. For  the  next  fourteen  years  he  re- 
sided in  that  city,  attending  to  the  affairs  of  ( 
the  diocese,  and  occasionally  assisting  Arch- 
bishop Parker  in  his  efforts  on  behalf  of 
learning  by  researches  in  the  cathedral 
library.  He  sat  in  convocation  in  1562,  and 
subscribed  to  the  Thirty-nine  Articles.  In 
1573  he  received  by  accumulation  the  de- 
grees of  B.D.  and  D.D.  at  Oxford. 

On  24  March,  1576-7,  Aylmer  was  con- 
secrated bishop  of  London  in  succession  to 
Sandys,  and  from  this  time  his  arbitrary  and 
unconciliatory  disposition  comes  frequently 
into  unpleasing  prominence.  He  quarrelled 
with  his  predecessor  (a  man  like  himself  of 
hot  temper)  respecting  their  relative  claims 
to  the  revenues  of  the  bishopric,  and  again 
on  the  question  of  dilapidations.  His  rule 
of  his  diocese  was  characterised  by  excep- 
tional severity,  fines  and  sentences  of  im- 
prisonment being  frequently  imposed  on 
those  who  differed  from  him  on  doctrinal 
questions,  whether  puritans  or  catholics. 
A  young  bookseller  who  had  sold  a  copy  of 
the  celebrated  '  Admonition  to  Parliament,' 
a  work  attributed  to  Cartwright,  in  which 
the  episcopal  office  in  the  abstract  and  the 
actual  holders  of  it  in  the  English  church 
were  alike  unsparingly  criticised,  was  also 
committed  by  him  to  prison.  He  used  his 
best  endeavours  to  crush  the  recently  re- 
vived university  press  at  Cambridge  {State 
Papers,  Domestic,  Eliz.  clxi.  1).  The  unpopu- 
larity which  he  evoked  by  these  and  similar 
measures  is  indicated  by  an  information 
which  was  laid  against  him  about  this  time 
for  having  felled  all  the  elms  at  Fulham,  a 
charge  which  Strype  denounces  as  a  '  shame- 
ful imtruth.'  Aylmer  appears,  however,  to 
have  become  conscious  that  his  opportunities 
for  iisefulness  in  his  diocese  were  to  a  gi*eat 
degi'ee  lost,  and  made  more  than  one  imsuc- 
cessful  attempt  to  obtain  his  removal  to  a  less 
laborious  see,  to  Ely  or  Winchester.  Whit- 
gift,  who  appears  to  have  approved  his  policy 
in  general,  appointed  him  to  preach  before 
the  queen  on  her  birthday  in  1583 ;  but 
Aylmer  having  shortly  after  ventured  to 
obtain  the  royal  warrant  for  committing 
Cartwright,  the  great  puritan  leader,  to 
prison,   Elizabeth,   with    her  habitual  dis- 


ingenuousness,  deeming  it  prudent  to  dis- 
avow the  proceedings,  manifested  signs  of  her 
displeasure.  His  enemies,  who  were  not 
few,  endeavoured  to  avail  themselves  of  this 
circumstance  by  bringing  forward  charges 
against  him  of  misappropriation  of  the  epi- 
scopal revenues,  an  accusation  which  he  ap- 
pears to  have  successfully  repelled  by  fur- 
nishing Burghley  with  a  detailed  account 
of  his  financial  position  and  that  of  the  see. 
In  the  same  year,  Avlien  on  a  visitation  in 
Essex,  he  only  escaped  a  public  insidt  in 
Maldon  Church  through  having  been  ap- 
prised of  the  design  beforehand.  Having 
learned  the  names  of  the  instigators,  he 
showed  liis  usual  resentful  temper  by  send- 
ing them  to  prison.  It  is  not  sui-prising  to 
find  that  when,  in  1588,  the  Martin  Marpre- 
late  tracts  appeared,  Aylmer  was  singled 
out  for  their  fiercest  satire.  The  closing 
years  of  his  life  showed,  however,  no  soften- 
ing in  his  policy.  He  took  a  leading  part  in 
the  deprivation  of  Robert  Cawdi-ey,  a  clergy- 
man at  Luffenham,  for  some  injudicious  re- 
marks respecting  the  prayer-book — a  mea- 
sure that  resulted  in  four  years  of  irritating 
litigation.  He  also  suspended,  on  like 
grounds,  '  silver-tongued  Smith,'  a  young 
and  able  divine,  and  the  most  popular 
preacher  of  the  day ;  and  again  (much 
against  the  wish  and  advice  of  Burghley) 
Robert  Dyke,  of  St.  Albans. 

Elizabeth  appears  to  have  been  desirous  of 
seconding  Aylmer's  wish  to  be  removed  to 
another  see,  and  suggested  that  of  Worces- 
ter, and  Bancroft  as  his  successor  in  London. 
Negotiations  with  this  view  were  accord- 
ingly commenced,  but  Aylmer's  impractica- 
bility of  temper  led  him  to  insist  on  con- 
ditions which  Bancroft  would  not  accede 
to,  and  after  three  ineffectual  endeavours  to 
arrive  at  an  understanding  the  latter  ab- 
stained from  all  further  discussion  on  the 
subject.  Shortly  before  his  death,  however 
(3  June,  1594),  Aylmer  expressly  intimated 
his  hope  that  Bancroft  might  succeed  him 
{MSS.  Baker,  xxxvi.  335). 

He  was  interred  in  St.  Paul's  Cathedral, 
but  the  *  fair  stone  of  grey  mai'ble '  which 
marked  the  place  of  his  interment  no  longer 
appears.  The  inscription,  which  Avas  alto- 
gether free  from  fulsome  eulogy,  sen  tentiously 
recorded  that  he 

Ter  senos  annos  Prsesul ;  semel  Exul,  et  idem 
Bis  Piigil  in  causa  religionis  erat. 

He  married  Judith  Bures,  a  lady  of  Suf- 
follv,  by  whom  he  had  seven  sons  and  three 
daughters.  Of  the  former,  one  (Samuel) 
was  sheriff  for  the  coimty  of  Suffolk ; 
another  (John)  was  knighted,  and  resided  at 


Aylmer 


283 


Aylmer 


lligby  in  Lincolnshire.  Later  descendants 
of  Aylmer  are  Colonel  AVhitgift  Aylmer, 
who  (lied  1701  (Lk  Nevk,  Monum.  Anf/l., 
1650-1718,  pp.  190,  197),  and  Brabazon 
Aylmei*,  Esq.,  of  the  ^Middle  Temple,  who 
married  Miss  Bragg-e  81  July  1735  {Geiif. 
Mag.,  1735,  p.  500  a).  Aylmer  was  succeeded 
in  his  see  after  some  interval  by  Richard 
Vaughan,  whom  he  had  befriended  in  his 
lifetime,  and  who  appeai-s  to  have  been  re- 
lated to  him  either  by  marriage  or  descent 
(Baker,  Hist,  of  St.  John's  College,  ed. 
Mayor,  p.  255). 

Aylmer  is  supposed  to  be  designated  by 
Spenser  in  his  '  Shepheard's  Calendar'  (July) 
under  the  name  of  Morrell,  the  *  proude  and 
ambitious  pastour ' — the  name  being  formed 
by  syllabic  transposition  from  Elmer,  just  as 
Algrind,  in  the  same  eclogue,  is  formed  from 
Grindal.  The  puritans  in  like  manner  nick- 
named him  Marelme  {Ilay  any  Worke  for 
Cooper,  ed.  Petheram,  pp.  24,  26). 

It  can  hardly  be  questioned  that,  both 
from  his  views  and  his  temperament,  Aylmer 
Avas  ill  qualified  to  fill  the  episcopal  office 
in  the  trying  times  in  which  he  lived.  He 
gave  especial  offence  to  the  puritans  by  his 
endeavour  to  introduce  that  conception  of 
Sunday  observance  which  the  Anglican 
party  at  large  subsequently  sanctioned,  and 
his  practice  of  playing  at  bowls  on  the  sacred 
day  was  a  source  of  much  scandal  (Marpre- 
late's  Epistle,  pp.  6,  52,  54).  Like  Laud, 
whom  in  some  respects  he  much  resembles, 
he  deserves  to  be  commended  for  his  attach- 
ment to  learaing  and  for  his  discerning 
patronage  of  scholars.  He  was  an  accom- 
plished logician,  was  well  acquainted  Avith 
Hebrew,  Greek,  and  Latin,  had  studied  his- 
tory, and  had  the  reputation  of  being  a  good 
civilian.  His  reputation  as  a  scholar  and  a 
writer  is  indicated  by  the  fact  that,  like  Dr. 
Still  and  Alexander  Tsowell,  he  was  re- 
quested to  compose  a  confutation  of  the 
'  Disciplina '  of  Walter  Travers,  the  recog- 
nised text-book  of  both  the  earlier  and  the 
later  puritanism  (Chtjrton's  Koirell,  p.  223) ; 
liurghley  also  urged  upon  him  the  task  of 
replying  to  the  *  Ten  Keasons  '  of  Campian, 
the  Jesuit.  With  neither  of  these  requests 
did  he  think  fit,  hoAvever,  to  I'eply. 

The  only  one  of  his  works  that  here  calls 
for  notice  is  his  reply  to  the  '  Monstrous 
llegimeut  of  Women '  of  John  Knox,  en- 
titled '  An  HarboroAA'e  for  faithfull  and 
trewe  Subjects,  against  the  late  bloAvne 
Blaste,  concerning  the  Government  of  Wo- 
men. Strasburgh,  1559 ' — a  composition  the 
merits  of  AA-hich  are  admitted  by  Knox's  OAvn 
biographer.  Dr.  M'Crie.  Of  his  other  writ- 
ings (chiefly  sermons  and  devotional  works) 


full   particulars  will  be  found  in  Cooper's 
'Athens©  Cantabrigienses,'  ii.  171-2. 

[Life  by  Strype ;  see  also  a  copy  with  MH. 
notes  by  Baker  in  St.  John's  Coll.  Library,  Cam. ; 
Cooper,  AthcnsB  Cantal>rigienses ;  the  Marpreiaf  o 
Tnxcts,  ptissim ;  Maskell's  Hi.st«jry  of  tiie  Martin 
Marprelate  Controversy ;  Clarke's  Ipswich,  447  ; 
Ashmolean  M.SS.  ;  Nicolas's  Life  of  Sir  Chr, 
Hatton,  index  ;  Marshall's  Genealogist's  Guide ; 
Marsden's  Early  Puritans  ;  HaAveis'  Sketches  of 
the  E.efoi*mation ;  Hunt's  Histoiy  of  Religious 
Thought,  i.  73-76;  Ziirich  Letters  ;  Maitland's 
Essays  on  the  Reformation,  200-225;  M'Crie's 
Life  of  Knox,  162-167.]  J.  B.  M. 

AYLMER,  MATTHEW,  Lord  Atlmeb 
(d.  1720),  admiral  and  commander-in-chief, 
was  the  second  son  of  Sir  Christopher 
Aylmer  of  Balrath,  county  Meath,  and  en- 
tered the  navy  under  the  protection  of  the 
Duke  of  Buckingham,  as  a  lieutenant,  in 
1678.  Early  in  the  following  year  he  Avas  ad- 
A'anced  to  the  rank  of  captain ;  and  he  appears 
to  haAC  served  almost  constantly, during  the 
next  ten  years,  on  the  coast  of  Algiers  and 
in  the  Mediterranean.  In  October  1688  he 
was  appointed  captain  of  the  SAvallow  in  the 
Thames,  but  at  once  gave  in  his  allegiance  to 
the  cause  of  the  Revolution.  In  1690  he 
commanded  the  Royal  Katherine,  and,  in 
the  battle  off  Beachy  Head,  was  one  of  the 
seconds  to  Sir  Ralph  Delavall  Avho  com- 
manded the  blue  squadron;  and  in  1692, 
still  in  the  Royal  Katherine,  was  one  of  the 
seconds  of  the  commander-in-chief  at  Bar- 
fleur.  In  February  1693  he  Avas  adAanced 
to  the  rank  of  rear-admiral,  and  to  that  of 
A-ice-admiral  in  the  folloAving  year,  Avhen  he 
accompanied  Admiral  Russell  to  the  Medi- 
terranean. After  the  peace  of  RysAvick  he 
was  sent,  in  1698,  as  commander-in-chief, 
again  into  the  Mediterranean,  principally  to 
confirm  the  treaties  with  the  regencies  of 
Tripoli,  Tunis,  and  Algiers ;  A\-hich  he  happily 
accomplished,  and  returned  home  towards 
the  end  of  the  next  year.  In  November 
1699,  being,  it  is  said,  dissatisfied  at  the 
appointment  of  Admiral  Churchill  to  the 
admiralty,  he  retired  from  active  service, 
though  iie  continued  to  act  as  one  of  the 
commissioners  of  the  naAy  till  July  1702. 
He  took  no  part  Avhatever  in  naval  affairs  be- 
yond sitting  in  parliament  as  baron  or  mem- 
ber for  Dover,  till  after  the  death  of  Prince 
George,  and  the  retirement  of  Churchill  in 
November  1709,  Avhen  he  A\-as  appointed 
commander-in-chief  of  the  fleet.  In  the  fol- 
loAving  July,  Avhilst  cruising  in  the  Sound- 
ings, he  fell  in  Avith  a  French  squadron  and 
couAoy,  of  Avhich  only  one  merchantman  and 
the  Superbe,  of  56  guns,  were  captured ;  the 
rest  escaped,  owing,  it  was  alleged,  to  the 


Ayloffe 


284 


Ayloffe 


haziness  of  the  weather.  The  want  of  success 
served  the  new  ministry  as  an  excuse  to  super- 
sede him,  Avhich  they  did  in  January  1711. 
He  held  no  further  command  till  the  acces- 
sion of  George  I,  when  he  was  again  appointed 
commander-in-chief,  ranger  of  Greenwich 
Park,  and  governor  of  Greenwich  Hospital. 
This  office  he  held  till  liis  death ;  and  during 
that  time  succeeded  in  establishing  the  hos- 
pital school  for  the  sons  of  seamen,  which, 
from  small  beginnings,  lias  been  gi-adually 
developed  into  the  magnificent  institution  of 
the  present  day.  In  April  1717  he  became  one 
of  the  lords  commissioners  of  the  admiralty, 
but  he  resigned  the  appointment  early  the 
next  year,  when  he  was  advanced  to  be  rear- 
admiral  of  the  United  Kingdom,  and  at  the 
same  time  raised  to  the  peerage  as  Lord 
Aylmer  of  Balrath.  He  died  18  Aug.  1720. 
A  portrait,  half-length,  presented  by  his 
descendant,  the  fifth  Lord  Aylmer,  is  in  the 
Painted  Hall  at  Greenwich. 

[Charnock's  Biog.  Nav.  ii.  3o ;  Brit.  Mus. 
MSS.  Add.  28122-4;  Official  Papers  in  the 
Public  Record  Office.]  J.  K.  L. 

)i^  AYLOFFE,  JOHN  {d.  1685),  satirist, 
iKi  ii)!*,  wrote  one  of  the  most  drastic  and  powerful 
tjU^f  satires  against  the  Stuarts,  entitled  *  Marvell's 
J  r  Ghost.'  It  was  furtively  circulated  as  a 
^  broadside,  but  was  included  in  Nichols's  '  Se- 
lect Collection  of  Poems '(iii.  186).  The  editor 
calls  him  '  Captain  John  AylotFe,'  and  says  he 
was  educated  in  Trinity  College,  Cambridge. 
This  is  all  he  knew.  It  seems  certain  that 
he  was  the  John  Aj'loffe,  Esq.,  who  was  exe- 
cuted before  the  gate  of  the  Inner  Temple 
on  30  Oct.  1685  for  his  participation  in  the 
Rye  House  plot.  He  went  with  the  Earl  of 
Argyle  into  Scotland,  where  he  was  taken, 
and  made  an  attempt  to  destroy  himself  by 
inflicting  a  terrible  wound  in  his  belly.  At 
his  execution  it  came  out  that  he  was  of  the 
Temple ;  had  been  a  '  clubber  at  the  King's 
Head  Tavern,'  and  '  a  gi'een-ribbon  man.' 
'  Marvell's  Ghost '  is  as  burning  and  passion- 
ate in  its  invective  as  any  of  Marvell's  own. 
He  appears  to  have  left  a  relative  behind  him 
in  a  William  Ayloffe,  author  of  a  poem  on 
the  death  of  Charles  II  and  accession  of 
James  II. 

[Brit.  Musemn  Broadsides ;  Hunter  MSS.  24, 
490 ;  Dryden  Miscell.]  A.  B.  G. 

AYLOFFE,  SiK  JOSEPH  (1709-1781), 
baronet,  an  eminent  antiquai'y,  was  the 
great-grandson  of  Sir  William  Ayloffe,  first 
baronet,  through  his  third  wife  [see  Ayloffe, 
William,  ad  fin.'],  and  was  the  son  of  Joseph 
Ayloffe,  barrister-at-law  of  Gray's  Inn  and 
sometime  recorder  of  Kingston-upon-Thames, 


who  died  in  1726.  Born  about  1709,  Aylofle 
was  educated  at  Westminster,  was  admitted 
a  student  of  Lincoln's  Inn  in  1724,  and  spent 
some  time  at  St.  John's  College,  Oxford,  be- 
fore 1728.  In  1730  he  succeeded,  as  sixth  in 
succession,  to  the  family  baronetcy  on  the 
death  of  his  unmarried  cousin,  the  Rev.  Sir 
John  Ayloffe,  a  descendant  of  the  first  family 
of  the  original  holder  of  the  title.  Sir  Joseph 
seems  very  early  in  life  to  haA'e  manifested 
an  interest  in  antiquities,  which  received  at 
once  the  recognition  of  the  learned,  although 
for  many  years  he  was  merely  collecting  in- 
fonnation  and  published  nothing.  On  10  Feb. 
1731-2  he  was  elected  a  fellow  of  the  Society 
of  Antiquaries,  and  on  27  May  of  tho  samw  H  3 1 
jieajc  a  fellow  of  the  Royal  Society.  Seven 
years  later  he  became  a  member  of  the  well- 
known  literary  club — 'the  Gentlemen's  So- 
ciety at  Spalding.'  But  he  did  not  confine 
himself  altogether  to  antiquarian  research. 
In  1736-7  he  was  appointed  secretary  to  the 
commission  superintending  the  erection  of 
Westminster  Bridge ;  in  1760  he  was  auditor- 
general  of  the  hospitals  of  Bethlehem  and 
Bridewell ;  and  in  1763,  on  the  removal  of 
the  state  archives  from  Whitehall  and  the 
establishment  of  a  State  Paper  Office  at  the 
Treasury,  he  was  nominated  one  of  its  three 
keepers.  In  1751  Ayloffe  took  a  prominent 
part  in  procuring  a  charter  of  incorporation 
for  the  Society  of  Antiquaries,  of  which  he 
was  for  many  years  a  vice-president,  and  at 
its  meetings  he  verj-  frequently  read  papers. 
He  died  at  Kensington  on  19  April  1781, 
and  with  him  the  baronetcy  became  extinct. 
He  married,  about  1734,  ^Margaret,  daughter 
of  Charles  Railton  of  Carlisle,  by  whom  he 
had  one  son,  who  died  of  small-pox  at  Trinity 
Hall,  Cambridge,  in  1756.  Both  father  and 
son  were  buried  in  Hendon  churchyard.  Sir 
Joseph  was  the  intimate  friend  of  his  col- 
league at  the  State  Paper  Office,  Thomas 
Astle,  and  of  Richard  Gough ;  the  latter  de- 
scribed Aylofte  as  the  English  Montfaucon. 

Ayloffe's  published  writings  belong  to  his 
later  life,  and  were  never  very  sviccessful 
with  the  general  public.  In  1751  he  circu- 
lated proposals  for  printing  by  subscription 
the  debates  in  parliament  prior  to  the  Re- 
storation, in  eight  octavo  volumes.  But 
little  favour  was  apparently  extended  to 
the  scheme ;  although  in  1773  it  was  ad- 
vertised that  the  first  volumes  would  soon 
be  sent  to  press,  none  appear  to  have  been 
published  (cf.  Rawlinson  MSS.  in  the  Bod- 
leian, s.  V.  'AyloflTe').  It  was  also  in  1751 
that  Sir  Joseph  issued  a  prospectus  invit- 
ing subscribers  for  a  translation  of  Diderot's 
and  D'Alembert's  '  Encyclopedie,'  with  ad- 
ditional or  expanded  articles  on  subjects  of 


Ayloffe 


28^ 


I"]nglish  interest.  But  the  first  number, 
which  was  published  on  11  June  1752,  ob- 
tained such  scanty  support,  and  was  so 
severely  handled  in  the  *  Gentleman's  Ma- 
gazine' (xxii.  46),  that  the  project  was 
immediately  abandoned.  Some  years  pre- 
viously Ayloft'e  had  induced  Josliua  Kirby, 
a  well-known  draughtsman  of  Ipswich,  to 
prejjare  a  number  of  engravings  of  the  chief 
buildings  and  monuments  in  Suffolk,  and 
twelve  of  them  were  published  with  descrip- 
tive letterpress  by  Ayloffe  in  1748.  It  was 
Ayloffe's  intention  to  introduce  Kirby's  draAv- 
ings  into  an  elaborate  history  of  the  county 
upon  which  he  was  apparently  engaged  for 
the  succeeding  fifteen  years.  In  1764  he  had 
made  so  much  progress  in  collecting  and 
arranging  his  materials  that  he  published  a 
lengthy  prospectus  for  the  publication  of  an 
exhaustive  *  Topographical  and  Historical 
Description  of  Suffolk,'  but  unfortunately  he 
here  again  received  too  little  encouragement 
to  warrant  him  in  pursuing  his  elaborate  plan. 
Subsequently  he  contributed  several  memoirs 
to  *  ArchfBologia,'  the  journal  of  the  Society 
of  Antiquaries,  which  were  highly  valued 
at  the  time.  On  25  Feb.  1763  he  '  commu- 
nicated '  an  interesting  '  Copy  of  a  Procla- 
mation (1563)  relating  to  Persons  making 
Portraits  of  Queen  Elizabeth '  (ii.  169-170). 
In  1773  and  1774  there  appeared  in '  Archiso- 
logia'  (iii.  185-229,2.39-272,  376-413)  three 
papers  by  Ayloffe,  describing  (1)  a  picture 
at  Windsor  of  the  -famous  interview  in 
1520  between  Henry  VIII  and  Francis  I; 
(2)  four  pictures  at  Cowdry  near  Midhurst, 
the  property  of  Lord  Montague,  illustrating 
Henry  VIII's  wars  in  France  in  the  latter 
part  of  his  reign ;  and  (3)  the  opening  of  the 
tomb  of  Edward  I  at  Westminster  in  1774, 
an  exhumation  that  Ayloffe  with  Daines 
Barrington  superintended.  Another  paper 
prepared  for  the  Society  of  Antiquaries, '  On 
Five  Monuments  in  Westminster  Abbey,' was 
published  separately,  Avith  engravings,  in 
1780.  An  account  of  the  chapel  on  London 
Bridge,  by  Ayloffe,  was  published  with  a 
drawing  by  George  Vertue  in  1777. 

In  1772  Ayloffe  published  the  work  by 
which  he  is  still  known  to  historical  stu- 
dents. It  is  entitled  '  Calendars  of  the  An- 
tient  Charters.  .  .and  of  the  Welch  and 
Scottish  Rolls  now  remaining  in  the  Tower.' 
In  a  lengthy  introduction  the  author  im- 
presses on  historians  the  necessity  of  scho- 
larly research  among  the  state  papers.  The 
book  was  begun  by  the  Rev.  Philip  Morant, 
who  was  at  one  time  employed  at  the  State 
Paper  Office,  and  was  published  at  first 
anonymously.  But  in  1774  a  new  issue  gave 
Sir  Joseph  Ayloffe's  name  on  the  title-page. 


Ayloffe 

Ayloffe  also  revised  for  the  press  new  edi- 
tions of  Leland's  'Collectanea  '  (1771)  and 
of  the  'Liber  Niger  Scaccarii '  (1771),  and 
added  valuable  appendices  of  original  illus- 
trative documents.  He  saw  tlirough  the  press 
John  Thorpe's  '  Registrura  Roffense,'  which 
was  published  in  1769  by  the  compiler's  son. 
Ayloffe's  '  Collections  relative  to  Saxon  and 
English  Laws  and  Antiquities '  remain  in 
manuscript  at  the  British  Museum  (Addit. 
MS.  9051).  We  have  been  unable  to  trace 
the  whereabouts  of  his  other  manuscript  col- 
lections, which  were  clearly  very  numerous, 
and  are  stated  by  contemporaries  to  have 
been  invaluable  so  far  as  they  related  to  the 
abbey  and  city  of  Westminster.  His  library 
was  sold  by  Leigh  and  Sotheby  soon  after 
his  death. 

[Annual  Eegister  for  1781  ;  Gent.  Mag.  for 
1781 ;  Nichols's  Literary  Anecdotes  and  Illustra- 
tions of  Literature  ;  Burke's  Extinct  Peerage, 
p.  30 ;  Morant's  History  of  Essex ;  Brit.  Mus. 
Cat.]  S.  L.  L. 

AYLOFFE,  WILLIAM  (d.  1585),  judge 
of  the  Queen's  Bench,  was  descended  from  a 
very  ancient  family  settled  originally  in 
Kent  and  subsequently  in  Essex,  whose  ori- 
gin has  been  traced  to  Saxon  times.  On 
14  Feb.  1553-4  he  was  admitted  a  student  of 
Lincoln's  Inn,  where  two  other  near  rela- 
tives, bearing  the  same  name,  distinguished 
themselves  in  the  sixteenth  century,  and  in 
1560  he  was  called  to  the  bar.  After  being 
appointed  '  reader '  at  his  inn  of  court  in 
Lent  term,  1571,  he  was  made  serjeant-at- 
law  in  1577,  at  the  same  time  as  Sir  Edmund 
Anderson,  afterwards  the  well-known  lord 
chief  justice  of  the  Common  Pleas.  A  notice' 
of  a  banquet  in  the  Middle  Temple  hall, 
given  by  Ayloffe  with  other  barristers  upon 
whom  a  similar  distinction  had  just  been  con- 
ferred, to  celebrate  their  promotion,  is  pre- 
served among  the  Ashmolean  MSS.  at  Ox- 
ford (Ashm.  MS.  804,  ii.  1).  No  record  is 
knoAvn  of  Ayloffe's  elevation  to  the  bench,  but 
he  is  found  acting  as  judge  in  the  court  of 
Queen's  Bench  in  1579  (Calendar  of  State 
Papers,  1547-1580,  p.  637),  and  his  judgments 
are  reported  by  Dyer,  Coke,  and  Savile  after 
that  date,  which  may  therefore  be  regarded  as 
the  probable  year  of  his  appointment.  He  was 
present  in  1581  at  the  trial  of  Edmund  Cam- 
pion andother  seminary  priests,  and  special  at- 
tention is  called  to  the  part  he  played  on  that 
occasion  in  a  pamphlet  published  by  English 
catholics  at  Pans  shortly  afterwards,  and 
bearing  the  title  '  An  Epistle  of  Comfort  to 
the  Reverend  Priestes  and  to  the  Honorable, 
AVorshipful  and  other  of  the  Laye  sort  re- 
strayned  in  Durance  for  the  Catholike  Fajrth,* 


Aylward 


286 


Aymer 


12mo.  It  is  there  stated  (p.  202),  on  the 
evidence  of  eye-witnesses,  that  while  sitting 
in  court  after  the  other  judges  had  retired, 
and  while  the  jury  were  considering  their  ver- 
dict, Aylofte  took  ott"  his  glove  and  found 
his  hand  and  ring  covered  with  blood  with- 
out any  apparent  cause,  and  that,  in  spite  of 
his  endeavours  to  wipe  it  away,  the  blood 
continued  to  flow  as  a  miraculous  sign  of  the 
injustice  that  polluted  the  judgment-seat. 
Some  letters  that  passed  between  AylofFe 
and  the  lord  mayor  of  London  with  refe- 
rence to  the  appointment  of  his  brother  as 
town  clerk,  are  preserved  among  the  city 
archives  for  the  years  1580  and  1581  {Re- 
membvancia,  pp.  149,  150,  271). 

Aylofte  died  on  8  Nov.  1585.  lie  married 
Jane,  daughter  of  Sir  Eustace  Suhard,  by 
whom  he  had  three  sons.  A  baronetcy  con- 
feiTed  by  James  I  in  1612  upon  William, 
the  eldest  of  them,  who  had  been  knighted 
in  1603,  continued  in  the  family  till  1781. 
Sir  William,  the  first  baronet,  was  thrice 
married,  and  a  large  family  survived  him. 

[Foss's  Judges  of  England,  v.  445 ;  Wright's 
Essex,  ii.  443-4 ;  Burke's  Extinct  Baronetage, 
p.  30;  Notes  and  Queries  (2nd  series),  iii.  376.] 

S.  L.  L. 

AYLWARD,  THEODORE  (1730-1801), 
musician,  was  born,  probably  at  Chichester,  in 
1730.  Of  his  early  life  and  education  nothing 
is  known,  though  when  young  he  seems  to 
have  sung  at  Drury  Lane  Theatre.  He  be- 
came a  member  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Mu- 
sicians 9  July  1763  {Records  of  Roy.  Soc. 
Musicians),  and  was  elected  by  a  unanimous 
vote  into  the  Madrigal  Societj^  15  Nov.  1769 
{Records  of  Madrigal  Sac).  He  was  ap- 
pointed organist  of  St.  IjaAvrence  JeAvrv  in 
1762,  a  post  he  held  until  1 788.  In  1764  he 
was  organist  of  Oxford  Chapel,  and  from 
1768  to  1781  organist  of  St.  Michael's,  Corn- 
hill.  In  1771  he  was  appointed  professor  of 
music  at  Gresham  College,  and  in  1788  he 
succeeded  Edward  Webb  as  organist  of  St. 
George's  Chapel,  Windsor.  In  November 
1791  he  took  the  accumulated  degrees  of 
Mus.  Bac.  and  Mus.  Doc.  at  Oxford.  He  died  i 
at  Windsor  27  Feb.  1801,  and  was  buried  in 
St.  George's  Chapel.  Aylward  published  a  j 
few  songs,  duets,  glees,  and  organ  pieces ;  ! 
but  most  of  his  music  is  still  in  manuscript. 

[Appendix  to  Bemrose's  Choir  Chant  Book 
(1882);  Catalogue  of  Collection  of  Music  .School, 
Oxford;  Gent.  Mag.  1801.]  W.  B.  S. 

AYMER  or  iETHELM^R    (Ethel- 

MAK)  DE  YaLEXCE,  or  DE  LUSIGXAX  (d. 
1200),  bishop  of  Winchester,  was  a  younger 
son  of  Isabella,  widow  of  King  John,  by  her 


second  husband,  Hugh  X,  count  of  La  Marche. 

Isabella  having  died  in  124G,and  the  fortunes 
of  their  house  being  depressed  in  consequence 
of  the  failure  of  their  father's  rebellion,  Guy  of 
Lusignan,  William  of  "\"alence,  and  Aymer, 
Avho  was  then  in  orders,  came  to  England  in 
1247  to  enrich  themselves.     Henry  III  re- 
ceived his  half  brother  with  great  joy.     Be- 
sides procuring  several  livings  for  Aymer, 
he  compelled   difterent   bishops  and  abbots 
to   assign  him   '  innumerable '  pensions,   so 
that  his  rcA^enues  soon  equalled  those  of  an 
archbishopric.     Among  the  various  acts  of 
injustice   by  which   the   king   enriched  his 
brother  at  this  time,  the  strong  pressure  put 
on  the  abbot  of  Abingdon  to  force  him  to 
present  Aymer  to  tlie   rich   church  of  St. 
Helen  in  that  town  excited  s])ecial  indigna- 
tion.    On  the  resignation  of  Nicolas,  bishop 
of  Durham,  in  1 249,  Heniy  tried  hard  to  pro- 
cure the  election  of  his  brother.     In  spite, 
however,  of  the  king's  threats,  the  chapter 
rejected  Aymer  as  too  young  and  too  igno- 
rant for  the  office,  and  Henry  was  for  the 
time  forced  to  be  content  with  adding  the 
rectory  of  Wearmouth  to  his   many  bene- 
fices.    So   numerous  had   these   and   other 
sources  of  revenue  become,  that  it  was  said 
Aymer  might  well  forget  Avhat  they  were 
and   what   each   was   wortli,    and    he   was 
obliged  to  appoint  a  steward  to  manage  his 
rapidly-increasing  wealtli.     When  William, 
bishop  of  Winchester  died  in  1250,  Henry 
determined  that  his  brother  should  succeed 
him,  and  sent  two  of  his  chief  clerks  to  per- 
suade the  monks  to  elect  him.     They  refused 
on  account  of  his  youth,  his  lack  of  full 
orders,  for  he  was  only  an  acolyte,  and  his 
ignorance.    Then  tlie  king  himself  visited  the 
chapter,  and  commanded  them  with  threats 
to  elect  his  brother.    The  monks  yielded,  for 
they  knew  that  there  was  no  help  to  be  had 
from  the  pope.   Very  sorrowfully  they  obeyed 
the  king's  command,  for  the  Poitevin  thus 
forced  upon  tliem  as  the  head  of  their  noble 
and  wealthy  church  could  npt  speak  their 
language,  and  would,  they  believed,  avoid 
consecration,  for  they  knew  that  he  only 
sought  the  revenues  of  the  see.     .Vymer  was 
elected  on  4  Nov.    1250,  and   his  election 
was  confirmed  at  Lyojis  by  Innocent  IV  on 
14  Jan.  of  the  following  year.     On  his  re- 
turn to  England  he  gave  a  s])lendld  banquet 
at  Winchester   to   the  king   and   queen  to 
celebrate  his  entrance  on  his  office.     Few, 
if  any,  of  his  guests  were  Englishmen,  and 
this  neglect  of  the  native  nobility  did  not 
escape  remark.     The  papal  confirmation  was 
doubly  scandalous  in  the  eyes  of  Englishmen. 
Not  only  was  Aymer,  they  said,  the  first  to 
hold  an  English  bishopric  without  being  a 


Aymer 


287 


Aymer 


l)ishop,  but  the  pope  gave  him  leave  to  retain 
the  revenues  he  derived  from  the  church 
before  his  consecration.  Although  he  was 
now  splendidly  ])rovided  for,  the  king  forced 
the  abbot  of  St.  Albans  to  grant  him  a  yearly 
pension  of  ten  marks. 

The  bis]io|)-elect  of  Winchester  attended 
the  assembly  of  bishops  held  at  London  on 
18  Oct.  1352  to  deliberate  on  the  ])ope's  grant 
to  the  king  of  a  tenth  of  the  revenues  of  the 
clergy  for  three  years.  Ilobert  Grosseteste, 
bishop  of  Lincoln,  opposed  the  demand. 
Aymer  argued  that,  as  ])ope  and  king  Avere 
united,  the  clergy  liad  no  choice  ;  and  that, 
as  the  French  had  agreed  to  a  like  demand, 
the  English  ought  to  do  the  same.  He  seems, 
however,  to  have  said  this  as  the  king's  advo- 
cate, for  he  agreed  with  Grosseteste  and  most 
of  the  other  bishops  in  refusing  to  be  bound 
by  the  grant.  The  king  Avas  very  AATotli  with 
him  for  this,  and  when  Aymer  took  leave  of 
him  with  the  words, '  I  commend  you  to  the 
Lord  God,'  answered, '  And  I  you  to  the  living 
devil,' reproaching  him  bitterly  with  ingrati- 
tude. Soon  after  this  Aymer  quarrelled  with 
Boniface  of  Savoy,  archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, the  uncle  of  the  queen.  During  the 
archbishop's  absence  from  England,  he  insti- 
tuted a  certain  clerk  as  prior  of  the  hospital  of 
St.  Tliomas  the  IMartyr,  at  Southwark.  The 
archbisho])'8  official,  finding  that  the  rights 
of  Canterbury  had  been  Infringed  on,  called 
on  the  prior  to  resign,  and  on  his  refusal  ex- 
communicated him.  The  prior  continued 
contumacious,  and  the  official  had  him  seized 
and  taken  to  the  archbishop's  manor  of  Maid- 
stone. When  Aymer  heard  this,  he  gathered 
a  band  of  men,  and  with  the  connivance  of 
William,  his  brother,  and  John  of  Warrenne, 
his  brother-in-law,  sent  them  to  seize  the 
official.  They  sought  him  at  Southwark  and 
then  at  Maidstone,  and  not  finding  him  there, 
set  fire  to  the  house.  At  last  they  found  him 
at  the  manor  of  Lambeth,  and  brought  him 
Avith  many  insults  to  Farnham.  Aymer  did 
not  dare  to  keep  liim,  and  droA'^e  him  from  the 
castle.  The  archbishop  excommunicated  all 
concerned  in  this  outrage.  Aymer,  however, 
commanded  the  dean  of  SouthAvark  and  others 
to  declare  the  sentence  of  no  effect.  The 
foreigners  at  the  court  were  divided,  the 
PoiteA'ins  against  the  Provencals,  the  king's 
men  against  the  queen's  men,  Avhile  the  Eng- 
lish heartily  Avished  that  they  would  destroy 
one  another.  The  archbishop  succeeded  in 
stirring  up  popular  feeling  against  the  bishop- 
elect  by  laying  liis  case  before  the  uniA^ersity 
of  Oxford.  At  the  festival  of  Epiphany  in 
the  next  year,  the  king  as  usual  being  at 
Winchester  for  Christmas,  a  reconciliation 
was  arranged,  and  Aymer  swore  that  the 


violence  done  AA-as  AAithf)ut  his  knoAvledge 
and  Avill.  In  the  parliament  held  at  London 
in  April  1253,  the  bishoi)-elect,  Avith  two 
others,  AA'a.s  sent  by  the  bishops  to  the  king  to 
entreat  him  to  alloAv  the  church  liberty  of 
election.  Henry  ansAA^ered  that  the  bishojjs 
of  his  appointment  had  better  resign,  and 
turning  to  Aymer,  reminded  him  hoAV  he 
had  gained  his  bisliopric  for  him  by  threats 
and  entreaties  Avhen,  on  account  of  his  youth 
and  his  i^orance,  he  ought  to  haA'e  been  at 
school.  Tlie  next  year  Aymer  appears  to 
have  promised  to  join  the  king,  Avho  was 
then  fighting  in  Gascony. 

Aymer  made  the  monks  of  Winchester 
bitterly  repent  their  com])liance  with  the 
king's  order  to  elect  him,  for  he  greatly  o\>- 
pressed  them,  keei)ing  them  shut  up  in  th«! 
church  for  three  days  Avithout  food.  Theyfled 
from  his  A'iolence,  and  took  shelter  in  other 
monasteries.  He  dispossessed  the  prior,  and 
filled  the  convent  Avith  men  of  a  baser  sort, 
AA'hom  he  made  monks  of  his  house.  Even 
the  king  disapproA'ed  of  his  violence.  The 
prior  appealed  to  Home,  Henry  warned  his 
brother  of  the  insatiable  thirst  of  the  papal 
court  for  gold,  and  in  ansAver  Aymer  boasted 
that  the  spring  of  his  AA'ealth  AA-ould  not  dry 
up.  His  gifts  exceeded  the  gifts  of  the  prior, 
and  he  gained  the  suit.  The  prior  he  had 
set  up  kept  his  office,  but  his  false  monks 
greAV  AA'eary  of  their  life  and  left  the  convent, 
and  he  made  the  old  monks  come  back  to 
their  house  again.  He  managed  to  get  some 
profit  even  out  of  his  suit  Avith  the  prior. 
In  order  to  gain  money  to  carry  on  their  case, 
the  convent  had  recourse  to  the  Caursins  (or 
Caorsini),the  great  money-lenders  of  the  day. 
Aymer  paid  the  debt  on  condition  of  receiv- 
ing the  isle  of  Portland  and  some  other  places 
from  the  couA'ent.  After  he  Avas  dead  the 
monks  petitioned  the  king  that  these  places 
might  be  giA'en  back  to  them,  for  they  said 
that  they  had  been  taken  from  them  unlaAV- 
fully.  Aymer  had  no  sympathy  Avith  Eng- 
lish feeling  in  any  shape,  and  Avhen  in  1255 
the  bishops  Avere  in  difficulty  OAving  to  the 
demands  of  Rustand,  the  papal  envoy,  they 
suspected  that  his  heart  AA'as  not  with  them, 
and  so  took  no  counsel  Avith  him.  In  125(5 
he  Avas  in  Poitou  from  25  Jan.  to  17  Sept. 
On  the  death  of  Walter  Gray,  archbishop  of 
York,  the  king  refused  to  confirm  the  elec- 
tion of  SeAvall  de  BoA'ill,  for  he  hoped  to  get 
the  archbishopric  for  Aymer.  Sewall,  how- 
ever, lost  no  time  in  applying  to  Kome ;  his 
election  was  confirmed  by  the  pope,  and  the 
king's  scheme  failed.  In  January  1267  Aymer 
AA-as  sent  on  an  embassy  to  France  to  gain  a 
prolongation  of  the  truce.  Later  in  the  year 
he  Avas  atjain  sent  Avith  other  ambassadors 


Aymer 


288 


Aymer 


to  the  French  court  to  demand  the  English 
rights, but  he  and  his  fellows  had  nothing  but 
hard  words.  lie  was  foremost  in  persuading 
Richard  of  Cornwall  to  acco])t  the  crown  of 
Germany  offered  to  him  in  this  year.  When 
in  1258  the  parliament  of  Oxford  created  a 
committee  of  twenty-four  for  the  redress  of 
the  grievances  set  forth  in  a  petition  of  the 
barons,  Aymer  and  his  brothers,  Guy  and 
William,  were  among  the  twelve  nominated 
by  the  king.  They  refused  to  swear  to  the 
provisions  drawn  up  for  the  reform  of  the 
state,  and  would  not  give  up  the  royal  castles 
they  held.  For  fear  of  Earl  Simon,  William, 
Guy,  and  Geoffrey  left  Oxford  suddenly,  and 
fled  to  Aymer  at  'Wolvesey.  The  castle  was 
attacked  "by  the  barons.  In  the  negotiations 
which  followed  it  was  at  first  proposed  to 
allow  William  and  Aymer  to  remain  in  the 
country  ;  but  it  was  finally  decided  that  all 
the  brothers  should  go  with  their  folloAvers. 
Their  proj)erty  Avas  seized,  and  they  were 
not  allowed  to  carry  away  more  than  G,000 
marks.  Tlie  feeling  against  x\ymer  was  very 
strong.  Not  long  before  this  his  men  had  ill- 
used  and  slain  a  clerk  who  had  been  appointed 
by  John  FitzGeoffrey  to  a  church  of  Avhich 
he  claimed  the  patronage ;  and  when  com- 
plaint was  made  to  the  king,  Plenry  excused 
him.  It  was  generally  believed  that  before  he 
and  his  brothers  left  England  they  poisoned 
the  Earl  of  Gloucester  and  others  at  a  feast 
at  Aymer's  house  at  Southwark.  On  their 
arrival  in  France  they  met  Avith  a  cold  re- 
ception. Aymer  asked  leave  to  stay  in  Paris 
to  study.  As,  however,  the  French  queen 
complained  that  the  Poitevins  had  insulted 
her  sister,  the  Queen  of  England,  Lewis 
Avould  not  have  them  in  his  capital.  Almost 
as  soon  as  they  landed  they  were  followed 
by  Henry  of  Montfort,  eager  to  avenge  the 
insults  they  had  heaped  on  his  father.  He 
stirred  up  the  French  against  them.  Ay- 
mer and  his  brothers  shut  themselves  up  in 
Boulogne,  and  were  kept  in  there  almost  by 
a  kind  of  blockade.  At  last  the  bishop-elect 
Avas  allowed  to  pass  into  Poitou.  The  castel- 
lan of  Dover  intercepted  1,000  marks  A\'hich 
were  being  sent  to  him  from  England.  Part 
of  this  sum  Avas  employed  by  the  barons  in 
defraying  the  expenses  of  an  embassy  they 
sent  to  Rome  to  complain  of  his  conduct. 
The  ambassadors  carried  letters  setting  forth 
the  mischief  and  wickedness  of  Avhich  he  had 
been  guilty,  urging  the  pope  to  annul  his 
appointment,  and  declaring  that  the  barons 
Avere  determined  not  to  alloAv  him  to  return, 
and  that  even  Avere  they  otherAvise  minded, 
the  people  of  England  Avould  never  suffer  it. 
The  next  year,  1259,  the  chapter  of  Winches- 
ter elected  Henry  Wengham,  the  chancellor. 


to  the  bishopric,  and  the  king  conferred  the 
election  conditionally,  declaring  his  approval 
in  case  Aymer  A\'as  unable  to  obtain  con- 
secration. Alexander  IV,  hoAvcA'er,  was  by 
no  means  inclined  to  listen  to  the  representa- 
tions of  the  baronial  party,  and  on  16  May 
1200  consecrated  Aymer  at  Rome.  The 
bishop  set  out  on  his  journey  to  England,, 
intending  to  lay  the  coiuitry  under  an  inter- 
dict in  case  he  Avas  not  receiA'ed.  He  died  in 
Paris  on  4  Dec,  to  the  great  joy  of  the  Eng- 
lish people.  His  body  Avas  buried  in  Paris, 
and  his  heart  Avas  sent  to  Winchester  Ca- 
thedral, where  his  tomb  may  still  be  seen, 
and  Avhere,  it  is  strange  to  read,  many  miracles 
Avere  worked. 

[Matthew  Paris,  Majora  Chronica,  Historia 
Anglorum ;  Annates  de  Theokesberia,  Burton, 
Winton,  Waverleia,  Dunstaplia,  Osneia,  Chron. 
T.  Wykes  in  Annales  Monastici,  Rolls  Sei\ ; 
Prothero,  Simon  de  Montfort ;  Paul!,  Simon  de 
Montfort ;  Stubbs's  Constitutional  History ;  Le 
Neve's  Fasti  Ecclesise.]  W.  H. 

AYMER  DE  Valence  («?.  1324),  Eael  op 
Pembroke  and  lord  of  Montignac,  Avas  the 
third  son  of  William  of  Valence,  half-brother 
of  Henry  III  and  of  Joan,  daughter  of 
Warine  of  Munchensi.  His  elder  brothers 
died  during  the  lifetime  of  their  father,  and 
Aymer  succeeded  to  the  earldom  in  1290.  He 
sei"ved  in  Flanders  in  1297,  and  in  Scotland 
in  1298.  In  1302  he  Avas  employed  in  an 
embassy  to  France,  and  the  following  year 
assisted  in  making  peace  Avith  Philip  IV.  He 
receiA'ed  a  grant  of  land  in  Scotland,  and  built 
himself  a  castle  at  Selkirk.  When  EdAvard 
made  war  on  Robert  Bruce  in  1306,  Aymer 
Avas  appointed  guardian  of  Scotland,  and  led 
the  A^an  of  the  army.  Bruce  adAanced  to  the 
neighbourhood  of  Perth  and  challenged  him 
to  battle.  Aymer  ansAvered  that  he  Avould 
not  fight  on  that  day,  but  on  the  same  even- 
ing made  a  sudden  attack  on  the  Scots,  and  de- 
feated them  in  thewood of  Methven (Trivet). 
He  took  captive  the  wife  and  daughter  of  the 
Scottish  king,  and  crossed  to  Kantire,  hoping 
to  find  Bruce  himself.  There  he  took  Nigel 
Bruce,  and  sent  him  to  BerAvick,  Avhere  he 
Avas  put  to  death.  The  next  year,  on  10  May, 
he  Avas  defeated  by  Bruce  at  Loudon  Hill,  and 
forced,  though  without  much  loss,  to  retire  to 
the  castle  of  Ayr.  There  he  and  the  Earl  of 
Gloucester  Avere  besieged  until  the  king  sent 
a  force  to  relicA'e  them.  On  the  accession  of 
EdAvard  II,  Aymer  lost  the  guardianship  of 
Scotland.  He  was  deeply  offended  at  the 
insolence  of  GaA'eston,  Avho  gave  him  the 
nickname  of  Joseph  the  Jew,  because  he  was 
tall  and  of  a  pallid  countenance  (Walsing- 
ham).  When  he  and  other  great  nobles 
attended  the  tournament  held  by  GaA'eston  at 


Aymer 


289 


Aymer 


Wallingford,  they  were  treated  witli  insult, 
and  for  this  and  other  reasons  they  took 
counsel  together  against  him.  In  1309  the 
earl  joined  with  the  other  lords  at  the  parlia- 
ment held  at  Stamford  in  sending  a  letter  to 
Clement  V,  remonstrating  with  liim  on  his 
usurpations.  Tie  was  one  of  the  foremost 
of  the  discontented  nobles  who  the  next  year 
were  expressly  forl)idden  to  attend  the  parlia- 
ment in  arms.  He  disregarded  the  order, 
and,  appearing  with  the  rest  in  military  array, 
demanded  the  a])pointment  of  a  council  of 
reform.  The  first  step  in  the  formation  of 
this  council  Avas  the  choice  of  two  earls  by  the 
bishops,  and  Aymer  was  one  of  the  two  then 
chosen  to  select  the  ordainers.  When  the 
king  marched  northwards,  Pembroke  and  the 
other  ordainers  refused  to  leave  London,  but 
sent  the  number  of  men  they  were  bound  by 
their  service  to  sup])ly. 

On  the  recall  of  Gaveston  in  1312  the 
lords  of  I^ancaster's  party  sent  the  Earls  of 
Pembroke  and  Warenne  against  him.  They 
besieged  Gaveston  in  Scarborough  Castle. 
He  surrendered  on  19  May,  receiving  a  pro- 
mise from  Pembroke  that  his  life  should  be 
spared.  Pembroke  took  him  towards  Wal- 
lingford,  and  lodged  him  at  Deddington.  In 
his  absence  the  Earl  of  Warwick  seized  on 
Gaveston,  carried  him  to  Gaversike,  and 
there  put  him  to  death.  Enraged  at  the 
dishonour  thus  done  to  liis  word,  Pembroke 
left  the  Lancastrian  lords,  and  joined  himself 
to  the  court  party.  About  this  time  he  and 
Lord  Badlesmere  rescued  Lady  Clifford  from 
the  constable  of  Barnard  Castle,  who  had 
can-ied  her  off.  He  went  to  France  to  seek 
aid  for  the  king,  and  on  his  return  negotiated 
between  him  and  the  earls.  On  20  Sept. 
he  appeared  before  a  meeting  of  the  Lon- 
doners at  the  Guildhall,  and  demanded  the 
obedience  of  the  city  for  the  king.  A  fierce 
riot  broke  out,  and  the  earl  and  his  com- 
panions barely  escaped  in  safety.  His  posi- 
tion seems  to  have  been  rather  that  of  leader 
of  the  party  opposed  to  Lancaster,  to  whom 
he  never  forgave  the  death  of  Gaveston,  than 
of  a  supporter  of  the  king's  policy  (Sttjbbs, 
Const.  Hist.  ii.  341).  He  received  a  grant  of 
the  New  Temple  and  of  other  lands  of  the 
Templars  in  London.  After  long  negotia- 
tions, in  which  Pembroke  acted  as  one  of 
the  royal  commissioners,  peace  was  made 
with  the  Lancastrian  earls.  The  affairs  of 
Scotland  demanded  instant  attention,  and  the 
king  made  him  lieutenant  of  that  country, 
and  sent  him  on  to  insure  the  safety  of  the 
royal  army  in  its  northward  march.  Pem- 
broke shared  in  the  king's  defeat  at  Bannock- 
burn  on  24  June  1314,  and  saved  himself  by 
flight.     The  next  year  he  was  sent  with  Lord 

VOL.  II. 


Badlesmere  to  secure  the  marches  against 
the  Scots  (Rymbr,  Foedcrn,  ii.  524).  He  was 
also  employed  to  quell  the  insurrection  at 
Bristol.  In  1310  he  went  on  an  embassy  to 
the  pope.  On  his  way  home  he  was  taken 
prisoner  by  a  Burgundian  named  Moiller, 
who  declared  that  the  King  of  Englancl 
owed  him  wages  for  service  he  had  done  him. 
He  took  the  earl  into  Germany,  and  kept  him 
until  he  was  ransomed  ('Murimitth  ;  Lbland, 
Collect,  ii.  548,  2nd  ed.).  Tn  September  1317 
he  persuaded  Edward  not  to  provoke  the 
Earl  of  Lancaster  (MoK.  Malm.).  On  24Nov. 
he  entered  into  a  bond  with  Roger  d'Amorv 
and  Badlesmere,  by  which  the  confederates, 
who  formed  themselves  into  a  kind  of  third 
party,  agreed  to  work  together  to  gain  supreme 
influence  in  the  council  (SxtrBBS,  Const.  Hist. 
ii.  342).  The  party  thus  formed  rapidly  in- 
creased in  power,  and  succeeded  in  effecting 
a  formal  pacification  of  the  kingdom.  In 
virtue  of  this  agreement,  signed  at  Leek  on 
9  Aug.  1318,  a  new  council  was  appointed, 
in  which  Pembroke  held  a  conspicuous  place. 
On  24  March  1319  he  sat  with  the  earl  mar- 
shal in  the  chapter-house  of  St.  Paul's  to 
hear  and  compose  certain  quarrels  that  had 
arisen  among  the  citizens  of  London,  and  later 
in  the  same  year  accompanied  the  king  on  his 
unfortunate  expedition  against  Berwick.  At 
Christmas  he  negotiated  a  two  years'  truce 
with  the  Scots.  Although  he  was  at  least 
secretly  in  league  with  Roger  of  Mortimer 
and  the  other  lords  who  in  1321  ravaged  the 
lands  of  the  Despensers,  he  nevertheless  as- 
sumed the  part  of  a  mediator,  and  pressed  the 
king  to  banish  his  favourites.  The  Earl  of 
Lancaster  declared  that  he  had  acted  treacher- 
ously, and  advised  the  discontented  lords  to 
have  nothing  to  do  with  him.  When  Edward 
at  last  took  up  arms,  he  once  more  attempted  to 
mediate,  and  failing  in  this  attempt,  actively 
upheld  the  king.  On  22  March  1322  he  joined 
in  the  judgment  and  condemnation  of  Lancas- 
ter. He  received  Higham  Ferrers  and  other 
of  the  earl's  lands  in  Northamptonshire. 
Later  in  the  year  he  accompanied  the  king 
in  his  expedition  against  Scotland,  and  on 
30  May  1323  arranged  a  truce  of  thirteen 
years  with  the  Scots.  In  1.324  Pembroke  died 
suddenly  near  Paris,  Tvhile  on  an  embassy 
to  Charles  IV.  He  married  three  times. 
His  third  wife,  married  on  5  .Tvily  1321,  was 
Mary  of  Chatillon,  daughter  of  Guy  IV, 
Count  of  St.  Pol,  the  foundress  of  Pembroke 
Hall  at  Cambridge.  He  had  no  issue  by  any 
of  his  wives,  and  his  childless  death  was  held 
to  be  a  just  punishment  of  the  part  he  took 
in  the  condemnation  of  the  Earl  of  Lancaster 
(Walsingham,  ii.  195). 

[Trokelowe,   Chron.   Monast.   S.   Albani    IV 

IT 


Ayreminne 


290 


Ayreminne 


(Rolls  Ser.)  ;  Annales  Lond. ;  Life  of  Edward  II, 
Ly  Monk  of  Malmesbury;  T.  de  la  Moor;  Chron. 
Edw.  I  and  Edw.  II  (Rolls  Ser.) ;  Walsingham 
(Rolls  Ser. ) ;  Trivet  (Eng.  Hist.  Soc.) ;  Heming- 
burgh  (Eug.  Hist.  Soc.)  ;  Murimuth  (Eng.  Hist. 
Soc.) ;  Rymer's  Fcedera,  ii.  ;  Stnbbs's  Const.  Hist, 
ii.,  and  Introd.  to  Chron.  Edw.  I  and  Edw.  II.] 

W.  H. 

AYREMINNE,  or  AYERMIN,  RICH- 
ARD DE  (d.  1340?),  chancellor  of  the  dio- 
ceses of  Norwich  and  Salisbury,  was  a  younger 
brother  of  William,  de  Ayreminne,  bishop  of 
Norwich.  He  was  probably  in  early  life  a 
clerk  of  the  exchequer.  On  26  May  1324  he 
was  made  keeper  of  the  rolls  in  the  place  of 
his  brother  William  [see  Aykeminne,  Wil- 
liam de].  Between  16  Nov.  and  12  Dec.  of 
the  same  year  he  kept  the  great  seal  during 
the  absence  of  the  chancellor,  Robert  de 
Baldock,  in  Scotland.  On  4  July  1325 
Henry  Cliff  was  substituted  for  Richard  de 
Ayreminne  in  the  keepership  of  the  rolls, 
probably  in  consequence  of  the  quarrel  of  his 
brother  William  withEdwardll  as  to  his  right 
to  the  see  of  Norwich.  In  September  1325 
Richard  was  appointed  rector  of  Elveley  (Al- 
veley,  co.  Salop),  and  made  by  his  brother 
chancellor  of  his  diocese  of  Norwich.  But 
shortly  afterwards  he,  with  another  brother, 
Adam,  left  for  France  to  join  his  brother 
William.  In  1326  Edward  II  issued  a  writ 
complaining  of  the  refusal  of  the  brothers  to 
appear  before  him,  and  directing  the  Arch- 
bishop of  York  to  secure  their  attendance. 
After  Edward  Ill's  accession  in  1327  Richard 
was  made  clerk  of  the  privy  seal,  and  subse- 
quently guardian  of  the  Jewish  converts  for 
life.  On  7  June  1339  he  resigned  this  post. 
He  was  appointed  chancellor  of  the  diocese 
of  Salisbury  16  July  1339  ;  and  since  a  suc- 
cessor to  him  was  nominated  in  1340,  that 
year  has  been  assumed  to  be  the  date  of  his 
death. 

[Le  Neve's  Fasti ;  Blomefield's  Norwich,  i.  501  ; 
Rymer's  Fcedera,  iii.  791,  iv.  61,  161,  804  ;  Foss's 
Judges,  iii,  214-15.]  S.  L.  L. 

AYREMINNE,  or  AYERMIN,  WIL- 
LIAM DE  (d.  1336),  bishop  of  Norwich,  was 
descended  from  an  ancient  family  settled  at 
Osgodby,  Ijincolnshire.  He  was  the  eldest 
of  three  brothers,  of  whom  Richard  obtained 
many  ecclesiastical  offices  [see  AYREMiNifE, 
Richard  de],  and  Adam  became  archdeacon 
of  Norfolk.  In  early  life  William  was  pro- 
bably a  clerk  of  the  exchequer.  He  sat  in 
the  parliament  of  Carlisle  in  1306-7  as  proxy 
for  St.  Augustine's  Abbey,  Canterbury.  In 
1316  he  was  deputed  to  record  the  proceed- 
ings of  the  parliament  of  Lincoln,  In  August 
of  this  year  he  became  master  of  the  rolls, 


and  he  temporarily  performed  for  many  years 
before  and  after  this  date  the  duties  of  both 
the  keeper  of  the  gi-eat  seal  and  of  the  chan- 
cellor. In  1317  he  was  made  guardian  of  the 
Jewish  converts'  house  for  life,  although 
previously  the  office  had  only  been  held 
during  the  king's  pleasure  (Toyey's  Anglia 
Judaica,  222).  In  1319  he  joined  the  Arch- 
bishop of  York,  the  Bishop  of  Ely,  and  other 
ecclesiastics,  who  with  a  force  of  eight  thou- 
sand men  attempted  to  resist  an  invasion  of  the 
Scots  in  the  North,  The  army  was  defeated 
near  the  river  Swale  with  great  slaughter. 
William  was  taken  prisoner,  and  was  not  re- 
leased for  several  months.  In  1324  he  re- 
signed the  mastership  of  the  rolls  to  his 
brother  Richard,  and  became  keeper  of  the 
king's  privy  seal.  In  the  church  he  mean- 
while secured  much  preferment,  although  he 
Avas  always  manoeuvring  to  obtain  more. 
He  was  rector  of  Wearmouth  and  canon  of 
St,  Paul's,  Lincoln,  York,  Salisbury,  and 
Dublin.  In  July  1325  he  is  said  by  some 
authorities  to  have  been  staying  at  Rome, 
to  have  there  received  the  news  of  the 
death  of  Salmon,  bishop  of  Norwich,  and  to 
have  straightway  obtained  the  pope's  nomi- 
nation to  the  vacant  see,  regardless  of  the 
known  intention  of  Edward  II  to  bestow  the 
bishopric  on  his  chancellor,  Baldock.  But 
there  seems  little  doubt  that  William  wa.s 
living  in  France  at  the  time,  engaged  in 
settling  a  dispute  between  the  kings  of  Eng- 
land and  France  as  to  the  possession  of  land 
in  Aquitaine,  His  conduct  of  this  busi- 
ness appears  to  have  displeased  Edward  II, 
who  had  instructed  him  to  offer  certain  con- 
cessions to  France,  which  he  failed  to  do. 
He  had,  however,  friends  at  Rome,  who  un- 
doubtedly obtained  for  him  the  papal  nomi- 
nation in  1325  to  the  see  of  Norwich,  and  he 
was  consecrated  bishop  in  France,  15  Sept, 
1325,  by  the  pope's  agents  against  Edward's 
wish.  In  the  course  of  the  following  year 
he  returned  to  England,  after  frequent  re- 
fusals to  answer  the  king's  summons  to  ex- 
plain his  recent  conduct,  and  appears  to  have 
been  reconciled  to  Edward  II,  in  spite  of  the 
suspicions  Avith  which  the  Despencers  and 
Baldock  vieAved  him.  He  vigorously  sup- 
ported EdAvard  III  on  the  abdication  of 
Edward  II,  and  in  1331  held  the  office  of 
treasurer.  He  died  27  ^March  1336,  at  his 
house  at  Charing,  near  London,  and  was 
buried  in  NorAvich  Cathedral,  The  old  ver- 
dict on  his  career,  which  stigmatised  him  as 
'crafty  covetous,  and  treasonable/  seems 
substantially  just. 

[Foss's  Judges  of  England,  iii,  215  et  seq,  ; 
Blomefields  Norwich,  i,  501 ;  Fuller's  Worthies, 
ed.  Nichols,  9-10;  Hist.  MSS.  Com,  Fourth  Re- 


Ayres 


291 


Ayres 


port,  381,  384,  385  ;  Rolls  of  Parliament,  i.  190, 
298,  350-1 ;  Rymer's  Foedera,  vols.  iii.  and  iv. 
passim.]  S.  L.  L. 

AYRES,  JOHN  {fi.  1(580-1700),  an  emi- 
nent English  penman,  Avas  of  very  humble 
origin,  but  the  date  and  place  of  his  birth 
are  unknown.  Coming  up  from  the  country 
a  poor  lad,  he  became  footman  to  Mr.  Wil- 
liam Ashurst,  alderman  of  London,  then 
resident  at  Hornsey,  who  was  knighted  in 
1()89,  and  lord  mayor  of  London  in  1693—4. 
His  master,  taking  a  great  liking  to  him, 
sent  him  to  school,  where  he  attained  great 
efficiency  in  writing  and  arithmetic.  He 
continued  some  years  in  Ashurst's  service,  but 
marrying  a  fellow-servant  with  200/.,  he  was 
enabled  to  set  up  as  a  teacher  of  writing  and 
accounts  in  St.  Paul's  Churchyard,  where 
his  industiy  and  ability  soon  procured  him  so 
many  scholars  that  his  income  from  teaching 
alone  Avas  nearly  800/.  a  year. 

About  1680  he  commenced  the  execution 
and  publication  of  those  calligraphic  works 
which  have  made  him  so  famous  as  one  of 
the  gi'eat  reformers  in  the  writing  common- 
wealth, and  the  introducer  into  this  country 
•of  the  beautiful  Italian  hand.  Ilobert  More, 
in  his  essay  on  the  '  First  Invention  of  Writ- 
ing,' prefixed  to  his  own  '  Specimens  of  Pen- 
manship' (1716  ?),  says  :  'The  late  Colonel 
Ayres  (a  disciple  of  Mr.  Topham)  introduced 
the  bastard  Italian  hand  amongst  vxs,  which 
by  the  best  masters  has  been  admitted,  natu- 
ralised, and  improved.  Nor  is  it  a  diminu- 
tion of  our  chai'acters  which  survive  him 
that  therein  the  colonel  was  the  common 
father  of  us  all.  He  carried  the  glory  of 
English  penmanship  far  beyond  his  prede- 
cessors.' Ayres  continued  teaching  and 
publishing  scholastic  works  until  his  sudden 
death,  from  apoplexy,  while  regaling  some 
friends  at  Yauxhall.  The  date  of  this  occur- 
rence is  not  known ;  but  it  Avas  before  1709, 
as  Rayner,  his  scholar,  who  published  his 
*■  Paul's  Scholar's  Copy  Book '  in  that  year, 
alludes  to  his  death. 

His  contemporaries  speak  of  him  as 
'  colonel '  and  '  major,'  in  reference,  appa- 
rently, to  his  position  in  some  of  the  city 
bands. 

The  Avorks  Avhich  he  issued  from  the  Roll- 
ing Press  Avere:  1.  'The  Accomplished  Clerk, 
a  Copy  Book  sheAving  the  natural  Freedom 
of  y«  Pen  in  Writing  all  the  usual  hands 
of  Eng<»  [.<f?'^],  bv  John  Ayres.  Sold  at  the 
Hand  and  Pen  in  St.  Paul's  Churchy^.'  This 
Avas  engraved  by  the  celebrated  .John  Sturt, 
and  apparently  issued  about  1680,  since  in 
1700  he  reproduced  the  AA'ork  as  (2)  'The 
Accomplished  Clerk  Re-graved,'  and  in  the 


preface  speaks  of  his '  fu-st  essays,  twenty  years 
before,  to  introduce  the  engraving  of  writing, 
and  overcome  the  difficulty  of  making  the 
graver  come  up  nicely  to  the  nature  and 
freedom  of  the  pen.'  (Only  three  of  the 
twenty-five  plates  Avere  from  the  original 
AA-ork.)  3.  A  work  Avhich  seems  to  have 
been  a  second  issue  of  his  first  book,  '  The 
Accomplished  Clerk,  or  Accurate  Penman,' 
dedicated  to  his  former  teacher,  Mr.  Thomas 
Topham,  and  dated  25  April  1683,  The 
last  of  these  tAventy-five  specimens  is  a 
fine  instance  of  the  softness,  delicacy,  and 
ornamental  beauty  of  the  neAV  Italian  hand. 
4.  '  The  Tradesman's  Co])y  Book,  or  Appren- 
tice's Companion,  shoAving  Varieties  of  Re- 
ceipts, Bills,  &c.  AA'ritten  in  all  the  modish 
Running-hands  noAv  used,'  20  pi.  ob.  4to, 
1687.  5.  'The  Youth's  Introduction  to 
Trade ;  an  Exercise  Book.'  6.  '  The  Paul's 
School  Round-hand,  Strong  Running-hand, 
and  Mercantile  Round-hand,'  engraved  by 
Sturt,  1700.  7.  'Alamode  Secretarie,  or 
Practical  Penman,  a  Writing  liook,'  also  en- 
graved by  Sturt,  28  long  8vo  pi.  8.  '  Tlie 
Penman's  Daily  Practise,  SheAving  much 
Variety  of  Command  of  hand,'  Avhich  he 
calls  '  a  cyfering  book,'  .34  plates  of  alphabets 
and  tables  of  arithmetic,  engraA'ed  by  Sturt 
(n.d.).  9.  '  The  Writing  ^Master,  or  Tutor  to 
Penmanship,'  50  large  plates  of  all  the  Va- 
rieties of  English  Writing  (n.d.).  10.  'A 
Striking  Copy  Book,'  14  plates  of  capital- 
letters.  11.  '  itaterot  Redivi  vus,  the  Italian 
M'.,  SheAving  the  gi-eat  A'ariety  and  beauty 
of  the  Italian  hand,'  1690.  (Materot  Avas 
the  famous  penman  of  Paris.)  The  grandest, 
howeA'er,  of  all  his  works  Avas  12.  'A  Tutor 
to  Penmanship  or  the  Writing  Master,'  Avhich 
he  dedicated  to  King  "\^'illiam  III  in  a  most 
pompous  and  yet  interesting  address.  It  Avas 
in  tAVO  parts,  Avith  48  large  obi.  fol.  plates, 
Elngraved  by  .Tolm  Sturt,  Avho  also  puts  for- 
Avard  a  long  and  curious  address.  The 
preface  is  dated  15  Jan.  1697-8.  Ayres's 
portrait  was  in  this  work,  also  in  the  '  Ac- 
complished Clerk'  (No. 3 above);  but  in  the 
British  3[useum  copies  these  works  from 
Sturt's  graver  are  AA-anting.  There  are  only 
five  of  these  famous  books  of  penmanship  in 
our  national  collection. 

Ayres  also  published  'Arithmetic  made 
Easie  for  the  Use  and  Benefit  of  Trades- 
men,' 1693,  dedicated  to  his  former  master, 
Sir  William  Ashurst,  Knt.  The  second 
edition,  '  much  corrected  and  enlarged,' 
1695,  is  in  12mo,  190  pp.  Tliere  Avere 
many  editions  before  and  after  his  death;, 
the  tAvelfth,  published  in  1714,  has  addi- 
tional pages  on  bookkeeping  by  Charles 
Snell,  his  fellow-pupil  and  former  riA'al  in 

v2 


Ayres 


292 


Ayrton 


the  refoi-m  of  the  art  of  writing,  with  whom 
it  was  said  he  had  many  hickerings  in  the 
course  of  their  joint  career.  Ayres's  poorly 
executed  'effigies'  is  given  in  the  later  edi- 
tions of  his  '  Arithmetic' 

[Kobert  More,  Yivst   Invention  of  Writing, 
I7I6  ;  William  Massey,  Origin  of  Letters,  1763; 
Avres's  Works ;  Chalmers's  P>iog.  Diet.] 
•^  J.  W,-G. 

AYRES,  PHILIP  (1638-1712),  the 
author  of  numerous  hooks  and  pamphlets, 
flourished  in  the  latter  part  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  :  was  born  at  Cottingham, 
and  educated  at  Westminster,  and  St.  John's 
College,  Oxford.  He  became  tutor  in  the  ; 
family  of  Montagu  Garrard  Drake,  of  Ag-  | 
mond'esham,  Bucks,  and  lived  in  the  family 
till  his  death,  1  Dec.  1712.  His  chief  work  < 
is  his  '  liyric  Poems  made  in  imitation  of 
the  Italians,'  1687,  a  not  uninteresting  col- 
lection of  original  pieces  and  translations. 
One  copy  of  verses  is  addressed  to  *  his 
honoured  friend'  John  Dryden.  The  fol- 
lowing is  a  list  of  Ayres's  works  in  chrono- 
loo-ical  order :  1 .  *  A  short  Account  of  the 
Life  and  Death  of  Pope  Alexander  VII,  by 
P.  A.  Gent.,'  1667.  2.  '  Pax  Redux,  or  the 
Christian  Reconciler.  Done  out  of  the 
French  by  P.  A.,'  1670.  3.  '  The  Fortunate 
Fool,  written  in  Spanish  by  A.  G.  de  Salas 
Barbadillo.  Translated  by  Philip  Ayres, 
Gent.,'  1670.  4.  'Count  Nadasdy's  Hun- 
garian Rebellion,  translated  by  P.  A.  Gent.,' 
1672.  5.  'The  Count  of  Gabalis,'  1680, 
from  the  French  of  the  Abbe  de  Montfaucon 
de  ViUars.  6.  '  Emblemata  Amatoria.  Em- 
blems of  Love.  In  four  languages,  Lat., 
Engl.,  Ital.,  Fr.,'  1683.  7.  'The  Voyages 
and  Adventures  of  Captain  Earth.  Sharp 
and  others  in  the  South  Sea,  &c.,'  1684. 
8.  'Vox  Clamantis,  or  an  Essay  for  the 
Honour,  Happiness  and  Prosperity  of  the 
English  Gentry,'  1684.  9.  '  Mythologia 
Ethica,or  Three  Centuries  of  ^Esopian  Fables 
in  English,'  1689.  10.  'The  Revengeful 
Mistress,  being  an  Amorous  Adventure  of  an 
English  Gentleman  in  Spain,'  1696. 

[Corser's  Collectanea,  i.  104-108;  British 
Museum  Catalogue;  Rawlinson  MSS.  i.  197.] 

A.  H.  B. 

AYRTON,  EDMUND  (1734-1808),  the 
most  distinguished  member  of  a  race  of 
musicians,  was  born  at  Ripon,  where  he  was 
baptised  19  Nov.  1734.  His  father  was  one 
Edward  Ayrton  (1698-1774),  a  'barber  chi- 
rurgion,'  of  Ripon,  who  was  appointed  alder- 
man of  that  town  14  Aug.  1758,  and  mayor 
1  Jan.  1760.  Edward  Ayrton's  eldest  son, 
WilUam  (baptised  18  Nov.  1726),  was  orga- 
nist of  Ripon  ]Minster  from  7  June  1748  until 


his  death,  which  took  place  2  Feb.  1799. 
By  his  wife  Catherine  (who  died  at  Chester 
19  Sept.  1819)  he  had  two  sons,  both  of 
whom  were  organists  of  Ripon  Minster.  The 
elder  of  these,  William  Francis  Morel,  was 
bom  in  1778,  and  succeeded  to  his  father's 
post  on  25  June  1799.  Soon  after  he  moved 
to  Chester,  where  he  died  8  Nov.  1850.  His 
brother,  Thomas,  was  bom  in  1782,  and  was 
organist  of  Ripon  Minster  for  nearly  twenty 
years  before  his  death,  which  took  place 
24  Oct.  1822.  Edmund  Ayrton,  the  second 
son  of  Edward  Ayrton,  the  barber-surgeon, 
was  originally  destined  for  the  church,  but, 
displaying  considerable  musical  talent,  was 
placed  under  Dr.  Nares,  the  organist  of  York 
Minster.  He  succeeded  William  Lee  as  orga- 
nist, auditor,  and  rector  chori  of  Southwell 
Minster  in  1754.  Here  he  married,  on  20  Sept. 
1762,  Ann,  the  daughter  of  Benjamin  Clay, 
by  whom  lie  had  fourteen  children,  several 
of  whom  died  in  infancy.  Ayrton  became 
a  member  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Musicians 
on  2  June  1765  (Records  of  Hot/.  Soc.  of 
Musicians).  In  1764  he  was  appointed  a 
gentleman  of  the  Chapel  Royal,  and  soon 
after  became  a  vicar  choral  of  St.  Paul's 
Cathedral,  and  a  lay  vicar  of  Westminster 
Abbey.  He  succeeded  Nares  as  master  of 
the  children  of  the  Chapel  Royal  in  1780. 
Ayrton  took  the  degree  of  Miis.  Doc.  at  Cam- 
bridge in  1784,  on  which  occasion  the  anthem 
he  wrote  as  an  exercise  was  performed  in  the^ 
church  of  Great  St.  Mary's,  and  afterwards 
in  London  at  the  peace  thanksgiving  at  St. 
Paul's  on  29  July  1784.  The  Oxford  degree 
of  Mus.  Doc.  (ad  eundem)  was  conferred  upon 
him  in  1788.  Dr.  Ayrton's  wife  died  on 
14  Mav  1800 ;  he  resigned  the  mastership  of 
the  children  in  1805,  and  died  on  22  May 
1808,  at  24  James  Street,  Buckingham  Gate, 
Westminster,  a  large  house  with  a  garden  of 
some  three  acres,  but  which  had  the  repu- 
I  tation  of  being  haunted,  so  that  Ayrton  had 
occupied  it  for  many  years  at  a  low  rent.  He 
1  was  buried  in  the  west  cloisters  of  Westmin- 
j  ster  Abbey  on  28  May.  His  sister  married 
!  Nicholas  Thomas  Dall,  the  Danish  painter. 

j  [The  Harmonicon  for  1 833  ;  Appendix  to  Bem- 
j  rose's  Choir  Chanc  Book  (1882) ;  Parke's  Musical 
j  Memoirs  (1830);  Chester's  Registers  of  West- 
,  minster  Abbey  (1875) ;  Gent.  Mag.  for  1800  and 
1808;  Ripon  Registers;  information  from  Mr. 
I  H.  M.  Bower.]  W.  B.  S. 

:      AYRTON,  MATILDA  CHAPLIN,  M.D. 

(1846-1888),  one  of  those  medical  students 
to  whose  energy  Englishwomen  are  indebted 
I  for  their  existing  opportunities  of  studying- 
and  practising  medicine,  was  born  at  Honfleur 
in  1846.      Her  maiden  name  was  Matilda- 


Ayrton 


293 


Ayrton 


Chaplin.  After  devoting  herself  to  art  for 
.some  years,  she  commenced  in  1867  the  study 
of  medicine,  which  she  pursued  unceasingly 
until  her  death.  She  spent  two  years  at  the 
London  Medical  College  for  Women;  and 
having  passed  the  preliminary  examination 
at  Apothecaries'  Hall  in  1869,  she  presented 
herself  for  the  later  examination,  hut  was  re- 
fused admission  on  the  ground  of  her  sex. 
Thereupon  she  at  once  proceeded  to  Edin- 
burgh, and  matriculated  there.  But  here 
tigam  instruction  in  tlie  highest  branches  of 
medicine  was  denied  her.  The  aid  of  the 
law  was  invoked  to  reverse  the  decision  of 
the  authorities,  but  judgment  was  in  1872 
finally  given  against  women  students.  Mrs. 
Ayrton  took,  however,  high  honours  in  ana- 
tomy and  surgery  at  the  extramural  examina- 
tions held  in  1870  and  1871  at  Surgeons' Hall, 
Edinburgh.  In  1871,  when  she  found  the  chief 
medical  classes  iuEngland  and  Scotland  closed  ^ 
to  her,  she  resolved  to  complete  her  education  . 
at  Paris,  where  every  facility  was  afforded  her. 
The  university  of  Paris  recognised  her  abili- 
ties by  bestowing  upon  her  the  degrees  of  Ba-  \ 
chelier  es-Sciences  and  Bachelier  es-Lettres. 
But,  although  studying  regularly  at  Paris, 
Miss  Cliaplin  did  not  sever  lier  connection 
with  Edinburgh,  and  still  attended  some  of 
the  classes  open  to  her  there.  In  1872  she 
married  Mr.  William  Edward  Ayrton,  an 
Edinburgh  student,  and  a  distinguished  pupil 
of  Sir  William  Thomson.  Early  in  the 
following  year  she  obtained  a  certificate  in 
midwifery  from  the  London  Obstetric  So- 
•ciety,  the  only  medical  qualification  then 
obtainable  by  women  in  England,  and  shortly 
afterwards  accompanied  her  husband  to 
Japan,  where  he  had  been  appointed  to  a 
professorship  in  the  Imperial  College  of 
Engineering.  In  Japan  Mrs.  Ayrton  pur- 
sued some  interesting  anthropological  re- 
searches, and  opened  a  school  for  native 
midwives,  in  which  she  lectured  herself,  with 
the  aid  of  an  interpreter.  In  1877  signs  of 
■consumption  made  themselves  apparent,  and 
Mrs.  Ayrton  returned  to  Europe.  In  1879 
she  took  the  degree  of  M.D.  at  Paris,  and 
presented  as  her  thesis  the  result  of  her  Japa-  j 
nese  studies,  which  was  printed  under  the  | 
title  of  '  Recherches  surles  dimensions  gene-  ; 
rales  et  sur  le  developpement  du  coi"ps  chez 
les  Japonais'  (Paris,  1879).  Later  Mrs.  | 
Ayrton  became  a  licentiate  of  the  King  and 
<^ueen's  College  of  Physicians  in  Ireland,  [ 
and,  although  the  only  female  candidate, 
<;ame  out  first  in  the  examination.  In  1880 
Mrs.  .Vyrton  lived  in  London,  chiefly'  study- 
ing diseases  of  the  eye  at  the  Royal  Free 
!  lospital.  But  her  health  was  rapidly  break-  , 
jug  down.     She  was  compelled  for  the  next  I 


two  years  to  winter  abroad,  but  at  the 
hospital  of  Algiers  during  one  winter,  and 
in  tlie  physiological  laboratoiy  at  Montpelier 
during  another,  she  continued  her  studies, 
Mrs.  Aj-rton  died  in  London  on  19  July  1883, 
aged  37. 

From  the  time  of  her  journey  to  Japan  Mrs, 
Ayrton  contributed  to  the  '  Scotsman '  and 
other  periodicals  a  large  number  of  articles 
on  very  various  topics,  including  Japanese 
politics  and  customs,  and  the  educational 
problems  of  the  West.  She  published  in 
London  in  1879  a  little  book  entitled  '  Child 
Life  in  Japan,'  Avhich  was  illustrated  from 
her  own  sketches.  Mrs.  Ayrton  always  took 
a  lively  interest  in  attempts  to  improve  the 
educational  opportunities  and  social  position 
of  women.  She  actively  aided  to  establish  a 
club  for  women  students  in  Paris,  and  helped 
to  organise  the  Somerville  Club  for  women 
in  London. 

[Memorial  notice  by  Eliza  Orme,  in  the  Eng- 
lishwoman's Keview  for  15  Aug.  1883;  Les 
Fenimes  et  les  Professions  Liberales  en  Angle- 
terre,  by  Professor  Charles  Remy,  in  Le  XIXe 
Si^cle,  23  Aiig.  1883;  information  from  Prof. 
W.  E.  Ayrton.]  S.  L.  L. 

AYRTON,  WILLIAM  (1777-1858), 
musical  writer,  younger  son  of  Dr.  Ayrton 
[.see  Aykton,  Edmund],  was  born  in  Lon- 
don in  1777.  On  17  May  1803  he  married 
Marianne,  the  daughter  of  Dr.  Arnold,  the 
composer.  In  1816  he  went  abroad  to  en- 
gage singers  for  the  Italian  opera  at  the 
King's  theatre,  of  Avhich  he  undertook  the 
direction  in  the  following  year,  producing 
for  the  first  time  in  England  Mozart's  *  Don 
Giovanni,'  and  introducing  to  English  audi- 
ences such  great  artists  as  Pasta,  Camporese, 
Crivelli,  and  Ambrogetti.  In  spite  of  a  very 
successful  season  Ayrton  Avas  obliged  by  the 
disputes  of  the  company  to  retire  from  the 
direction.  In  1821  he  again  (under  the 
management  of  Ebers)  took  the  post  of  mu- 
sical director,  but  owing  to  the  factious  op- 
position he  encountered  from  the  committee 
he  was  again  forced  to  resign.  The  remain- 
der of  his  life  he  devoted  entirely  to  literary 
pursuits,  in  which,  both  as  a  critic  and  writer 
in  music,  he  occupied  for  many  years  a  po- 
sition far  in  advance  of  his  contemporaries. 
From  1823  to  1833  he  edited  and  contributed 
largely  to  the  '  Ilarmonicon,'  a  periodical  the 
value  of  which  has  hardly  been  exceeded  by 
any  of  its  successors.  In  1834-5  he  pub- 
lished his  'Sacred  Minstrelsy,'  and  in  1834- 
5-6  the  work  known  as  the  'Musical  Li- 
brary,' one  of  the  earliest  and  best  cheap 
collections  of  vocal  and  instrumental  music, 
Avrton  was  a  F.R.S.,  a  F.S.A.,  and  one  of 


Ayscough 


294 


Ayscough 


the  original  members  of  the  Koyal  Institu- 
tion and  the  Athenaeum  Chib.  He  died  at 
Bridge  Street,  Westminster,  8  Marcli  1858. 

[Ebers's  Seven  Years  of  the  King's  Theatre 
(1828);  Annual  Eegister  for  I808  ;  Chester's 
Kegisters  of  Westminster  Abbey  (1875)  :  Oent. 
Mag.  for  1803.]  W.  E.  S. 

AYSCOUGH,     ANNE.     [See    Askeav, 

Akxb.] 

AYSCOUGH,  FRANCIS,  D.D.  (1700- 
1700),  divine,  was  born  at  St.  Olave's,  South- 
wark,  in  1700,  became  a  member  of  Corpus 
Christi  College,  Oxford,  on  28  March  1717, 
and  graduated  M.A.  in  1723.  After  taking 
orders  he  was  admitted  probationer  fellow  of 
his  college  on  16  Jan.  1727,  and  after  two 
years  of  probation  became  a  candidate  for  an 
actual  fellowship.  Without  giving  any 
reason  the  president  and  majority  of  the 
fellows  voted  against  his  admission  ;  Avhere- 
upon  Ayscough  appealed  to  the  visitor,  the 
Bishop  of  Winchester.  The  college  pleaded 
that  they  had  a  right  to  make  elections  to 
fellowships  without  being  responsible  to  the 
visitor,  but  the  plea  was  overruled  by  the 
bishop,  and  the  college  was  compelled  to 
receive  Ayscough  and  pay  the  costs  of  the 
proceedings.  In  1735  he  took  the  degree  of 
D.D.,  and  in  the  following  year  published 
'  A  Sermon  preached  before  the  House  of 
Commons  on  Friday,  30  Jan.  1735-6,  being 
the  anniversary  of  the  martyrdom  of  King 
Charles  I.'  In  1740  he  became  clerk  of  the 
closet  to  Prince  Frederick,  and  was  presented 
by  him  to  the  rectory  of  Northchurch,  Berk- 
hampstead.  The  right  of  presentation  was 
disputed  by  the  chapter  of  Windsor,  but  the 
case  was  decided  in  the  prince's  favour.  At 
Oxford  he  had  been  tutor  to  Lord  Lyttelton, 
whose  sister  he  married.  By  Lord  Lyttel- 
ton's  influence  he  was  for  a  time  preceptor 
to  George  III  before  his  accession,  and  to  his 
brother  Edward,  Duke  of  York.  Finally 
he  was  appointed  dean  of  Bristol.  He  was 
dead  before  October  1766,  when  a  notice  of 
him  appeared  in  the  'London  Magazine.' 
He  left  a  son  [see  Ayscoxjgh,  Geokge  Ed- 
waed]. 

[Nichols's  Literary  Anecdotes,  iii.  181,viii.433, 
ix.  531 ;  Proceedings  of  Corpus  Christi  College, 
Oxford,  in  the  ease  of  Mr.  Aj'scough  Vindicated, 
1730;  Catalogue  of  Graduates  of  Oxford  from 
1659  to  1814;  S.D.U.K.  Biog.  Diet.;  Rawlin- 
son  MSS.  V.  218.]  A.  H.  B. 

AYSCOUGH,     GEORGE     EDWARD 

(fZ.  1779),  dramatist  and  traveller,  was  the  son 
of  Dr.  Francis  Ayscough,  dean  of  Bristol,  by  a 
sister  ofthe  first  Lord  Lyttelton.  For  some  time 
beheld  acommissiouintheGuards.  In  1776 he  I 


produced  at  Drury  Lane  a  version  of  the '  Se- 
miramis '  of  Voltaire,  Mr.  Yates  representing 
the  chief  character ;  an  epilogue  was  provided 
by  Sheridan.  The  tragedy  obtained  eleven  re- 
presentations, and  the  English  author  enjoyed 
three  benefits  on  account  of  it.  On  the  first 
performance  Captain  Ayscough's  brother 
officers  attended  in  great  force  and  secured  the 
success  of  *  Semiramis.'  In  the  '  Biographia 
Dramatica  '  Ayscough  is  described  as  '  a  fool 
of  fashion,'  '  a  parasite  of  Lord  Lyttelton  : ' 
and  his  tragedy  is  condemned  as  contemp- 
tible. He  left  England  on  account  of  liis 
failing  health,  and  afterwards  published  some 
account  of  his  travels  in  Italy.  He  was  the 
editor  of  the  Miscellaneous  Works  of  his 
uncle,  Lord  Lyttelton,  pubUshed  in  1774. 
[Genest's  History  of  the  Stage,  1832.]    D.  C. 

AYSCOUGH,  SAMUEL  (1745-1804), 
librarian  and  index-maker,  was  the  grand- 
son of  William  Ayscough,  a  stationer  and 
printer  of  Nottingham,  where  he  introduced 
the  art  of  t>-pography  about  1710,  and  died 
on  2  March  1719,  and  the  son  of  George 
Ayscough,  who  succeeded  to  his  father's  busi- 
ness, which  he  carried  on  upwards  of  foi'tr 
years.  George  Ayscough  was  mucli  esteemed 
in  the  neighbourhood,  and  was  connected  with 
some  of  the  most  respectable  families  in  the 
county.  His  first  wife  died  childless.  He 
then  married  Edith,  daughter  of  Benjamin 
Wigley  of  Wirksworth,  by  whom  he  had  a 
son,  Samuel,  and  a  daughter,  Anne.  He 
inherited  a  good  business,  but,  instead  of 
devoting  his  energies  to  its  development, 
launched  into  various  wild  speculations, 
among  others  being  one  to  extract  gold  from 
the  dross  of  coals.  Having  in  this  way  gra- 
dually got  rid  of  nearly  all  his  money,  about 
the  year  1762  he  took  a  large  farm  at  Great 
Wigston  in  Leicestershire,  where  he  was  still 
more  unfortunate,  losing  not  only  the  re- 
mainder of  his  own  property,  but  the  fortunes 
of  his  two  children. 

Samuel  Ayscough  Avas  born  in  1745,  and 
was  educated  at  tlie  free  grammar  school  m 
Nottingham.  The  son  assisted  his  father 
in  the  successive  failures  of  business,  specu- 
lations and  farm.  At  last,  when  complete 
ruin  confronted  the  family,  Samuel  hired 
himself  to  take  care  of  a  mill  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood, and  bravely  laboured  as  awoi'king 
miller  to  keep  his  father  and  sister.  The  new 
start  in  life  proved  unsuccessful,  but  an  old 
schoolfellow  and  intimate  friwid  of  early- 
life,  Mr.  Eamer  (afterwards  Sir  John  Eamer, 
lord  mayor  of  London),  hearing  of  his  dis- 
tress, about  the  year  1770  sent  for  him  to  come 
to  town,  clothed  him,  and  procured  for  him  a 
situation  as  overlooker  of  street-paviors.     It 


Ayscough 


29s 


Ayscough 


•was  doubtless  tliis  employment  which  gave 
liim  the  capacity  for  such  rude  labour  as 
index-making.  Soon  afterwards  he  entered 
the  shop  of  Mr.  Kivington,  bookseller,  of  St. 
Paul's  Churchyard,  and  subsequently  ob- 
tained an  engagement  at  a  very  modest  salary 
as  assistant  in  the  cataloguing  department 
under  the  pi'incipal  librarian  of  the  British 
Museum.  This  was  the  turning-point  of  his 
laborious  and  useful  career.  His  value  was 
soon  recognised  by  a  small  increase  in  his 
weekly  stipend,  and  he  was  able  to  occupy 
some  of  his  leisure  in  arranging  private  li- 
brai'ies.  These  additions  to  his  income,  added 
to  some  assistance  from  Mr.  Eamer,  enabled 
him  to  send  for  his  father,  whom  he  main- 
tained in  comfort  till  his  death,  in  November 
1783.  Ayscough's  excellent  catalogue  of 
the  undescribed  manuscripts  in  the  British 
Museum  was  commenced  in  April  1780  and 
published  in  1782  by  leave  of  the  trustees, 
but  as  a  private  venture  of  the  compiler. 
The  plan  of  the  book  was  original,  and  the 
publication  reflects  credit  upon  the  enterprise 
of  Ayscough,  who  claims  (Preface,  p.  x)  that 
no  work  of  like  extent  was  ever  completed  in 
so  short  a  time.  He  acknowledges  the  help 
received  from  previous  catalogues  and  occa- 
sionally from  frequenters  of  the  reading  room, 
but  to  all  intents  and  purposes  the  two  quarto 
volumes  were  the  work  of  Ayscough's  unaided 
eftbrts.  He  states  that  the  catalogue  was 
drawn  up  on  20,000  separate  slips  of  paper. 
Each  manuscript  was  specially  examined. 
The  classification  is  ample,  and  two  indexes, 
tlie  first  of  the  numbers  of  the  manuscripts 
and  pages  of  the  catalogue  where  they  are 
described,  and  the  second  of  all  names  men- 
tioned in  the  two  volumes,  render  the  book  of 
easy  reference.  In  1783  he  issued  anony- 
mously a  small  pamphlet  in  reply  to  the 
*  Letters  of  an  American  Fanner,'  printed  the 
year  before  by  Mr.  Hector  St.  John  [Creve- 
coeur],  a  French  settler.  Ayscough  con- 
tended that  the  writer  was  neither  a  farmer 
nor  a  native  of  America,  and  that  his  sole 
purpose  was  to  encourage  foreigners  to  emi- 
grate to  that  coiuitry,  called  by  a  reviewer 
in  the  'Gentleman's  Magazine'  (1783,  liii. 
1036)  *  an  insidious  and  fatal  tendency,  which 
this  writer,  as  an  Englishman,  is  highly  laud- 
able for  endeavouring  to  detect  and  counter- 
act.' 

After  wearily  waiting  for  fifteen  years, 
during  which  time  he  had  vainly  applied  for 
five  different  vacancies,  about  1785  Ayscough 
was  appointed  an  assistant  librarian  at  the 
museum.  He  had  long  desired  to  take  holy 
orders,  and  in  spite  of  some  difficulties,  the 
exact  nature  ot  which  cannot  be  traced, 
■was    at   length   enabled  to    accomplish  his 


desire.  The  precise  period  of  the  event  is 
uncertain.  Nichols  places  it  soon  after 
1785,  and  a  notice  of  the  death  of  the  father 
{Gentleman's  Magazine,  liii.  982)  supports 
this  view ;  but  he  styles  himself '  clerk '  on  the 
title  of  his  '  Catalogue  '  (1782),  and  a  letter 
of  the  father,  dated  13  Jan.  1781  (Nichols's 
Illustrations,  iii.  571),  styles  the  son  *  llev.' 
He  was  ordained  to  the  curacy  of  Normanton- 
on-Soar  in  Nottinghamshire,  and  afterwards 
appointed  assistant  curate  of  the  parish  of 
St.  Giles-in-the-Fields.  Here  his  regular  at- 
tendance to  his  duties  and  excellent  chai'acter 
gained  him  the  friendship  of  Dr.  Buckner, 
afterwards  bishop  of  Chichester,  JNIr.  South- 
gate,  Dr.  Willis,  and  other  eminent  persons. 
A  general  index  to  the  'Annual  Register' 
(1758-80),  which  came  out  in  1783,  is  as- 
cribed to  Ayscough  without  sufficient  evi- 
dence. In  1786  the  conductors  of  the  *  Monthly 
lieview '  brought  out  an  index  to  the  first 
seventy  volumes  of  that  periodical,  compiled 
by  Ayscough,  the  first  volume  consisting  of 
the  articles,  &c.,  classified  under  subjects  with 
a  full  index,  and  the  second  forming  an  al- 
phabetical index  to  passages  in  the  body  of 
the  '  Review.'  A  continuation  extending  to 
the  eighty-first  volume,  and  issued  in  1796, 
was  from  the  same  hand.  His  publications 
so  far  had  been  of  a  private  nature ;  his  next 
appearance  was  in  connection  with  his  official 
position.  The  catalogue  of  books  in  the 
British  Museum,  printed  in  1787,  2  vols, 
folio,  was  compiled  by  Dr.  P.  H.  Maty,  S. 
Harper,  and  Ayscough ;  one-third  of  the 
work  is  due  to  the  lattor.  On  12  March  1789 
he  was  elected  a  fellow  of  the  Society  of 
Antiquaries. 

All  students  of  the  history  of  the  eighteenth 
century  are  grateful  to  Ayscough  for  his  share 
in  indexing  the  '  Gentleman's  Magazine ' 
(1731-86),  consisting  of  the  two  volumes 
printed  in  1789,  the  first  of  which  includes 
an  index  of  the  essays,  dissertations,  and  his- 
torical passages  in  one  alphabet,  and  the 
second  being  divided  into  four  parts,  is  de- 
voted respectively  to  poetry,  names  of  persons, 
plates,  and  books  noticed.  Useful  as  it  is, 
the  index  is  not  by  any  means  perfect.  The 
lists  of  persons  in  each  volume  of  the  periodi- 
cal had  unfortunately  never  been  furnished 
with  christian  names,  and  where  more  than 
one  reference  occurred  no  sort  of  distinction 
was  introduced.  This  method  was  continued 
by  Ayscough  in  his  general  index,  so  that  in 
the  case  of  common  names,  such  as  Smith  or 
Williams,  there  are  hundreds  of  references, 
making  the  task  of  hunting  up  any  particular 
fact  almost  hopeless.  In  the  continuation  on 
the  same  plan,  published  in  1821,  the  evil  is 
made  worse  by  the  increase  of  the  materials,  so 


Ayscough 


296 


Ayscough 


that  there  are  no  less  than  2,411  entries  under 
Smith  without  further  particulars.  It  has 
been  calculated  that,  OAving  to  the  time 
taken  up  in  referring  back  to  each  volume, 
it  would  occupy  eighty  hours  of  hard  work 
CO  look  through  all  the  Smiths  in  search  of 
one  particular  individual  of  that  name  (see 
Wheatley's  What  is  an  Index?  p.  46). 
Until  Ayscough  brought  out  his  '  Index '  in 
1790  there  was  no  concordance  to  Shake- 
speare. This  was  a  speculation  on  the  part 
of  the  publisher,  John  Stockdale,  who  paid 
two  hundred  guineas  for  the  index,  which  was 
specially  designed  to  accompany  his  edition 
of  the  *  Dramatic  Works,'  in  2  vols.  roy.  8vo. 
In  this  excellent  compilation  the  words  are 
arranged  alphabetically  with  the  lines  in 
which  they  occur,  then  the  name  of  the  play, 
and  in  five  separate  columns  the  act,  scene, 
page,  column,  and  line.  The  last  three  par- 
ticulars of  course  refer  only  to  the  edition  of 
1790,  but  the  index  may  be  made  to  serve 
any  other  text.  Francis  Twiss  compiled  a 
*  Verbal  Index '  in  1805,  not  so  useful  as  that 
of  Ayscough,  and  both  were  superseded  by 
Mrs.  Cowden  Clarke's  valuable '  Concordance ' 
(1845).  All  three  are  devoted  to  the  plays 
alone,  and  require  to  be  supplemented  by 
Mrs.  Furness's '  Concordance  to  Shakespeare's 
Poems '  (1874).  There  is  still  no  complete 
concordance  to  the  entire  works. 

Ayscough  was  chosen  to  deliver  the  Fair- 
child  lectures,  established  in  1729  by  Thomas 
Fairchild,  gardener,  of  Shoreditch,  who  be- 
queathed a  sum  of  money  for  a  sermon  on  each 
Whit-Tuesday  on  the  'W^onderful  Works 
of  God  in  the  Creation.'  The  first  sermon 
was  delivered  by  Ayscough  in  1790  before 
the  Royal  Society  at  Shoreditch  Church,  and 
he  completed  the  series  of  fifteen  sermons  in 
1804.  They  were  to  have  been  printed  after 
his  death,  but  never  appeared. 

Dr.  Birch  had  left  for  press  among  his 
papers  at  the  Museum  a  collection  of  his- 
torical letters  written  during  the  reigns  of 
James  and  Charles,  which  Ayscough  proposed 
to  publish  if  he  could  find  two  hundred  sub- 
scribers at  a  couple  of  guineas  apiece.  But 
it  was  left  to  Mr.  R.  F.  Williams  to  carry 
the  scheme  into  efffect  in  1849,  when  the  docu- 
ments were  printed  under  the  title  of  '  The 
Court  and  Times  of  James  I  and  Charles  I,' 
4  vols.  8vo.  An  important  work  which  still 
remains  in  manuscript  is  Ayscough's  cata- 
logue of  the  ancient  rolls  and  charters  in  the 
British  Museum,  forming  three  large  folio 
volumes,  with  two  indexes,  the  first  to  names 
of  places  and  some  other  matters,  and  the 
second  to  names  of  persons.  A  table  of  con- 
tents records  the  number  of  charters,  rolls, 
and   seals   at    16,000.     The   preparation   of 


the  catalogue  occupied  from  8  May  1787  to 
18  Aug.  1792,  with  a  few  additions  subse- 
quently made.  It  is  still  used  for  reference. 
Ayscough's  last  work  at  the  Museum  con- 
sisted in  arranging  the  books  in  classes  and 
cataloguing  the  King's  Tracts. 

About  a  year  before  his  death  he  was  pre- 
sented to  the  small  vicarage  of  Cudham  in 
Kent  by  Lord  Chancellor  Eldon.  Although 
from  his  ofiicial  position  he  was  permitted 
non-residence,  he  conscientiously  fulfilled 
his  religious  duties,  making  the  journey  of 
seventeen  miles  each  Saturday,  and  returning 
on  the  Mondaj-.  He  never  passed  the  work- 
house without  calling  to  read  prayers  or  to 
preach.  He  took  great  pains  to  excel  as  a 
preacher.  In  the  national  libraiy  may  be 
seen  a  copy  of  Letsome's  '  Preacher's  Assist- 
ant '  (1753,  2  parts,  8vo)  marked  with  those 
sermons  Avhich  might  be  consulted  at  the 
Museum,  and  with  twenty-one  leaves  of 
manuscript  additions  not  taken  notice  of  by 
Letsome.  Ayscough's  salary  had  been  re- 
cently increased,  which,  added  to  his  clerical 
preferment,  placed  him  in  a  position  of  com- 
parative comfort ;  but  his  bountiful  disposition 
led  him  to  spend  all  his  modest  income,  and 
he  scarcely  left  sufficient  to  meet  the  claims 
upon  his  executors.  In  1802  he  edited,  with 
John  Caley,  a  volume  of  the  patent  rolls  in 
the  Tower,  but  does  not  seem  to  have  been 
concerned  in  the  '  Taxatio  Ecclesiastica  Ni- 
cholai  IV '  (1802)  also  published  by  the  Record 
Commission,  and  sometimes  ascribed  to  him. 
He  died  of  dropsy  in  the  chest,  at  his  apart- 
ments in  the  INIuseum,  on  30  Oct.  1804,  and 
was  buried  in  the  cemetery  of  St.  George's, 
Bloomsbuiy,  behind  the  Foundling  Hospital. 

Ayscough  has  been  termed  the  '  Prince  of 
Index-makers,'  and  if  the  title  conveys  any 
idea  of  the  extent  and  usefulness  of  his  la- 
bours he  well  deserves  it.  Besides  the  many 
works  already  spoken  of,  he  compiled  the 
indices  to  Bridges'  'Northampton'  (which 
took  him  nine  months),  to  Manning's 
'  SuiTey,'  and,  according  to  Nichols,  the  in- 
dices to  the  *  New  Review,'  edited  by  Dr. 
Maty.  His  life  of  indexing  produced  him 
altogether  about  1,300/.,  not  to  be  compared 
with  the  vast  sums  gained  by  those  fortu- 
nate persons  who  jobbed  the  indices  to  the 
journals  of  parliament,  but  sufficiently  hand- 
some when  one  remembers  the  usual  rate  of 
pay  for  such  Avork.  Ayscough  Avas  no  mere 
drudge,  but  did  his  laborious  tasks  Avith 
careful  skill  and  lo\ing  diligence,  and  the 
variety  of  his  services  is  not  to  be  exceeded 
in  the  annals  of  literary  lieAving  and  deU'ing. 
In  spite  of  imperfect  education  and  a  youth 
of  toil,  he  attained  by  his  OAvn  exertions  a 
very  extensive   knoAvledge   of  history,  an- 


Ayscough 


297 


Ayscough 


tiquities,and  bibliography.  His  acquirements 
in  palaeogTaphy  caused  him  to  be  in  request 
for  copying  documents  and  to  assist  in  the 
arrangement  of  the  records  in  the  Tower. 
lie  was  a  frequent  contributor  to  the 
'  Gentleman's  Magazine.'  Although  some- 
what blunt  in  manner,  students  found  in  him 
&  ready  and  accomplished  helper.  His  friend 
Kichols  {Gentlemmi 8 Magazine,  Ixxiv.  1094) 
pays  a  touching  tribute  to  his  good  heart  and 
benevolent  character.  He  was  of  tall  and 
bulky  figure,  as  is  shown  by  his  portrait  {ib. 
1804,  Ixxiv.  1093).  A  friend  tells  a  long 
story  {J,b.  1811,  p.  319)  about  a  young  lady 
■who  was  reproved  for  her  want  of  atten- 
tion when  being  shown  the  '  curiosities'  by 
Ayscough,  'than  whom  perhaps  a  kinder- 
hearted,  better-humoured  man  never  existed,' 
and  '  who,  although  an  old  bachelor,  was  a 
gi'eat  admirer  of  beauty.'  One  of  the  duties 
of  the  assistant  librarians  was  to  take  round 
the  parties  of  visitors,  and  Aj-scough,  unlike 
some  of  his  brother  officers,  seems  to  have 
taken  an  interest  in  this  service. 

Besides  two  contributions  to  the  'Archago- 
logia'  (1797)  and  his  share  in  the  produc- 
tion of  several  books,  Ayscough  published 
the  following  works :  1.  'A  Catalogue  of 
the  MSS.  preserved  in  the  British  Museum 
hitherto  undescribed,  consisting  of  5,000 
volumes,  including  the  collections  of  Sir 
John  Wane,  the  Rev.  Thomas  Birch,  and 
Jibout  500  volumes  bequeathed,  presented,  or 
purchased  at  various  times,'  London,  1782, 
-2  vols.  4to.  2.  '  Remarks  on  the  Letters  from 
an  American  Farmer  ;  or  a  detection  of  the 
-errors  of  Mr.  J.  Hector  St.  John,  pointing 
out  the  pernicious  tendency  of  those  letters 
to  Great  Britain,' London,  1783, 8vo  (Anon.). 
3.  '  A  General  Index  to  the  Monthly  Review 
from  its  commencement  to  the  end  of  the 
70th  volume  [1749-84],'  London,  1786 ;  a 
•continuation  down  to  the  81st  volume 
.(1784-9)  was  compiled  by  Ayscough  in 
1796,  8vo ;  and  there  is  a  continuation  by 
another  hand  down  to  1816.  4.  '  A  General 
Index  to  the  first  fifty-six  volumes  of  the 
■Gentleman's  Magazine,  from  its  commence- 
ment in  1731  to  the  end  of  1786,'  London, 
1789,  2  vols,  8vo;  continued  by  Nichols 
to  1818,  2  vols.  8vo,  with  an  index  to 
the  plates  (1731-1818),  by  Ch.  St.  Barbe. 
h.  '  An  Index  to  the  remarkable  words  and 
passages  made  use  of  by  Shakespeare,  calcu- 
lated to  point  out  the  different  meanings  to 
which  the  words  are  applied,'  Ijondon,  1790, 
roy.  8vo;  reprinted  in  Dublin  1791,  and 
'  second  edition,  revised  and  enlarged,'  Lon- 
■don,  1827,  demy  8vo;  the  last  is  adapted  to 
the  edition  of  the  plays  published  in  1823  by 
the  booksellers.    6.  '  A  general  index  to  the 


first  20  volumes  of  the  British  Critic,  in  two 
parts ;  part  i.  contains  a  list  of  all  the  books 
reviewed,  part  ii.  an  index  to  the  extracts, 
criticism,  &c.,'  London,  1804,  8vo  (Anon.), 
continued  by  Dr.  Blagdon. 

[Memoir  of  Ayscough  contributed  by  Nichols 
to  Gent.  Mag.  Ixxiv.  1093-5,  revised  by  Chal- 
mers and  rx;produced  in  Literary  Anecdotes 
(ix.  54-6).  See  also  Gent.  Mag.  li.  69,  117, 
liii.  982,  1014,  1036,  Ixxiv.  518,  Ixxxi.  319  ; 
and  General  Index,  v.  8 ;  Nichols's  Lit.  Anec- 
dotes and  Illustrations;  Description  of  Works 
printed  by  Eecord  Commission,  1831  ;  S.D.U.K. 
Biog.  Diet. ;  Allibone's  Diet,  of  English  Litera- 
ture.! H.  R.  T. 

AYSCOUGH,        WILLIAM,       LL.D. 

(1450),  bishop  of  Salisbmy,  is  believed  to 
have  come  of  an  ancient  Lincolnshire  fa- 
mily seated  at  Kelsey.  The  date  of  his 
birth  is  unknown,  and  the  only  thing  which 
gives  an  interest  to  his  name  is  the  manner 
of  his  death.  Indeed  all  that  is  recoi'ded  of 
him  before  he  was  made  a  bishop  is  that  his 
name  occurs  in  the  list  of  prebendaries  of 
Sutton  in  Lincoln  Cathedral,  where  he  was 
installed  on  10  Nov.  1436.  But  on  11  Feb. 
1438  he  was  promoted  by  papal  bull  to  the 
bishopric  of  Salisbury,  and  was  consecrated 
at  Windsor  on  20  July  following ;  on  which 
promotion  he  gave  up  his  prebend.  He  was 
Henry  VI's  confessor,  and  appears  to  have 
been  constantly  called  to  council  by  that 
king,  whom  he  married  to  Margaret  of 
Anjou,  at  Titchfield,  on  22  April  1445.  He 
was  also  one  of  the  bishops  who  examined 
Eleanor  Cobliam,  the  wife  of  Humphrey, 
Duke  of  Gloucester,  for  sorcery.  His  con- 
tinual residence  at  court  seems  to  have  been 
the  principal  cause  of  complaint  against  him 
in  his  own  diocese,  where  bishops  were 
expected  to  keep  open  house  Avith  the  pro- 
fuse hospitality  of  the  middle  ages.  It  was, 
in  fact,  a  novelty  in  those  days  for  a  bisho]) 
to  be  a  king's  confessor ;  and  it  exposed  him 
to  the  further  criticism  that  if  he  was  the 
king's  confessor  and  an  influential  member 
of  tlie  council  he  was  responsible  for  every- 
thing that  was  done  amiss.  Nothing  but 
covet  ousness,  it  was  believed,  could  have  re- 
conciled him  to  the  atmosphere  of  the  court 
if  he  had  given  the  king  good  advice  with- 
out effect.  These  feelings  found  a  vent  one 
day  when  he  really  did  visit  his  diocese. 
In  that  year  of  civil  tumult,  1450,  at  the 
very  time  that  Jack  Cade  and  his  followers 
were  upon  Blackheath  just  before  they  entered 
London,  the  bishop  said  mass  at  Edington, 
in  Wiltshire,  on  29  June,  the  feast  of  St. 
Peter  and  St.  Paul.  The  sacred  rite  was 
scarcely  completed  when  the  people  in 
church   dragged   him   from    the   altar  and 


Ayscu 


298 


Ayscu  e 


carried  him  forcibly  up  a  neighbouring  hill, 
with  his  alb  and  stole  upon  him  ;  then 
beat  him  and  killed  him  with  murderous 
weapons,  stripping  his  body  naked  to  the 
skin  and  leaving  it  lying  in  the  fields  un- 
Ijuried.  Nor  was  their  fury  satiated  even 
after  the  deed,  but  they  tore  his  bloody 
shirt  to  pieces,  and  bore  the  fragments  away 
with  them  in  triumph,  glorying  in  what  they 
had  done. 

[Puller's  Worthies  (ed.  Nichols),  ii.  10;  Will. 
Wyrcestre  ;  Davies's  English  Chronicle  (Camd. 
Soc),  58,  61,  64  ;  Gascoigne's  Theol.  Diet.  (Loci 
e  Libro  Veritatum),  ed.  Eogcrs,  39,  42,  158,  174.] 

J.  G.      ! 

AYSCU,  or  AYSCOUGH,  EDWARD  | 
(^fi.  1633),  historian,  was  educated  at  Christ's 
College,  Cambridge,  where  he  gi-aduated  B.  A.  | 
in  1690.  lie  afterwards  resided  at  Cotham, 
in  Lincolnshire,  from  which  place  he  dates 
the  preface  to  his  only  work,  '  A  Historic 
contayning  the  AVarres,  Treaties,  Marriages, 
and  other  occurrents  betweene  England  and 
Scotland,  from  King  William  the  Conqueror 
luitill  the  happy  Union  of  them  both  in  our 
gratious  King  James.  With  a  briefe  decla- 
ration of  the  first  Inhabitants  of  this  Island  : 
And  what  severall  Nations  have  sithence 
settled  them-selves  therein  one  after  an  other,' 
London,  1607,  4to.  Ayscu  appears  to  have 
been  living  in  1633. 

[Gal.  of  State  Papers,  Dom.,  James  I  (1623-5), 
128;  Charles  I  (1627-8),  168,  232;  (1629-31\ 
179,  236;  (1633-4),  368;  (1634-5),  466;  M8. 
Addit.  5862,  f.  34  ;  Nicolson's  Engl.  Hist.  Lib. 
(1786),  60.]  T.C. 

V^     AYSCUE,  SiK  GEORGE  (^.  164&-1671), 

yit  i«»sadmiral,  belonged  to  an  old  Lincolnshire 
tieiJt  family,  many  members  of  which  took  a  pro- 
Ji  minent  part  in  public  aifairs  before  and  during 
^  the  civil  war.  Plis  father,  William,  was 
gentleman  of  the  privy  chamber  to  Charles  I., 
by  whom  George  was  knighted,  but  for  what 
reason  or  service  no  record  remains.  So  far 
as  we  know,  he  held  no  command  in  the  navy 
before  1646,  when  he  was  captain  of  the  E.v- 
pedition,  one  of  the  ships  appointed  for  the 
winter  guard.  A  few  months  later  he  Avas 
captain  of  the  Antelope,  and,  in  1648,  of  the 
Lion  {Life  of  Penn,  i.  226,  236,  255),  and 
throughout  these  services  he  appears  to  have 
ranked  as  one  of  the  seniors  in  the  fleet. 
During  this  time  the  navy  had  taken  no 
distinct  part  in  the  struggle  that  was  raging 
on  shore,  but  had  guarded  England's  coasts 
unaffected  by  party  politics.  In  1648,  when 
the  king  was  a  prisoner  and  the  Prince  of 
Wales  had  fled  the  country,  this  neutrality 
could  no  longer  be  maintained,  and  in  June  a 


part  of  the  fleet,  under  the  command  of  Vice- 
Admiral  William  Batten,  refusing  obedience 
to  the  parliamentary  authorities,  weighed 
anchor  from  the  Downs,  and  went  over  to 
Holland.  Tliat  the  whole  or  a  still  greater  part 
did  not  go,  Avas  attributed  mainly  to  the  in- 
fluence of  Ayscue,  whose  service  was  rewarded 
by)  an  appointment  in  the  following  year  as 
admiral  of  the  Irish  seas.  In  this  capacity, 
with  his  flag  on  board  the  St.  Andrew,  he 
was  actively  engaged  in  the  operations  on 
the  coast  of  Ireland,  and  more  especiaDy  in 
the  relief  of  Dublin  when  besieged  by  the 
Marquis  of  Ormond,  and  for  his  conduct 
there  he  was  officially  tlianked  by  order  in 
parliament,  dated  23  July  1649. 

In  April  1651,  as  second  to  Blake,  he  was. 
engaged  in  the  reduction  of  Scilly,  then  held 
for  the  Prince  of  Wales  by  Sir  John  Gren- 
ville,  and  was  afterwards  sent  to  the  AVest 
Indies  in  command  of  a  squadron,  with 
which  he  reduced  Barbadoes,  after  a  stout 
defence  on  the  part  of  Lord  Willoughby,  its 
royalist  governor.  Antigua,  Nevis,  St.  Chris- 
topher's, as  well  as  the  settlements  on  the 
coast  of  Virginia,  surrendered  without  further 
resistance,  and  Ayscue,  finding  his  work  in 
the  AVest  Indies  finished,  returned  to  Eng- 
land. He  arrived  at  Plymouth  in  the  end 
of  May  1652,  bringing  in  with  him  a  num- 
ber of  Dutch  merchant  ships  captui'ed  in  ac- 
cordance with  tlie  orders  for  reprisals  which 
had  been  issued  several  months  before  the 
actual  outbreak  of  tlie  war.  A  few  day& 
later,  having  intelligence  of  a  Dutch  fleet 
sailing  westward,  he  put  to  sea,  and  found 
it,  on  12  June,  a  little  to  the  west  of  the 
Lizard.  It  was,  in  fact,  the  outward-bound 
trade,  under  the  convoy  of  a  number  of  men- 
of-war,  and,  when  attacked  by  Ayscue's 
squadron,  stood  stoutly  on  the  defensive, 
and  got  away  with  the  loss  of  some  five 
ships.  After  this  Sir  George  went  round  to- 
the  Downs,  where  he  was  left  by  Blake  to 
command,  and  Avliere,  on  3  July,  he  was  at- 
tacked by  the  Dutch  with  a  much  superior 
force.  They  Avere,  hoAvever,  unable  to  over- 
come the  adA'antage  of  position,  and  were 
driA'en  back;  whilst  Ayscue,  following  u\> 
his  success,  fell  in  with  a  number  of  Dutch 
merchant  ships,  of  Avhich  he  captured  scA'en, 
and  sank  or  ran  ashore  many  more.  Pre- 
sently, however,  the  Dutch  returned,  muster- 
ing 102  men-of-war,  besides  ten  fire-ships, 
against  which  Ayscue  could  oppose  no  more 
than  sixteen  Aessels.  Batteries  for  his  sup- 
port were  erected  on  shore ;  but  it  might 
well  liaA-e  gone  hard  Avith  him  if  a  fortunate 
shift  of  Avind  had  not  driven  the  Dutch  back 
{Calendar  <f  State  Pa j)ers,\\  July;  Whith- 
LOCKE,  13  July). 


Ayscue 


299 


Ayton 


Afterwards,  having  received  large  rein- 
foi'cements,  whicli  raised  his  fleet  to  some 
iifty  sail  all  told,  he  Avent  round  to  Plymouth, 
and  oft"  that  port,  on  16  Aug.,  met  the  Dutch 
under  De  lluyter,  whose  force,  on  a  compa- 
rison of  the  many  differing  and  opi)osing  esti- 
mates, may  be  considered  to  have  been  equal 
to  that  with  Ayscue.  After  a  close  and  con- 
fused action,  Avhich  lasted  from  two  or  three 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon  till  nightfall,  the  fleets 
separated  without  any  decided  advantage  on 
either  side.  During  the  next  day  they  lay  in 
sight  of  each  other,  neitlier  of  them  wishing 
to  begin  or  to  appear  to  shun  a  renewal  of  the 
Hght ;  but  towards  evening  the  Dutch  pursued 
tlieir  way  to  the  westward,  and  the  English, 
too  sliattered  to  follow  them,  Avent  into  Ply- 
moutli.  Both  claimed  and  have  continued 
to  claim  the  A-ictory,  Avhich,  so  far  as  the 
immediate  contest  was  concerned,  belonged 
to  neither,  though  undoubtedly  the  adAan- 
tage  rested  Avith  D(i  Ruyter,  since  he  had 
protected  his  conA'oy  and  ])ursued  his  voyage. 
And  this  Avould  seem  to  haAe  been  the  opinion 
of  the  parliament ;  for  Avith  implied,  if  not 
expressed  censure,  they  superseded  Ayscue  in 
his  command,  assigning  him,  hoAvever,  a  pen- 
sion of  300/.  a  year.  Eitlier  by  inheritance, 
))y  commerce,  or  by  j)rize-money.  Sir  George 
Avould  seem  by  this  time  to  haA^e  amassed  a 
I'omfortable  fortune.  Whitelocke  relates  how, 
on  IS  Aug.  I606,  tlie  ambassador  of  SAveden 
AA-as  elaborately  entertained  at  Sir  George 
Ayscue's  house  in  Surrey  (Ham-IIaA\-  in  the 
parish  of  Chei-tsey).  '  The  house,'  he  Avrites, 
'  stands  enAironed  Avith  ponds,  moats,  and 
AA'ater,  like  a  ship  at  sea  :  a  fancy  the  fitter 
for  the  master's  humour,  avIio  is  himself  so 
^reat  a  seaman.  There,  he  said,  he  had  cast 
iinchor  and  intended  to  spend  the  rest  of  his 
life  in  a  private  retirement.'  Within  tAA-o 
years,  however,  he  Avas  persuaded  by  Crom- 
well to  go  to  SAA^eden  and  take  the  com- 
mand of  the  Swedish  fleet ;  and  though  no 
opportunity  for  active  service  occurred,  he 
stayed  in  SAveden,  presumably  as  adviser  on 
naval  affairs,  until  the  Restoration,  when  he 
rt'tumed  to  England,  and  Avas  appointed  one 
of  the  commissioners  of  the  naAy.  On  the 
outbreak  of  the  second  Dutch  Avar,  in  1604, 
lie  was  appointed  rear-admiral  of  the  blue, 
and  served  in  that  rank  in  the  action  of 
•"!  June  1665,  AAath  liis  flag  in  the  Henry.  | 
On  the  Duke  of  York's  quitting  the  fleet  he  , 
Avas  made  vice-admiral  of  the  red,  under  ' 
Lord  SandAvich.  The  folloAving  spring  he  I 
Avas  admiral  of  the  blue,  in  the  Royal  Prince ;  ' 
}>ut  on  30  May,  Avhen  Prince  Rupert  had 
taken  part  of  the  fleet  aAvay  to  the  west- ' 
Avard,  and  with  him  Sir  Thomas  Allin,  the  j 
admiral  of  the  white,  Ayscue  was  appointed 


admiral  of  the  white  in  the  division  of  tli© 
fleet  that  remained  Avith  Monck  :  and  it  wa» 
as  admiral  of  the  Avhite  that  he  took  part 
in  the  four  days'  engagement  off  the  Nortli 
Foreland  {State  Papers,  Domestic,  Charles  II, 
vol.  clvii.  No.  o7,  Clarke  to  AVillinm.son, 
30  May,  1666).  On  the  third  day  of  this 
gi'eat  battle,  Avhilst  endeavouring  to  join 
Prince  Rupeil's  division,  Avhich  had  just 
come  on  the  scene,  the  Royal  Prince  struck 
on  the  Galloper — a  dangerous  shoal  on  the 
Essex  coast — Avas  surrounded  by  the  Dutch 
and  captured.  They  wei'e  unable,  however, 
to  get  the  ship  oft",  and  eventually  set  bee  on 
fire ;  but  they  carried  Sir  George  Ayscue  a 
prisoner  to  Holland,  and  are  said,  by  all  our 
contemporary  writers,  to  have  shoAvn  a  most 
igiioble  exultation  OAer  their  illustrious  cap- 
tive. That  they  paraded  him  through  their 
toAvns,  exhibiting  him  to  the  populace,  seems 
to  be  Avell  established,  even  if  we  are  unwil- 
ling to  believe  that  they  first  painted  him 
and  fastened  a  tail  on  him  {Calendar,  10  July 
1666).  He  Avas  kept  a  prisoner  till  after  the 
peace,  in  October  1 667.  He  aiTived  in  London 
m  November,  and  on  the  12th  AAas  presented 
to  the  king,  by  AA'hom  he  Avas  graciously  re- 
ceived. It  may  be  doubted  whether  he  cA^er 
serAcd  again,  though  he  is  said  on  doubtful 
authority  to  have  hoisted  his  flag  in  1668  on 
board  the  Triumph,  and  again  in  1671  on 
board  the  St.  Andrew.  In  the  third  Dutch 
war,  beginning  in  1672,  he  held  no  com- 
mand ;  and  it  AA'ould  therefore  appear  probable 
that  he  died  about  that  time ;  but  no  record 
of  his  death  has  been  preserved.  His  portrait 
by  Lely  is  in  the  Painted  Hall  at  GreenAvich. 
Sir  George  Ayscue  always  wrote  his  name 
thus ;  biit  contemporary  Avriters,  Avith  the 
carelessness  of  their  age,  misspelt  it,  among 
many  other  Avays,  Ayscough  and  Askew. 

[Campbell's  Lives  of  the  Admirals ;  Charnock's 
Biog.  Nav.  i.  89 ;  Calendars  of  State  Papers, 
1649-52, 1660-66  ;  Pepys's  Diary ;  Whiteloeke's 
Memorials ;  Brandt's  Vie  de  I)e  Euyter.  A 
number  of  contemporary  pamphlets,  mostly 
bearing  such  titles  as  '  A  Bloudy  Fight,'  or  '  An- 
other Bloudy  Fight  at  Sea '  (Brit.  Mus.  Catalogue, 
s.  n. '  Ayscue,  George '),  are  mere  crude,  hastj',  and 
exaggerated  reports,  AA'ithout  any  authority.] 

J.  K.  L. 

AYTON,  RICHARD  (1786-1823),  dra- 
matist and  miscellaneous  Avriter,  Avas  born  in 
London  in  1786.  His  father,  a  son  of  Wil- 
liam Ayton,  banker  in  Lombard  Street,  re- 
moA'ed  some  time  aftei"AA-ards  to  Macclesfield, 
Cheshire,  and  at  the  gi'ammar  school  of  that 
town  young  Ayton  obtained  a  good  ele- 
mentary knoAvledge  of  Latin  and  Greek.  In 
accordance  Avith  the  Avish  of  his  father,  who 


Ayton 


300 


Ayton 


tlied  in  1799,  that  he  should  be  educated  for 
the  bar,  he  was  sent  to  study  laAV  at  Man- 
chester, and  at  the  end  of  a  year  became  the 
pupil  of  a  barrister  in  London ;  but  conceiving 
from  the  beginning  a  distaste  for  the  profes- 
sion, he  never  set  liimself  seriously  to  prepare 
for  it.  As  soon  as  he  came  of  age,  he  retired 
to  the  coast  of  Sussex,  resolved  to  limit  his 
expenses  to  his  comparatively  small  income, 
and  to  considt  only  his  own  inclinations  in 
the  occupation  of  his  time.  There  he  amused 
himself  with  desultory  reading  and  active 
outdoor  exercise,  boating  being  his  special 
delight.  In  1811  he  returned  to  London, 
and  accepted  a  situation  in  a  public  office ; 
but  this  he  relinquished  in  1813,  to  accom- 
pany William  Daniell,  A.R.A.,  in  a  voyage 
round  Great  Britain.  An  account  of  the 
voyage,  with  views  drawn  and  engi'aved  by 
Daniell,  appeared  in  8  vols,  folio,  1814-25  [see 
Daniell,  William]  ;  but  the  letterpress  of 
only  the  first  two  volumes  is  by  Ayton.  Dis- 
agreeing with  Daniell  in  regard  to  his  plans  for 
the  future  volumes,  Ayton  declined  to  proceed 
further  with  the  book,  and  betook  himself  to 
play-writing.  Two  of  his  farces,  acted  at 
Covent  Garden,  were  total  failures ;  but  he 
adapted  from  the  French  several  pieces  for 
the  English  Opera  House  with  moderate  suc- 
cess. During  a  voyage  between  Scarborough 
and  London,  Ayton  was  nearly  shipwrecked, 
and  received  an  injury  to  his  ankle  which 
confined  him  to  bed  for  more  than  a  year. 
In  the  spring  of  1821  he  was  sufficiently  re- 
covered to  go  to  the  coast  of  Sussex,  but  his 
health  continued  uncertain  and  precarious. 
In  July  1823  his  illness  assumed  so  serious 
a  form,  that  he  removed  for  medical  advice 
to  London,  where  he  died  shortly  afterwards. 
During  the  last  eighteen  months  of  his  life 
Ayton  occupied  himself  in  the  composition 
of  a  number  of  essays,  chiefly  on  pastimes  and 
similar  subjects,  written  in  a  genial  and 
playful  spirit,  and  displaying  considerable 
sprightliness  and  humour.  These,  witli  a  short 
memoir  prefixed,  wei'e  published  in  1825. 

[Memoir  in  Edinburgh  Magazine,  new  series, 
X.  254-5,  which  contains  some  additional  details 
to  those  given  in  Monthly  Magazine,  iv.  153-4, 
and  Gent.  Mag.  vol.  Ixvii.  part  2,  pp.  731-2.] 

T.  R  H. 

AYTON,  or  AYTOUN,  Sir  ROBERT 

(1570-1688),  poet,  was  a  descendant  of  the 
Norman  house  of  De  Vescy,  lords  of  Sprouston 
in  Northumberland.  Gilbert  de  Vescy,  a 
younger  son  of  the  family,  settled  in  Scotland 
in  the  reign  of  King  Robert  Bruce,  having 
received  from  him  the  lands  of  Aytoun  in 
Berwickshire.  Tliereupon  he  changed  his 
name  to  that  of  his  estate. 


In  Berwickshire  the  Aytouns  continued 
as  landowners  until  James  III  (1460-1488), 
when  a  brother  of  the  family  of  Home  mar- 
ried the  heiress,  and  carried  the  lands  into 
that  house.  The  uncle  of  the  heiress,  her 
father's  younger  brother,  Andrew  Aytoun, 
was  captain  of  Stirling  Castle  and  sheriff  of 
Elgin  and  Forres  during  the  reign  of  James 
IV  (1488-1513).  For  'faithful  services  '  the 
king  gave  him  several  charters,  confirming 
him  in  the  lands  of  Nether  Dunniure,  Kil- 
gour,  and  Glenduckie  in  western  Fifeshire. 
By  a  new  charter  from  the  crown  somewhat 
later  these  lands  were  constituted  into  u 
barony  called  Aytoun,  the  proprietor  being 
designated  '  of  that  ilk.' 

This  Captain  Aytoun  of  Stirling  had  three 
sons  and  seven  daughters.  John,  eldest  son, 
succeeded  his  father  in  the  estate  of  Aytoun ; 
Robert,  second  son,  obtained  the  estate  of 
Inchdairnie ;  and  Andrew,  third  son,  suc- 
ceeded in  1567  Robert  Aytoun,  his  first 
cousin,  in  the  estate  of  Kinaldie,  which  had 
come  into  the  family  about  1539.  Andrew 
Aytoun,  who  was  a  student  of  the  univer- 
sity of  St.  Andrews  in  1539,  man-ied  Mary 
Lundie,  and  she  bore  him  three  sons  and  two 
daughters.  John,  the  eldest,  succeeded  to 
the  estate  of  Kinaldie  in  1590;  Andrew, 
second  son,  proceeded  to  Ireland  ;  and  the 
third  son  was  Robert,  who  devoted  himself 
to  literature. 

Sir  Robert  Aytoun  was  born  at  the  castle 
of  Kinaldie,  in  the  parish  of  Cameron,  near 
St,  Andrews,  in  1570.  He  proceeded  to  the 
university  of  St.  Andrews  (St.  Leonard's  Col- 
lege) in  1584,  and  took  his  degree  of  M.A.  in 
1588.  He  obtained  his  patrimony  in  1590, 
and  thereupon  went  on  the  usual  roiuid  of 
continental  travel.  He  also  studied  civil  law 
at  the  university  of  Paris.  According  to 
Thomas  Dempster  {Historia  Eccles.  Gentis 
Scotonim),  '  he  long  cherished  useful  learn- 
ing in  France,  and  left  there  distinguished 
proof  and  reputation  of  his  worth '  in  certain 
verses  in  Latin,  Greek,  and  French.  An 
overlooked  book  by  David  Echlin  [Echlinus], 
'Periurium  Officiosum  ad  Vere  Nobilem  et 
Generosum  optimeque  de  me  merit  um  virum 
RobertumAytonvmEquitem  .  . .  1626,' more 
than  bears  out  the  laudation  of  Dempster. 
He  is  thus  addressed : — 

Rarum  Aytone  decus  Britanniarum 
Musarum  soboles  ApoUinisquc  .  .  . 

Aytoun  returned  from  the  continent  in  1 603, 
bringing  over  with'  him  a  Latin  poem  in 
hexameters,  addressed  to  James  I :  *  De  Fav 
lici,  et  semper  Augusto,  Jacobi  VI,  Scotia? 
Insularumque  adiacentium  Regis,  Imperio 
nunc  recens  florentissimis  Anglieeetlliberniiw 


Ayton 


301 


Ayton 


Sceptris  amplificato  Koberti  Aytoni  Scot! 
Panegj-ris.  Paris,  1603.'  lie  was  cordially 
received  at  the  Eiifrllsh  court.  lie  rose  at 
once  into  royal  favour,  and  shared  in  the 
king's  lavish  if  rather  indiscriminate  bounty 
t  o  his  fel hnv-count  rymen.  He  was  appointed 
gentleman  of  the  bedchamber  and  private 
secretary  to  the  queen.  He  received  knight- 
hood at  Rycot  on  30  Aug.  1012.  He  was 
sent  as  ambassador  to  Germany  to  deliver 
the  king's  *  Apology  '  before  published  anony- 
mously, but  now  avowed  and  '  delivered '  to 
all  the  so\'ereigns  of  Europe  by  its  complacent 
author.  On  11  Dec.  1619  he  obtained  a  grant 
of  500/.  per  annum  on  certain  *  royal  profits' 
{Docqitpf  Booh  of  Exchorjuer)  for  '  thirty-one 
years ; '  but  in  1620  this  was  commuted  for  a 
life-pension  of  the  same  amount.  Dr.  Charles 
Rogers  has  printed  a  number  of  his  letters 
on  these  and  other  '  affairs.'  In  1623  he  was 
a  candidate  in  com])etition  with  Bacon  for 
the  provostship  of  Eton.  It  fell  to  Sir  Heniy 
Wotton,  notwithstanding  an  application  ad- 
dressed to  James  by  Aytoun  in  xev»e.  This 
correspondence  and  casual  notices  in  state 
and  domestic  papers  show  him  to  have  been 
on  intimate  terms  with  the  literary  men  of 
the  period.  'Rare  Ben  '  told  Drurnmond  of 
Hawthornden  proudly  that  '  Sir  Robert  Ay- 
toun loved  him  [Jonson]  dearly.'  Aubrey 
says  of  liim  that '  he  was  acquainted  with  all 
the  wits  of  his  time  in  England,'  and  that 
*he  was  a  great  acquaintance  of  Mr.  Thomas 
Hobbes,  of  Malmesburv,  who  told  me  he 
made  use  of  him  (together  with  Ben  Jonson) 
for  an  Aristarchus,  when  he  drew  up  his 
epistle  dedicatory  for  his  translation  of  Thu- 
cydides.' 

On  the  death  of  James  I  in  1625,  all 
his  offices  and  honours  were  continued  to 
him  by  Charles  I  and  Queen  Henrietta 
Maria. 

In  1633-4  he  is  found  mixed  up  with  a 
'  patent '  quarrel.  In  1636  he  was  appointed 
master  of  the  royal  hospital  of  St.  Kathe- 
rine,  with  200/.  a  year.  He  was  also  made 
master  of  requests  and  of  ceremonies  and 
privy  councillor.  In  his  various  offices, 
and  on  receiving  his  successive  advances,  it 
was  acknowledged  in  his  lifetime  that  '  he 
conducted  himself  with  such  moderation  and 
prudence  that  when  he  obtained  high  honours 
in  the  palace,  all  held  he  deserved  greater,' 
Tie  died  at  Whitehall,  February  1637-8,  in 
his  sixty-ninth  year,  having  a  few  days  before 
prepared  his  will.  He  was  buried  in  West- 
minster Abbey,  and  his  great  monument, 
which  includes  his  lifelike  bust,  <  remains 
with  us  unto  this  day.'  He  is  thus  entered 
in  the  Register  of  Westminster:  '1637-8, 
Feb.  28,  Sir  Robert  Aeton,  secretary  to  his 


majesty,  near  the  steps  ascending  to  King- 
Henry  VII's  chapel '  (Chkstkr,  ]).  133), 

The  literary  repute  of  Sir  Robert  Aytoun 
is  as  much  of  a  paradox  as  Sir  Edward  Dyer's, 
His  Latin  productions  are  stilted  and  unmelli- 
fluous,  mere  echoes  of  the  iron  age  of  classic 
Lutinity,  and  simply  grotesque  beside  Bu- 
chanan s  and  Johnston's.     Sir  Jf)hn  Scot  of 
Scotstarvet   indeed   gives  him  a  relatively 
large  space  in  his  '  Delitije  Poet.  Scot,,'  but 
simply  from  his  contemporary  repiite.  Among 
his  Latin  poems  appear  several  epitaphs  and 
epigrams  celebrating  eminent   contempora- 
ries.   The  latest  event  to  which  any  of  them 
refers  is  the  death  of  Buckingham  in  1628, 
commemorated  in  elegiacs.     Aytoun's  *  Dio- 
phantus  and  Charidora'  has  a  certain  inte- 
rest as  having  been  among  the  earlier  writ- 
ing in  English  by  a  Scot,  but  it  is  poor  in 
substance.      His   'Inconstancy    Upbraided' 
has  a  ring  of  truthfulness  and  touches  of 
music.     Such  praise  as  is  due  to  the  ele- 
•  gant  trifles  of  an  accomplished  man  of  the 
world  is  all  that  can  be  allowed  his  poems. 
If  it  could  be  proved  that  he  wrote  '  I  do 
confess  thou'rt  smooth  and  fair,'  of  which 
Burns   gave   a  Scottish   version,   it   would 
not  be  necessary  to   modify  tin's  estimate,- 
I  and  it  is  all  but   certain   that   Sir   Robert 
i  Aytoun  did  not  write  it.     For  {a)  in  the 
manuscript  of  his  poems  {Add.  MS.  10308), 
so  reverentially  collected  and  prepared  by  Sir 
John  Aytoun,  his  nephew  and  successor  in 
the  estate,  it  does  not  appear;  (^i)  neither 
j  does  it  appear  in  Dr.  Rogers's  manuscript, 
also     carefully    and     critically    compiled  ,- 
(c)  while  in  Watson's  '  Scots  Poems,'  which 
I  contains  other  of  his  poems  with  his  name, 
j  this  particular  poem   is   placed   apart   and 
[  under  no  author^s  name.     It  seems  clear  that 
it  came  to  be  ascribed  to  him  from  confusion 
of  its  title,    '  To  an   Inconstant   Mistress,' 
with  his '  Inconstancy  Upbraided.'  Sir  Robert 
himself  made  no  claim  to  be  a  poet.    As  Sir 
John  Aytoun  in  his  epistle  (Add.  MS.  ut 
supra)  put  it,  '  The  author  of  these  ensueing- 
poems  did  not  affect  the  name  of  a  poet, 
having  neither  publisht  in  print  nor  kept 
coppyes  of  anything  he  writt,  either  in  Latin 
or  English.'    A  copy  of  his  '  Basia '  is  in  the 
Drurnmond  collection  of  the  university  of 
Edinburgh.      Dr.    Charles   Rogers,  first  in 
1844,  very  uncritically,  and  more  recently 
in    a    revised    '  privately   printed   edition,'" 
showing  some  advance  on  the  former,  yet 
needing  improvement,  published  the  poems 
of  Aytoun,  with  a  full  if  rather  discursive- 
life. 

[Rogers's  edition  of  Aytoun's  poems ;  Camp^ 
bell's  Introduction  to  the  History  of  Poetry  in 
Scotland,    1798;  notice  by  John  Hill  Burton 


Aytoun 


302 


Aytoun 


in  S.D.U.K.  Biog.  Diet.;  Ur.  Irving;  Public  I 
Jiecords ;  Hew  Scott's  Fasti  Ecclesiae  8coti-  , 
■f-anfe,  1869  (4to),  i.  462,  464  ;  Chesters  Reg. 
I  if  Westminster  Abl  >ej ;  Hobbes  of  Malmesbury's 
Life  and  AVorks — Aytoun  assisted  in  his  Thucy- 
<lides;  Addit.  MS.  10308,  in  the  Brit.  Mus. 
Library;  Rogers  without  any  autlioi'ity  includes 
'  Auld  Lang  Syne'  (pp.  i  and  ii)  and  Raleigh's 
'  Sweet  Empress'  in  Aytoun's  Poems.] 

A.  B.  G. 

AYTOUN,       WILLIAM       EDMOXS- 

TOUNE  (1813-1865),  poet,  born  in  Edin- 
burgh on  21  June  1813,  was  the  son  of  Roger 
Aytoun,  writer  to  the  signet,  and  of  Joan 
Keir.  Through  both  father  and  mother  he 
belonged  to  old  Scottish  families,  his  pro- 
genitors on  the  father's  side  being  the  Ay- 
touns  of  Inchdairnie  in  Fifeshire,  and  the 
Edmonstounes,  formerly  of  Edraonstoune 
4ind  Ednam,  and  afterwards  of  Corehouse  in 
Lanarkshire,  and  on  the  mother's  side  the 
Keirs  of  Kinmonth  and  West  llhynd  in 
Perthshire.  Among  his  ancestors  he  counted  "; 
Sir  Robert  Ayton,  who  followed  James  \I  | 
to  England,  and  was  attached  to  the  court  { 
till  his  death  in  1638,  when  he  was  buried 
in  Westminster  Abbey,  having  been  a  friend  \ 
of  all  the  leading  men  of  letters  in  London, 
including  Ben  Jonson  and  Ilobbes  of  ]Mal- 
mesbury,  and  himself  taken  rank  among 
them  as  a  poet.  In  that  chai-acter  he  is 
chiefly  known  as  the  reputed  author  of  two 
songs,  which  Burns  worked  into  more  modern 
shape,  one  of  them  being  '  Should  auld  ac- 
quaintance be  forgot,'  the  song,  of  all  others, 
■dear  to  Scotchmen  [see  Ayton  or  Aytoux, 
Sir  Robert],  Both  Aytoun's  parents  were 
of  literary  tastes ;  and  by  his  mother  lie  was 
early  imlmed  with  a  passion  for  baUad  ])oetry 
4ind  an'  imaginative  sympathy  for  the  royal 
race  of  Stuart.  She  had  seen  much  of  Sir 
AValter  Scott  in  his  boyhood  and  youth,  and 
supplied  his  biographer  Lockhart  with  many 
of  the  details  for  his  life  of  Scott.  Iler 
knowledge  of  ballad  lore  w^as  great,  and  was 
very  serviceable  in  enabling  her  son  to  fill 
up  gaps,  and  to  correct  false  readings  when 
])reparing  his  edition  of  the  'Ballads  of 
Scotland'  in  1858.  Aytoun  was  educated 
at  the  Edinburgh  academy  and  university, 
and  wrote  verses  fluently  and  well  while 
still  a  student.  At  the  age  of  seventeen  he 
published  a  small  volume  called  '  Poland, 
Homer,  and  other  Poems,'  in  which  the 
<|ualities  of  his  later  style  were  already  aj)- 
jiarent.  He  thought  of  going  to  tlu!  English 
bar,  but  after  a  winter  in  London,  attending 
the  courts  of  law,  he  abandoned  this  inten- 
tion. Aytoun  disliked  the  idea  of  following 
his  father's  profession,  but  after  a  i-esidence 
of  some  months  at  Aschatt'enburg,  where  he 


devoted  himself  with  enthusiasm  to  the 
study  of  German  literature,  he  returned  to 
Edinburgh.  Having  no  fortune,  he  put  aside 
the  thought  of  devoting  himself  to  literary 
pursuits,  resumed  his  place  in  his  father's 
oflice,  and  was  admitted  as  a  writer  of  the 
signet  in  1835.  The  discipline  of  his  legal 
practice  was  of  great  vise  in  giving  him  a 
power  of  mastering  the  details  of  political 
and  other  questions  which  was  of  distinct 
service  to  him  at  a  later  period.  In  1840  he 
was  called  to  the  Scottish  bar,  which  had 
more  attraction  for  him  than  the  irksome 
monotony  of  a  solicitor's  practice,  and  made 
a  fair  position  for  himself  there  during  the 
years  in  which  he  remained  in  active  prac- 
tice. His  heart,  however,  was  in  literary 
pursuits,  and  he  had  already  begun  to  feel 
his  way  in  them  by  translations  from  llhland. 
Homer,  and  others,  as  well  as  in  original 
poems,  which  appeared  in  '  Blackwood's 
Magazine '  during  the  years  from  1836  to 
1840.  Between  that  period  and  1844  he 
worked  together  with  [Sir]  Theodore  Mar- 
tin in  the  production  of  what  are  known  as 
the  '  Bon  Gaultier  Ballads,'  which  acquired 
such  great  popularity  that  thirteen  large 
editions  of  them  were  called  for  between 
1855  and  1877.  They  were  also  associated 
at  this  time  in  writing  many  prose  maga- 
zine articles  of  a  humorous  character,  as 
well  as  a  series  of  translations  of  Goethe's 
ballads  and  minor  poems,  which,  after  ap- 
pearing in  '  Blackwood's  Magazine,'  were 
some  years  afterwards  (1858)  collected  and 
published  in  a  volume.  It  was  during  this 
period  that  Aytoun  began  to  write  the  series 
of  ballads  known  as  '  Lays  of  the  Cavaliers,' 
which  first  dreAV  attention  to  him  as  an 
original  poet,  and  which  have  taken  so  firm 
a  hold  of  the  public  that  no  less  than  twenty- 
nine  editions  of  them  have  appeared,  eleven 
of  them  since  ^^.ytoun's  death  in  1865.     In 

1844  he  became  one  of  the  staff'  of  '  Black- 
wood's Magazine,'  to  which  he  continued  till 
his  death  to  contribute  political  and  other 
articles  on  a  great  variety  of  subjects  witli 
unflagging  industry  and  a  remarliable  fer- 
tility and  variety  of  resource.  Among  these 
were  several  tales,  in  which  Aytoun's  humour 
and  shrewd  practical  sense  were  conspicuous. 
Gf  these  perhaps  the  most  amusing  were 
'  My  First  Spec  in  the  Biggleswades,'  and 
'How  we  got  up  the  Glenmutchkin  Rail- 
way, and  how  we  got  out  of  it ; '  and  they 
had  a  most  salutaiy  effect  in  exposing  the  ras- 
cality and  folly  of  the  railway  mania  of  1845. 
People  laughed,  but  they  profited — for  a 
time — by  the  lessons  there  read  to  them.  In 

1845  Aytoun  was  appointed  professor  of 
rhetoric  and  belles   lettres  in  the   univer- 


Baalun 


303 


Baalun 


sity  of  Edinburgh.  Here  he  was  in  his 
element;  and  he  made  his  lectures  so  atti'ac- 
tive  that  he  raised  the  number  of  students 
from  30  in  1846  to  upwards  of  1,850  in  1864. 
His  professorial  duties  did  not  interfere  with 
his  position  at  tiie  bar,  and  in  1852,  when 
the  tory  party  came  into  power,  they  re- 
<juited  his  services  as  a  political  writer  by 
appointing  him  sheriff  of  Orkney.  In  the 
following  jear  Oxford  conferred  on  him  the 
honorary  degree  of  D.C.L.  The  duties  of 
Aytoun's  sheriftship  did  not  engross  much 
of  his  time.  These,  and  his  work  as  pro- 
fessor, both  most  conscientiously  discharged, 
left  him  leisure  for  literarj^  work.  In  1854 
he  produced  the  dramatic  poem  '  Firmilian,' 
perhaps  the  most  brilliant  of  his  works, 
Avhich  was  written  in  ridicule  of  the  ex- 
travagant themes  and  style  of  Bailey,  Dobell, 
and  Alexander  Smith.  It  was,  however,  so 
full  of  imagination  and  fine  rhythmical 
.swing,  that  its  olyject  was  mistaken,  and 
•what  was  meant  for  caricature  was  accepted 
as  serious  poetry.  In  1856  Aytoun  pub- 
lished '  Bothwell,'  a  poetical  monologue,  deal- 
ing with  the  relations  between  the  hero  and 
Mary  Queen  of  Scots.  It  contained  many 
fine  passages,  and  three  editions  of  it  were 
published.  In  1858  he  published  a  collec- 
tion, in  tAvo  volumes,  of  the  '  Ballads  of 
Scotland,'  carefully  collated  and  annotated, 
of  which  four  editions,  the  last  in  1860,  have 
been  published.  In  1861  his  novel  of  '  Nor- 
man Sinclair '  was  published :  it  had  already 
appeared  in  '  Blackwood's  Magazine,'  and  is 
interesting  for  its  pictures  of  society  in 
Scotland,  as  Aytoun  saw  it  in  his  youth,  and 
for  many  passages  which  are,  in  fact,  auto- 
biogi'aphical.  About  this  time  Aytoun's 
health  began  to  fail,  and  his  spirits  had  sus- 
tained a  shock,  from  which  he  never  wholly 


recovered,  in  the  death  (15  April  1859)  of 
his  wife,  the  youngest  daughter  of  Professor 
Wilson  (Christopher  North),  whom  he  had 
married  in  April  1849,  and  to  whom  he  was 
devotedly  attached.  He  sought  relief  in 
hard  Avork,  but  life  had  thenceforth  lost 
much  of  its  zest  for  him.  Being  childless, 
its  loneliness  became  intolerable,  and  in  De- 
cember 1863  he  married  again.  But  by  this 
time  his  constitution  Avas  seriously  shaken, 
and  on  4  Aug.  I860  he  died  at  Blackhills, 
near  Elgin,  whither  he  had  gone  to  .spend  tin- 
summer  in  the  hope  of  recruiting  his  health. 
Aytoun's  life  had  been,  upon  the  Avhole,  a 
happy  one.  He  AA-as  of  a  genial,  kindh"  dis- 
position, full  of  playfulness,  and  of  original 
and  cultured  humour,  Avarmly  esteemed  by 
his  friends,  and  constant  in  his  attachments 
to  them.  Nature  and  education  fitted  him 
for  a  man  of  letters,  and  he  took  delight  in 
the  very  varied  literary  labours  by  which  his 
fi*ee  and  fticile  pen  enriched  the  pages  of 
*  BlackAvood's  Magazine,'  and  added  a  feAv 
books  to  literature  of  permanent  interest. 

His  published  works  are: — 1.  'Poland, 
Homer,  and  other  Poems,'  Edinburgh,  1832. 
2.  '  The  Life  and  Times  of  Richard  the  First,' 
London,  1840.  3.  '  Lays  of  the  Cavalie^*.' 
Edinburgh,  1848,  29th  edition  18«-3.  4. '  Ix.n 
Gaultier's  Ballads '  (jointly  with  Theodore 
Martin),  London,  1855,  i3th  edition  1877. 
5.  'BotWell,'  London,  1856.  6.  'Firmilian,' 
1854.  7.  '  Poems  and  Ballads  of  Goethe ' 
(jointly  Avith  Theodore  Martin),  London, 
1858.  8.  'Ballads  of  Scotland,'  2  vols. 
London,  1858,  4th  edition  1870.  9.  '  Nuptial 
Ode  to  the  Princess  Alexandra,'  London, 
1863.  10.  '  Norman  Sinclair,'  3  vols.  London, 
1861. 

[W.  E.  Aytoun's  Life,  by  Theodore  Martin, 
1867.]  T.  M. 


B 


BAALUN,  or  BALUN,  JOHN  de  (r7. 
1235),  justice  itinerant,  Avas  a  baron  Avho  pos- 
sessed estates  in  Gloucestershire,  Hereford- 
.shire,  and  Wiltshire,  and  was  descended  from 
one  Hameline  de  Baalun,  aa-Iio  came  over 
Aviththe  Conqueror,  built  the  castle  of  Aber- 
gavenny, and  died  in  1089.  His  father  was 
Reginald  deBalun,andin  1207  John  deBalun 
paid  a  fine  for  the  lands  of  Hameline,  on  behalf 
of  his  father,  to  Geoffrey  Fitz-Ace  and  Agnes, 
his  wife,  and  100  marks  and  a  palfrey  to  the 
king.  In  12  .Tohn  (1210-11)  Balun  accora- 
])anied  the  king  to  Ireland,  but  at  the  end  of 
John's  reign  lost  his  lands  for  taking  part  in 


the  barons'  attack  upon  the  king.  On  the 
accession  of  Henry  III  he  was  restored  on  I'e- 
turning  to  his  allegiance,  and  in  9  Henry  III 
(1224-5)  AA'as  appointed  a  justice  itinerant 
for  Gloucestershire  along  with  ]Matthew  de 
Pateshull,  archdeacon  of  Norfolk,  Richard  de 
Veym,  and  the  abbot  of  Tewkesbury.  He 
died  in  1235.  His  son  John  j)aid  100/.  for 
his  relief,  and  did  homage  for  his  inheritance, 
and,  dying  in  1 274,  was  succeeded  by  another 
of  John's  sons,  Walter  (Abb.  Hot.  Orir/.  i. 
24).  A  justice  itinerant  Avhowas  appointed 
9  Henry  III  and  died  in  the  following  year 
(1226)  bore  the  name  of  Rogeb  de  Baalun 


Babbage 


304 


Babbage 


or  BALirif,  and  was  probably  a  son  or  grand- 
son of  Wynebald  de  Balun  of  Eastington 
Manor,  in  Gloucestershire,  brother  of  Hame- 
line  de  Balun. 

[Foss's  Lives  of  the  Judges ;  Dugdale's  Origines 
Jxiridic.  (Chron.  Ser.)  ;  Coiirthope's  Historic 
Peerage.]  J.  A.  H. 

BAAN.     [See  De  Baan.] 

BABBAGE,  CHARLES  (1792-1871), 
mathematician  and  scientific  mechanician, 
was  the  son  of  INIr.  Benjamin  Babbage,  of 
the  banking  firm  of  Prat?d,  Mactworth,  and 
Babbage,  and  was  born  near  Teignmouth  in 
Devonshire  on  26  Dec.  1792.  Being  a  sickly 
child  he  received  a  somewhat  desultory  edu- 
cation at  private  schools,  first  at  Alphington 
near  Exeter,  and  later  at  Enfield.  He  was, 
however,  his  own  instructor  in  algebra,  of 
which  he  was  passionately  fond,  and,  previous 
to  his  entry  at  Trinity  College,  Cambridge, 
in  1811,  he  had  read  Ditton's  'Fluxions,' 
Woodhouse's  '  Principles  of  Analytical  Cal- 
culation,' Lagrange's '  Th6orie  des  Fonctions,' 
and  other  similar  works.  He  thus  found 
himself  far  in  advance  of  his  tutors'  mathe- 
matical attainments,  and  becoming  with  fur- 
ther study  more  and  more  impressed  with 
the  advantages  of  the  Leibnitzian  notation, 
he  joined  with  Herschel,  Peacock  (after- 
wards Dean  of  Ely),  and  some  others,  to 
found  in  1812  the  '  Analytical  Society '  for 
promoting  (as  Babbage  humorously  ex- 
pressed it)  '  the  principles  of  pure  Z)-ism  in 
opposition  to  the  Dot-age  of  the  university.' 
The  translation,  by  the  three  friends  con- 
jointly (in  pursuance  of  the  same  design),  of 
Lacroix's  '  Elementary  Treatise  on  the  Dif- 
ferential and  Integi'al  Calculus '  (Cambridge, 
1816),  and  their  publication  in  1820  of  two 
volumes  of  '  Examples '  with  their  solutions, 
gave  the  first  impulse  to  a  mathematical  re- 
vival in  England,  by  the  introduction  of  the 
refined  analytical  methods  and  the  more  per- 
fect notation  in  use  on  the  continent. 

Babbage  graduated  from  Peterhouse  in 
1814  and  took  an  M.A.  degree  in  1817.  He 
did  not  compete  for  honours,  believing  Her- 
schel sure  of  the  first  place,  and  not  caring 
to  come  out  second.  In  1815  he  became  pos- 
sessed of  a  house  in  London  at  No.  5  Devon- 
shire Street,  Portland  Place,  in  which  he  re- 
sided until  1827.  His  scientific  activity  was 
henceforth  untiring  and  conspicuous.  In 
1815-17  he  contributed  to  the  '  Philosophical 
Transactions '  three  essays  on  the  calculus 
of  functions,  which  helped  to  found  a  new; 
and  even  yet  little  explored,  branch  of  ana- 
lysis. He  was  elected  a  fellow  of  the  Royal 
Society  in  1816.     lie  took  a  prominent  part 


in  the  foundation  of  the  Astronomical  So- 
ciety in  1820,  and  acted  as  one  of  its  secre- 
taries until  1824,  subsequently  filling  the 
offices,  successively,  of  vice-president,  foreign 
secretary,  and  member  of  council.  In  1825 
he  joined  with  Herschel  in  repeating  and 
extending  Arago's  experiments  on  the  mag- 
netisation of  rotating  plates,  reaching  the 
conclusion  that '  in  the  induction  of  magnet- 
ism, time  enters  as  an  essential  element ' 
(Phil.  Trans,  cxv.  484).  The  '  astatic '  needle 
in  its  present  form  was  devised  for  use  in 
these  researches  (if>.  p.  476). 

It  was  at  Cambridge  about  1812  that  the 
first  idea  of  calculating  numerical  tables  by 
machineiy  occurred  to  IBabbage.  The  favour- 
able opinion  of  WoUaston  encouraged  him 
in  1819  to  make  a  serious  eftbrt  towards  its 
realisation.  Machines,  such  as  had  existed 
since  Pascal's  time,  for  performing  single 
arithmetical  operations,  afforded  neither 
saving  of  time  nor  security  against  error, 
since  the  selection  and  placing  of  a  number 
of  arbitraiy  figures  was  no  less  laborious 
and  uncertain  than  the  calculation  itself. 
The  essential  novelty  of  Babbage's  design 
consisted  in  setting  wheelwoi'k  to  develop 
the  numerical  consequences  of  the  law  of 
any  given  series,  thus  insuring  the  accurate 
calculation  of  an  entire  table  without  any 
further  trouble  to  the  operator  than  a  few 
original  adjustments.  The  mathematical 
principle  selected  by  him  as  the  basis  of  his 
invention  was  the  '  method  of  differences,' 
by  which  it  appears  that  the  numbers  com- 
posing nearly  all  arithmetical  sei'ies  can  be 
formed  by  the  repeated  addition  to  funda- 
mental numbers  of  a  common  difference  or 
'  element ' — a  process  eminently  capable  of 
being  performed  by  machinery, 

A  small  engine,  of  which  he  constructed 
a  model  on  this  system  between  1820  and 
1822,  was  described  by  Babbage  in  a  note 
read  before  the  Astronomical  Society  on 
14  June  1822  (Memoirs,  i.  309).  The  an- 
nouncement was  received  Avith  enthusiasm, 
and  the  highest  anticipations  were  formed  as 
to  the  results  eventually  to  be  derived  from 
the  invention  (see  Baily  in  Phil.  Mag. 
Ixiii.  (1824)  355,  and  Astr.  Nach.  Xo.  46). 
It  was  rewarded  on  13  June  1823  with  the 
first  gold  medal  bestowed  by  the  society,  in 
presenting  Avhich  the  president,  Mr.  Cole- 
brooke,  declared  it  to  be  *  in  scope,  as  in  exe- 
cution, unlike  anything  before  accomplished 
to  aid  operose  computations '  (Meyn.  R.  A. 
Soc.  i.  509). 

Babbage  now  proposed  to  construct  a  ma- 
chine upon  a  greatly  enlarged  scale,  and  made 
his  views  on  the  subject  public  in  a  letter 
dated  3  July  1822,  addressed  to  Sir  Humphry 


Babbage 


305 


Babbage 


Davy,  president  of  the  Royal  Society.  The 
prospect  of  vastly  iiici'eased  facility  and  ac- 
curacy in  the  production  of  the  innumerable 
tables  needed  in  navigation,  astronomy,  Sec, 
could  not  be  overlooked  by  the  government, 
and  the  pi'acticability  of  the  scheme  was  on 
1  April  1823  otUcially  submitted  to  the  judg- 
ment of  the  Royal  Society.  Having  been 
favourably  reported  upon,  an  interview  took 
j)lace  in  July  between  Babbage  and  the  chan- 
cellor of  the  exchequer  (Mr.  Robinson),  at 
Avhich  some  indistinct  verbal  agreement  was 
come  to.  The  upshot  was  that,  aided  by  a 
grant  of  1,500/.  from  the  Civil  Contingencies 
Fund,  the  works  wei'e  without  delay  set  on 
foot,  and  were  continued  actively  for  four 
years.  At  the  end  of  that  time  Babbage 
went  abroad  under  medical  advice,  and  de- 
voted a  year  to  completing  his  extensive  ac- 
quaintance with  the  resources  of  British 
mechanical  art  by  the  study  of  foreign  work- 
shops and  factories.  The  results  were  em- 
bodied in  an  admirable  little  treatise  '  On  the 
Economy  of  Machinery  and  Manufactures' 
(1832,  4th  edition  1835),  of  which  the  merit 
was  attested  by  translation  into  four  lan- 
guages, and  by  reprints  in  America. 

On  his  return  to  England  towards  the 
close  of  1828  fresh  applications  to  the  trea- 
sury became  necessary,  which,  after  the 
council  of  the  Royal  Society  had  repeated 
its  verdict  of  encouragement,  and  the  Duke 
of  Wellington,  by  a  personal  inspection  of 
the  works,  had  convinced  himself  of  their 
satisfactory  progress,  were  liberally  responded 
to.  Nevertheless,  little  more  was  done.  Mis- 
understandings arose  with  Clement,  the  en- 
gineer ;  the  previous  prompt  payment  of  his 
bills  was  suspended ;  and  the  removal  of  his 
business  from  Lambeth  to  the  neighbourhood 
of  Babbage's  residence.  No.  1  Dorset  Street, 
Manchester  Square,  where  the  government 
had  caused  fire-proof  buildings  to  be  erected 
for  the  reception  of  the  drawings  and  work- 
shops, was  made  the  occasion  of  an  extrava- 
gant claim  for  compensation.  On  its  refusal 
he  withdrew  his  men,  carried  off  (as  he  was 
legally  entitled  to  do)  the  valuable  tools 
made  at  the  expense  of  his  employers,  and 
thus  brought  about  a  complete  deadlock  in 
the  construction  of  the  machine.  In  the  in- 
terval of  a  year  and  a  quarter  which  elapsed 
before  an  accommodation  could  be  arrived 
at,  Babbage's  speculative  mind  had  grasped 
the  principle  of  an  entirely  new  invention. 
The  powers  foreseen  by  him  for  the  '  analy- 
tical engine '  not  only  transcended,  but  super- 
seded, those  of  its  predecessor.  It  promised 
to  do  the  work  of  the  *  dilFerence  engine ' 
with  greatly  increased  rapidity,  besides  exe- 
cuting operations  of  a  far  higher  range  of 

VOL.   II. 


complexity.  These  views  he  considered  it 
his  duty  to  communicate  to  the  government, 
but  failed,  during  ei(/ht  years,  to  elicit  any 
answer  to  the  question  whether,  under  the 
altered  circumstances,  they  desired  the  ful- 
filment of  his  original  (implied)  engagement 
with  them.  At  length,  on  4  Nov.  1842,  Mr. 
Goulburn  (Sir  Robert  Peel's  chancellor  of 
the  exchequer)  acquainted  him  with  the  final 
decision  to  abandon,  on  the  ground  of  ex- 
cessive and  indefinite  expense,  a  construction 
which  had  already  cost  17,000/.  of  public 
money,  besides  (probably)  about  6,000/.  of 
the  inventor's  private  means. 

The  machine,  of  which  the  plan  was  thus 
rendered  abortive,  was  to  have  had  twenty 
places  of  figures  with  six  orders  of  differences, 
and  included  mechanism  for  printing  its  re- 
sults. A  small  portion,  put  together  in  1833, 
capable  of  calculating  to  the  third  difference, 
gave  a  highly  satisfactory  earnest  of  the  work- 
ing of  the  whole.  It  was  shown  at  the  Interna- 
tional Exhibition  of  1862,  and  is  now  in  the 
South  Kensington  Museum.  An  elaborate  ar- 
ticle on  the  subject  by  Dr.  Lardner,  published 
ill  the '  Edinburgh  Review '  for  July  1834,  led 
to  the  construction  of  the  Swedish  difference 
engines  by  Scheutz  of  Stockholm  (whose  ori- 
ginal inventiveness  Babbage  was  foremost  in 
acknowledging),  one  of  which  was  used  by  the 
late  Dr.  Farr  in  computing  the  '  English  Life 
Table,'  No.  3  (1864).  As  further  secondary, 
but  most  important,  results  of  Babbage's 
labours  may  be  mentioned,  first,  improve- 
ments in  machinery  and  tools,  stated  by  Lord 
Rosse  (Proc.  R.  Soc.  vii.  257)  to  have  more 
than  repaid  the  sum  expended  on  the  un- 
finished machine  ;  secondly,  the  invention  of 
a  scheme  of  notation  applicable  to  the  inter- 
pretation of  all  mechanical  actions  what- 
ever, first  explained  in  a  communication  by 
Babbage  to  the  Royal  Society,  16  March 
1826  ('  On  a  Method  of  expressing  by  Signs 
the  Action  of  Machineiy,'  Phil.  Trans,  cxvi. 
part  ii.  250),  and  afterwards  more  fully  de- 
veloped to  meet  the  requirements  of  the  ana- 
lytical engine. 

The  capabilities  of  the  new  machine,  to 
the  perfecting  of  which  Babbage  devoted 
thirty-seven  years  of  his  life  and  no  incon- 
siderable share  of  his  fortune,  were  not 
limited,  like  those  of  the  difference  engine, 
to  the  tabulation  of  a  particular  function, 
but  extended  over  a  wide  range  of  analysis. 
Two  sets  of  perforated  cards,  similar  to  those 
used  in  Jacquard's  looms,  prescribed  in  the 
one  case  the  numbers  to  be  worked  witli 
('variable cards'),  and  in  the  other  the  kind 
and  sequence  of  operations  to  be  performed 
upon  them  (*  operation  cards ').  A  com- 
mittee appointed  by  the  British  Associatioa 


Babbage 


306 


Babbage 


in  ]  872  (including  the  names  of  Cayley  and 
Clifford),  to  report  upon  the  feasibility  of 
the  design,  recorded  their  opinion  that  its 
successful  realisation  might  mark  an  epoch 
in  the  history  of  computation  equally  memo- 
rable with  that  of  the  introduction  of  loga- 
rithms (Report,  1878,  p.  100)  ;  yet  did  not 
counsel  the  attempt,  the  state  of  the  draw- 
ings not  being  such  as  to  admit  of  any  rea- 
sonable estimate  as  to  cost,  strength,  or 
durability,  being  founded  upon  them.  This 
extraordinary  monument  of  inventive  genius 
accordingly  remains,  and  will  doubtless  for 
ever  remain,  a  '  theoretical  possibility.' 

Babbage  occupied  the  Lucasian  chair  of 
mathematics  at  Cambridge  during  eleven 
years  (1828-39),  but  delivered  no  lectures. 
He  attended  in  1828  tlie  meeting  of  '  Natur- 
forscher '  at  Berlin,  and  the  scientific  congress 
of  Turin  in  1840,  when  he  was  received  with 
singular  and  unexpected  favour  by  the  king, 
Charles  Albert  (see  chap.  xxiv.  of  his  Pas- 
■stages  in  the  Life  of  a  Philosopher).  The 
drawings  and  models  of  the  analytical  engine 
exhibited  by  him  on  that  occasion  formed 
the  subject  of  a  valuable  essay  by  Menabrea 
(Bibl.  Tin.  de  Geneve,  t.  xli.  October  1842), 
translated,  with  copious  notes,  by  Ada,  Lady 
Lovelace  (Taylor's  Scientific  Memoirs,  iii. 
666).  His  outspoken  attack  upon  the  ma- 
nagement of  the  Royal  Society  in  a  volume 
entitled  '  The  Decline  of  Science  in  England ' 
(1830)  contributed  materially  to  the  origin 
of  the  British  Association  in  the  following- 
year.  Of  this  body  he  acted  as  one  of  the 
trustees  during  six  years  (1832-8),  and  ori- 
ginated the  statistical  section  at  the  Cam-  j 
bridge  meeting  in  1833.  The  foundation, 
moreover,  of  the  Statistical  Society  of  Lon- 
don on  15  March  1834  was  mainly  his  work. 
Amongst  his  ingenious  ideas,  that  of  signal- 
ling by  '  occulting  solar  lights,'  brought  into 
practice  by  the  Russians  during  the  siege  of 
Sebastopol,  deserves  mention.  It  had  been 
recommended  by  him  as  a  mode  of  identifi- 
cation for  lighthouses  (see  his  tract.  Notes 
respectim/  Lighthouses,  1852).  He  twice — in 
1832  and  1834 — unsuccessfully  contested  the 
borough  of  Finsbury  on  liberal  principles. 
T^or  were  what  he  regarded  as  his  equitable 
claims  to  i-emunerative  employment  under 
government  recognised.  He  was,  however, 
a.  member  of  scientific  bodies  in  all  parts  of 
the  world,  including  the  Paris  Academy  of 
Moral  Sciences,  the  Royal  Irish  and  Ameri- 
can Academies. 

In  his  latter  years  Babbage  came  before 
the  public  chiefly  as  the  implacable  foe  of 
organ-grinders.  He  considered  tliat  one- 
fourth  of  his  entire  working  power  had  been 
destroyed  by  audible  nuisances,  to  which  his 


highly-strung  nerves  rendered  him  peculiarly 
sensitive.  In  the  decay  of  other  faculties, 
liis  interest  and  memory  never  failed  for  the 
operations  of  the  extensive  workshops  at- 
tached to  his  house.  There  what  might  be 
called  the  wreckage  of  a  brilliant  and  strenu- 
ous career  lay  scattered,  and  thence,  after 
his  death  on  18  Oct.  1871,  some  fragmentary 
portions  of  the  marvellous  engine  destined 
to  have  indefinitely  quickened  the  applica- 
tion of  science  to  eveiy  department  of  human 
life,  were  collected  and  removed  to  the  South 
Kensington  Museum. 

Of  the  eighty  works  enumerated  by  Bab- 
bage himself  (Passages,  kc.  pp.  493-6) 
scarcely  one,  except  the  *  Economy  of  Manu- 
factures,' can  be  regarded  as  a  finished  per- 
formance. The  rest  are  mostly  sketches  or 
enlarged  pamphlets,  keen  and  suggestive,  but 
incomplete.  The  '  Comparative  View  of  the 
various  Institutions  for  the  Assurance  of 
Lives '  (1826),  liowever,  though  not  exempt 
from  en-or,  was  a  highly  useful  Avork,  and 
one  of  the  first  attempts  to  popularise  the 
subject.  It  contained  a  table  of  mortality 
deduced  from  the  experience  of  the  Equitable 
Society,  to  the  construction  of  which  Babbage 
had  been  led  by  his  appointment  as  actuary 
to  the  Protector  Ijife  Assurance  Company 
(No.  1)  on  its  establishment  in  1824  (see 
Walford's  Insurance  Cyclopedia,  iii.  10). 
The  book  Avas  reviewed  at  length  in  tlie 
'  Quarterly '  and  '  Edinburgh '  Reviews  (Ja- 
nuary and  March,  1827),  was  translated  into 
German,  and  its  table  of  mortality  adopted 
by  the  Tjife  Assurance  ]3ank  of  Gotha, 
founded  in  1 829.  The  '  Table  of  Logarithms 
of  the  Natural  Numbers  from  1  to  108000  ' 
(1827),  to  the  preparation  of  which  Babbage 
devoted  singular  care,  is  still  in  repute. 
Several  foreign  editions  were  printed  from 
the  stereotyped  plates.  The  '  Ninth  Bridge- 
water  Treatise'  (1837,  2nd  edition  1838),  a 
work  nobly  planned,  but  very  partially  exe- 
cuted, Avas  remarkable  as  one  of  the  earliest 
attempts  to  reconcile  breaches  of  continuity 
with  the  government  of  the  universe  by  law, 
and  vindicated  the  serviceableness  of  mathe- 
matics to  religion.  A  volume  entitled  '  The 
Exposition  of  1851 ;  or  Views  of  the  Industry, 
the  Science,  and  the  Government  of  England' 
(1851),  is  the  diatribe  of  a  disappointed  man, 
and,  like  his  aut()biogra])hical '  Passages  from 
the  liife  of  a  Philosopher'  (1864),  is  disfigured 
by  personal  allusions,  in  giving  utterance  to 
which  lie  wi'onged  his  better  nature. 

[Month.  Not.  E.  Astr.  Soc.  xxxii.  101 ;  Times, 
23  Oct.  1871;  Athenit^um,  28  Oct.  1871;  lb. 
14  Oct.  and  16  Die.  1848  (De  Morgan) ;  Weld's 
Hist.  R.  Society,  ii.  chap.  xi. ;  Nature,  v.  28; 
Ann.  Reg.  1871,  p.  159.]  A.  M.  C. 


Babell 


307 


Baber 


BABELL     or     BABEL,     WrLLL\M 

^^IBOOh-lTiiS),  musician,  was  the  son  of  a 
bassoon-player,  and  received  his  first  musical 
instruction  from  his  father.  lie  was  for  some 
time  the  pupil  of  Dr.  Pepusch,  under  whose 
■care  he  attained  to  great  proficiency  as  a 
player  both  on  the  harpsichord  and  violin, 
and  to  some  skill  in  composition.  He  was 
appointed  one  of  George  I's  private  musicians, 
and  was  also  given  the  post  of  organist  of 
All  Hallows,  Bread  Street.  Such  celebrity 
as  he  attained  was  due  rather  to  his  an-ange- 
ments  for  the  haqisichord  of  popular  airs 
from  the  operas  of  Handel  and  others,  than 
to  any  original  work  of  his  OAvn.  He  may 
claim  to  be  regarded  as  the  originator  of  those 
'transcriptions'  which  have  since  his  day  been 
so  fashionable  in  a  certain  cii'cle  of  the  world 
of  music.  Bui'ney  criticises  him  very  severely, 
accusing  him  of  '  Avire-draAving  the  favourite 
songs  of  the  opera  of  llinaldo,  and  others  of 
the  same  period,  into  showy  and  brilliant 
lessons,  which  by  mere  rapidity  of  finger  in 
playing  single  sounds,  without  the  assistance 
of  taste,  expression,  harmony,  or  modulation, 
enabled  the  performer  to  astonish  ignorance, 
and  acquire  the  reputation  of  a  great  player 
at  a  small  expense.'  Hawkins,  however,  con- 
siders them  to  have  deserved  the  celebrity 
which  they  attained.  Besides  these  an-ange- 
ments  there  exist  several  collections  of  solos 
for  the  violin,  oboe,  German  flute,  &c.,  and 
some  concertos  for  '  small  flutes '  and  violins 
mentioned  by  HaAvkins.  A  YiAace  Avith 
florid  variations,  and  a  Gavotte  and  Aria  in 
manuscript,  are  contained  in  the  British 
Museum  {Add.  MS.  31577).  He  died  at 
Canonbury  on  23  Sept.  1723,  his  early  death 
being  probably  due  to  his  intemperate  habits. 
He  Avas  buried  in  All  HalloAvs  Church. 

[Grove's  Dictionary  of  Music  and  Musicians, 
i.  287;  Barney's  History  of  Miisic;  HaAvkins's 
History  of  Music ;  Manuscript  and  Printed  Music 
in  Brit.  Mus.]  J.  A.  F.  M. 

BABER,  HENRY  HERVEY  (1775- 
1869),  philologist,  Avas  born  in  1775.  He 
was  educated  at  Oxford,  and  took  his  degree 
as  master  of  arts  in  1805.  Tavo  years  later 
he  entered  the  serA'ice  of  the  British  Mu- 
seum, and  in  1812  was  promoted  to  the 
office  of  keeper  of  the  printed  books,  in  the 
general  duties  of  Avhich  post,  and  in  Avork 
upon  the  catalogue  of  books  in  the  collec- 
tion, he  Avas  iictively  engaged  for  tAventy- 
five  years.  Besides  his  keepership,  Baber 
also  held  the  rectory  of  Stretham  in  Cam- 
bridgeshire, to  Avhich  he  was  appointed  in 
1827.  In  the  year  1837  he  resigned  his  post 
at  the  British  Museum,  and  retired  to  his 
rectory.    His  resignation  Avas  partly  made  in 


consequence  of  a  recommendation  of  a  parlia- 
mentary committee  in  1836,  thai  officials  of 
the  museum  should  not  hold  any  other 
situation  conferring  emoluments  or  entailing 
duties.  Mr.  Baber  died  on  28  March  186{», 
at  the  age  of  94.  His  chief  published  work 
Avas  an  edition  of  the  Old  Testament  portion 
of  the  Codex  Alexandrinus,  '  Vetus  Testa- 
mentum  Graecum  e  Codice  MS.  Alexan- 
drino  .  .  .  typis  ad  similitudinem  i])sius 
codicis  Scripturse  fideliter  descriptum  cura 
et  labore  H.  H.  Baber,'  3  vols.  London, 
1816-21  [28],  fol. 

[CoAV'tan's  Memories  of  the  British  Museum 
(London,  1872);  Statutes  and  Rules  of  the 
British  Museum ;  Catalogue  of  Oxford  Graduates ; 
Clergy  Lists.]  W.  W. 

BABER,  SiK  JOHN,  M.D.  (1625-1704), 
physician  to  Charles  II,  Avas  the  sou  of  John 
Baber,  recorder  of  Wells,  Somersetshire,  and 
Avas  born  18  April  1625.  He  Avas  educated 
at  Westminster  school,  whence  he  Avas  elected 
in  1642  a  student  of  Christ's  College,  Oxford. 
He  graduated  bachelor  of  medicine  3  Dec. 
1646,  being  admitted  by  virtue  of  the  letters 
of  Colonel  John  Lambert,  governor  of  the 
gamson  for  Oxford.  Proceeding  to  the  con- 
tinent, lie  studied  medicine  at  Leyden,  and 
on  10  Nov.  1648  took  the  decree  of  M.D.  at 
Angers.  On  his  return  to  Lngland  he  Avas 
made  M.D.  at  Oxford  18  Juljr  1650,  candi- 
date of  the  College  of  Physicians,  London, 
4  July  1651,  and  a  fellow  17  Aug.  1657.  He 
commenced  to  practise  in  London,  his  resi- 
dence being  in  King  Street,  Covent  Garden. 
Through  the  recommendation  of  a  near  neigh- 
bour. Dr.  Manton,  rector  of  St.  Paul's,  Covent 
Garden,  Avho,Avith  other  presbyterian  divines, 
had  taken  a  prominent  part  in  the  restoration 
of  Charles  II,  he  Avas  made  physician  to  the 
king,  the  honour  of  knighthood  being  also 
bestoAved  on  him  19  March  1660.  Baber  Avas 
frequently  made  use  of  by  Charles  in  his  ne- 
gotiations Avith  the  puritans.  North,  avIio 
styles  him  '  a  man  of  finesse,'  states  that  he 
Avas  'in  possession  of  the  ])rotectorship  at 
court  of  dissenting  pi-eachers.'  In  September 
1669  he  Infonned  Dr.  Manton  of  the  king's 
intention  to  do  his  utmost  to  '  get  them  ac- 
cepted Avithin  the  establishment ; '  but  it 
Avould  appear  that  Charles  made  use  of  him 
to  inspire  trust  in  intentions  whicli  Avere  at 
the  best  feeble  and  vacillating.  Baber  died 
in  1704.  He  Avas  three  times  married,  and 
had  three  sons  by  his  first  man-iage,  but  no 
issue  by  the  other  tAvo  manviages.      '^^^  WoVeakW 

[Le  Neve's  Knights  in  Harl.Soc.Pub.rol.  viii.;  -^ 
Wood's  Fasti,  i.  603,  ii.  91  (163);  Burrows's  Jie- 
gister  of  the  Visitors  of  Oxford  (1881),  484; 
North's  Examen  ;  Manton's  Memoirs;  Baxter's 

x2 


r 


Babington 


to8 


Babington 


Ei'liquise;  Munk's  Roll  of  the  Royal  College  of 
Physicians,  i.  277  ;  Bonne's  Humble  Petition  of 
Covent  Garden  against  a  Physician  (1661) ;  the 
Gratefnl  Nonconformist  (1665).]  T.  F.  H. 

BABINGTON,  ANTHONY(1501-1586), 
leader  of  a  catholic  conspiracy  against  Queen 
Elizabeth,  was  descended  from  a  family  of 
great  antiquity.  John  de  Babington,  who 
traced  his  ancestry  to  the  Noi'man  era,  was, 
in  the  reign  of  Henry  III,  the  owner  of  the 
district  round  Mickle  and  Little  Babington, 
or  Bavington,  in  Nortlmmberland.  By  the 
marriage,  early  in  the  fifteenth  century,  of 
Thomas  Babington,  the  fifth  in  descent  from 
John,  with  the  heiress  of  Robert  Dethick,  of 
Dethick,  the  main  branch  of  the  family  be- 
came identified  with  Derbyshire,  and  by  a 
series  of  intermarriages  with  neighbouring 
heiresses  acquired  additional  property  in  ad- 
joining counties.  A  northern  branch  of  the 
family  continued  to  flourish  till  the  eighteenth 
century,  and  offshoots  of  the  Derbyshire 
branch  settled  in  Leicestershire  and  Oxford- 
shire. Lord  Macaulay  was  named  after  his 
father's  brother-in-laAv,  Thomas  Babington, 
of  the  Leicestershire  branch,  in  whose  house 
at  Rothley  Temple  he  was  born. 

Anthony  was  born  at  Dethick  in  October 
1561.  He  was  the  third  child  and  eldest 
son  of  Henry  Babington,  of  Dethick,  by  his 
second  wife,  Maiy,  daughter  of  George,  Lord 
Darcy,  of  Darcy,  and  granddaughter  of 
Thomas,  Lord  Darcy,  who  Avas  beheaded  in 
1538  as  a  principal  actor  in  the  Pilgrimage 
of  Grace.  Anthony's  father  is  said  to  have 
been  '  inclined  to  papistrie,'  and  to  have  '  had 
a  brother  that  was  a  doctor  of  divinitie '  of 
the  same  religious  profession.  He  died  in 
1571,  at  the  age  of  foity-one,  and  left  An- 
thony his  infant  heir.  To  his  three  guardians 
—his  mother,  the  descendant  of  a  catholic 
rebel,  to  her  second  husband,  Henry  Fol- 
jambe,  and  to  Philip  Dray  cot,  of  Paynsley, 
Staffordshire — Anthony  was  indebted  for  his 
education.  Although  all  the  three  out- 
Avardly  conformed  to  protestantism,  they 
were  undoubtedly  secret  adherents  of  the 
Roman  catholic  faith,  and  in  that  belief 
Anthony  was  brought  up.  He  apparently 
remained  at  Dethick  till  about  1577,  only 
diversifying  his  life  with  occasional  visits  to 
Draycot's  house  at  Paynsley,  where  his  Ro- 
man catholic  predilections  were  sedulously 
encouraged.  There,  too,  he  made  the  ac- 
quaintance of  Margery,  Draycot's  daughter, 
wliom  he  seems  to  have  married  about  1579, 
when  barely  eighteen.  For  a  short  time, 
probably  before  his  marriage,  he  served  as 
page  to  Queen  Mary  of  Scotland,  when  she 
was  imprisoned  at  Sheffield  under  the  care 


of  the  Earl  of  Shrewsbury,  and  he  then  be- 
came passionately  devoted  to  her  and  her 
cause.  In  1580  Babington  came  to  London, 
Avith  the  avoAved  intention  of  studying  laAV^ 
and  he  is  stated  to  have  entered  as  a  student 
at  Lincoln's  Inn.  But  he  soon  abandoned 
all  prospects  at  the  bar  for  fashionable  tOAvn 
life.  His  Avealth,  his  cultivated  intelligence, 
his  charm  of  manner,  his  handsome  features,, 
secured  for  him  a  good  reception  at  court,, 
and  he  met  there  many  young  men  of  his 
oAvn  creed,  infatuated  admirers  of  Queen 
Mary,  whom  Jesuit  conspirators  from  the- 
Continent  were  draAA-ing  into  treasonable 
practices.  Early  in  1580,  on  the  arrival  of 
Edmund  Campion  and  Parsons,  the  Jesuits,, 
in  disguise  in  England,  Babington  joined  a 
nimaber  of  youths  of  good  family  in  the  for- 
mation of  a  secret  society  for  the  protection 
and  maintenance  of  Jesuit  missionaries  in 
England.  To  the  conversion  of  '  heretics  ' 
(i.e.  protestants)  all  the  members  SA\'ore  to 
deA'ote  their  pereons  and  abilities  and  Avealth. 
On  14  April  1580  Pope  Gregory  XIII  sent 
them  a  message  blessing  the  enterprise  (cf. 
Simpson's  Edmund  Campion,  p.  157).  Bab- 
ington and  his  friends — Lady  Babington,  of 
Whitefriars,  London,  and  Lady  Foljambe,  of 
Walton,  Derbyshire — did  all  in  their  power  to 
adA'ance  the  society's  cause,  and  frequently 
invited  Fathers  Campion  and  Parsons  to  lodge- 
in  their  houses  on  their  secret  tours  through 
England  in  1580  and  1581.  Early  in  1582, 
after  the  capture  and  execution  of  Campion, 
Babington  AvithdrcAV  to  Dethick.  In  the 
same  year  he  came  of  age,  and  assumed  the- 
management  of  his  A^ast  landed  property. 
He  acknoAvledged  the  disinterested  care  with 
which  his  stepfather  Foljambe  had  adminis- 
tered his  estates  during  his  minority  by 
settling  upon  him  an  annuity  of  one  hundred 
marks.  At  the  same  date  the  names  of  Bab- 
ington and  of  his  wife  appeared  in  a  list 
of  Derbysliire  recusants  {Cal.  State  Papers^ 
1581-90,  p.  88).  Subsequently  Anthony 
travelled  in  France  and  made  the  acquaint- 
ance of  Charles  Paget  and  Thomas  Morgan, 
Mary  Stuart's  emissaries  at  Paris,  who  were 
vigorously  plotting  with  Spain  in  their  mis- 
tress's behalf.  According  to  a  passage  in 
Leti's  '  Vita  di  Sisto  V  (iii.  103,  ed.  1821), 
Babington  extended  his  journey  to  Rome, 
and  was  accompanied  by  many  fellow-mem- 
bers of  the  Roman  catholic  secret  society. 
Queen  Mary'sfriendsabroad  evidently  marked 
Babington  out,  while  on  the  continent,  as  a 
fitting  leader  of  a  catholic  insurrection  in 
England.  After  his  return,  in  1585,  they 
sent  him  letters  to  be  delivered  to  the  im- 
prisoned queen.  But  it  was  not  until  April 
1586  that  he  was  induced  to  take  the  leading- 


Babington 


309 


Babington 


part  in  the  task  of  organising  the  famous 
conspiracy  called  after  him,  which  aimed  at 
a  general  rising  of  the  catholics  in  England, 
the  murder  of  Elizaheth  and  her  chief  ad- 
visers, and  the  release  of  Mary  Stuart.  John 
Ballard,  a  catholic  priest  of  Kheims,  had, 
in  1585,  paid  many  secret  visits  to  England 
at  the  instigation  of  the  queen's  supporters 
in  France,  and  had  secured  promises  of  aid 
from  the  catholic  gentry  throughout  the 
country  towards  a  vigorous  attack  on  the 
♦existing  order  of  things.  To  him  Babington 
chiefly  looked  for  guidance,  liallard  repre- 
sented that  the  plot  had  already  received 
the  approval  of  the  Spanish  ambassador  at 
Paris,  and  was  to  be  supplemented  by  a 
foreign  invasion.  Babington  eagerly  con- 
sented to  charge  himself  with  the  murder 
of  Elizabeth  and  the  release  of  Mary,  and 
selected  as  his  assistants  a  number  of  young- 
catholic  gentlemen,  all  members  of  the  secret 
society  formed  in  1580.  On  12  May  1586 
Don  Bernardino  de  Mendoza,  the  Spanish  am- 
bassador in  Paris,  who  placed  the  fullest 
reliance  in  Babington,  wrote  to  his  govern- 
ment that  news  of  the  death  of  Elizabeth 
might  be  soon  expected  (Papiers  cTEtat, 
Bannatyne  Club,  iii.  411).  Throughout  June 
1580  the  conspirators  met  in  city  taverns  or 
in  St.  Cliles's  Fields  almost  nightly.  To  six 
of  them  was  delegated  the  task  of  assassi- 
nating Elizabeth  ;  for  Babington,  who  also 
talked  vaguely  of  sacking  London,  was  re- 
served the  duty  of  liberating  Mary  from  the 
custody  of  Sir  Amias  Paulet  at  Chartley. 
Before  the  close  of  July  all  was  finally  de- 
termined. Babington  was  very  sanguine  of 
success,  frequently  entertained  his  associates 
at  supper  in  London  inns  and  at  his  house 
in  Barbican,  and  had  his  portrait  drawn, 
surrounded  by  his  friends,  and  subscribed 
with  the  verse — 

Hi  mihi  sunt  comites,  quos  ipsa  pericula  ducunt, 

a  motto  that  was  afterwards  prudently 
changed  to  the  enigmatic  '■  Quorsum  ha3C 
alio  properant  ibus  ? '  The  conspirators  appear 
to  have  heard  mass  regularly  at  a  house  in 
Fetter  Lane,  and  to  have  been  generally 
known  among  catholics  at  home  and  abroad 
as  '  the  pope's  white  sons  for  divers  pieces  of 
services,  which  they  do  to  Rome  against  this 
realm '  (Foley,  Eecords,  i.  '2Qb). 

Babington's  conduct  was  throughout 
marked  by  much  '  foolish  vanity.'  From  the 
first  he  was  desirous  that  Mary  should  be  in- 
formed of  his  plans,  and  was  anxious  to  re- 
ceive from  her  special  marks  of  favour.  As 
early  as  29  April  1586  ^Morgan  wrote  to  her 
from  Paris  that  Babington  was  jealous  of 
another  person,  whose  services  she  had  pre- 


ferred to  his,  and  that  it  would  be  ex|)edient 
for  her  to  send  him  an  exjjression  of  grat  it  ud»! 
by  letter.  On  28  June  Maiy  sent  Babington 
a  friendly  note.  On  12  July  the  young  con- 
spirator forwarded  to  the  Scottish  queen  a 
long  reply,  describing  all  the  means  to  be 
taken  for  the  murder  of  Elizabeth,  and  for 
her  own  deliverance.  Five  days  later  Marv 
wrote  in  answer  a  favourable  criticism  of  the 
plot, and  demanded  further  Information.  On 
3  Aug.  Babington  informed  her  that  a  ser- 
vant of  Ballard  had  turned  traitor,  but, 
begging  her  not  to  falter,  promised  to  cany 
out  the  entei-prise  or  die  in  the  attempl. 
Meanwhile,  Mendoza  was  watching  from 
Paris  all  the  movements  of  Babington  and 
his  associates  with  the  utmost  anxiety,  and 
he  forwarded  to  Philip  II  on  13  Aug.  a  long- 
account  of  their  methods  and  of  their  hopes 
and  fears.  They  had,  he  wrote,  supporters 
throughout  the  country ;  they  wanted  a  de- 
finite assurance  that  help  would  reach  them 
from  the  Low  Countries  and  Spain  without 
delay ;  they  relied  on  no  foreign  prince  ex- 
cept Philip.  The  aiTangements  were  so  per- 
fected that  as  soon  as  the  queen  was  assassi- 
nated, the  ships  in  the  Thames  were  to  be 
seized,  and  Cecil,  Walsingham,  Ilunsdon, 
and  Knollys  to  be  captured  or  killed.  3Ien- 
doza  finally  pointed  out  that  this  was  tlie 
most  serious  of  all  catholic  plots  as  yet  at- 
tempted, but  that  all  depended  on  the  suc- 
cessful accomplishment  of  the  murder  of  the 
queen.  The  original  of  this  interesting  letter 
is  preserved  among-  the  Simancas  archives, 
and  its  margin  is  scored  with  notes  in  the 
autograph  of  Philip  himself.  In  reply  the 
king  dwelt  with  admiration  on  Babington's 
courage,  and  announced  his  resolve  that  the 
holy  enter])rise  ('  tan  santa  empresa ')  should 
not  fail  for  lack  of  his  assistance  in  money 
and  troops  (Papiers  d'Etat,  iii.  433-54). 

But  Babington  was  throughout  in  fear  of 
treachery,  and  in  this  he  was  fully  justified. 
Almost  from  the  first  Walsingham's  spies 
had  known  of  the  conspiracy:  by  means  of 
Godfrey  Giffbrd,  one  of  Ballard's  adherents 
won  over  to  the  service  of  the  government, 
every  action  of  Babington  and  his  associates 
was  reported  to  the  government  during  the 
months  of  June  and  July,  and  all  their 
letters,  which  were  always  in  cipher  and  in 
French,  intercepted  and  deciphered  before 
they  were  delivered.  In  July  warrants  against 
Ballard  and  Babington  were  prepared ;  but 
Walsingham  was  in  no  hurry  to  arrest  the 
conspirators,  and  awaited  further  revela- 
tions from  his  spies.  The  letters  that  finally 
passed  between  Babington  and  Queen  Mary 
proved  to  him  that  further  delay  was  inme- 
cessary,  and  on  4  Aug.  Ballard  was  suddenly 


Babington 


310 


Babington 


seized,  after  a  meeting  of  the  conspirators 
in  London.  No  hint  was  given  at  the 
time  that  the  government  had  information 
against  any  other  member  of  the  band,  but 
Babington  had  been  for  some  days  previously 
thoroughly  alarmed,  and  Iiad  already  applied 
to  Walsingham  for  a  passport  to  France, 
^vhere  he  promised  to  act  as  a  spy  upon 
Elizabeth's  enemies.  He  had  told  his  friends 
at  the  same  time  that  his  A'isit  to  France  was 
necessary  to  supervise  the  final  arrangements 
for  a  foreign  invasion.  But  no  passport  was 
given  him,  and  witli  impardonable  cowardice 
he  subsequently  sent  word  to  AValsingham 
that  he  could  reveal,  if  he  chose,  a  dangerous 
conspiracy.  Still  Walsingham  made  no  sign, 
but  his  servants  were  ordered  to  keep  a  care- 
ful Avatch  iipon  Babington.  One  night  the 
young  man  was  invited  to  sup  with  them, 
but  while  in  their  company  he  caught  sight 
of  a  memoraTidum  concerning  himself  in 
Walsingham's  handwriting.  He  hurried 
from  the  room  on  a  trivial  pretence,  changed 
clothes  with  a  friend  who  lived  at  Westmin- 
ster, and  hid  himself  in  the  thickest  part  of 
St.  John's  Wood.  There  he  was  joined  by 
some  of  his  associates.  Babington  disguised 
himself  by  cutting  oif  his  hair  and  staining 
his  skin  Avith  Avalnut -juice,  and  travelled  to 
Harrow,  Avhere  he  was  sheltered  by  one 
Jerome  Bellamy,  a  recent  convert  to  Catho- 
licism. But  before  the  end  of  August  he 
was  discovered  and  taken  to  the  Tower.  All 
the  other  conspirators  were  captured  a  few 
days  later.  On  13  and  14  Sept.  Babington, 
Ballard,  and  five  other  young  men  (Chidiock 
Titchbourne,  Tliomas  Salisbury,  Robert 
Barnewell,  John  Savage,  and  Henry  Donn) 
were  tried  before  a  special  commission.  Bab- 
ington did  not  attempt  to  conceal  his  guilt : 
he  declared  all  '  witli  a  mild  countenance, 
sober  gesture,  and  a  wonderful  good  gi-ace  ; ' 
but  he  laid  the  blame  on  Ballard.  Ballard 
acknowledged  the  justice  of  the  rebuke,  and 
told  Babington,  before  the  court,  that  he 
wished  the  shedding  of  his  blood  could  save 
his  young  companion's  life.  Two  days  later, 
seven  more  of  the  conspirators  (Edward 
Abington  or  Habington,  Charles  Tilney,  Ed- 
ward Jones,  Jolm  Charnock,  John  Travers, 
Jerome  Bellamy,  and  Robert  Gage)  were 
tried.  Sentences  of  hanging  and  quartering 
were  passed  on  all  the  band.  On  19  Sept. 
Babington  wrote  to  Elizabeth,  imploring  her 
to  work  upon  him  '  a  miracle  of  mercy,'  if 
not  for  his  own  sake  for  that  of  his  distressed 
family.  To  a  friend  he  offered,  on  the  same 
day,  1,000^.  if  his  release  could  be  procured. 
The  next  morning — on  the  day  appointed  for 
his  execution — he  explained  the  cipher  which 
had  been  used  in  the  letters  to  and  from  Mary. 


Babington's  ])rayer8  for  pardon  were  not 
entertained,  and  on  Tuesday  20  Sept.  he  and 
Ballard,  with  five  of  their  companions,  were 
drawn  on  hurdles  '  from  Tower  Hill,  through 
the  cittie  of  London,  unto  a  fielde  at  the 
upper  end  of  Holborne,  hard  by  the  high  way 
side  to  S.  Giles,  where  was  erected  a  scaftblde 
convenient  for  the  execution  '  ( The  Censure 
of  a  Loyall  Subiect,  1587).  A  great  crowd 
collected  to  see  the  conspirators  die.  Bab- 
ington declared  from  the  scaffold  that  no 
private  ends  had  influenced  him,  but  that  lie 
honestly  believed  himself  engaged  in  *  a  deed 
la"s\"ful  and  meritorious.'  Ballard  suffered 
first,  and  Babington  witnessed  his  barbarous 
death.  According  to  an  eye-witness  he 
showed  to  the  last  '  a  signe  of  his  former 
pride '  by  standing,  instead  of  praying  on  his 
knees, '  with  his  hat  on  his  head  as  if  he  had 
been  but  a  beholder  of  the  execution'  (^The 
Censure).  He  himself  followed  Ballard,  and 
underwent  diabolical  tortures.  He  was  still 
alive  when  taken  down  from  the  gallows,  and 
exclaimed,  '  Parce  mihi,  Domine  Jesu,'  Avhile 
the  executioner  was  using  the  knife  upon 
him  (cf.  Mendoza's  account  sent  to  Philip  II 
20  Oct.  in  Papiers  dCEtat,  iii.  481).  When 
Elizabeth  was  informed  of  the  revolting  cru- 
elty of  his  death,  she  directed  that  the  other 
conspirators,  who  were  to  be  executed  on  the 
following  day,  should  hang  till  they  were  dead. 

Babington  expressed  anxiety  on  the  scaf- 
fold as  to  the  fortunes  of  his  property.  By 
law  the  crown  confiscated  it  all ;  but  the  en- 
tailed estates  of  Dethick,  Derbyshire,  and 
Kingston,  Nottinghamshire,  his  largest  ma- 
nors, were  allowed  to  pass  to  his  brothers 
Francis  and  George.  Some  of  his  lands, 
and  almost  all  his  personal  property,  were 
granted  by  Elizabeth  to  Sir  Walter  Raleigh. 
Elizabeth  herself  took  a  valuable  clock.  At 
Dethick  were  found  many  books  on  theo- 
logical controversies,  and  'papers  of  pro- 
phecies' foretelling  Elizabeth's  doAvnfall. 
According  to  the  evidence  of  some  of  his 
tenants,  examined  previous  to  his  death, 
Babington  had  been  a  hard  landlord,  and  had 
systematically  raised  his  rents.  Shortly  before 
his  arrest  he  sold  a  large  house  in  Derby, 
called  Babington  Hall,  which  was  pulled 
down  about  1822.  Its  site  is  still  marked 
by  Babington  Lane.  A  cenotaph  in  Kingston 
Church,  Nottinghamshire,  among  the  tombs 
of  other  members  of  Babington's  family, 
bears  no  inscription,  and  is  locally  believed 
on  doubtful  evidence  to  have  been  erected  to 
the  conspirator's  memory  {Gent.  Mag.  new 
ser.  vii.  287).  By  his  wife  Margery,  Babing- 
ton had  an  only  daughter,  who  died  at  the 
age  of  eight,  in  all  probability  before  her 
father  {Harl.  MS.  1537,  f.  115  b). 


Babington 


3" 


Babington 


The  discovery  and  death  of  Babington 
formed  tlie  subject  of  many  contemporary 
balhids  (cf.  Notes  and  Queries,  Ist  ser.  v. 
tU'I).  One  of  them,  full  of  vahuible  bio- 
graphical details,  entitled  '  The  Complainte 
of  Anthonie  Babington,'  by  Richard  Wil- 
liams, is  among  the  Arundel  MSS.  (418,  art. 
Ji)  at  the  British  3Iuseum.  Another,  en- 
titled 'A  proper  new  ballad,  breefely  de- 
claring the  Death  and  Execution  of  fourteen 
most  wicked  Traitors,'  which  bitterly  vitu- 
perates 'proud  young  Babington,'  has  been 
reprinted  in  J.  P.  Collier's  'Broadside  Bal- 
lads' (1868),  pp.  3(>-41.  A  third  poetical 
tract  is  entitled  'A  short  discourse;  ex- 
pressing the  substance  of  all  the  late  pre- 
tended treasons  against  the  Queenes  Maiest  ie ;' 
and  a  fourth,  by  AVilliam  Kenipe,  who  is  to 
be  distinguished  from  the  actor  of  the  same 
name,  bears  the  title  '  A  dutiful  invective 
against  the  moste  haynous  treastms  of  Bal- 
lard and  Babington,'  1587.  A  full  description 
of  the  execution  is  found  in  'The  Censure 
of  a  Loyall  Subiect,'  by  G[eorge]  W[het- 
stone],  1587.  Dr.  George  Carleton  gives 
an  account  of  the  conspiracy  in  his  '  Thank- 
full  Remembrance'  (1009),  and  reproduces 
there  the  picture  of  Babington  and  his  con- 
federates drawn  in  158(5.  A  Dutch  trans- 
lation of  the  correspondence  between  Bab- 
ington and  Queen  Slary  was  circulated  in 
Holland  and  the  Low  Countries  in  1587. 

The  historical  importance  of  the  conspiracy 
lies  in  Mary  Stuart's  complicity.  The  dis- 
covery of  the  letter  sent  by  her  to  Babing- 
ton approving  of  the  murder  of  Elizabeth  in 
Jvdy  1580  brought  her  to  the  scaffold.  Apolo- 
gists for  Mary  in  vain  deny  the  genuineness 
of  this  letter,  and  represent  it  to  have  been 
a  forgery  of  Walsingham.  Babington  never 
doubted  its  authenticity,  and,  as  we  have 
seen,  on  the  day  of  his  death  fully  explained 
the  cipher  in  which  it  was  written.  And 
Mendoza,  the  Spanish  ambassador  at  Paris, 
writing  to  Philip  II  on  10  Sept.,  states  that 
3Iary  had  written  him  a  letter  which  left  no 
doubt  in  his  mind  that  she  was  fully  ac- 
(juainted  with  the  whole  business  {Papiers 
(VEtat,  iii.  458).  In  the  presence  of  evidence 
of  this  kind,  it  is  impossible  to  attach  any 
weight  to  Mary's  indignant  denial  at  Fother- 
ingay  of  all  knowledge  of  Babington  and 
his  conspiracy  {State  Trials,  i.  1182).  But 
it  is  unnecessary,  on  the  other  hand,  to  credit 
the  rumour  circulated,  as  it  was  said,  on  the 
authority  of  Cecil,  that  Queen  Mary  had 
resolved  to  marry  Babington. 

[Collectanea  Topog.  and  Genealog.  viii.  313  et 
seq. ;  W.  D.  Cooper's  Notices  of  Anthony  Bab- 
ington, reprinted  from  the  Reliquary  for  April 
1862;  State  Trials,  i.   1127  et   seq.;   Thorpe's 


Cal.  Scottish  Papers;  Cal.  State  Papers,  1681-90, 
and  Addenda,  1.580-1625,  p.  202;  Turnbull's 
I^ettersof  Mary  Stiuirt,  j>p.  344  et  seq. ;  Froudes 
Hist.  vol.  xii. ;  Papicrs  d'Ktat  relatifs  k  I'his- 
toire  de  I'P^cosse  au  xvi"  Siiclc  (ed.  A.  Teulet), 
pub.  byEannatyne  Clnb,  vol.  iii. ;  Camdens  An- 
nals ;  Simpson's  Edmund  Campion.]    S.  L.  L. 

BABINGTON,  BENJAMIN  GUY  (1794 
-1866),  physician  and  linguist,  was  the  son 
of  Dr.  William  Babington,  and  was  bom  in 
Guy's  Hospital  when  his  father  was  resident 
apothecarj'  there.  lie  entered  the  navy  as 
a  midshipman,  and  sensed  at  W^alcheren  and 
Copenliagen,  but  left  the  service  early,  and, 
having  obtained  a  nomination  for  the  Indian 
civil  service,  studied  at  Ilaileybury  College, 
and  was  appointed  to  the  Madras  presidency. 
He  possessed  a  remai'kable  faculty  for  lan- 
guages, and  soon  became  distinguished  as  an 
oriental  scholar.  He  translated  into  English 
the  Tamul-Latin  Grammar  of  C.  J.  Beschius, 
and  published  other  translations.  Though  a 
man  of  powerful  frame,  Babington  found  the 
climate  of  India  trying  to  his  health,  and, 
returning  to  England,  studied  for  his  father's 
profession  at  Guy's  Hospital  and  Cambridge. 
Entering  the  university  comparatively  late 
in  life,  and  a  widower  with  a  family,  he  did 
not  (says  his  contemporary.  Sir  James  Al- 
derson)  go  out  in  honours,  but  became  M.D. 
in  1830.  He  was  elected  fellow  of  the  Col- 
lege of  Physicians,  1831  ;  assistant  physician 
to  Guy's  Hospital,  1837  ;  and  full  physician 
in  1840.  He  was  also  fellow  of  the  Royal 
Society,  and  in  1861  president  of  the  Royal 
Medical  and  Chirurgical  Society.  He  was 
the  founder,  and  for  some  years  the  presi- 
dent, of  the  Epidemiological  Society.  He 
was  appointed  by  the  crown  a  member  of  the 
medical  council  of  the  General  Board  of 
Health.  He  was  also  physician  to  the  Deaf 
and  Dumb  Hospital,  and  to  other  charities. 
He  resigned  his  appointments  at  Guy's  Hos- 
pital in  1855,  and  died  on  8  April  1866. 

Dr.  Babington  was  a  man  of  remarkable 
and  veiy  versatile  intellectual  powei*.  He 
was  proficient  in  several  sciences,  and  in  all 
of  them  exact  and  thorough.  Soon  after  his 
appointment  at  Guy's  Hospital  he  gave  much 
attention  to  the  subject  of  animal  chemistry, 
and  assisted  Sir  Astley  Cooper,  Dr.  Bright, 
and  others  of  his  colleagues  by  making  ana- 
lyses of  morbid  products.  He  also  wrote  in 
the  '  Medico-Chirurgical  Transactions '  two 
memoirs  on  the  blood,  in  one  of  which  he 
described  the  fat  constantly  present  in  the 
serum  ;  in  another  he  employed  for  the  first 
time  an  expression  now  always  used  for  the 
fluid  portion  of  the  blood,  '  liquor  sanguinis.' 
He  wrote  some  more  strictly  medical  papers 
in  the  *  Guy's  Hospital  Reports,'  which  are 


Babington 


312 


Babington 


thoroughly  done,  but  not  very  notable.  He 
translated  from  the  German  Hecker's  '  Epi- 
demics of  the  Middle  Ages,'  and  edited  a 
translation  of  Feuchtersleben's  *  Medical 
Psychology '  for  the  Sydenham  Society 
(London,  1847). 

Those  who  knew  Dr.  Babington  best  had 
the  highest  opinion  of  his  abilities ;  by  the 
profession  in  general  he  was  greatly  respected, 
but  he  hardly  enjoyed  the  public  reputation 
or  gained  the  success  which  might  have  been 
considered  his  due.  Partly  this  was  owing 
to  his  retiring  and  unambitious  character ; 
partly,  perhaps,  to  his  having  entered  the 
profession  somewhat  late  in  life.  He  was  a 
man  of  genial  character,  and  physically  well- 
favoured.  His  wife,  a  daughter  of  Mr.  Ben- 
jamin Tayler,  died  before  him. 

Dr.  Babington  wrote  no  independent  and 
separate  work  in  medicine,  but  published : 
1 .  'A  Grammar  of  the  High  Dialect  of  the 
Tamil  Language.  Translated  from  the  Latin 
of  Constantius  Josephus  Beschius,'  Madras, 
1822, 4to.  2.  <  The  Adventures  of  the  Gooroo 
Paramartan,'  by  C  J.  Beschius.  With  a 
translation  and  vocabulary  (Tamul  and  Eng- 
lish), London,  1822,  4to*  3.  'The  Vedala 
Cadai,  being  the  Tamul  version  of  a  collec- 
tion of  ancient  tales  in  Sanscrit,'  translated 
by  B.  G.  Babington.  Oriental  Translation 
Fund,  London,  1831,  8vo.  4.  'An  Account 
of  the  Sculptures  and  Inscriptions  at  Mahama 
Laipur,  in  Captain  M.  W.  CaiT's  Descriptive 
Papers  relating  to  the  Seven  Pagodas  on 
the  Coromandel  Coast,'  Madras,  1869,  8vo. 
6.  An  English  Translation  of  Hecker's  '  The 
Black  Death  in  the  Fourteenth  Centuiy,' Lon- 
don, 1833,  12mo.  (This  is  included  in  the 
translation  of  Hecker's  '  Epidemics  of  the 
Middle  Ages,'  London,  1844  (Sydenham  So- 
ciety) and  1859.)  Besides  papers  in  '  Guy's 
Hospital  Reports  : '  '  Cases  of  Small-Pox 
which  occurred  in  the  Deaf  and  Dumb  Asy- 
lum,' series  1,  i.  159 ;  '  Experiments  and  Ob- 
servations on  Albuminous  Fluids,'  series  1, 
ii.  534;  'Observations  on  Epilepsy,'  series  1, 
vi.  1;  'On  Chorea,' series  1,  vi.  411.  Also 
papers  in  the '  Philosophical  Transactions,'  in 
the '  Cyclopaedia  of  Anatomy  and  Physiology,' 
and  elsewhere. 

[Obituary  Xotice  in  Proceedings  Roy.  Med. 
and  Chir.  Society,  v.  249,  1867 ;  Lancet,  21  April 
1S66;  Medical  Directory,  London,  1866.] 

J.  F.  P. 

BABINGTON,  BRUTE  {d.  1610),  bishop 
of  Derry,  is  said  to  liave  been  a  native  of 
Cheshire.  He  was  admitted  into  Christ's 
College  in  1572,  was  B.A.  1575-6,  and  be- 
came a  fellow  in  1576.  He  was  incoi*i)orated 
at  Oxford  15  July  1578,  on  the  same  day  with 


Gervase  Babington.     He  was  collated  to  the 
prebend  of  Bishopshall,  in  Ijichfield  Cathe- 
dral, 18  Sept.  1592.     He  was  also  rector  of 
Thurcaston,    Leicestershire,   and   Tatenhill, 
Staffordshire.     On  the  deatli  of  Dr.  Boleyn, 
Babington  applied  for  the  deanery  of  Lich- 
field  unsuccessfully.     On   (5  July  1603  he 
complains  to  the  Earl  of  Shrewsbury  that 
i  the  chancellor  of  the  diocese,  Zachary  Ba- 
;  bington,  liad  obstructed  his  suit  and  dispos- 
I  sessed  him  of  his  divinity  lectureship.     In 
I  1610  he  was  appointed  to  the  bishopric  of 
\  Deny,  after  some  opposition  from  supporters 
'<  of  Dean  Webb :  resigning  Thurcaston  8  Nov. 
:  1610,  but  holding  his  prebend  and  Tatenhill 
'  in   cominendam.      He   was   consecrated    at 
'  Drogheda,  and   died   in  1611,  probably  on 
I  10  Sept.     O'Sullivan  tells  the  story  that  his 
j  death  was  ascribed  to  a  divine  punishment 
I  for  his  saci'ilege  in  attempting   to  burn   a 
j  statue  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  which,  however, 
remained  unconsumed,  while  the  perpetrators 
!  of  the  outrage  were  either  struck  dead  on 
the  spot,  or,  like  the  bishop  himself,  died  a 
j  lingering  death. 

i  [Le  Neve's  Fasti,  i.  590,  iii.  316  ;  Dyer's  Hist. 
;  of  Camb.  Univ.  ii.  65 ;  O'Sullivan's  Hist.  Cath, 
I  iv.  13;  Cal.  State  Papers  (Dom.  1603-10), 
I  pp.  614,  641,  (Irish,  1608-10)  pp.  448,487,490; 
!  Cotton's  Fasti  Eccl.  Hib.  iii.  316,  v.  254  ;  Lodge's 
Hlustrations  (1838),  iii.  36;  Talbot  Papers,  M. 
I  97,  374  ;  "Ware's  Bishops  of  Ireland  (Harris), 
I  292  ;  Willis's  Cathedrals,  i.  427  ;  Wood's  Fasti 
I  (Bliss),  i.  211.]  T.  A.  A. 

I  BABINGTON,  FRANCIS  {d.  1569), 
t  Oxford  divine,  is  said  to  have  been  a  native 
I  of  Leicestershire :  to  have  entered  Christ's 
College,  Cambridge,  in  1544,  and  to  have 
taken  his  B.A.  degree  in  1548-9.  Two 
years  later  he  was  appointed  fellow  of  St. 
John's,  and  in  1552  became  M. A.  By  1 555 
he  must  have  changed  his  religion,  for  at 
that  date  his  name  is  found  appended  to  the 
Roman  catholic  articles  of  belief  (Lamb, 
Cambr.  Doct.  176).  About  the  same  time 
he  seems  to  have  transferred  his  residence 
to  Oxford,  where  he  '  incepted '  in  arts  1554. 
(Gutch's  Wood,  App.  95).  After  three  years 
he  was  unanimously  chosen  proctor  of  his  new 
imiversity  (1557),  being  already  a  fellow  of 
All  Souls.  In  1557  and  1558  he  successively 
took  his  bachelor's  and  doctor's  degree  in 
divinity  ;  but  Wood  adds  a  special  warning 
that  such  rapid  promotion  was  only  due  to 
the  fact  that  the  university  was  very  empty, 
and  wanted  '  theologists  to  perform  the 
requisite  offices.  '  There  were  only  three 
doctors  in  theology  who  proceeded  in  six 
years ;  and  sermons  were  so  rare,  that  scarce 
one  was  given.'     It  is  only  fair,  however,  to 


Babington 


313 


Babington 


add  that  in  another  passage  Wood  mentions 
Francis  Babington  as  renowned  for  his  philo- 
sopliical  and  logical  disputations. 

In  1559  the  Queen's  visitors  removed  Dr. 
Wright  from  the  mastership  of  Balliol,  and 
appobited  Dr.  Babington  in  his  stead ;  for 
with  him  conscience  never  seems  to  have 
.stood  in  the  way  of  prefennent.  Nor  had  Dr. 
Babington  any  objection  to  heaping  together 
n  plurality  of  livings  and  offices.  Between 
1657  and  1560  he  was  rector  of  at  least  four 
parishes,  Milton  Keymes,  T^A-yford,  Sherring- 
ton Aldworth,and  Adstock ;  and  two  or  three 
of  these  he  must  have  held  together.  Besides 
these  preferments  he  was,  in  ]May  1560,  a])- 
pointed  rector  of  Lincoln  College,  and  was  Sir 
John  ^lason's  commissarv  or  vice-chancellor 
in  1560,  1561,  and  1562."  He  even  held  the 
Lady  Margaret  readership  in  divinity  for 
1561,  although  the  statutes  forbade  its  being 
held  by  the  vice-chancellor.  In  March  1562, 
he  appears  in  conjunction  with  'Anthony 
Forster,  of  Cumnore,  gent.'  (Sir  W.  Scott's 
Tony  Foster),  as  assisting  in  forcing  a  pro- 
testant  warden  upon  the  lioman  catholic  fel- 
lows of  Merton  College.  W^ood  has  given 
a  graphic  description  of  the  whole  scene 
<  Annals,  anno  1562).  Dr.  Babington  was  the 
Earl  of  Leicester's  chaplain,  and  seems  about 
thistime  to  have  been  high  in  favour  with  that 
nobleman.  Anthony  a  Wood  tells  us  that  he 
was  one  of  Leicester's  five  most  trusted  ad- 
visers in  Oxford,  and  was  chosen  to  preach 
Amy  Ilobsart's  funeral  sermon  at  St.  Mary's, 
on  which  occasion  he  '  tript  once  or  twice  by 
recommending  to  his  auditors  the  virtues  of 
that  lady  so  pitifully  murdered  instead  of  so 
pitifully  slain.'  His  text  was  '  Beati  mortui 
<[m  in  Domino  moriuntur'  (1560)  (Bakt- 
1-eit's  Cumnor).  In  the  same  year  Dr.  Babing- 
ton stood  as  the  representative  of  the  more 
<«nservative  party  for  the  deanery  of  Christ 
Church  against  Dr.  Sampson,  the  great  pillar 
of  the  puritanical  body.  Strype,  in  his  ac- 
count of  this  contest,  describes  Dr.  Babing- 
ton as  '  a  man  of  mean  learning  and  of  a  com- 
])lying  temper '  (^Annals  of  lief  or.  i.  chap.  43), 
and  it  is  hardly,  necessary  to  say  that  he  failed 
in  his  candidature.  He  seems  by  this  time 
to  have  been  losing  Leicester's  favour,  and 
was  more  than  suspected  of  being  a  concealed 
papist.  In  1563  he  had  to  resign  the  rector- 
ship of  Lincoln,  and  two  years  later  was 
forced  to  flee  beyond  seas,  where  he  is  said 
to  have  died  in  1569. 

[Cooper's  Athen.  Cantab,  i.  557 ;  Wood's 
Atheiiie  Oxonienses,  Fasti,  and  History  and 
Antiquities  of  Oxford ;  Lipscombe's  History 
of  Buckingham,  ii.  515,  iii.  133,  iv.  249.  336; 
Xares's  Burghley,  i.  55;  and  authorities  cited 
above.]  T.  A.  A. 


BABINGTON,  GFRVASE (1550-1610), 
bishop  in  succession  of  Llandaff,  Exeter, 
and  W'orcester,  is  descrited  in  his  'Effigies 
before  his  Works  '  (published  posthumously 
in  1615)  as  aged  fifty-nine;  and  assuming 
this  to  have  been  his  age  at  death  (in  1610), 
the  date  of  his  birth  has  been  set  down 
as  1551,  though  doubts  are  raised  by  Dr. 
Berkenhout  (KiPPis's  Biogr.  Brit.  i. '413). 
From  the  '  lleg.  Bancroft '  (as  cited  in  Li: 
Neve's  Fasti,  by  Hardy,  iii.  66)  we  learn 
that  his  age  at  death  was  sixty,  and  thus 
1549  or  1550  was  the  date  of  his  birth. 
Fuller  (in  his  Abel  Redicicus,  1651,  and 
Church  History,  1655)  states  that  he  was  of 
Nottinghamshire,  while  Izacke  ('Catal.  of 
Bishops  of  Exetei','  in  Antiq.  of  Exeter),  and 
after  him  Prince  (  Worthies  of  Devon)  claim 
him  for  Devonshire.  Sir  William  Musgrave's 
'  MS.  Memoranda '  (Kippis,  as  before)  con- 
firm Fuller,  and  connect  him  with  the  ancient 
family  of  the  Babiugtons  of  Nottingham- 
shire [see  Babingtox,  Axthoity].  Of  his 
early  education  nothing  has  been  transmitted. 
He  was  first  sent  to  Cambridge  University, 
being  entered  at  Trinity  College,  of  which 
he  became  fellow  {Preface  to  his  Questions 
and  Answers  to  the  Ten  Commandments). 
As  was  not  infrequent,  he  passed  to  Oxford 
University,  where,  on  15  July  1578,  he  was 
incorporated  M.A.  (Wood's  Fasti,  ed.  Bliss, 
i.  211).  He  returned  to  Cambridge,  and 
became  known  as  a  '  hard  student '  of  theo- 
logy. In  the  dedicatory  epistle  to  his  col- 
lected works  (published  in  1615),  addressed 
to  the  brothers  William  earl  of  Pembroke 
and  Philip  earl  of  ^Montgomery,  it  is  told 
how  their  father  had  received  Babington  at 
his  house  as  tutor  to  the  family,  having 
been  '  sent  thither  by  the  ancients  and  heads 
of  the  said  university.'  And  mention  is 
made  of  the  intimate  relations  in  which  he 
stood  to  their  mother, 

Sidney's  sister,  Pembroke's  mother. 

He  was  credited  with  having  assisted  her 
in  her  versification  of  the  Psalms,  but  on 
shadowy  gTounds :  '  For  it  was  more  than 
a  woman's  skill  to  express  the  sense  so  rightly 
as  she  hath  done  in  her  verse,  and  more  than 
she  could  learn  from  the  English  and  Latin 
translations '  (Kippis,  as  before,  i.  412).  Bal- 
lard gravely  controverts  the  allegation,  which 
originated  with  Sir  John  Harington  {Brief 
View,  1653,  and  Ballard's  Memoii-s  of  British 
Ladies). 

By  his  patron's  influence  he  was  appointed 
treasurer  of  Llandaft',  collated  28  Jan.  1589- 
90  (Le  Neve's  Fasti,  ii.  262).  He  had  pre- 
viously, in  1588,  obtained  the  prebendary 
of  Wellington  in  Hereford  Cathedral  {ibid. 


Babington 


314 


Babington 


i.  oSl).  By  the  saiuc  iiillueiice  he  was  elected 
bishop  of  Llaiidall'  7  Aug.  1591,  couiirined  ou 
the  27th,  and  consecrated  at  Croydon  ou  the 
29th  {R('(j.  Whitg.  i.  fol.  77,  and  Le  Nete). 
Four  years  later  he  was  translated  to  the  see 
of  Exeter,  elected  4  Feb.  1594-5,  and  en- 
throned 22  March  (ibid.)  lie  is  severely 
condemned  for  having  alienated  from  this 
bishopric  '  the  rich  and  noble  manor  of  Credi- 
ton,  in  the  county  of  Devon,'  which  Prince 
])ronounces  *  an  irreparable  injury.'  Finally, 
he  was  nominated  by  the  queen  to  Worcester, 
on  30  Aug.  1597,  elected  15  Sept.,  and  con- 
firmed 4  Oct.  (ibid.)  Among  other  subsidi- 
ary offices  held  by  him  -was  that  of  queen's 
counsel  for  the  Marches  of  Wales  (Fullek). 
Early  in  1600  Babington  w^as  believed  to 
favour  the  Earl  of  Essex.  On  5  March  1599- 
1600  Chamberlain  wrote  to  Carleton  that 
Queen  Elizabeth  had  called  him  to  account 
Avhile  he  was  preaching  a  sermon  before  her, 
because  of  the  hints  he  made  in  behalf  of  the 
earl.  In  1604  Babington  was  summoned  to 
the  Hampton  Court  conference.  He  died 
1 7  May  1610,  and  was  buried  in  his  cathedral. 
Before  and  after  his  advances  in  the  church 
Babington  was  a  constant  preacher  and  a 
laborious  student.  Lovers  of  Elizabethan 
literature  contend  eagerly  for  copies  of  his 
many  little  quartos,  some  of  the  rarest  of 
which  are  to  be  found  in  the  British  Museum. 
In  1583  he  issued  his  '  Very  fruitful  exposi- 
tion of  the  commandements  by  way  of  ques- 
tions and  answers,' Avhich  was  republished  in 
1 590,  and  again  about  1 600.  A  similar  work 
on  the  Lord's  Prayer  was  issued  in  1588.  In 
1584  appeared  his  '  Briefe  conference  betwixt 
man's  frailtie  and  faith  wherein  is  declared 
the  true  use  and  comfort  of  those  blessings 
])ronounced  by  Christ  in  the  fifth  of  Mat- 
thew. .  .  .  Laide  downe  in  order  of  dialogue.' 
This  was  republished  in  1590  and  again  in 
1596.  In  1592  the  first  edition  w^as  pub- 
lished of  '  Certaine,  plaine,  briefe,  and  com- 
fortable notes  upon  everie  chapter  of  Genesis,' 
of  which  an  enlarged  edition  appeared  in 
1596  and  1602.  In  1604  he  issued  his  'Com- 
fortable notes  upon  the  bookes  of  Exodus 
and  Leviticus.'  Several  sermons  preached 
at  St.  Paul's  Cross  by  Babington  were  also 
published.  The  great  folio  of  his  works 
(edited  by  Miles  Smith,  afterwards  bishop, 
and  T.  C),  having  been  issued  originally  in 
1615,  was  republished  in  1622  and  1637. 
The  volume  consists  of  Babington's' Comfort- 
able Notes  upon  the  Five  Books  of  Moses,  also 
an  exposition  upon  the  Creed,  the  Command- 
ments, the  Lord's  Prayer,  with  a  conference 
betwixt  man's  frailtie  and  faith,  and  three 
sermons,'  &c.  Throughout  his  multiplied 
divisions  are  scholastic  and  complicated ;  his 


reading  extensive  and  varied.  He  was  well 
acquainted  with  Hebrew  and  Greek,  and 
his  style  is  quaint  and  pleasant.  Some 
passages  from  Babington's  treatise  on  the 
commandments,  in  which  the  vices  of  his  age 
are  forcibly  exposed  and  attacked,  are  re- 
printed in  the  New  ShakSpere  Society's  edi- 
tion of  Stubbes's  '  Anatomy  of  Abuses,'  ])t. 
i.  pp.  75-93.  A  sennon  preached  by  Bab- 
ington in  1590,  and  published  in  his  '  Works,' 
was  reprinted  by  Sir  Richard  Hill  as  an  ap- 
pendix to  his  '  Apologv  for  Brotherlv  Love,' 
in  1798. 

[In  addition  to  authorities  quoted,  see  Willis's 
Survey  of  the  Cathedrals,  1727 ;  Godwin  de 
Prsesul.,  1616 ;  Hooker's  Catalogue  of  the  Bishops 
of  Exeter ;  Strype's  Whitgitt ;  Berkenhout's 
Biogr.  Literaria,  i.  244-5 ;  Cal,  State  Papers 
(Dom.),  1595,  1600,  1608.]  A.  B.  G. 

BABINGTON,  HUMFREY,D.D.(1615- 

1691),  divine,  the  secondsonoflliunfrey  Bab- 
ington of  Hothley  Temple,  Leicestershire, 
was  educated  at  Trinity  College,  Cambridge. 
He  succeeded  Sanderson,  on  his  appoint- 
ment to  the  bishopric  of  Lincoln,  as  rector  of 
Boothby  Painel  in  Lincolnshire.  He  preached 
a  sermon  at  the  Lincoln  assizes,  which,  at 
the  request  of  his  hearers,  was  published  at 
Cambridge  in  1678.  It  is  a  curious  instance 
of  the  style  of  the  time,  being  elaborately 
learned  and  crammed  with  quotations  in 
Latin  and  Greek,  and  even  Hebrew.  Its 
political  views  may  be  estimated  by  its  as- 
sertion that '  monarchy  is  the  best  safeguard 
to  mankind,  both  against  the  great  furious 
bulls  of  tyrannical  popery,  and  the  lesser 
giddy  cattle  of  schismatical  presbytery.'  This 
sermon  probably  procured  him  the  degree  of 
D.D.  per  literas  regias  in  1669.  He  after- 
wards became  vice-master  of  Trinity  College, 
built  two  sets  of  rooms  for  the  use  of  the 
Babington  family  in  the  college,  and  founded 
the  Barrow^  Hospital. 

[Notes  and  Queries,  2nd  series,  ix.  152,  195  ; 
Brit.  Mus.  Cat.]  R.  B. 

BABINGTON,  JOHN  (/.  1635),  matlie- 
matician  and  gunner,  published  in  1635  a 
folio  volume,  entitled  '  Pyrotechnia,  or  a 
Discoiu'se  of  Artificiall  Fii'eworks,'  to  which, 
was  added  a  'Short  Treatise  of  Geometric  .  .  . 
with  the  tables  for  the  square  root  to  25,000, 
and  the  cubick  root  to  10,000  Latus,  Avherein 
all  roots  under  those  niimbers  .  .  .  are  ex- 
tracted onely  by  ocular  inspection.'  The  first 
part  of  the  book,  which  dealt  with  the  use  of 
fireworks  for  military  purposes  as  well  as  for 
amusements,  was  dedicated  to  the  '  Earl  of 
Newport,  Master  of  his  Majesties  Ordnance,' 
and  in  the  preface  the  author  says  of  him- 


Babington 


315 


Babington 


self,  '  I  have*  been  for  certaine  yeeres  past, 
and  so  at  present  am,  one  of  the  inferiour 
ffininers  of  his  Majestie.'  Three  copies  of 
Eni^rlish  verses  in  praise  of  the  author  are 
prefixed,  of  wliich  one  is  by  John  Bate,  the 
author  of  *  Mysteries  of  Nature  and  Art.' 
The  second  part,  'the  geometrical  treatise, 
Avas  especially  designed  for  the  use  of  guns, 
and  is  dedicated  to  '  Sir  John  Ileyden,  Lieu- 
tenant of  his  ^lajesties  Ordnance.'  The  loga- 
rithmic tables,  which  foi'm  the  third  part  of 
the  book,  were  the  earliest  published  in 
England.  A  portrait  of  Babington  by  J. 
Droeshout  is  in  the  Duke  of  Devonshire's  copy 
of  the  work  at  Chatsworth. 

[Babington's  work ;   Chatsworth  Libr.  Cat. ; 
Brit.  Mas.  Cat.]  R.  E.  A. 

BABINGTON,     Sir    WILLIAM,    {d. 

1455),  judge,  of  an  ancient  Northumbrian 
family,  was  the  second  son  of  Sir  John 
Babington,  Knt.,  of  East  Brigford  in  the 
county  ofNottingham,  by  Benedicta,  daughter 
of  Simon  Ward,  Esq.,  of  Cambridgeshire,  Avho 
held  the  offices  of  escheator  (a  functionaiy 
Avhose  business  it  was  to  safeguard  the  in- 
terests of  the  crown  in  escheats,  wardships, 
and  the  like  incidents  of  the  royal  preroga- 
tive) for  the  counties  of  Northampton  and 
Rutland,  and  custos  of  the  castle  and  manor 
of  Okeham.  Babington  married  Margery, 
daughter  of  Sir  Peter  Martell,  Knt.,  of  Chil- 
well  in  Nottingham,  through  whom  he  be- 
came possessed  of  estates  in  that  place,  and 
Ity  whom  he  had  five  sons  and  five  daughters, 
lie  was  appointed  king's  attorney  on  16  Jan. 
1414,  and  in  the  following  year  (11  July  1415) 
Avas  commanded  to  take  the  rank  of  serjeant- 
at-law,  at  that  time  one  of  greater  dignity 
than  that  of  king's  attorney,  but  generally 
shunned  as  a  barren  and  expensive  honour. 
Accordingly,  in  company  with  several  other 
'  apprentices  of  the  laAv '  Avho  were  summoned 
about  the  same  time,  he  neglected  to  appear 
to  the  writ,  and  it  was  only  under  pressure 
of  an  order  from  parliament  (November  1417) 
that  he  and  his  colleagues  were  induced  to 
comply.  This  incident  is  referred  to  by  Pym 
in  his  speech  in  impeachment  of  the  Duke  of 
Buckingham  (in  16:26)  as  one  which  might 
1)6  distorted,  though  manifestly  irrelevant, 
into  a  precedent  for  the  practice  of  compelling 
the  purchase  of  titles  of  honour,  which  was 
one  of  the  offences  with  which  the  duke  was 
charged.  It  is  about  this  date  (1417)  that 
Babington's  name  begins  to  appear  with  fre- 
([uency  in  the  year  books.  His  rise  hence- 
forward must  have  been  rapid,  for  he  was 
appointed  chief  baron  of  the  exchequer  in 
1419,  and  in  1420  justice  of  the  common 
bench.     In  1423  he  became  chief  justice  of 


the  common  bench,  and  so  continued  until 
1436,  when  he  retired.  In  that  year  his 
name  appears  in  the  list  oftho.se  called  upon 
to  contribute  to  the  loan  raised  for  the  ])ur- 
pose  of  infusing  new  vigour  into  the  war  in 
France,  the  sum  exacted  from  him  Ix'ing 
100/.  He  endowed  the  Babington  chantry 
at  Flafoith  in  Nottinghamshire  with  some 
hou.ses  and  rents,  and  is  said  by  Foss  to  have 
founded  '  a  chantry  for  two  chaplains  at  the 
altar  of  St.  Catherine  in  the  church  at  Thur- 
garton '  in  the  same  county.  There  occurs 
in  the  St.  Alban's  Registry  the  following 
memorandum :  *  For  one  cup  given  to  AN'. 
Babington,  Knt.,  Chief  Justice  of  the  Com- 
mon Bench,  for  favours  done  to  the  Mona,«- 
tery,  c.  s.'  Babington  died  in  1455,  and 
was  buried  at  Lenton  Priory  in  Notting- 
hamshire. 

[Burke's  Landed  Gentry  :  Foss's  Judges;  Eot. 
Pari.  iv.  107,  1353  ;  State  Trials,  ii.  1315, 1353; 
Dugdale's  Chronica  Series,  57,  58,  62 ;  Proceed- 
ings of  the  Privy  Council,  316,  327;  Calendarium 
Inquisitionum  post  mortem  et  Escsetarum,  iv. 
263,  298.]  J.  M.  E. 

BABINGTON,  WILLIAM  (1756-1833), 
physician  and  mineralogist,  was  born  at  Poii- 
glenone,  near  Coleraine,  in  the  county  of  An- 
trim, Ireland.  He  was  first  apprenticed  to 
a  practitioner  at  Londonderry,  and  after- 
Avards  completed  his  medical  education  at 
Guy's  Hospital,  London,  but  Avithout  at  that 
time  taking  a  medical  degree.  In  1777  he 
Avas  made  assistant  surgeon  to  Haslar  (Naval) 
Hospital,  and  held  this  appointment  four 
years.  He  then  obtained  the  position  of 
apothecary  to  Guy's  Hospital,  and  also  lec- 
tured on  chemistry  in  the  medical  school 
attached  to  the  hospital.  Of  these  appoint- 
ments Babington  made  stepping-stones  to  a 
higher  professional  position.  He  resigned 
the  post  of  apothecarA',  and,  having  obtained 
the  necessary  degree  of  ]\LD.  from  the  uni- 
versity of  Aberdeen  in  1795,  was  in  the  same 
year  elected  physician  to  Guy's  Hospital. 
In  1796  he  was  licentiate  of  the  College  of 
Physicians,  and  remained  so  till  1827,  when 
he  received  the  unusual  honour  of  being 
elected  felloAv  by  special  grace.  In  1831  he 
Avas  made  honorary  M.D.  by  the  university 
of  Dublin.  He  ceased  to  be  physician  to 
Guy's  in  1811. 

Dr.  Babington  was  a  very  able  and  suc- 
cessful physician,  whose  skill  and  knowledge 
are  attested  by  the  general  verdict  of  his 
contemporaries ;  AA'hile  a  not  less  unanimous 
voice  testifies  to  the  elevation  and  purity  of 
his  character.  '  History  does  not  supply  us,' 
says  Dr.  Munk, '  with  a  physician  more  loved 
or  more  respected  than  was  Dr.  Babington.* 


Babington 


316 


Babyon 


If  in  the  course  of  his  busy  life  he  made  no 
conspicuous  addition  to  the  science  of  medi- 
cine, it  was  that  his  energies  were  devoted 
to  the  sciences  of  chemistry  and  mineralogy. 
He  lectured  on  chemistry  at  Guy's  Hospital 
for  many  years,  and  published  some  memoirs 
in  '  Nicholson's  Journal.'  In  mineralogy  his 
interest  was  still  greater,  and  he  achieved 
more.  While  apothecary  to  Guy's  Hospital 
he  became  possessed  of  the  valuable  cabinet 
of  minerals  which  had  belonged  to  the  Earl 
of  Bute :  of  this  he  made  an  elaborate  cata- 
logue, Avhich  probably  served  as  the  founda- 
tion of  one  of  his  books.  His  works  on 
mineralogy  are  described  by  Mr.  Greenough, 
president  of  the  Geological  Society  in  1834, 
as  having  well  represented  the  state  of  the 
science  when  they  were  written,  but  they 
have  long  ceased  to  have  any  importance. 
Dr.  Babington  did  more  by  encouraging  sci- 
ence than  by  his  own  work ;  and  as  such  he 
has  some  claim  to  be  regarded  as  the  founder 
of  the  Geological  Society.  The  circumstances 
are  thus  stated  by  Mr.  Greenough  (Presi- 
dential Address  to  the  Geological  Society, 
1834):  'In  1807,  Avith  a  view  to  enable 
Count  Bournou,  of  Avhom  he  had  been  a 
pupil,  to  publish  his  elaborate  monograph  on 
the  carbonate  of  lime,  Dr.  Babington  invited 
[to  his  own  house]  a  number  of  gentlemen 
the  most  distinguished  for  their  zeal  in  the 
prosecution  of  mineralogical  knowledge.  A 
subscription  was  opened  and  tlie  necessary 
sum  readily  collected.  The  object  having 
been  accomplished,  other  meetings  of  the 
same  gentlemen  took  place,  for  the  joint 
purpose  of  friendly  intercourse  and  mutual 
instruction.  From  such  small  beginnings 
sprang  the  Geological  Society,  and  among 
the  names  of  those  by  whose  care  and  watch- 
fulness it  Avas  supported  during  the  early 
period  of  its  histoiy  that  of  Dr.  Babington 
must  ahvays  stand  conspicuous.'  He  Avas 
president  of  the  society  in  1822,  but  did  not 
contribute  to  its  '  Transactions.'  It  is  re- 
corded that  after  this  he  took  lessons  in 
geology  of  a  Mr.  Webster,  and  attended  the 
chemical  lectures  at  the  London  University 
the  year  before  his  death.  He  Avas  appointed 
by  government  one  of  the  referees  to  put  a 
price  upon  the  Greville  collection  of  minerals, 
bought  by  the  nation,  and  noAV  in  the  British 
Museum.  Dr.  Babington  was  elected  a  fel- 
low of  the  lioyal  Society,  and  took  part  in 
founding  the  Ilunterian  Society.  He  rapidly 
acquired  a  large  and  lucrative  practice,  and 
continued  in  the  full  exercise  of  professional 
and  scientific  activity  till  Avithin  four  days 
of  his  death,  Avhich  occurred  from  influenza, 
during  the  severe  and  destructiA'e  epidemic 
of  that  disease  in  London,  on  29  April  1 833. 


Dr.  Babington  Avas  buried  in  the  church  of 
St.  Clary's,  Aldermanbury.  Four  years  after 
his  death  a  monument  Avas  erected  to  him  in 
St.  Paul's  Cathedral  by  public  subscription, 
Behnes  being  the  sculptor.  His  bust  is  in 
the  College  of  Physicians,  and  his  portrait 
by  Medley  has  been  engraA'ed  by  Bran  white. 
He  left  a  son,  Benjamin  Guy  Bal)iugton,  also 
physician  to  Guy's  Hospital,  and  one  of  his 
daughters  married  the  eminent  physician,  Dr. 
Richard  Bright. 

He  AA'rote :  1 .  'A  Systematic  Arrange- 
ment of  Minerals  reduced  to  the  Form  of 
Tables,  founded  on  the  joint  consideration  of 
their  chemical,  physical,  and  external  cha- 
racters,' 4to,  1795.  2.  'A  new  System  of 
Mineralogy  in  tlie  form  of  a  Catalogue,  after 
the  manner  of  Baron  Born's  Catalogue  of 
the  Fossils  of  Mdlle.  E.  de  llaab,'  4to,  1799. 
3.  '  A  Catalogue  of  the  genuine  and  A^alu- 
able  Collection  of  Minerals  of  a  Gentleman 
Deceased'  (by  Dr.  Babington  and  others), 
8vo,  London,  1 805.  4.  '  Syllabus  of  the 
Course  of  Chemical  Lectures  at  Guy's  Hos- 
pital,' 1789,  Sec.  5.  '  A  Case  of  Exposure  to 
the  Vapour  of  Burning  Charcoal '  (Med.- 
Chiriirg.  Transactions,  vol.  i.  1806). 

[Anntial  Biography  and  Obituary,  1834; 
Gent.  Mag.  1833  ;  Munk's  Roll  Coll.  Physicians, 
ii.  451 ;  Medical  Gazette,  1833.]  J.  F.  P. 

BABYON,  or  BABYO,  or  BABION, 
PETER  (Jl.  1317-1366),  poet  and  divine  in 
the  reign  of  EdAA^ard  II,  by  birth  an  English- 
man, AA-as  educated  from  his  earliest  youth  in 
the  literce  humaniores  by  masters  of  approAed 
ability  and  long  experience.  He  practised 
so  diligently  both  prose  and  Averse  AVi'iting 
that  he  soon  became  an  elegant  poet  and 
most  adept  rhetorician.  His  compositions 
excited  the  Avonder  of  the  age  in  which  he 
liA^ed.  When  speaking  of  him  as  a  poet, 
Pits  says  that  he  AA-as  chiefly  remarkable 
for  talents  which  are  rarely  found  in  combi- 
nation— 
Ingeniiim  felix,  inventio,  hicidiis  ordo, 
Gratia,  majestas,  ad  rem  bene  cougnia  verlia. 

As  his  judgment  became  moi-e  matured  by 
years,  he  was  unAvilling  to  spend  all  his  life 
and  all  his  ability  in  exercises  of  ordinary 
choice.  He  therefore  betook  himself  to  the 
reading  of  the  lioly  scriptures,  and  in  the 
midst  of  that  labour  he  undertook  the  task 
of  preaching  the  divine  Avord,  for  Avhich  his 
previous  education  had  so  eminently  qualified 
him.  All  the  ])olite  learning  of  his  youth 
was  noAV  devoted  to  this  sacred  purpose.  He 
achieA'ed,  as  might  be  expected,  a  great  suc- 
cess, and  made  for  himself  a  name  amongst 
theologians  of  no  little  fame.  He  Avas  still 
liAung,  according  to  Possevino,  in  1366.     His 


Bache 


317 


Bache 


chief  W(jrk  was  a  *  Coiuinentary  on  the  Gospel 
of  St.  Matthew/ in  one  hook,  which  is  bound 
lip  in  the  older  editions  of  the  works  of  St. 
Anselm.  His  otlier  works  are  '  l)e  ofiicio 
MissiC  Lilxjr  unus  ; '  '  Serraoniini  Septuaginta 
Liber  unus;'  '  llomiliarum  Liber  unus;' 
'  Comcedia  carmine  Liber  unus;'  'Carminiim 
diversorum  Liber  unus.' 

[Jocher's  Golehrtcn-Lexicon  ;  Pits,  De  II- 
histribus  Anglise  Script orihus,  p.  406  ;  Bale's 
Scriptor.  Brit.  p.  467  ;  Oudin,  De  Script.  Ecclcs. 
iii.  799;  Possevino's  Apparatus  Sacer.  ii.  240; 
Tanner's  Bibl.  Brit.-Hibern.  p.  59;  MS.  Bibl. 
Bodl.  Arch.  B.  52  ;  MS.  Cotton.  Titus  A.  xx.  30 ; 
Theoph.  Raynaud,  Dc  malis  ac  bonis  Libris,  p. 
126.]  J.  M. 

BACHE,  FRANCIS  EDWARD  (1833- 
1858),  musician,  born  14  Sept.  1833  at  Bir- 
mingham,  was   the   eldest   son   of  Samuel 
Bache  [q.v.].  From  a  very  early  age  he  showed 
extraordinary  talent  for  music,  learning  as- 
siduously the  piano,  organ,  and  violin,  in  the 
last  of  which  instruments   he   made   such 
progress  under  the  tuition  of  Alfred  Mellon 
as  to  play  in  the  orchestra  of  the  Birmingham  | 
festivals  of  1846  and  1847.    Having  deter- 
mined to  adopt  music  as  his  profession,he  left 
school  in   the  summer  of  1849,  and,  after  \ 
studying  for  a  short  time  Avith  Mr.  James  ' 
Stimpson,  came  to  Jjondon,  and  continued 
his  studies  with  Sir  Sterndale  Bennett.     In  | 
Oct.  1850  he  obtained  the  post  of  organist  ' 
at  All  Saints  Church,  Gordon  Square,  and 
in  NoA'ember  of  the  same  year  his  first  over- 
ture was  performed  at  the  Adelphi  Theatre. 
From  1849  to  1853  he  worked  hard  in  London, 
teaching,  studj'ing,  and  composing  numerous 
pianoforte  pieces.     In  Oct.  1853  he  went  to 
Leipzig,  where  he  remained  till  the  end  of 
the  following  year,  returning  to  England, 
after  a  short  stay  in  Paris,  in  1855.     He 
obtained   an    appointment    as   organist    at 
Hackney,  but  he  was  soon  forced  by  illness 
to  return  home.     In  1856  Bache  went   to 
Algiers,  where  for  a  time  the  consumptive 
symptoms  from  which  he  suffered  were  ar- 
rested.    From  Algiers  he  returned  by  way 
of  Paris  to  Leipzig,  spending  the  following 
winter  in  Rome.     In  June  1857  he  returned 
home,  and  spent  the  next  winter  at  Torquay, 
but  on  his  return  to  Birmingham  in  April 
1858  he  gradually  sank,  dying  on  24  Aug. 
of  the  same  year.      In   estimating  Bache's 
position  as  a  composer,  it  cannot  be  denied 
that  as  far  as  regards  his  published  works 
his  promise  was  greater  than  his  perform- 
ance ;  of  his  unpublished  works,  which  in- 
clude two  complete  operas,  a  polonaise  for 
pianoforte,  orchestra,  &c.,  there  has   been, 
unfortunately,  no  opportunity  of  judging  the 


merits.  But  though  much  that  he  wrote 
was  obviously  the  ephemeral  and  immature 
work  of  one  Avhose  powers  were  prevented 
by  illness  from  attaining  their  full  develop- 
ment, yet  there  are  some  of  his  compositions, 
notably  amongst  his  songs,  which  snow  that 
he  was  possessed  of  genius  of  no  mean  order, 
and  which  will  continue  to  occupy  an 
honoured  position  amongst  the  best  produc- 
tions of  English  musicians. 

[Tiie  Christian  Reformer  for  December  1868; 
information  from  Miss  Constance  Bache.] 

W.  B.  S. 

BACHE,    SAMUEL    (1804-1876),    uni- 
tarian minister,  was  born  on  24  Dec.  1804  at 
Bridgnorth,  where  his   father,  Joshua  Tilt 
Bache  (d.  28  Oct.  1837,  aged  63),  Avas  a  grocer. 
His  mother  Avas  Margaret  Silvester,  of  NeAv- 
port,  Salop.     On  her  death,  in  1808,  he  was 
entrusted  to  his  father's  sistei",  Mrs.  Maurice, 
at  Stourbridge,  and  he  became  the  pupil  of 
Rev.  Ebenezer  Beasley,  a  dissenting  minister 
at  L^xbridge.     He  was  some  time  assistant 
in  the  school  of  the  Rev.  Lant  Carpenter, 
LL.D.,  at  Bristol,  and  Avas  educated  for  the 
ministry  (January  1826-29)  at  Manchester 
College,  York,  under  Charles  Wellbeloved 
(theology),  John  Kenrick,  M.A.  (classics), 
andWilliam  Turner,  M.  A.  (science).  He  was 
minister  at  the  Old  Meeting,  Dudley,  1829-32, 
and  in  1832  became  colleague  of  John  Kentish 
(1768-1853)  at  the  Ncav  Meeting,  Birming- 
ham (Priestley's  congregation),  and  man-ied 
Emilv  (d.  1855),  second  daughter  of  the  Rev. 
EdAvard  Higginson  of  Derby  (1781-1832), 
Avhose  eldest  daughter,  Helen  (^.  1877),  was 
;  the  wife  of  the  Rev.  James  Martineau.     He 
had  seA'en  children,  of  whom  F.  E.  Bache, 
the  composer  [see  Bache,  Fkancis  Edavabd], 
Avas  the  eldest ;  another  is  Walter  Bache, 
j  the  musician  ;  the  youngest  son,  John  Ken- 
tish, some  time  a  dissenting  minister,  took 
Anglican  orders  in  1876.     For  many  years 
I  Mr.  Bache  kept  a  school.     In  1859  he  took 
j  a  leading  part  with   the  Rev.  Dr.  Miller, 
rector  of  St.  Martin's,  in  the  establishment 
j  of  Hospital  Sunday,  an  institution  originated 
in  Birmingham.     He  was  Adsitor  of  Man- 
i  Chester  Ncav  College,  London,  1861-65.     In 
j  1862  the  New  Meeting,  Moor  Street,  was 
sold    to    Roman    catholics,    the    congrega- 
tion removing  to  a  handsome  structure  in 
Broad  Street,  called  theChurch  of  the  Messiah 
(foundation  laid  11  Aug.  1860).     Mr.  Bache 
had  as  colleague  in  1863-7  the  Rev.  Henry 
Enfield  DoAvson.     In  1868  he  resigned  the 
ministry  from  failing  health,  and,  being  af- 
flicted with  softening  of  the  brain,  he  resided 
for  the  last  two  years  of  his  life  in  the  house 
of  a  physician  at  Gloucester,  where  he  died 


Bache 


318 


Back 


on  7  Jan.  1876.  lie  was  a  preacher  and  public 
man  of  strong  powers,  correct  attainment, 
and  cultivated  taste ;  formal  and  lu'bane  in 
manner.  Among  unitarians  he  represented 
that  conservative  school  which  aims  to  carry 
out  the  principles  of  Locke's '  Reasonableness 
of  Christianity,'  regarding  Jesus  Christ  as 
the  miraculously  attested  exponent  of  a  pure 
morality  and  a  simple  theology,  and  the  re- 
vealer,  by  his  resurrection,  of  an  eternal  life. 
On  23  May  1866  he  proposed  the  embodi- 
ment in  the  constitution  of  the  British  and 
Foreign  Unitarian  Association  of  a  *  recog- 
nition of  the  special  divine  mission  and 
authority,  as  a  religious  teacher,  of  Jesus 
Christ,'  which  was  met  by  carrying  the  pre- 
vious question.  A  list  of  twenty-two  of  his 
publications  (1833-70)  is  given  by  J.  Gordon, 
including  '  Harmony  of  Science  and  Revela- 
tion,' 18.39 ;  '  Funeral  Sermon  for  J.  Kentish,' 
1853;  'Exposition  of  Unitarian  Views  of 
Christianity,'  1854 ;  '  Miracles  the  Creden- 
tials of  the  Christ;  1863. 

[Roll  of  Students  Man.  New  Coll.  1868; 
Birm.  Daily  Gazette,  13  Jan.  1876;  Funeral 
Sermon  by  John  Grordon,  1876  ;  Unitarian 
Chronicle,  1832;  Report  of  B.  and  F.  Unit.  Ass. 
1866;  Beale's  Memorials  of  Old  Meeting  Ho. 
Birm.  1882.]  A.  G. 

BACHE,  SARAH  (1771  ?-l  844),  hymn 
writer,  was  born  at  Bromsgrove,  but  brought 
\ip  at  Worcester  by  relatives  named  Laugher, 
members  of  the  Rev.  T.  Belsham  s  congre- 
gation. Rev.  Timothy  Laugher,  of  Hackney 
(d.  1769),  was  her  uncle,  and  she  Avas  a 
cousin  of  Joshua  Tilt  Bache.  She  removed 
to  Birmingham  (before  1791,  for  she  had  at- 
tended the  ministry  of  Dr.  Priestley),  and 
for  many  years  kept  the  Islington  School,  in 
conjunction  with  a  half-sister.  Miss  Penn. 
Another  half-sister,  Anna  Penn,  married  the 
Rev.  Lant  Carpenter,  LL.D.  She  was  the 
author  of  the  hymn  '  See  how  he  loved, 
which  first  appeared  in  the  Exeter  collection 
in  1812,  compiled  by  Dr.  Carpenter.  She  died 
at  Birmingham  on  23  July  1844,  set.  74. 

[Chn.  Reformer,  1844,  obituary  by  N.  (Rev. 
John  Kentish);  Birm.  Daily  C.azettc,  13  Jan. 
1876.]  A,  G. 

BACHHOFFNER,  GEORGE  HENRY 

(1810-1879),  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Lon- 
don Polytechnic  Institution,  and  in  his  day 
a  well-known  and  popular  lecturer  on  scien- 
tific subjects,  was  a  native  of  London.  It 
was  in  1837  that  he,  in  conjunction  with 
a  few  others,  established  the  Polytechnic, 
which  was  intended  for  a  place  of  popular 
instruction,  and,  indeed,  while  it  was  under 
Bachhoffiier's    control,  sufficiently  fulfilled 


that  intention.  Here  he  held  the  position  of 
principal  of  the  department  of  natural  and 
experimental  philosophy  till  1855.  After- 
wards he  became  lessee  and  manager  of  the 
Coliseum  in  the  Regent's  Park,  and  there 
gave  lectures  similar  to  the  courses  he  had 
established  at  the  Polytechnic.  In  the  later 
part  of  his  life  he  held  a  post  as  registrar  of 
births  and  deaths  in  Marylebone.  Bach- 
liofFner  was  an  inventor,  and  took  out  several 
patents  for  inventions  connected  with  the 
electric  telegraph,  gas  stoves,  oil  lamps,  Sec. 

[The  above  details  were  communicated  by  some 
of  Dr.  BachhoflFnor's  relatives.]  H.  T.  W. 

BACK,  SiK  GEORGE  (1796-1878),  ad- 
miral and  Arctic  navigator,  was  born  at 
Stockport,  in  Cheshire,  and  entered  the  navy 
as  midshipman  of  the  Arethusa  in  1808,  He 
was  present  at  the  destruction  of  the  bat- 
teries at  Lequeitio,  in  the  north  of  Spain,  and 
after  being  repeatedly  under  fire  was,  in 
1809,  taken  prisoner  by  the  French  at  Deba, 
while  on  a  cutting-out  expedition  Avith  the 
Arethusa's  boats.  The  prisoners  were  sent 
to  St.  Sebastian,  and  Back  was  small  enough 
to  be  carried  in  one  of  the  panniers  of  a 
sumpter  mule  across  the  Pyrenees.  While 
a  prisoner  at  Verdun,  he  occupied  himself 
in  the  study  of  mathematics,  French,  and 
drawing.  In  the  Avinter  of  1813-14  he  tra- 
velled on  foot  through  a  large  part  of  France, 
and  on  reaching  England  was  appointed  mid- 
shipman to  the  Akbar,  and  in  her  served 
against  the  French  on  the  North  American 
station.  The  Akbar  was  dismasted  in  a  hur- 
ricane off  Cape  Hatteras,  and  nearly  foun- 
dered. In  1816  she  Avas  paid  oflf,  and  in 
1817  Back  was  appointed  admiralty  mate  of 
the  Bulwark.  Next  year  he  Aolunteered for 
sei'A'ice  in  the  Trent,  under  Franklin,  Avho 
Avas  then  entering  on  the  first  modern  Aoyage 
of  discovery  in  the  Spitzbergen  seas.  Of  that 
A'oyage  his  friend — afterwards  Admiral — 
Beechey  is  the  gi'aphic  historian.  On  his 
return  he  rejoined  the  Bulwark,  but  in  the 
very  next  year  set  out  Avitli  Franklin  on  his 
expedition  by  land  to  the  Coppermine  riA'er, 
the  object  of  AA'hich  was  to  determine  the 
latitude  and  longitude  of  the  northern  coast 
of  North  America,  and  the  trend  of  the  coast 
east  of  the  Coppermine.  In  that  terrible  ex- 
pedition it  Avas  to  Back's  dauntless  determi- 
nation that  the  safety  of  the  surxiAors  AA-as 
to  a  great  extent  due.  At  Fort  Enterpi'ise 
Franklin  sent  him  back  to  Fort.  ProA'idence, 
and  he  AA^as  in  imminent  danger  of  starva- 
tion on  the  way.  In  fiAe  months  he  tra- 
A'elled  1,204  miles  on  snoAV  shoes,  Avith  no 
other  coAering  at  night  in  the  AA'oods  but 
a  blanket  and  a   deerskin,  Avhen  the  ther- 


Back 


319 


Back 


monietcr  was  frequently  at  48  (leg.  and  once 
at  67  cleg,  below  zero,  and  sometimes  with- 
out tasting  food  for  two  or  three  days  at  a 
time.  Later  on,  when  Franklin  was  in  dire 
straits,  he  again  sent  Back  to  get  help  from 
the  Indians,  and  after  incredible  exertions 
and  sufferings,  and  after  seeing  one  of  his 
companions  die  on  the  road,  he  succeeded  in 
his  mission  just  in  time  to  save  Franklin's 
life.  On  coming  back  to  England  he  was 
made  lieutenant  in  1822.  In  1823  he  was 
appointed  to  the  Superb,  and  sailed  to  the 
West  Indies.  Next  year,  while  at  Lisbon, 
he  was  invited  to  join  Franklin's  expedition 
to  the  Mackenzie  river,  and  hastened  to  do 
so.  In  that  memorable  expedition  he  ren-  j 
dered  Franklin  signal  senice,  especially  in 
his  dealings  with  the  Esquimaux,  and  on 
coming  home  in  1827  found  himself  pro- 
moted to  the  rank  of  commander.  His  re- 
peated applications  for  a  ship  met  with  no 
response,  and  he  went  to  Italy  to  improve 
himself  in  the  arts.  At  Naples  he  heard  of 
the  supposed  loss  of  Captain  Ross  in  the 
^Vrctic  regions,  and  offered  the  Royal  Geo- 
graphical Society  to  go  in  search  of  him.  He 
had  been  informed  by  Copper  Indians  on  his 
previous  journey  of  the  existence  of  a  river 
rising  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Great 
Slave  Lake,  and  debouching  on  the  Polar 
Sea,  and  by  tracing  this  river  to  its  mouth 
he  hoped  to  make  his  way  to  Regent's  Inlet, 
where  he  thought  Captain  Ross  might  be 
beset.  The  council  accepted  his  otter,  and  a 
grant  from  government,  supplemented  by  a 
public  subscription,  supplied  the  funds  for 
the  expedition,  on  which  he  set  out  with 
only  one  companion  of  his  own  rank.  Dr. 
Richard  King,  as  surgeon  and  naturalist,  in 
February  1833.  His  instructions  were,  in 
brief,  first  to  make  for  the  sea  by  the  aforesaid 
river  and,  if  possible,  aid  Captain  Ross,  and, 
secondly,  to  survey  the  sea-coast  as  far  as 
possible.  The  first  winter  was  spent  by  him 
at  Fort  Reliance — a  house  which  he  con- 
structed near  the  Great  Slave  Ijake,  when 
himself  half  starved  and  amid  starving  In- 
dians. The  cold  was  so  extreme  that  while 
washing  his  face  close  to  a  fire  his  hair  froze 
before  he  could  dry  it.  In  April  he  received 
news  of  Captain  Ross's  arrival  in  England, 
but  he  was  ordered  to  push  on  to  the  river 
and  survey  the  coast  thence  to  Cape  Turn- 
again.  His  first  difficulty  was  to  discover 
Avhere  the  river  lay,  and  to  avoid  embarking 
■on  the  wrong  one.  The  name  of  it  was 
Thlew-ee-choh-deeseth,  or  Great  Fish  River, 
:and  how  doggedly  he  traced  it  to  the  sea, 
amid  perils  from  the  ice  and  the  rapids, 
managing  the  Indians,  and  making  friends 
Avith  the  Esquimaux,  he  has  vividly  recounted 


in  his  '  Narrative  of  the  Arctic  Land  Expe- 
dition to  the  Mouth  of  the  Great  Fish  River, 
in  18:34  and  1835.'  The  narrative  is  beauti- 
fully illustrated  by  sketches  made  by  him- 
self. Some  falls  on  the  river  Ah-hel-Dessy, 
which  he  named  Pany  Falls,  he  describes 
as  far  sui'passing  the  Falls  of  Niagara  in 
splendour  of  effect.  The  ice  prevented  his 
proposed  survey  of  the  coast,  and  after  again 
wintering  at  Fort  Reliance  he  reached  La 
Chene,  the  Hudson's  Bay  station,  Avhence  he 
had  started  over  two  years  before,  in  August 
1835,  having  since  he  quitted  it  travelled 
7,500  miles,  including  1,200  of  discovery. 
Besides  his  discovery  of  a  river,  over  440 
miles  long,  he  had  made  impoi'tant  obsei"\'a- 
tions  of  the  Aurora  Borealis,  and  had  given 
the  name  of  Montreal  to  an  island,  afterwards 
to  be  so  sadly  familiar  in  connection  with 
the  fate  of  Franklin.  In  October  he  reached 
England,  Avas  awarded  the  Geographical  So- 
ciety's gold  medal,  and  was  promoted  by  the 
admiralty  to  the  rank  of  captain,  by  order 
in  council — an  honour  Avhich  no  other  officer 
in  the  navy  had  received  except  William  IV. 
In  the  following  year  he  was,  at  his  own 
proposal,  appointed  to  the  command  of  an 
expedition,  the  object  of  which  was  to  com- 
plete the  coast  line  between  Regent's  Inlet 
and  Cape  Timiagain.  On  his  return  homn 
he  published  a  narrative  of  his  voyage,  and  a 
terrible  story  it  is.  Off  Cape  Comfort  tlui 
ship  was  frozen  in,  and  then  drifted  up  Frozen 
Channel.  From  December  to  IMarch  she  was 
driven  about,  and  floated  powerless  till 
10  July,  and  for  three  days  was  on  her  beam 
ends,  but  on  the  14th  suddenly  righted. 
W^hen  '  it  wanted  but  one  day  to  complete 
four  months  since  the  ship  had  been  thrown 
upon  the  ice,'  she  was  '  once  more  in  her  own 
element,  and  subject  to  the  will  of  man.' 
But  the  crazy  vessel  nearly  sank  in  a  gale  as 
she  crossed  the  Atlantic,  and  it  Avas  not  till 
3  Sept.,  'fifteen  months  since  the  pleasing 
sound  of  a  falling  anchor  had  greeted'  his 
ears,  that  she  anchored  in  Lough  Swilly, 
Two  extracts  from  Back's  account  of  this 
voyage  will  illustrate  the  perils  which  he 
encountered,  and  the  style  in  Avhich  he  nar- 
rated them.  '  The  ship  was  still  setting  fast 
along  shore  and  much  too  close  to  the  fixed 
ice,  but  it  was  not  till  8  p.m.  that  any  sus- 
picious movement  Avas  noticed  near  us. 
Then,  however,  a  continually  increasing  rush 
was  heard,  which  at  10.45  p.m.  came  on  Avith 
a  heaA'y  roar  towards  the  larboard  quarter, 
upturning  in  its  progress,  and  rolling  onAvard 
with  it,  an  immense  Avail  of  ice.  This  ad- 
A'anced  so  fast  that  though  all  hands  were 
immediately  called  they  had  barely  time, 
with  the  greatest  exertion,  to  extricate  three 


Backhouse 


320 


Backhouse 


of  the  boats,  one  of  them,  in  fact,  being- 
hoisted  up  when  only  a  few  feet  from  the 
crest  of  the  solid  wave,  Avhich  held  a  steady 
course  direct  for  the  quarter,  almost  over- 
topping it,  and  continuing  to  elevate  itself 
until  about  twenty-five  feet  high.'  'On 
14  July  they  beheld  the  strange  and  appal- 
ling spectacle  of  what  may  be  fitly  termed  a 
submerged  berg,  fixed  low  down,  with  one 
end  to  the  ship's  side,  while  the  other,  with 
the  purchase  of  a  long  lever  advantageously 
placed  at  a  right  angle  with  the  keel,  was 
slowly  rising  towards  the  surface.  Mean- 
time, those  who  happened  to  be  below,  find- 
ing everything  falling,  rushed  or  clambered 
on  deck,  where  they  saw  the  ship  on  her 
1)eam  ends,  with  the  lee  boats  touching  the 
water,  and  felt  that  a  few  moments  only 
trembled  between  them  and  eternity.  Yet 
in  that  awful  crisis  there  was  no  confusion.' 
It  may  be  safely  said  that  few  sailors  ever 
survived  more  terrible  perils  and  hardships 
than  Back  did  in  the  two  expeditions  under 
Franklin,  and  the  two  which  he  commanded 
himself.  *  Arctic  work,'  as  Lord  Brougham 
said  of  Franklin,  '  had  got  into  his  blood,' 
and  he  could  not  help  going  again  and  again 
if  he  had  the  chance.  But  the  exposure  and 
anxiety  of  eleven  years'  service  in  the  north- 
ern seas  at  last  told  even  on  his  iron  frame. 
For  six  years  he  was  more  or  less  an  invalid, 
and  was  never  sufficiently  restored  to  resume 
the  ordinary  duties  of  his  profession  afloat. 
In  1837  he  received  from  the  Geogra- 
phical Society  both  its  medals.  In  1839 
he  was  knighted.  He  also  received  the  gold 
medal  of  the  Geographical  Society  of  Paris, 
and  was  presented  with  a  service  of  plate 
by  the  subscribers  to  the  Arctic  Land  Expe- 
dition. He  was  employed  by  government 
to  report  on  the  harbour  of  Holyhead,  but 
afterwards  lived  in  retirement  on  half-pay. 
He  was  a  vice-president  and  long  on  the 
council  of  the  Geographical  Society,  and  con- 
tributed many  reports.  He  was  made  admi- 
ral in  1857,  and  was  also  D.O.L.  and  F.ll.S. 
Of  all  these  honours  he  was  indeed  worthy, 
for  in  bravery,  intelligence,  and  love  of  ad- 
venture he  was  the  very  model  of  an  English 
sailor.     Sir  George  died  23  June  1878. 

[Information  given  by  the  Rev.  Henry  Back ; 
Narrative  of  an  Expedition  in  H.M.'s  ship  Terror, 
in  the  years  1836-7;  Nari'ative  of  the  Arctic 
Land  Expedition  to  the  mouth  of  the  Great  Fish 
River  in  1833-5,  both  by  Back  ;  Journey  to  the 
Shores  of  the  Polar  Sea,  and  Second  Journey  to 
the  Shores  of  the  Polar  Sea,  by  Franklin.] 

A.  H.  B-Y. 

BACKHOUSE,  EDWARD  (1808-1879), 
author  of '  Early  Church  Histoiy,'  was  born 
at  Darlington  on  8  May  1808.   He  lived  from 


early  boyhood  at  Sunderland,  where  he  v 
partner  in  collieries  and  in  the  bank  w 
which  his  family  had  been  connected 
many  years.  He  took  no  active  part 
business,  and  was  a  man  of  cultivated  tast 
fond  of  travel,  a  good  amateur  painter,  a 
a  student  of  natural  history.  He  devol 
himself  chiefly  to  the  promotion  of  phih 
thropic  and  religious  purposes.  He  was 
most  generous  and  judicious  supporter 
various  institutions  in  Sunderland,  and 
said  to  have  spent  over  10,000/.  a  year 
charities.  In  politics  he  was  an  energe 
liberal,  and  especially  interested  in  questic 
bearing  directly  upon  morality.  In  later  1 
he  was  a  prominent  opponent  of  the  C( 
tagious  Diseases  Acts.  He  was  a  devol 
member  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  to  whi 
his  family  belonged.  He  began  to  preach 
1852,  and  two  years  later  was  '  recognise 
as  a  minister.  He  married  Katharine  Mounf 
in  1856.  He  had  no  family,  but  he  alwa 
delighted  in  the  society  of  children  and  t 
promotion  of  their  happiness.  In  1874 
was  impressed  by  the  belief  that  he  ought 
devotehimself  to  writing  upon  church  histo 
He  laboured  at  this  task  till  his  death 
22  May  1879.  His  manuscripts  were  ( 
trusted  to  Mr.  Charles  Tylor,  who  publish 
in  1884  '  Early  Church  History  to  the  Dee 
of  Constantine ;  compiled  by  the  late  Edw8 
Backhouse  ;  edited  and  enlarged  by  Char 
Tylor.'  The  book,  which  makes  no  prefer 
to  profound  research,  is  interesting  as  an  1 
count  of  the  early  church  by  an  intellige 
wi'iter  from  the  quaker  point  of  view. 

[Preface  to  Early  Church  History  by  Char 
Tylor;  Northern  Echo,  24  May  1879;  Sund 
land  Daily  Echo,  23  and  28  May  1879 ;  inf 
mation  from  the  family.]  L.  S, 

BACKHOUSE,  WILLIAM(1593-166: 

Rosicrucian  philosopher,  a  younger  son 
Samuel  Backhouse,  Esq.,  of  Swallowfield, 
Berkshire,  was  born  in  that  county  17  Jt 
1593,  and  entered  Christ  Church,  Oxford, 
a  commoner,  in  1610,  but  left  the  imiversi 
without  taking  a  degree.  At  length,  settli 
on  his  patrimony,  he  devoted  his  time  to  t 
study  of  the  occult  sciences,  became  a  ] 
nowned  alchemist,  Rosicrucian,  and  astro" 
ger,  and  gave  great  encoiu*agement  to  the 
who  were  addicted  to  similar  pursuits,  es] 
ciaUy  Elias  Ashmole,  whom  he  adopted 
his  son,  and  to  whom  he  freely  imparted  t 
arcana  of  his  mysterious  lore.  The  subjoin 
laconic  entries  in  Aslimole's  diaiy  show  t 
intimacy  of  the  friendship  subsisting  betwe 
them :— 26  April  1651 :  '  Mr.  WiUiam  Bac 
house,  of  Swallowfield,  in  com.  Berks,  caus 
me  to  call  him  father  thenceforward.'  10  Ju 


Backwell 


321 


Backwell 


1»J51 :  '  Mr.  Backhouse  told  me  I  must  now 
needs  be  his  son,  because  he  had  communi- 
cated so  many  seci'ets  to  me.'  10  March 
IH52 :  '  This  morning  my  father  Backhouse 
opened  himself  very  freely,  toucliintr  the  great 
secret.'  And  finally,  under  date  13  May  1653, 
Ashmole  writes  :  *  ^ly  father  Backhouse  lying 
sick  in  Fleet  Street,  over  against  St.  Dunstan's 
churcli,  and  not  knowing  whether  he  should 
live  or  die,  about  eleven  of  the  clock  told  me, 
in  syllables,  tlie  true  matter  of  the  Philoso- 
pher's Stone,  which  lie  beqiieathed  to  me  as 
a  legacy.'  It  is  almost  superfluous  to  add 
that  no  hint  is  given  as  to  the  nature  of  this 
wonderful  secret.  Backhouse  died  at  Swal- 
lowfield  30  May  1662.  He  married  Ann, 
daughter  of  Bryan  Ricliards  of  Hartley  West- 
field,  Hampshire,  by  whom  he  had  two  sons 
(who  predeceased  him),  and  a  daughter. 
Flower,  who  married,  first,  AV'illiam  Bishop, 
of  South  Warnborough,  Hampshire,  and 
secondly,  her  father's  kinsman,  Sir  William 
Backhouse,  Bart.,  who  died  22  Aug.  1669. 

Backhouse  left  in  manuscript :  1.  '  The 
pleasant  Founteine  of  Knowledge  :  first  writ- 
ten in  French  anno  1413,  by  John  de  la  Foun- 
teine of  Valencia  in  Henault ; '  translated 
into  English  verse  in  1 644.  MS.  Ashmol.  58. 
2.  A  translation  of  '  Planctus  Naturae :  The 
Complaint  of  Nature  against  the  Erroneous 
Alchymist,  by  John  de  Mehung.'  MS.  Ash- 
mol. 08,  art.  2.  3.  'The  Golden  Fleece,  or 
the  Flower  of  Treasures ;  in  which  is  suc- 
cinctly and  methodically  handled  the  stone 
of  tlie  philosophers,  his  excellent  effbctes  and 
itilmirable  vertues ;  and,  the  better  to  attaine 
to  the  originall  and  true  meanes  of  perfection, 
i  iiriched  with  Figm-es  representing  the  proper 
colours  to  lyfe  as  they  successively  appere  in 
the  pratise  of  this  blessed  worke.  By  that 
great  philosopher,  Solomon  Trismosin,  Master 
ro  Paracelsus; '  a  translation  from  the  French. 
-MS.  Ashmol.  1395.  Wood  adds  that '  he  was 
also  the  inventor  of  the  "  Way  wiser  "  in  the 
time  of  George  Villiers,  the  first  duke  of 
1 'licks.' 

[MS.  Addit.  14284  f.  20;  Lives  of  Ashmole 
and  Lilly  (1784),  313,  314,  315,  319,  329,  335; 
Wood's  Athenae  Oxen.  ed.  Bliss,  ii.  86,  iii.  575, 
iv.  355,  361,  715,  Fasti,  i.  422;  Black's  Cat.  of 
Ashmol.  MSS.  94. 221,  222,  514,  529,  533, 1089.] 

T.  C. 

BACKWELL,  EDWARD  {d.  1683), 
alderman,  a  celebrated  London  goldsmith, 
and  the  principal  founder  of  the  banking 
system  in  England,  was  descended  from 
a  family  which  at  a  very  early  period  had 
settled  at  Backwell,  Somersetshire.  The 
earliest  member  of  the  family  of  whom  there 
is  special  mention  is  Roger  de  Backwell,  who 

TOL.  II. 


Avas  one  of  the  squires  to  Lord  James  Audley 
at  the  battle  of  Poictiers  in  1356.  Edward 
Backwell  was  the  second  sou  of  Bamaby  Back- 
well  of  Backwell,  who,  after  Ids  mai-riage  to 
Jane,  daughter  of  John  Temple,  Esq.,  of  Bur- 
ton Dasset,  Buckinghamshire,  settled  in  that 
county  (Pedigree  from  manuscript  in  posses- 
sion of  William  Praed,  Es(i.,  of  Tyringliam, 
printed  in  Libscomb's  Buckinyhmmhire,  iv. 
376).  Possibly  the  father  had  some  busi- 
ness connection  with  London,  for  John,  the 
eldest  son,  like  his  younger  brother  Edward, 
married  the  daughter  of  a  Loudon  merchant. 
The  earliest  mention  of  Edward  Backwell 
in  the  State  Papers  is  under  date  30  April 
1650,  as  having  been  asked  to  '  provide  500/. 
in  pieces  of  eight.'  In  1653  he  has  a  bill  of 
1,380/.  for  the  victualling  of  ships.  That  he 
was  already  a  person  of  considerable  wealth 
and  enterprise  is  proved  by  his  purchase 
from  the  parliament  of  Old  Bushy  Park 
and  other  grounds  connected  with  Hampton 
Court  Palace,  which  after  a  long  negotiation 
were  rebought  from  him  by  the  Commons, 
in  the  beginning  of  1654  for  6,202/.  17*.  The 
principal  caiises  of  the  rapid  fortunes  made 
at  this  time  by  the  more  enterprising  of  the 
goldsmiths  are  stated,  in  a  curious  pamphlet, 
published  in  1676,  entitled  '  The  Mystery  of 
the  New-fashioned  Goldsmiths  or  Bankers 
discovered,'  to  have  been  the  facilities  af- 
forded them  for  obtaining  large  profits  by 
melting  down  money  of  more  than  the  proper 
Aveight,  and  the  introduction  of  the  system  of 
taking  money  on  deposit  and  lending  it  again 
at  a  higher  rate  of  interest.  The  deposit 
system  may  be  said  to  have  originated  about 
the  time  of  the  civil  Avar.  After  Charles  I 
in  1640  seized  200,000/.  Avliich,  according  to 
the  custom  of  the  period,  Avas  lodged  for  safety 
in  the  ToAver,  it  gradually  became  a  habit 
to  lodge  money  witli  the  goldsmiths.  The- 
goldsmiths,who  already  Avere  money  changers, 
now  became  money  borrowers  and  lenders. 
For  the  money  deposited  they  gave  receipts 
called '  goldsmiths  notes,'  the  earliest  kind  of 
bank  notes  issued  in  England.  There  is  every 
reason  to  suppose  that  BackAvell  Avas  the  chief 
originator  of  the  system,as  he  Avas  undoubtedly 
the  most  successful  and  best  knoAvn  banker  of 
his  day.  Besides  the  rents  of  the  country 
gentlemen,  the  goldsmiths  receiA'ed  clandes- 
tinely from  servants  the  money  of  their 
masters,  which  was  lent  them  at  the  rate  of 
^d.  per  cent,  per  day.  The  deposits  were  lent 
out  by  the  goldsmiths  at  a  high  rate  of  interest 
to  necessitous  merchants ;  and  in  addition  to 
this,  as  is  stated  in  the  pamphlet  above 
quoted,  'when  CromAvell  usurped  the  go- 
vernment, the  greatest  of  them  began  to  deal 
Avith  him  to  supply  his  wants  of  money  upon 


Backwell 


322 


Backwell 


great  advantage,  especially  after  they  liad 
bought  those  dollars  whereof  he  robbed  the 
Spaniards  to  about  the  value  of  300,000/.' 
The  '  dollars  '  referred  to  are  the  '  eight-aiid- 
thirty  wagonloads  of  real  silver'  (Carlile, 
Cromwell,  iv.  224)  taken  by  Blake  when  he 
captured  and  burned  the  Plate  fleet,  and 
which  Cromwell  sold  to  Sir  Thomas  Viner 
and  Edward  Backwell,  who  together  paid 
for  it  130,000/.,  and  coined  it  at  the  Tower 
mint  on  their  own  charge. 

The  dealings  of  Backwell  with  Cromwell 
were  not  remembered  against  him  at  the 
liestoration,  for  he  was  not  only  able  to 
cany  on  a  much  more  lucrative  banking 
business  under  the  auspices  of  Charles  II, 
but  was  employed  to  negotiate  the  king's 
principal  money  transactions.  *  As  soon,' 
Ave  are  told,  '  as  the  parliament  had  voted 
the  king  certain  sums  of  money  out  of  par- 
ticular taxes,  the  bankers  advanced  at  once 
the  money  voted  by  parliament,  and  were 
repaid  in  weekly  payments  at  the  exchequer 
as  the  taxes  were  received.'  In  1660  (or 
1666)  an  accusation  was  brought  against 
Backwell  for  concealing  large  sums  from  the 
king;  but,  as  it  had  no  result,  it  probably 
originated  in  envy.  In  addition  to  the  king 
and  the  queen  mother,  most  of  the  nobility 
and  persons  of  celebrity,  the  farmers  of 
customs,  tlie  excise,  several  city  companies, 
the  East  India  Company,  and  all  the  leading 
goldsmiths  had  accounts  with  Backwell. 
His  shop,  which  bore  the  sign  of  the  Uni- 
corn, was  situated  at  the  soutli  end  of  Ex- 
change Alley,  next  to  Lombard  Street,  its 
site  being  now  probably  occupied  by  No.  70. 
In  1663  his  premises  were  greatly  extended, 
l)ut  they  were  burned  down  in  the  great  fire 
of  1666,  when,  at  the  request  of  the  king,  lie 
obtained  accommodation  in  Gresham  House. 
Pepys,  who  was  on  intimate  terms  with  him 
and  mentions  him  frequently  in  his  '  Diary,' 
i-efers  to  his  having  a  residence  in  Mark 
Lane.  He  was  the  owner  of  several  farms, 
one  of  which  was  at  Crestloe  near  Ayles- 
Ijury,  and  lie  also  bought  in  1668  an  estate 
at  Buckeworth,  Huntingdonshire,  in  addition 
to  which  his  name  several  times  occui's  in 
county  histories  as  the  temporary  possessor 
of  estates  which  doubtless  had  come  into  his 
hands  through  the  pecuniary  difficulties  of 
their  owners.  The  wife  of  Backwell,  whom 
Pepys  praises  for  her  beauty  and  sprightli- 
ness,  was  his  second  wife  Mary,  daughter  of 
llichard  Leigh  of  Warwickshire,  who  died  in 
1670,  and  was  buried  in  St.  Helen's  Churcli, 
Bishopsgate  (MALC01.M,  Londinum  Rediri- 
nim,  iii.  006).  Of  the  death  of  his  first  wife, 
Alice  Brett,  the  daughter  of  a  London  mer- 
chant, there  is  no  record. 


In  October  1662  Backwell  was  sent  1 
Paris  to  receive  the  money  (180,000/.)  f( 
tlu;  sale  of  Dunkirk  to  the  French  ;  and  f( 
discharging  this  duty  he  obtained  from  tl 
king  in  1664  a  present  of  1,500/.  That  1 
was  employed  )jy  the  king  in  negotiations  > 
even  greater  im])ortance,  is  evident  from  a 
entry  in  the  State  Papers  in  1664  of  12,00{; 
paid  to  him  for  secret  services  without  a 
count,  and  in  1665  of  1,750/.  After  tl 
treaty  of  Dover  in  1670  he  Avas  aLso  a  fr 
quent  intermediary  in  the  money  transactioi 
between  Cliarles  II  and  Louis  of  Franc 
Under  date  of  21  Jan.  1666,  there  is  Ji 
entry  in  the  State"  Papers  of  a  'warrai 
for  Edward  Backwell  to  be  a  baronet ; '  bi 
])ossibly  he  declined  the  honour.  The  pr 
diction  of  Pepys  that  '  the  king  and  kingdo 
must  as  good  as  fall  Avith  that  man '  avi 
scarcely  fulfilled  ;  for  when  Charles  in  167 
foutul  himself  involved  in  hopeless  mom 
difficulties  he  had  recourse  to  the  expediei 
of  closing  the  exch«|uer.  Of  the  1,328,52(^ 
in  the  exchequer,  the  amount  borrowed  fro 
Backwell  Avas  295,995/.  In  the  same  yea 
as  a])pears  from  the  '  Commons'  Journal,'  li 
name  was  sent  to  the  House  of  Commons  i 
elected  to  represent  WendoA-er,  but  on  pet 
tion  the  name  of  Thomas  AVharton  Avas  ii 
serted  instead.  Towards  the  close  of  tl 
year,  Ave  find  from  '  Hatton's  Correspondenci 
(Camden  Society,  1878,  i,  101)  that  he  hii 
been  sued  by  several  of  his  creditors  an 
judgment  giA'en  against  him.  Indeed 
Avas  currently,  though  erroneously,  reporte( 
tliat  it  Avas  for  refusing  to  interfere  on  h 
behalf  that  Sir  ( )rlando  Bridgman,  the  loi 
keeper,  Avas  removed  from  office.  '  Backwel 
says  Ilatton,  'moved  the  late  L**  Keepi 
upon  pretence  y*  he  had  lent  all  y*  mom 
to  y*  king,  Avhose  exchequer  was  uoav  sin 
up,  to  grant  him  an  injunction  to  stop  ^ 
proceedings  of  all  his  creditors,  and  for  di 
nying  this  it  is  generally  reported  y*  seah 
Avere  taken  aAvay.'  Whether  Backwell  sul 
sequently  obtained  an  injunction  to  stop  tl 
proceedings  of  his  creditors  does  not  appea 
but  possibly  it  Avas  at  this  time  that,  as  tn 
dition  has  it,  he  took  refuge  in  Holland.  D 
discontinued  in  any  case  his  banking  bus 
ness,  and  in  the  list  of  the  merchants  an 
bankers  of  London  for  1677  (the  oldei 
printed  list,  republislied  in  1878)  the  nan 
of  John  Balhird  ap])ears  as  occupying  li 
sliop  at  the  Unicorn,  Lombard  Street.  I 
AvhatcA'er  way  he  satisfied  the  claims  of  h 
creditors,  he  continued  till  1674  comptrolh 
of  the  customs  at  a  salary  of  250/.  a  yeai 
and  he  Avas  also  frequently  employed  by  tl 
king  in  receiving  sums  of  money  from  abroai 

The  letters  patent  gTanted  imder  the  greJ 


Backwell 


323 


Bacon 


al  in  1677  to  each  of  the  goldsmiths  who 
iind  lent  money  to  the  exchequer, '  of  a  yearly- 
rent  for  ever  upon  the  revenue  of  the  excise, 
«qual  in  value  to  the  interest  of  their  debts 
alter  the  rate  of  6  per  cent,  per  annum,'  must 
have  removed  the  money  embarrassments  of 
Backwell,  and,  as  the  Avhole  debt  was  dis- 
charged in  the  reign  of  AVilliam  IV,  his  heirs 
ultimately  suflfered  no  pecuniary  loss  by  the 
transaction.  The  statement  of  Mr.  Hilton 
Price  that  Backwell  removed  to  Holland  in 
1676  and  died  there  in  1679,  is  contradicted, 
not  merely  by  the  pedigi'ee  printed  in  Libs- 
comb's  '  History  of  Buckinghamshire,'  which 
gives  the  year  of  his  death  as  1683,  but  also 
by  the  fact  that  he  was  a  member  for  Wen- 
•dover  in  the  parliament  of  1679,  and  in  the 
Oxford  parliament  of  1680.  Backwell  was 
■chosen  an  alderman  for  Bishopsgate  ward  in 
1657,  and  from  a  list  given  in  Xorthbrook's 
'History  of  Ijondon '  it  appears  that  a  new 
alderman  was  chosen  for  tluit  ward  in  1681 ; 
I  lilt  possibly  the  change  may  haAe  been  con- 
nected with  the  disputes  between  Charles 
and  the  city.  The  tradition  that  Backwell 
took  refuge  from  his  creditors  in  Holland 
and  died  there  seems  to  have  had  its  origin 
in  a  statement  of  Cole  (MSS.  xxxviii.  389) 
tliat  he  heard  the  two  maiden  daughters  of 
Tyringham,  grandson  of  Edward  Backwell, 
say  in  their  father's  lifetime  at  Tj-ringham, 
that  'Alderman  Backwell,  on  some  failure 
of  the  government  security,  was  forced  to 
ntire  to  Holland,  where  he  died,  and  being 
•  nibalmed  was  brought  over  to  England  and 
liiii-ied  at  Tyringham.'  As  Tyringham  Back- 
well died  in  1754,  or  only  seventy  years  after 
1  he  death  of  his  grandfather,  the  main  sub- 
stance of  his  daughters'  statement  is  doubt- 
I  ess  correct :  but  as  there  is  no  record  of  a 
faihu'e  of  government  security  after  1677,  he 
liad  no  reason  for  remaining  after  this  in  re- 
lirement  in  Holland,  and  possibly  at  the 
1  hue  of  his  death  was  there  merely  on  busi- 
ness. John  Backwell,  eldest  son  of  Alderman 
P>iickwell  by  his  first  wife,  succeeded  to  the 
l)ioperty  of  Tyi-ingham  througli  marriage 
\\  ith  Elizabeth,  only  daughter  of  Sir  William 
Tyringham.  John  Backwell's  son  Tyring- 
liam  married  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Sir 
I'rancis  Child,  banker,  by  wliom  he  had  two 
sons,  Barnaby  and  William,  both  of  Avhom 
Ix'came  partners  of  Child.  Tlie  latter  son  in 
1 756  began  a  bank  of  his  own  in  Pall  3Iall. 

[Liljscomb's  History  of  Buckinghamshire; 
Diivry  of  Samuel  Pepys ;  Cole's  MSS.  vol.  xxxviii. ; 
State  Papers,  Domestic  Series;  The  notices  of 
Backwell  by  F.  G.  Hilton  Price  in  Temple  Bar 
•or  some  Account  of  '  Ve  Marygold '  (187o),  in 
Handbook  of  London  Bankers  (1876),  and  espe- 
cially in  vol.  vi.  part  i.  (1883)  of  Transactions  of 


London  and  Middlesex  Archseological  Society, 
pp.  191-230.  These  notices  are  in  .several  re- 
spects incomplete,  but  contain  various  interesting 
particulars  of  Backwell,  glwincd  from  his  ledgers 
in  possession  of  Messrs.  Child.]  T.  F,  H. 

BACON,  Lady  A^'N  (1528-1610), 
mother  of  Francis  Bacon,  was  the  second 
daughter  of  Sir  Anthony  Cooke  [q.  v.].  Her 
mother  was  Ann,  daughter  of  John  Cawn- 
ton,  of  London,  esquirt'.  Her  eldest  sister 
was  Mildred,  second  wife  of  William  Cecil, 
Ijord  Burghley;  of  three  younger  sisters, 
Katharine  became  the  wife  of  Sir  Henry 
Killegrew ;  Elizabeth,  the  wife  of  (1)  Sir 
Thomas  Hoby,  (2)  Lord  Russell,  son  of 
Francis,  earl  of  Bedford:  and  Margaret 
man'ied  Sir  Kalph  Rowlett  27  June  1558. 

Ann  was  born  in  1528,  and  had  the  same 
libei'al  education  as  her  elder  sister  Mildred, 
and  indeed  all  the  remarkable  household, 
under  the  vigilant  eyes  of  a  father '  eminent  in 
the  whole  cii'cle  of  arts  and  learning.'  ^^Tlen 
her  father  was  appointed  tutor  to  young 
Edward  VI,  Ballard  and  subsequent  au- 
thorities allege  that  his  daughter  Ann  was 
associated  with  him  as  governess.  She 
very  early  won  repute  for  learning,  being  re- 
ported to  read  Latin,  Greek,  Italian,  and 
French  '  as  her  native  tongue.'  It  was  pro- 
bably in  1556-7  that  she  married  Sir  Nicholas 
Bacon.  Anthony,  the  first  cliild  of  this  mar- 
riage, was  born  in  1558;  the  younger  son, 
Francis,  was  born  on  22  Jan.  1560-1. 

Lady  Bacon's   religious  faith  grew  with 
lier  years,  and  all  her  extant  letters  testify 
to  her  pm'itan  fervour.    Before  her  marriage, 
she  is  believed  to  have  translated  into  Eng- 
lish some  sennons  of  Bernardine  Ofhine;  and 
the  little  volume  entitled  '  Foureteene  Ser- 
mons of  Barnardine  Ochyne  .  .  .  translated 
...    in  to  oure  natyue  tounge  by  A.  C 
(1550  ?),  and  dedicated  to  the  translator's 
mother,  has  been  attributed  to  Ann  Cooke. 
The  fourteen  sermons  were  reprinted  in  th(! 
collection  of  Ochine's  sermons  issued  by  John 
Day,  the  printer.     In  1564  Lady  Bacon  was 
occupied  with  a  translation  from  the  Latin 
of  Bishop  Jewel's  '  Apologie  of  the  Church  of 
!  England.'    She  received  permission  from  the 
author  to  publish  the  work  (1564),  and  be- 
j  nefited  by  the  assistance  of  her  husband's 
i  friend,  Archbishop  Parker.     The  *  Apologie ' 
was  reprinted  in  1600.    Theodore  Beza,  who 
;  learned  of  her  piety  and  ability  from  her  son 
;  Anthony,  dedicated  to  her  his  'Meditations.' 
j      It  is  as  a  letter-writer  that  Lady  Bacon 
!  appears  in  her  most  attractive  light.     Most 
■  of  her  extant  letters  are  addressed  to  her 
!  s(ms  Anthony  and  Francis,  and  have  been 
j  printed  in  Speddings  '  Life  of  Bacon.'     Of 
I  her  solicitude  for  the  spiritual  welfare  of  lier 

y  2 


Bacon 


324 


Bacon 


sons,  and  of  the  jealousy  with  which  she 
regarded  her  autliority  over  them  long  after 
they  had  reached  manhood,  they  all  give 
ample  proof.  She  is  always  fiercely  rebuking 
them  for  disregard  of  her  wishes,  and  seeking 
to  keep  herself  informed  of  all  the  details  of 
their  daily  life.  Plays  and  masques  Avere 
abominations  to  her ;  the  nonconformists 
she  admired,  and  in  one  long  letter  to  Lord 
Burghley  she  prayed  that  they  might  be 
treated  fairly.  All  her  letters  are  inter- 
spersed with  lavish  quotations  from  Greek  and 
Latin.  Her  mind  gave  way  during  the  later 
years  of  her  protracted  life.  '  She  was  but 
little  better  than  frantic  in  her  age,'  writes 
Bishop  Goodman  in  his  '  Court  of  James  I,' 
i.  285  (cf.  Spedding's  Life,  iv.  217).  But 
she  lived  on  little  noticed  imtil  1610.  A 
letter  from  Bacon,  dated  27  Aug.  1610,  in- 
vites Sir  Michael  Hicks  to  'the  mournful 
occasion '  of  her  funeral  (Speddixg's  Letters 
and  Life,  iv.  216-18).  "When  her  illustrious 
son  drew  up  his  own  last  will,  its  second 
clause  ran  :  '  For  my  burial,  I  desire  it  may 
be  in  St.  Michael's  Church,  near  St.  Albans 
— there  my  mother  was  buried '  {ibid.  vii. 
539). 

[Kippis's  Biogr.  Britannica,  iv.  96-8;  Ballard's 
JLemoirs  of  British  Ladies,  126-32  (2nd  edit.)  ; 
Birch's  Memoirs  of  the  Reign  of  Queen  Eliza- 
beth ;  Spedding's  Life  of  Bacon,  vols,  i.-iv. ; 
Croodman's  Court  of  King  James  the  First,  i. 
285.]  A.  B.  G. 

BACON,  ANTHONY  (1558-1601),  di- 
plomatist, and  friend  of  the  Earl  of  Essex, 
was  born  in  1658,  probably  at  Gorhambury, 
Hertfordshire.  He  was  the  elder  of  the 
two  sons  of  Sir  Nicholas  Bacon,  lord  keeper, 
by  his  second  wife,  Ann,  daughter  of  Sir 
Anthony  Cooke.  The  younger  son  was  the 
great  Francis  Bacon.  From  infancy  An- 
thony was  in  very  delicate  health.  In  a 
letter  dated  17  June  1560  his  father  writes 
of  his  recovery  from  a  dangerous  fever.  At 
fourteen  his  sight  was  in  danger.  Through- 
out his  life  he  was  lame.  On  5  April  1573 
he  and  his  brother  Francis  went  into  residence 
at  Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  as  fellow- 
commoners.  They  matriculated  on  10  June, 
and  shared  the  same  rooms.  Their  tutor  was 
John  Whit  gift,  master  of  the  college  and 
afterwards  archbishop  of  Canterbury.  They 
remained  at  Cambridge  till  Christmas  1575, 
but  between  August  1574  and  the  following 
March  the  plague  kept  them  from  the  uni- 
versity. They  were  both  diligent  students, 
but  Whitgift's  accounts  of  the  money  spent 
'  for  Anthonie  beeing  syck '  between  1573 
and  1575  prove  his  studies  to  have  been  re- 
peatedly interrupted  by  serious  illness.     In 


June  1576  the  two  brothers  were  admit 
*  ancients '  (being  the  sons  of  a  judge) 
Gray's  Inn.  In  February  1 578-9  tlieir  fatl 
died,  and  Anthony  succeeded  to  much  of 
landed  property  in  Hertfordshire  and  M 
dlesex.  The  estate  of  Gorliambury  in  1 
former  county  was  bequeathed  to  his  mot] 
for  her  life,  with  remainder  to  himself.  1 
half-brother,  Nathaniel  Bacon,  Sir  Nichoh 
second  son  by  hisfii'st  marriage,  disputed  th 
bequests ;  but  the  quarrel,  on  being  referi 
to  Lord  Treasurer  Burghley,  the  husband 
Lady  Bacon's  sister,  Mildred,  and  thus  ^. 
thony's  uncle  by  marriage,  was  settled 
Anthony's  favour. 

Late  in  1579  Bacon  set  out,  atLordBurj 
ley's  suggestion,  on  a  long  continental  t( 
in  search  of  political  intelligence.  He  sta; 
for  some  time  at  Paris,  and  there, to  the  ala 
of  his  relatives — all  sturdy  protestants— 
made,  for  diplomatic  purposes,  the  acquai 
ance  of  William  Parry,  LL.I).,  an  Engl 
catholic  refugee,  who  was  executed  for  tr 
sonable  conspiracy  in  London  in  1585.  Bac 
began,  very  soon  after  his  arrival  on  the  C( 
tinent,  to  correspond  regularly  with  Walsii 
ham,  and  in  1580  he  entertained  at  Paris  ( 
of  Walsingham's  secretaries,  Nicholas  Fau 
Avho  became  his  most  intimate  friend  and  c 
respondent.  In  August  1580  Anthony 
moved  to  Bourges,  whence  he  wrote  t 
very  affectionate  letters  to  his  uncle  Bur| 
ley  (14  Jan.  and  13  Feb.  1580-1 ;  Cal.  St 
Papers,  1581-90,  pp.  2, 5),  but  the  corrupt  j 
led  by  the  inhabitants  of  the  city  induced  L 
to  hurry  thence  to  Geneva.  There  he  lodj 
in  the  house  of  Theodore  Beza,  who  esteeu 
him  so  highly  as  to  dedicate,  '  out  of  resp 
to  him,'  his  '  Meditations'  to  his  mother,  Ls 
Bacon,  and  to  send  to  Lord  Burghley 
])resentation  to  the  uni\'ersity  of  Cambric 
an  ancient  copy  of  the  Pentateuch  in 
languages  (Strype's  Annals,  in.  i.  110, 
197).  Early  in  1582  he  was  staying  at  Lyo 
whence  he  journeyed  to  Montpellier  s 
Toulouse.  In  May  of  that  year  he  recei'' 
permission  through  Faunt  to  remain  abn 
for  three  years  longer.  He  afterwards  p 
ceeded  to  Marseilles  and  to  Bordeaux,  wh 
he  was  living  at  the  close  of  1583.  Thei 
he  forwarded  letters  addressed  by  the  Di 
de  Montmorenci  to  Elizabeth,  and  she  < 
pressed  to  him,  through  the  Earl  of  Leicest 
her  satisfaction  in  having  *  so  good  a  man 
you  to  have  and  receive  letters  by '  (7  C 
1583).  Bacon  used  his  influence  at  Bordet 
to  improve  the  position  of  the  protesta 
there,  an  undertaking  in  which,  as  he  wt 
to  his  old  tutor,  Whitgift,  then  archbisl 
of  Canterbury,  he  ran  the  risk  of  perso 
danger,  and  he  made  the  acquaintance 


Bacon 


325 


Bacon 


Montaij^ne,  the  essayist.  After  some  fifteen 
months'  sojourn  at  l^ordeaux,  he  removed  to 
Beam,  where  he  visited  llenry  of  Navarre 
and  met  Lambert  Dant^au,  an  eminent  pro- 
testant  theologian,  better  known  as  Dananis. 
Daneau  dedicated  to  Anthony  his  commen- 
tary on  tlie  minor  prophets,  which  was  pub- 
lished at  Geneva  in  I086;  and  in  the  'Epi- 
«tola  Dedicatoria'  speaks  with  affectionate 
admiration  not  only  of  Anthony  himself,  but 
of  his  father,  Sir  Nicholas,  and  of  his  half- 
brother,  Edward.  Early  in  1585  Bacon 
settled  at  Montauban,  and  for  the  five  fol- 
lowing years  lived  on  close  terms  of  intimacy 
with  Aavarre's  counsellors,  the  leaders  of 
protestant  IVance.  In  1590  he  was  driven 
trom  ^lontauban  by  the  persecution  of  Ma- 
dame du  Plessis,  who  desired  him  to  marry 
h(v  daughter,  and  he  retired  for  a  second 
time  to  Bordeaux.  lie  subsequently  made 
friends  with  Anthony  Standen,  an  English 
catholic — well  known  as  a  spy  of  Walsing- 
ham — who  was  at  the  time  in  prison  at  Bor- 
deaux on  suspicion  of  holding  treasonable  cor- 
respondence with  Spain.  Bacon's  influence 
with  the  English  government  procured  his 
release  in  1591,  and  Standen  was  afterwards 
one  of  Bacon's  many  regular  correspondents. 
At  the  end  of  1591  Bacon  returned  to  Eng- 
land, where  he  arrived  in  very  poor  healtli 
in  February  1591-2.  During  his  continental 
tour  Bacon  had  coiTesponded  regularly  with 
Walsingham's  secretary,  Faunt,  with  his 
brother,  and  with  the  English  agents  in 
various  parts  of  Europe.  Very  many  of  these 
letters  are  extant  in  manuscript,  and  prove 
him  to  have  utilised  every  opportunity  of 
obtaining  information  on  foreign  politics. 

But  his  mother  and  brother  had  by  no 
means  approved  of  his  long  absence,  and 
Lady  Bacon  had  exerted  all  her  influence 
with  the  English  ministers  to  induce  them 
to  recall  him  earlier.  She  had  feared  the 
efiects  on  his  religious  opinions  of  his  inti- 
macy with  foreign  papists,  and  had  found 
his  vast  expenditure  a  severe  strain  upon 
her  own  resoiu-ces,  and  his  health  a  con- 
tinual source  of  anxiety.  As  early  as  1583 
she,  with  Francis  Bacon  and  Walsingham, 
had  entreated  him  to  leave  Bordeaux  for 
England  on  account  of  '  the  troubled  state 
of  France'  and  'the  sickly  state  of  his 
body.'  In  158G  Walsingham  sent  Anthony 
a  message  of  recall  from  the  queen,  but  this 
was  disregarded.  In  1589  Lady  Bacon  con- 
trived to  have  Anthony's  sen-ant,  Lawson, 
who  brought  despatches  to  Burghlev,  arrested 
on  sus])icion  of  being  a  papist,  and  Bacon  had 
to  send  a  friend,  Cajitain  Allen,  to  England 
to  reassure  her  on  this  point.  His  subsequent 
relations  with  Anthony  Standen  confirmed 


in  his  mother's  eyes  her  worst  suspicion  of 
his  religious  instability.  In  his  ]M'euniary 
difliculties  there  was  more  substantial  ground 
for  Lady  Bacon's  dissatisfaction.  Anthony 
was  clearly  living  beyond  his  means.  In 
1584  Francis  drafted  in  his  behalf  a  power 
of  attorney  enabling  pei-sons  in  England  to 
raise  money  on  his  landed  property.  A\'hile 
at  Montauban  he  was  con.stantly  borrowing 
money  of  the  King  of  NavaiTe  and  of  his 
counsellors,  and  his  mother  declared  at  the 
time  that  '  she  had  spent  her  jewels  to  supply 
him,  and  had  boiTowed  the  last  money  she 
had  sent  him  of  seven  different  persons.' 

But  Lady  Bacon's  anger  cooled  as  soon  as 
she  heard  of  her  son's  arrival  in  England,  and 
she  desired  Faunt,  an  undoubted  protestant,  to 
conduct  him  to  his  brother's  lodgings  at  Gray's 
Inn.  Soon  afterwards  she  addressed  to  him 
a  series  of  letters  which  prove  how  sincere 
was  her  interest  in  his  physical  and  spiritual 
welfare.  In  August  1592  he  stayed  Avith 
her  at  Gorhambuiy,  but  gout  prostrated  him 
there,  and  he  was  unable  to  pay  his  respects 
to  Queen  Elizabeth — a  duty  that  he  never 
found  an  opportunity  of  performing  later, 
and  thus  fatally  injured  his  chances  of  pre- 
fei-ment.  "VVlien  Bacon  sought  the  favour 
of  his  uncle,  Lord  Bm-ghley,  in  the  hope  of 
securing  a  post  at  court,  he  was  disgusted  to 
receive  nothing  but  fair  words — such  words, 
according  to  his  own  account,  as  'make  fools 
fain,  and  yet  even  in  these  no  ofter  or  hopeful 
assurance  of  i-eal  kindness,  which  I  thought 
I  might  justly  expect  at  the  lord  treasurer's 
hands,  who  had  inned  my  ten  years'  har- 
V'est  into  his  own  barn  without  any  lialf- 
penny  charge.'  In  February  1592-3  he  was 
returned  to  parliament  as  M.P.  for  Walling- 
ford,  and  did  not  increase  his  influence  with 
his  powerful  relative  by  opposing  a  govern- 
ment bill  imposing  new  penalties  on  re- 
cusants. 

Early  in  1593  he  took  the  decisive  step  of 
entering  the  service  of  the  rival  of  the  Cecils, 
the  Earl  of  Essex  [see  Devekeux,  Robert, 
second  Earl  of  Essex,  1567-1601],  to  whom, 
he  says,  he  found  (1592)  his  brother  'bound 
and  in  deep  arrearages,'  and  in  Avhom  he 
recognised  '  rare  virtues  and  perfections.' 
Francis,  in  his  '  Apologie  ....  concerning 
the  late  Earle  of  Essex,'  claimed  to  have  been 
the  author  of  this  arrangement  (Spedding's 
Life,  iii.  143).  Anthony— '  being '  (in  his 
brother's  w^ords)  '  a  gentleman  whose  ability 
the  world  taketh  knowledge  of  for  matters 
of  state,  especially  foreign '—undertook  in 
Essex's  behalf  to  obtain  earlier  foreign  in- 
telligence than  the  queen's  advisers  were  in 
the  habit  of  receiving,  and  the  earl  hoped  to 
secure  the  royal  favour  permanently  by  com- 


Bacon 


326 


Bacon 


municating  Bacon's  information  to  Elizabeth. 
To  Essex  Anthony  remained  faithful  till  death, 
and  worked  industriously  for  seven  years  as 
his  private  'under-secretary  of  state  for  foreign 
aft'airs.'  So  long  as  this  relationship  lasted, 
pjSsex's  confidence  in  Anthony  increased  year 
hy  year,  and  they  corresponded  with  each 
other  on  terms  of  closer  and  closer  intimacy. 
And  Anthony  never  ceased  to  urge  his  brother 
to  remain  firm  in  his  adherence  to  their  com- 
mon patron.  But  Burghley  still  continued 
to  hold  out  shadowy  hopes  of  preferment  to 
both  the  brothers,  and  wrote  to  their  mother 
(:^!)  Aug.  1593)  that  they  were  '  so  qualified 
in  learning  and  virtue,  as  if  they  had  a  supply 
of  more  health  they  Avanted  nothing.' 

Anthony  at  once  entered  into  elaborate  cor- 
respondence with  agents  in  Scotland,  where 
Essex  was  anxious  to  advance  James  VI's 
claims  to  the  English  throne.  He  was  soon 
fully  trusted  by  King  James,  and  received 
in  1594  the  king's  thanks  for  the  zeal  he  was 
displaying  in  his  behalf.  With  the  French 
king,  Heniy  IV,  Bacon  similarly  endeavoured 
to  keep  on  the  friendliest  terms.  On  14  April 
159G  Henry  sent  Bacon  an  autograph  letter, 
in  which  he  expressed  his  high  esteem  of  his 
'  prudence  in  the  conduct  of  public  affairs,' 
and  in  May  of  the  same  year  Anthony  was 
visited  by  the  Duke  de  Bouillon,  Henry  IV's 
envoy  to  England.  His  regular  correspondents 
from  1596  onwards  included  Sir  Thomas  Bod- 
ley,  the  English  ambassador  at  the  Hague  ; 
Sir  Anthony  Sherley,  the  far-famed  traveller ; 
John  Napier,  the  Scotch  inventor  of  loga- 
rithms, who  sent  him  mathematical  jmpers : 
Dr.  Hawkins,  the  ambassador  at  Venice  ; 
and  Sir  Thomas  Challoner,  an  accomplished 
scholar,  whom  Anthony  had  introduced  into 
Essex's  seiwice. 

Bacon  lived  until  1594  chiefly  with  his 
brother  Francis,  either  at  Gray's  Inn  or 
at  Twickenham  Park,  by  the  Thames.  At 
intervals  he  visited  his  mother  at  Gorham- 
bury,  or  went  to  reside  at  Kingston  and 
lledbonrne  in  Hertfordshire,  where  he  had 
inherited  property  from  his  father.  In  1594 
he  hired  a  house  in  Bishopsgate,  London, 
but  its  contiguity  to  the  Bull  Inn — a  play- 
house— was  so  bitterly  disapproved  of  by 
his  mother,  that  in  the  following  year  he 
removed  to  Chelsea.  In  October  1595  Essex 
invited  him  to  take  \i])  his  residence  in  Essex 
House  by  the  Strand,  and,  in  spite  of  Lady 
Bacon's  protest  that  such  a  step  woidd  ex- 
])ose  him  to  the  taunt  that  he  was  no  longer 
Essex's  'worthy  friend,'  but  'his  follower' 
— '  a  rare  kind  of  good  wit  and  speech ' — the 
invitation  Avas  gratefully  accepted.  The  gout 
and  stone  still  op])ressed  him,  and  money 
troubles  did  not  cease.     Before  the  close  of 


1593  he  sold  his  estate  of  Bail}',  and  he  Avas 
constantly  borroAving  of  his  friends  in  the 
following  years,  but  these  loans  were  often 
contracted  to  sujjply  Francis's  needs  rather 
than  his  OAvn.  Early  in  1595  he  made  a 
fruitless  application  to  his  imcle.  Sir  Henry 
KilligreAV,  for  a  loan  of  200/.  In  1597  Essex 
in  A'^ain  appealed  to  Nicholas  Bacon,  Anthony's 
half-brother,  to  assist  him.  The  only  one  of 
his  half-brothers  Avho  shoAved  Anthony  any 
kindness  Avas  Edward  Bacon,  and  Anthony 
endeaA"oured  in  1597  to  obtain  a  small  ])ost 
at  court  for  him  from  Sir  Robert  Cecil,  av1k> 
'  had  of  late  professed  A'ery  seriously  an  abso- 
lute amnesty  of  all  misconceits  passed.'  In 
1600  Bacon  seems  to  have  contemplated  the 
alienation  of  Gorhambury,  which  his  brother 
Francis,  then  no  longer  pool',  AA'as  anxious  to 
secure  for  himself. 

In  Francis's  adAancement  at  court  and  in 
health  Anthony  meanwhile  shoAved  an  as- 
siduous anxiety.  Constantly  in  his  corre- 
spondence with  Essex  in  1596  he  im])lores  his 
patron  to  secure  for  Francis  the  mastership 
of  the  rolls.  Francis,  AV'ho  had  the  highest 
opinion  of  Anthony's  political  abilities,  par- 
tially reciprocated  these  kindnesses,  but  the 
fraternal  sentiment  Avas  certainly  better  de- 
veloped in  Anthony  than  in  his  brother.  At 
one  time  Francis  was  endeaA'Oiiring,  through 
his  friend  Sir  John  Fortescue,  to  bring  An- 
thony's diplomatic  serAices  to  the  notice  of 
the  queen,  but  the  scheme  met  with  no  suc- 
cess. Francis  also  dedicated  the  first  edition 
of  his  essays  (published  in  1597)  to  Anthony, 
and  he  Avrote  there  :  *I  sometimes  Avishyour 
infirmities  translated  upon  mj-self,  that  her 
majesty  might  liaA'e  the  service  of  so  actiA'e 
and  able  a  mind  and  I  might  be  with  excuse 
confined  to  those  contemplations  and  studies 
for  AA-hich  I  am  fittest.'  Anthony,  in  his 
cherished  hope  that  Francis  would  still  ad- 
here to  Essex,  was  anxious  that  the  dedica- 
tion should  be  transferred  to  the  earl,  and 
at  once  forAvarded  a  copy  to  him  begging  for 
'  leaA'e  to  transfer  any  interest  unto  your  lord- 
ship, then  humbly  to  craAe  your  honourable 
accej)tance  and  trustAvorthy  protection  [for 
the  book].' 

In  the  early  months  of  1596  the  court- 
factions  of  Essex  and  the  Cecils  (Sir  Robert 
Cecil  Avas  then  secretary  of  state)  were  in 
hot  dispute  as  to  the  adA'antages  to  be  de- 
riAed  from  the  Cadiz  expedition,  upon  which 
Essex  Avas  resoh-ed,  and  Anthony  did  his  best 
to  support  his  friend's  policy.  Inthe  autumn 
of  the  same  year  his  aunt.  Lady  Russell,  made 
a  strong  endeavour  to  detach  him  from  Essex. 
The  attempt  was  doubtless  prompted  by 
Lady  Bacon,  Avho  preferred  the  serious  de- 
meanour of  her  brother-in-laAv  Burghley  to 


Bacon 


327 


Bacon 


the  impulsiveness  and  gaiety  of  Anthony's 
patron.  Lady  Russell  told  Bacon  that  he 
was  too  well  beloved  in  Scotland  to  be  a 
true  Englishman,  and  that  he  had  not  only 
al)andoned  thekindold  nobleman  (Burghley), 
but  did  him  ill  offices,  not  only  with  the  earl 
here  but  in  France  and  Scotland.  She  pro- 
ceeded to  reproach  him  (in  his  mother's 
vein)  with  all  his  past  life,  and  he  defended 
himself  in  a  detailed  speech  which  is  very 
useful  to  his  biographer.  An  account  of  the 
lengthy  interview  was  sent  by  Bacon  to  Essex, 
and  there  Anthony  stated  that  there  was  a 
mortal  enmity  between  himself  and  his  cousin. 
Sir  Robert  Cecil  (which  seems  in  the  next  year 
to  have  somewhat  abated),  and  he  reitei'ated 
*  the  entire  devotion  of  his  heart'  to  the  earl. 
On  the  return  of  Essex  from  Cadiz,  where  he 
had  been  hampered  by  the  home  government 
in  all  his  movements,  he  foi-warded  to  An- 
thony from  Plymouth  a  'True  Relation  of 
the  Action'  for  publication  ;  but  the  council 
forbade  this  step,  and  Bac(m  had  a  number 
of  manuscript  copies  and  translations  distri- 
buted in  Scotland,  the  Low  Countries,  and 
France  (cf.  Cal.  State  Papers,  1598-1601, 
p.  203).  In  1597  Bacon  was  returned  to 
])arliamenta  second  time  as  M.P.  for  Oxford, 
and  in  the  same  year  Essex  parted  from 
him  to  take  the  command  of  another  expe- 
dition by  sea  against  Spain;  but  its  failure  to 
gain  any  decisive  victory  bi'ought  Essex  into 
disfavour  with  the  queen,  and  he  retired  for  a 
time  from  public  life,  only  to  re-enter  it  to 
involve  himself  in  more  serious  complica- 
tions. Bacon  had  twice  in  the  early  part 
of  the  year  warned  E^sex  against  allowing 
acts  prompted  by  personal  pique  to  give  colour 
to  the  malicious  reports  of  his  enemies,  and 
Essex  in  1598  addressed  to  Bacon,  as  his 
'  true  friend,'  a  paper  for  publication  to  refute 
the  report  that  he  was  '  the  only  hinderer  of 
the  peace  and  quiet  of  his  country.'  A  ma- 
nuscript copy  of  this  tract  is  in  the  Public 
Record  Office  ;  it  was  published  for  the  first 
time  in  1003, 

With  the  close  of  1597  Bacon's  correspon- 
dence with  Essex  comes  to  an  end,  and  it 
lias  been  reasonably  inferred  that  the  later 
letters  were  burnt  by  Anthony  to  prevent 
their  exposure  and  misapplication  when  Essex 
was  in  disgrace  in  1599  and  1600.  After 
Essex's  return  to  England  from  Ireland  and 
his  imprisonment  in  the  former  year.  Bacon 
was  ordered  by  the  queen  to  quit  Essex 
House  (10  March  1599-1000),  so  that  the 
earl  might  be  kept  in  confinement  there. 
Both  Francis  and  Anthony  seemed  to  be 
then  working  together  in  the  earl's  behalf. 
On  5  June  1000  Essex  was  sentenced,  after 
an  informal  trial  at  York  House,  to  virtual 


suspension  from  all  his  offices  of  state. 
Francis,  although  he  acted  with  the  govern- 
ment on  this  occasion,  took  no  prominent 
part  in  the  proceedings,  and  immediately 
afterNvards,  at  Anthony's  suggestion,  he  drev 
up  a  pretended  correspondence  between  An- 
thoTiy  and  the  earl,  in  which  the  attem])t  waw 
made  to  '  picture  forth  unto  her  Majesty  my 
Lord's  mind  to  be  such  as  .  .  .  her  Majesty 
would  fainest  know  it.'  Here  Francis,  in 
his  brother's  name,  begged  Essex  not  to  de- 
spair, but  humbly  to  wait  for  a  change  of 
fortune,  while,  as  the  spokesman  of  Essex, 
he  represented  Anthony  to  be  the  most  de- 
voted of  the  earl's  friends.  The  letters,  '  by 
the  advice  of  Mr.  Anthony  Bacon  and  with 
the  privity  of  the  said  earl,  were  to  be  showed 
to  Queen  Elizabeth '  (cf.  Addit.  MS.  4130 
f.  50). 

Nearly  three  months  later  Essex  was  re- 
leased from  •  confinement  (26  Aug.  1600). 
Soon  aftenvards  he  entered  into  further 
clearly  treasonable  practices,  and  Avas  ar- 
rested again  (8  Feb.  1000-1).  An  important 
part  in  the  prosecution  was  then  entrusted 
to  Francis  Bacon,  and  Essex  suftered  on  the 
scafibld  (25  Feb.  1600-1).  At  the  final  trial 
Essex  referred  to  the  correspondence  between 
himself  and  Anthony,  drawn  up  by  Francis 
in  the  preceding  June,  as  proof  of  the  latter's 
sudden  change  of  front.  Although  we  have 
no  direct  information  as  to  Anthony's  rela- 
tions with  the  earl  or  with  his  brother  during 
the  last  six  months  oi"  Essex's  life,  it  is  clear 
that  Anthony  anticipated  as  little  as  the  earl 
the  role  played  by  Francis  in  its  closing 
scenes.  From  a  long  letter  addressed  (30  May 
1601)  to  Anthony  by  an  anonymous  writer, 
which  was  never  seen  by  him,  for  he  died  some 
days  before  it  was  written  {CKUJiE^,Annales, 
ed.  Heame,  957-01),  we  learn  that  Anthony 
Avas  interesting  himself  to  the  last  to  prove 
his  patron  innocent  of  the  worst  accusations 
brought  against  him.  The  story  related  by 
Sir  Henry  Wotton — at  one  time  a  secretary 
of  Essex  and  the  companion  of  Anthony 
Bacon  —  to  the  effect  that  Anthony — *a 
gentleman'  (in  Wotton's  words)  'of  impo- 
tent feet  but  nimble  head ' — was  faithless  to 
the  earl,  and  extorted  money  from  him  on 
several  occasions  by  threatening  either  to 
reveal  diplomatic  secrets  to  the  Cecils,  or  to 
abandon  Essex's  service,  may  justly  be  re- 
jected as  false  (cf.  Jteliqidce  WottoniancBy 
p.  13;  Notes  and  Queries,  2nd  ser.  iii.  121, 
190,  252).  We  know  that  Anthony  received 
little  or  no  money  from  Essex.  He  had 
lodgings  in  Essex  House,  but  maintained 
himself  out  of  his  private  resources.  Soon 
after  his  removal  thither  his  mother,  who 
treated  him  as  a  wayward  child  to  the  last. 


Bacon 


328 


Bacon 


complained  of  his  extravagant  expenditure 
in  coals  (Birch's  Memoirs,  ii.  371).  So  far 
from  growing  rich  in  Essex's  household,  it  is 
clear  that  he  grew  poorer  and  poorer.  Essex 
appears  to  have  promised,  and  to  have  made 
some  effort,  to  repay  him  for  his  self-denying- 
services,  but  the  schemes  did  not  take  effect. 

*  The  Queen  hears,'  wrote  Chamberlain  to 
Carleton  (28  June  1599),  Uhat  he  [Essex] 
has  given  Essex  House  to  Antony  Bacon, 
which  dis])leases  her;  I  believe  it  is  but 
instead  of  2,000/.  he  meant  to  give  him  with 
a  clause  of  redemption  for  that  sum'  {^Cal. 
State  Papers,  1598-1601,  p.  222). 

Anthony  died  just  before  27  May  1601, 
three  months  after  his  patron's  execution, 
aged  43.  Doubtless  the  shock  which  the  last 
events  of  Essex's  life  caused  him  hastened  his 
death.  '  Anthony  Bacon,'  writes  Chamber- 
lain to  Carleton  under  date  27  May  1601, 

*  died  not  long  since,  but  so.  far  in  debt 
that  I  think  his  brother  [to  whom  his  pro- 
perty reverted]  is  little  the  better  by  him.' 
^Vfter  James  I's  arrival  in  England  in  3Iay 
1603,  Francis  sought  the  favour  of  the  king 
mainly  on  the  ground  of  '  the  infinite  devo- 
tion and  incessant  endeavours  (beyond  the 
strength  of  his  body  and  nature  of  the  times) 
which  appeared  in  my  good  brother  towards 
your  majesty's  service  ...  all  which  en- 
deavours and  duties  for  the  most  part  were 
common  to  myself  with  him,  though  by 
design  (as  between  brethren)  dissembled' 
(Spedding's  Life,  iii.  62-3).  On  25  Aug. 
1604  Francis  received  the  grant  of  a  pension 
of  60/.  a  year,  in  consideration  (in  the  words 
of  the  patent)  of  his  brother's '  good,  faithful, 
and  acceptable  service '  (Rymer's  Fcedera, 
xvi.  597).  There  seems  every  reason  to 
.accept  Dr.  Birch's  inference  that  this  grant 
formed  the  king's  re})ly  to  Francis's  petition 
of  the  previous  year  {Historical  Vieio,  p.  xx). 

Bacon's  voluminous  correspondence,  in 
sixteen  volumes,  is  mainly  preserved  in  Lam- 
beth Palace  Library,  to  which  it  was  pre- 
sented by  Arclibishop  Tenison.  There  are 
sixteen  vokimes  of  transcripts  from  tlie  Lam- 
beth papers  at  the  British  Museum  {Addit. 
MSS.  4109-24).  Some  additional  letters 
are  also  at  the  museum,  and  others  are  in 
the  Public  Becord  Office.  These  letters 
and  papers  are  the  only  source  of  Anthony 
Bacon's  biography,  but  they  cover  far  more 
ground  tlian  his  personal  history.  Besides  the 
letters  from  and  to  his  mother,  his  steward, 
his  creditors,  his  brother,  his  friends,  doctors, 
and  money-lenders,  there  are  notes  of  politi- 
cal intelligence  from  spies  and  ambassadors 
stationed  in  all  parts  of  Europe.  His  papers 
present,  in  fact,  as  full  a  picture  of  European 
history  of  the  period  as  any  extant  collection 


of  documents.  Mr.  Spedding,  who  made  an 
examination  of  the  manuscripts,  described 
Bacon  as  a  grave,  assiduous,  energetic,  re- 
ligious man,  remarkable  for  his  power  of  at- 
taching men  to  him,  generous  beyond  his 
means,  a  little  too  apt  to  suspect  and  resent 
an  injury,  driven  at  times  into  injustice  by 
pecuniary  embarrassments,  but  generally  fair 
and  tolerant.  We  should  add  that  in  his 
religious  opinions  he  showed  a  liberality  far 
in  advance  of  his  age.  He  did  not  permit 
his  strong  personal  sympathy  with  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  Reformation  to  debar  him  from 
numbering  men  of  other  religious  professions 
among  his  friends.  His  epistolary  style,  al- 
though occasionally  cumbersome  in  expres- 
sion, is  full  of  quaint  humour,  and  the  writer's 
unswerving  honesty  of  purpose  gives  a  very 
pathetic  interest  to  the  Avhole  of  his  corre- 
spondence with  Essex. 

[Dr.  Tliomas  Birch  printed  in  17o4,  in  two 
volumes,  a  large  number  of  extracts  from  the 
Anthony  Bacon  MSS.  at  Lambeth,  under  the 
title  of  '  Memoirs  of  the  Beign  of  Queen  Eliza- 
beth,' but  he  injured  the  literary  effect  of  the 
letters  by  transferring  them,  in  almost  all  casts, 
from  the  first  to  the  third  person.  Dr.  Birch  also 
made  use  of  a  few  of  these  papers  in  his  Histo- 
rical View  of  the  Negotiations  between  France 
and  England,  1592-1617,  published  in  1749,  and 
has  given  an  account  of  Bacon  in  the  introduc- 
tion, pp.  xix-xxii,  which  proves  of  very  little 
value.  Mr.  Spedding,  in  the  first  three  volumes 
of  his  life  of  Bacon,  makes  many  references  to 
Anthony  Bacon.  See  also  Dr.  Abbott's  Bacon 
and  Essex  (1877);  Devereux's  Lives  and  Letters 
of  the  Earls  of  Essex ;  Cooper's  Athenae  Cantal). 
ii.  314-16 ;  Todd's  Cat.  Lambeth  MSS.] 

S.  L.  L. 

BACON,  FRANCIS  (1561-1626),  lord 
chancellor,  born  at  York  House  on  22  Jan. 
1661,  was  the  son  of  Lord  Keeper  Bacon,  by 
his  second  wife,  Ann,  second  daughter  of  Sir 
Anthony  Cooke,  and  sister  of  the  wife  of  Sir 
William  Cecil,  better  known  by  his  later 
title  as  Lord  Treasurer  Burghley.  In  April 
1573,  at  the  age  of  twelve  years  and  thref> 
months,  he  entered  Trinity  College,  Cam- 
bridge, leaving  it  in  March  1575.  In  Jun-^ 
1575  he  was  admitted  to  Grray's  Inn. 

Bacon  was  thus  destined  to  the  profession 
of  the  law.  Few  youths  of  his  age,  however, 
are  content  to  look  forward  to  a  life  of  merely 
professional  success;  and  in  Bacon's  cas'  . 
partly  by  reason  of  his  own  mental  qualitit- 
and  partly  by  reason  of  the  influence  of  rli 
exciting  events  of  the  great  national  struggl-j 
in  the  heart  of  which  he  lived,  the  visions 
of  youth  were  peculiarly  far-reaching.  The 
boy  already  longed  not  merely  to  do  some- 
thing for  tlie  defence  of  protestantism  against 


Bacon 


329 


Bacon 


its  enemies,  and  something  for  tlie  improve- 
ment of  the  g-overnnient  of  his  native  countrv, 
both  ^vhich  tliouglits  w(>re  likely  to  arise  m 
the  mind  of  IClizaheth's  '  joung'  lord  keeper,' 
as  she  playfully  called  him,  but  also  to  achieve 
u  task  which  was  peculiarly  his  own,  to  create 
ii  new  system  of  philosophy  to  rejdace  that 
■oi  Aristotle,  not  mei-ely  for  the  satisfaction 
of  the  cravings  of  his  own  speculative  reason, 
but  for  the  practical  benefit  of  humanity  at 
large. 

In  1570  young  Bacon  was  attached  to  the 
^•mbassy  of  Sir  Amias  Paiilet  to  France.  He 
was  still  abroad  when,  on  20  Feb.  1579,  his 
father  died,  leaving  him  Avith  but  a  small 
fortune.  On  his  return  to  England,  which 
followed  soon  after  he  received  the  bad  news, 
he  devoted  himself  to  the  study  of  the  law, 
though  he  Avas  not  without  hope  of  more 
suitable  work.  In  1580,  at  least,  he  was 
looking  to  his  uncle,  Lord  Burghley,  to  suj)- 
port  a  suit  for  some  kind  of  preferment,  the 
t'xact  nature  of  which  is  unknown.  As,. 
however,  he  did  not  receive  a  favourabltt 
4inswer,  he  continued  his  legal  studies,  and  on 

27  June  1582  was  admitted  utter  hamster. 
Bacon's  rise  in  life  was  brouglit  about  by 

his  election  to  the  parliament  whicli  met  on 

28  Nov.  1584,  in  which,  no  doubt  tlirough 
Burghley's  interest,  he  sat  for  the  borough 
ot  Melcombe  llegis.  The  time  was  one  in 
which  the  gi'eatest  questions  were  at  issue. 
The  danger  arising  from  the  activity  of  the 
supporters  of  Maiy  Stuart  was  coming  to  a. 
head,  and  at  the  same  time,  though  the  queen 
iind  the  House  of  Commons  were  completely 
at  one  in  their  desire  to  establish  the  national 
independence  by  keeping  the  catholics  in 
check,  there  was  a  division  of  opinion  be- 
tween them  on  the  form  of  religion  to  be 
maintained  in  the  country,  the  commons 
wishing  to  see  the  established  religion  modi- 
fied in  the  direction  of  Calvinistic  puritanisnj, 
and  the  queen  wishing  to  preserve  the  wor- 
shi])  of  the  Prayer-book  intact. 

Bacon's  views  upon  the  political  situation 
were  embodied  in  a  'Letter  of  Advice  to 
Queen  Elizabeth,'  written  in  the  end  of  1584 
or  the  beginning  of  1585.  There  is  nothing 
«rude  or  immature  in  this  his  first  political 
memoir.  Every  line  of  it,  in  fiict,  is  full  of 
-a  wisdom  too  far  in  advance  of  the  time  to 
be  palatable  either  to  the  queen  or  to  the 
<;ommons.  Most  remarkable  at  that  day 
was  Bacon's  recommendation  of  the  best 
mode  of  dealing  Avith  the  catholics.  Argu- 
ing on  th(^  hypothesis  that  they  Avere  the 
■queen's  enemies,  he  spoke  of  the  impossi- 
bility of  contenting  them,  and  of  the  dan- 
ger of  driving  them  to  despair.  The  latter, 
liOAvever,  Avas  precisely  Avhat  the  government 


was  doing  by  urging  the  oath  of  supremacy. 
It  Avould,  thought  Bacon,  be  *  better  to  frame 
the  oath  in  this  sense :  That  Avhosoever  Avould 
not  bear  arms  against  all  foreign  princes,  and 
namely  the  pope,  that  should  any  way  invade 
her  majesty  s  dominions,  should  be  a  traitor.' 
Having  thus  not  merely  anticipated  bur 
improved  upon  the  oath  of  allegiance  of 
1  (»00,  he  touched  upon  another  string.,  '  For 
preachers,'  he  Avrote,  *  because  thereon  gi-OAVs 
a  great  question,  I  am  provoked  to  lay  ar 
your  highness's  feet  my  opinion  touching  tlif; 
preciser  sort,  first  protesting  .  .  .  that  I  am 
not  given  OA'er,  no,  nor  so  much  as  addicted, 
to  their  preciseness ;  therefore  till  I  think 
that  you  think  otherAvise,  I  am  bold  to  think 
that  the  bishops  in  this  dangerous  time  tak»; 
a  very  evil  and  imadA'ised  course  in  driAiug 
them  from  their  cures.'  His  reasons  Avt-rt; 
tAvo  :  fii'st,  because  it  injured  the  queen's  re- 
putation to  have  it  knoAvn  that  there  Avere 
divisions  amongst  her  protestant  subjects ; 
and  secondly,  '  because,  in  truth,  in  their 
opinions,  though  they  are  someAvhat  over 
squeamish  and  nice,  and  more  scru])idous 
than  they  need,  yet  Avith  their  careful  cate- 
chizing and  diligent  preaching  they  bring 
forth  that  fruit  Avhich  your  most  excellent 
majesty  is  to  Avish  and  desire,  namely  tlu' 
lessening  and  diminishing  of  the  papistical 
number.'  Other  suggestions  for  indirectly 
Aveakening  the  catholics  folloAv,  after  which 
the  Avriter  turns  his  attention  to  foreign 
affairs. 

who  Avishes  to  understand 
this  letter  should  be  atten- 
He  must  very  early  ha\e  / 
got  into  the  habit  of  entertaining  thoughts 
for  Avhich  persons  in  authority  Avere  not  yet 
ripe,  and  of  looking  about  for  means  by  Avhicli 
he  might  alter  their  judgment.  The  Avay 
open  noAV  Avas  not  open  then.  He  could  not 
stir  up  opinion  by  public  A\'riting  or  public 
speaking.  His  Avords  as  a  member  of  parlia- 
ment Avould  not  go  beyond  the  AA-alls  of  par- 
liament, and  Avere  likely  to  fall  on  deaf  ears 
Avithin  them.  Not  only  did  the  one  way  of 
influencing  the  course  of  affairs  lie  in  ability 
to  Avin  the  queen  and  those  immediately 
around  her,  but  Bacon  Avas  Avell  content  that 
it  should  be  so.  In  the  queen  and  her 
council,  Avith  all  their  defects,  Avas  to  be 
found  the  regulative  authority  Avhich  con- 
trolled the  manifestations  of  the  national 
life,  and  Bacon  had  no  Avish  to  subordinate 
the  queen's  government  to  the  irregidar  im- 
pulses of  a  House  of  Commons  untrained  by 
experience  in  the  management  of  great  affairs. 
To  say  this  is  to  say  that  Bacon  must  look 
to  achieve  a  statesman's  ends  by  the  means 
of  a  courtiei*,  to  gain  access,  to  offer  services, 


By  any  one 
Bacon's  career 
tively  studied. 


Bacon 


33° 


Bacon 


to  watch  the  rise  and  fall  of  favourites.  To 
do  so  soon  became  a  habit  with  him,  but 
tliere  is  nothing  to  show  that  it  was  ever 
repulsive  to  him.  The  breadth  of  his  in- 
tellect left  little  room  for  any  strength  of 
emotional  nature.  In  the  '  Letter  of  Advice  ' 
tliere  is  a  singular  want  of  enthusiasm  where 
enthusiasm  Avouldbe  expected  in  so  young  a 
Avriter, 

In  the  parliament  which  met  on  29  Oct. 
1586  Bacon  sat  for  Taunton.  In  the  course 
of  this  year  he  became  a  bencher  of  Gray's 
Inn,  and  was  thus  enabled  to  plead  in  the 
courts  of  Westminster.  In  the  ])arliament 
which  was  opened  on  4  Feb.  1589  Bacon  Avas 
member  for  Liverpool.  lie  had  by  this  time 
caught  the  ear  of  the  house,  and  was  fre- 
quently employed  on  committees.  He  was 
aware,  however,  of  the  importance  of  gaining 
tlie  queen  to  his  views.  The  execution  of 
IMary  and  the  defeat  of  the  Armada,  indeed, 
had  made  the  question  of  the  treatment  of 
catholics  less  pressing;  but  the  appearance 
of  the  Mai-prelate  libels  had  brought  into 
greater  prominence  the  question  of  the  con- 
duct to  be  pursued  towards  the  puritans. 
In  '  An  Advertisement  touching  the  Contro- 
versies of  the  Church  of  England,'  a  paper 
written  in  1589  though  not  printed  till  1040, 
Bacon  amplified  the  opinion  which  he  had 
expressed  in  the  '  Letter  of  Advice,'  depre- 
cating the  factious  temper  of  the  puritans  on 
the  one  hand,  and  the  rigid  insistence  on  con- 
formity by  the  government  on  the  other. 
—  It  was  Bacon's  fate  through  life  to  give 
good  advice  only  to  be  rejected,  and  yet  to 
impress  those  who  received  it  with  a  suffi- 
ciently good  opinion  of  his  intellectual  ca- 
pacity to  gain  employment  in  work  which 
hundreds  of  other  men  could  have  done  as 
well.  At  the  end  of  1589  or  the  beginning 
of  1590  Bacon  wrote  a  letter  in  the  name  of 
Sir  Francis  Walsingham  in  defence  of  the 
queen's  proceedings  in  ecclesiastical  causes. 
He  must  have  longed  to  get  an  opportunity 
of  doing  more  than  this,  and  now  that  oppor- 
tunity seemed  to  have  arrived  at  last. 

At  some  time,  probably  not  later  than 
July  1591,  Bacon  made  tlie  acquaintance  of 
the  young  Earl  of  Essex.  In  this  way  began 
the  first  of  Bacon's  so-called  friendships. 
That  the  earl  soon  became  warmly  attached 
to  Bacon  is  beyond  doubt.  The  intelligent, 
but  impulsive  and  passionate  nobleman  of 
twenty-tlu'ee  found  in  the  cool  and  wary 
adviser,  who  Avas  in  years  his  senior,  those 
qualities  so  different  from  his  own  which 
were  likely  to  rivet  his  affection.  It  was 
Bacon's  misfortune  that  he  never  passed 
through  the  stage  of  admiration  Avhich  goes 
far  to  develope  a  complete  character.     The 


author  of  the  '  Letter  of  Advice  '  knew  him- 
self to  be  capable  of  giving  lessons  in  politics 
to  Burghley,  and,  if  he  did  not  expect  in- 
tellectual assistance  from  Essex,  he  failed  to 
perceiA'e  that  the  young  nobleman's  generosity 
of  temper  was  at  least  as  admirable  as  any 
power  of  brain  could  possibly  be.  In  his 
intercourse  Avith  men  there  AA'as  none  of 
that  intellectual  giA^e-and-take  Avhich  is  the 
foundation  of  the  highest  friendshij).  "What 
he  gaA'e  Avas  adA'ice,  the  best  that  he  had  at 
his  disposal.  What  he  hoped  to  receiA-e,  as 
he  looked  back  upon  the  past  after  fourteen 
years,  may  be  giA'en  in  his  oaa'u  Avords :  '  I 
held  at  that  time,'  he  Avrote,  *  my  lord  to  be 
the  fittest  instrument  to  do  good  to  the  state ; 
and  therefore  I  ap])lied  myself  to  him  in  a 
manner  Avhicli  I  think  hap])eneth  rarelyamong- 
men.'  In  1596  he  put  it  in  another  Avay,  iu 
asking  Essex  '  to  look  about,  even  jealously 
a  little  if  you  will,  and  to  consider  Avhether 
I  ha  AC  not  reason  to  think  that  your  fortune 
comprehendeth  mine '  (Speddin^g,  ii.  40 ;  see 
also  Abbott's  Bacon  and  Essex,  36).  It  is 
not  necessary  to  suppose  that  Bacon  meani 
to  refer  merely  to  his  personal  fortune.  That 
Avould  no  doubt  be  included,  but  the  allusion 
must  in  fairness  be  understood  to  imply  that 
he  looked  to  Essex  to  carry  through  to  suc- 
cess all  that  Bacon  Avas,  the  political  reformer 
as  Avell  as  the  aspirant  after  promotion. 

Of  the  nature  of  the  adA'ice  giA'en  to  Essex 
by  Bacon  during  the  early  years  of  their  in- 
timacy AA'e  haA'e  no  direct  eA"idence.  In 
NoA^ember  1592  he  Avrote  a  set  of  discourses 
to  be  used  in  a  '  deA'ice '  prepared  by  Essex 
{A  Conference  of  Pleasure,  edited  by  Sped- 
ding),  and  shortly  afterAvards  he  enlarged 
one  of  these  discourses  into  an  argumentativi 
defence  of  the  queen's  gOA'ernment,  under 
the  title  of  '  Certain  Observations  made  upon 
a  Libel  published  this  present  year,  1592,'' 
and  Avliich  therefore  must  liaA'e  been  com- 
posed before  25  ]March  1593,  according  to  our 
present  reckoning.  Before  that  date,  on 
19  Feb.,  a  ncAv  parliament  met,  in  which 
Bacon  sat  for  the  county  of  Middlesex. 

The  circimistances  under  Avhich  this  parlia- 
ment met  AA'ere  critical.  A  Spanish  intrigue  in 
Scotland  had  been  discoA'ered,  and  the  queen 
stood  in  need  of  supply  to  enable  her  to 
defeat  it.  The  committee  of  the  loAver  house 
appointed  to  consider  the  amount  re])orted  in 
favour  of  granting  tAvo  subsidies  Avith  their 
accompanying  four-fifteenths  and  tenths,  in 
spite  of  the  prevalent  feeling  against  giving 
more  than  one  subsidy  at  a  time.  Upon  this. 
hoAvever,  the  commons  Avere  sent  ft)r  to  thi 
upper  house,  and  Avere  informed  by  Burghle} 
not  only  that  the  lords  Avould  not  consent  to 
a  bill  granting  less  than  three  subsidies,  but 


Bacon 


331 


Bacon 


also  tlmt  tlio  amount  to  be  gTaiited  must  be 
(liscussocl  at  a  coiifereuce.  In  the  commons 
Bacon  led  the  opposition  to  this  j)roposal. 
lie  was  ready  to  vote  for  increased  su])])ly, 
but  he  objected  to  join  witli  the  lords  in  a 
discussion  about  su])ply  as  in*ejudiciuf''  the 
privileges  of  the  lower  house.  The  result 
was  that  after  some  days' confused  discussion 
tlie  lords  tacitly  abandoned  their  claim  to 
join  Avitli  the  commons  in  discussing  a  sub- 
sidy. 

bo  far  Bacon  had  only  come  into  open 
collision  with  the  lords,  though  there  can  be 
little  doubt  that  the  demand  of  the  lords 
was  made  at  the  instance  of  the  queen.  The 
next  stage  of  the  debate  brought  him  into 
collision  directly  with  the  crown.  In  their 
original  statemeiit  the  lords  had  proposed 
tluit  three  subsidies  payable  in  three  years 
should  be  granted,  Avhereas  the  practice  had 
been  that  each  subsidy  should  be  spread  over 
two  years.  In  s])eaking  for  the  goA^ernment 
Sir  R.  Cecil  now  contented  himself  with 
asking  that  the  three  subsidies  should  be 
])ayable  in  four  years.  Bacon,  however,  op- 
posed the  demand  on  the  ground  tliat  by 
causing  discontent  this  increase  of  the  burden 
of  taxation  would  do  more  harm  than  good. 
Though  it  is  not  known  what  he  himself 
jiroposed,  except  that  he  wished  to  spread 
the  payment  over  six  years  and  in  some  way 
to  mark  the  payment  of  the  last  subsidy  as 
extraordinary,  yet,  as  the  house  unanimously 
decided  against  him,  '  we  may,'  as  Mr.  Sped- 
ding  says,  '  at  least  conclude  that  there  was 
no  popular  party  in  opposition  strong  enough 
to  be  worth  conciliating  at  the  expense  of 
offending  the  i)arty  in  power.' 

There  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  Ba- 
con's op])osition  was  a  conscientious  one. 
\\'hen  called  on  by  Burghley  for  an  explana- 
tion, he  simply  claimed  his  right  to  speak 
according  to  his  conscience.  Eveiy  personal 
reason  must  have  influenced  him  to  make  an 
apology,  as  he  was  at  the  time  in  pecuniary 
difficulties,  and,  though  the  evidence  is  not 
complete,  it  would  seem  that  at  this  time  he 
was  again  contemplating  a  withdrawal  from 
the  court,.  The  attorney-generalshi])  was, 
moreover,  likely  to  be  vacant,  and,  though 
Coke  was  a  candidate  for  the  office,  some  one, 
probably  Essex,  urged  Bacon  to  apply  for  it, 
and  warmly  advocated  his  cause  with  the 
queen.  Elizabeth,  however,  was  too  angry 
with  his  behaviour  in  ])arliament  even  to  see 
him.  On  25  Jan.  1594  Bacon  removed  one 
objection  to  his  promotion,  that  he  had  never 
held  a  brief,  by  a])pearing  in  court,  where  he 
acquitted  himself  so  well  that  Burghley  con- 
gratulated him  on  his  success,  and  the  repu- 
tation thus  gained  he  increased  bv  further 


arguments  on  5  and  9  Feb.  'i'et,  though 
Essex  with  all  the  impetuosity  of  liis  nature 
continued  to  plead  for  Bacon,  Burghley  stood 
firmly  by  Coke,  and  by  the  end  of  March  1 594 
it  was  understood  that  Bacon's  suit  for  the 
attorney-generalship  was  finally  rejected. 
The  solicitor-generalship  was,  however,  now 
vacant ;  and  as  both  Essex  and  Burghley 
concurred  in  recommending  him  for  that, 
there  would  have  been  no  difficulty  in  his 
way  if  he  could  have  soothed  the  displeasure 
of  Elizabeth. 

At  last,  in  the  beginning  of  June  1595, 
Bacon  learned  from  Burghley  that  the  queen 
was  still  offended  with  him  for  his  conduct 
in  parliament.  If  Elizabeth  was  waiting  for 
an  apology.  Bacon  had  none  to  offer.  '  It  is 
not  unknown  to  your  loi'dship,'  he  wrote  to 
Burghley, '  that  I  Avas  the  first  of  the  ordinary 
sort  of  the  lower  house  of  parliament  that 
spake  for  the  subsidy ;  and  that  which  I  after 
spake  in  difference  was  but  in  circumstance 
of  time  and  manner,  which  methinks  should 
be  no  great  matter,  since  there  is  variety 
allowed  in  counsel,  as  a  discord  in  music  to 
make  it  more  perfect.'  Such  language  did 
not  satisfy  the  queen,  and  on  5  Nov.  the 
solicitor-generalship  was  given  to  Serjeant 
Fleming. 

The  story  just  told  is  not  only  most  credit- 
able to  Bacon ;  it  settles  in  his  favour  the 
question  whether  he  was  the  fawning  syco- 
phant which  he  has  been  represented  as  being. 
Everything  that  he  could  desire  for  the  higher 
and  the  lower  objects  of  his  life  was  in  the  scale 
on  one  side ;  on  the  other  the  mere  con- 
fession that  he  had  done  wrong  where  he 
believed  himself  to  have  done  right.  Nor 
can  the  evidence  in  his  favour  be  set  aside 
as  merely  proving  that  he  still  retained  the 
ingenuousness  of  youth.  During  the  life 
which  remained  to  him  he  was  consulted  on 
a  great  variety  of  subjects  under  a  great 
variety  of  circumstances.  An.  intellectual 
unity  pervades  the  whole  of  the  advice  which 
he  gave.  He  may  sometimes  have  held  hi> 
tongue  when  he  knew  that  his  counsel  would 
be  disregarded,  but  he  never  prophesied 
smooth  things  to  suit  the  wishes  of  those 
by  whom  his  counsel  was  required. 

To  the  impetuous  Essex,  who  had  thrown 
himself  heart  and  soul  into  Bacon's  suit,  the 
result  of  his  repeated  applications  was  a  deep 
disappointment.  Too  generous  to  feel  only 
his  own  share  in  the  rebuff',  he  offered  to 
do  his  best  to  make  up  the  loss  to  Bacon. 
'  Master  Bacon,'  he  said,  according  to  the 
account  of  the  conversation  subsequently 
given  by  Bacon  himself,  'the  queen  hath 
denied  me  yon  place  for  you,  and  hath  placed 
another ;  I  know  you  are  the  least  part  of 


Bacon 


332 


Bacon 


your  own  matter,  but  you  fare  ill  because 
you  bave  cbosen  me  for  your  mean  and  de- 
pendence ;  you  bave  spent  your  time  and 
thoughts  in  my  matters.  I  die  if  I  do  not 
somewhat  towards  your  fortune ;  you  shall 
not  deny  to  accept  a  piece  of  land  which  I 
will  bestoAv  upon  you.'  Bacon  told  the  earl  j 
that  it  was  not  well  for  him  to  turn  bis  ! 
estate  into  obligations,  for  he  would  find  bad 
debtors.  As  Essex  continued  to  press  the 
gift.  Bacon  accepted  it.  *  My  lord,'  he  said, 
'I  see  I  must  be  your  homager  and  hold  land 
of  your  gift ;  but  do  you  know  the  manner 
of  doing  homage  in  law  ?  Always  it  is  with  ; 
a  saving  of  his  faith  to  the  king  and  his  other 
lords ;  and  therefore,  my  lord,  I  can  be  no 
more  yours  than  I  was,  and  it  must  be  with 
the  ancient  savings.'  , 

The  land  which  Bacon  received  was  pro-  j 
bably  in  Twickenham  Park,  and  was  after-  < 
Avards  sold  by  him  for  1,800/.  The  manner  1 
in  which  the  gift  was  made  and  received  was  \ 
characteristic  of  both  parties. 

Bacon's  next  letter  to  Essex  contained  a 
warning  similar  t-o  that  Avhich  he  had  given 
in  conversation  :  '  I  reckon  myself  as  a  com- 
mon— and  as  much  as  is  lawful  to  be  en- 
closed of  a  common,  so  much  your  lordship 
shall  be  sure  to  have.'  He  seems  to  have 
begun  to  think  that  Essex  was  too  self-willed 
and  impetuous  to  be  the  instrument  for  the 
public  good  which  he  had  hoped  that  he 
would  be.  Before  the  end  of  the  year  1 595, 
however,  Essex  had  fully  recovered  the 
queen's  good  gTaces,  and  Bacon  employed 
himself  in  drawing  up  a  '  device '  to  be  pre- 
sented by  Essex  on  the  anniversaiy  of  her 
accession. 

In  the  letter  just  quoted  Bacon  expressed 
a  wish  to  retire  from  the  practice  of  the  laAV, 
and  to  devote  himself  to  philosophy.  His 
pecuniary  embarrassments,  which  were  the 
greater  from  his  long  expectancy  of  office,  pro- 
bably stood  In  the  way.  The  queen  was  at 
least  sufficiently  favourable  to  him  now  to 
employ  liim  as  one  of  her  learned  counsel. 
Though  Essex  warmly  recommended  him  in 
May  1596  for  the  mastership  of  the  rolls,  he 
did  not  himself  make  suit  for  it  after  his  late 
disappointment. 

The  year  1 596  marks  the  highest  point  in 
the  life  of  Essex.  In  the  capture  of  Cadiz 
he  acquitted  himself  well  in  every  respect. 
On  his  return  home  he  showed  himself  cap- 
tious and  jealous  of  his  fellow  commanders, 
whilst  the  favour  which  he  acquired  in  the 
eyes  of  soldiers  and  sailors  might  easily  make 
him  a  dangerous  man  to  a  queen  who  had  no 
standing  army  on  which  to  rely.  It  Avas  to 
this  latter  point  especially  that  Bacon  applied 
himself  in  a  letter  of  advice  written  to  Essex 


^ 


on  4  Oct.,  a  letter  in  Avhich  Bacon  uninten- 
tionally displays  the  Avorst  side  of  his  cha- 
racter us  fully  as  he  did  afterAvards  in  the 
'  Commentarius  Solutus '  of  1608.  At  the 
bottom  the  advice  given  is  thoroughly  sound. 
Essex  is  to  convince  the  queen  that  he  is  not 
a  dangerous  person  by  avoiding  further  con- 
nection Avith  military  enteqmses,  and  by 
shunning  all  suspicion  of  ])opularity,  that  is 
to  say,  of  courting  the  peojjle  with  the  object 
of  obtaining  an  independent  position  in  o\)- 
position  to  the  goA'ernmeut.  All  this,  how- 
ever, is  fenced  about  Avith  recommendations 
to  use  a  variety  of  petty  tricks,  to  make 
agi-eeable  speeches,  and  to  appear  otherwise 
than  he  is.  No  doubt  the  character  of  Eliza-I 
beth  has  to  bear  much  of  the  blame  for  the ' 
possibility  that  such  advice  could  be  giA'en, 
but  Bacon  cannot  be  altogether  cleared. 
Firm  as  a  rock  on  the  principles  on  Avhich  he 
acted,  he  had  learned  e?lrly  and  too  well  the yitt 
lesson  that  it  was  only  by  personal  flatteiy  •' 
and  petty  hypocrisies  that  he  could  hope  to 
accomplish  his  ends. 

It  Avas  at  this  time  that  Bacon  Avas  pre- 
paring for  pubhcation  the  shreA\d  obserA"a- 
tions  on  men  and  affairs  Avhich  appeared 
under  the  name  of  the  '  Essays.'  The  dedi- 
cation to  his  brother  Anthony  in  the  first 
edition  is  dated  30  Jan.  1597,  and  a  copy  Avas 
sold  on  8  Feb.  One  passage  has  a  special 
pathos  in  it:  'There  is  little  friendship  in 
the  Avorld,  and  least  of  all  between  equals, 
Avhich  was  Avont  to  be  magnified,  Avhose  for- 
tunes may  comprehend  the  one  the  other. 
In  his  letter  of  advice  Bacon  had  Avritten  to 
Essex  that  '  your  fortune  comprehendeth 
I  mine.'  In  the  '  Essays  '  he  shows  his  belief 
that  the  obligation  of  friendship  ought  to  be 
mutual,  though  it  looks  also  as  if  he  were 
longing  for  a  friend  Avho  might  give  him 
counsel  as  Avell  as  receive  it.  If  he  had  this 
feeling,  it  Avould  explain  his  dedication  to  his 
brother  instead  of  the  carl  better  than  other 
reasons  which  liaA'e  been  suggested.  His  re- 
lations Avith  his  brother  seem  to  have  come 
nearer  to  his  ideal  of  friendship  than  any- 
thing Avhich  he  found  elscAvhere. 

If  Bacon  AA^anted  friendship,  he  also  A\"anted 
money.  In  the  spring  of  1597  he  obtained,  in 
vain,  the  good  word  of  Essex  to  help  him  1  o 
a  marriage  Avith  a  rich  young  AA'idoAV,  Lady 
Hatton,  and  about  the  same  time  he  offered  a 
reversion  of  the  clerkship  of  the  Star  Cham- 
ber, Avhich  had  been  gi\'en  him  some  time 
before  by  the  queen,  to  lord  keeper  Egerton 
for  his  son,  on  condition  of  aniving  through 
his  mediation  at  the  mastership  of  the  rolls. 
The  mere  proposal  Avould  properly  shock  us 
at  the  present  day  ;  and  if,  as  seems  probable, 
Bacon's  second  letter  of  12  Nov.,  in  Avhich 


Bacon 


333 


Bacon 


Ins  offer  was  repealed,  was  written  after  hv 
knew  that  Egertou  liad  been  named  a  member 
of  the  commission  which  liad  been  appointed 
to  examine  certain  charj^es  bronf>'ht  against 
the  actual  liokler  of  the  clerkshi]),  the  trans- 
action assumes  an  aspect  which  ought  to 
have  opened  Bacon's  eyes  to  its  questionable 
character,  though,  judging  from  his  subse- 
(juent  proceedings  as  chancellor,  his  eyes  were 
very  hard  to  open. 

In  the  parliament  which  opened  on  24  Oct. 
lo97.  Bacon,  as  member  for  Southampton, 
liad  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  legislation  pro- 
])()sed  and  canned  for  objects  of  which  he 
iieartily  approved,  such  as  the  maintenance 
of  husbandry  and  the  relief  of  the  poor. 

In  the  meanwhile  Bacon's  doubts  of  the 
possibility  of  making  a  statesman  of  Essex 
must  have  been  growing.  In  the  summer  of 
1  ")97  the  earl  was  absent  from  England  on 
what  is  known  as  the  Island  Voyage.  On 
his  return  after  failing  to  capture  the  Spanish 
treasure  fleet,  he  showed  himself  more  dis- 
contented and  unreasonable  than  ever.  Bacon, 
who  wished  him  to  give  up  military  entei'prises, 
was  not  likely  to  obtain  a  cordial  response 
from  a  man  who  would  resent  such  a  pro- 
posal as  thrusting  him  off  a  field  in  which  he 
believed  himself  specially  qualified  to  shine, 
in  order  to  give  him  a  position  in  which 
Bacon  would  be  his  master  and  inspirer. 
However  this  may  have  been,  in  the  middle 
of  Februaiy  1598  circumstances  conciu-red 
to  assist  Bacon's  wishes.  The  secretary,  Sir 
liobert  Cecil,  left  England  on  a  diplomatic 
mission  to  France,  and  Essex  was  employed 
to  do  his  work  in  his  absence.  At  this  time, 
therefore.  Bacon  thought  the  opportunity  had 
come  to  fix  Essex  in  the  career  of  a  states- 
man by  interesting  him  in  that  problem  of 
the  government  of  Ireland  ■w'hich  was  one 
of  the  most  important  of  the  political  ques-: 
tions  of  the  day.  In  a  letter  of  advice  he 
skilfully  selected  the  ground  on  which  he 
was  most  sure  of  gaining  the  good  will  of 
Essex,  by  speaking  of  the  subject  as  '  one  of 
the  aptest  particulars  for  yoiu-  lordship  to 
purchase  honour  upon.'  For  the  present, 
however,  he  contented  himself  with  recom- 
mending Essex  to  take  advice  from  those  who 
were  best  qualified  to  give  it. 

Essex  ap])ears  to  have  been  willing  enough 
to  take  up  the  Irish  question,  and  to  have 
listened  to  Bacon's  advice  on  the  subject  of  the 
negotiations  which  were  then  pending  Avith 
Tyrone.  Before  anything  was  settled,  how- 
ever, Essex's  hot  temper  had  again  blazed  up 
into  defiance  of  the  queen ;  and  though  a  re- 
conciliation was  effected  about  the  end  of 
October,  it  was  then  too  late  to  bring  Ireland 
into  order  by  peaceful  statesmanship,  as  the 


greater  part  of  the  countrj--  was  already  in 
iusun-ection. 

In  the  meanwhile  Bacon's  own  private  ne- 
cessities had  been  growing  u]x)n  him,  and  on 
•23  Sept.  he  was  arrested  fVu-  debt.  He  was 
not  long  detained,  and  soon  after  he  recovered 
his  freedom  he  found  the  whole  world  agitated 
by  the  question  whether  Essex  was  to  take 
the  command  in  Ireland  or  not. 

Of  the  whole  of  the  advice  given  by  Bacon 
to  Essex  on  his  assumption  of  the  Irish  com- 
mand we  cannot  speak  with  certainty.  In 
his  subsequent  '  Apology'  Bacon  said  that  he 
had  dissuaded  Essex  from  going,  on  the  gi'ound 
that  he  would  not  only  risk  the  loss  of  the 
queen's  favour,  but  would  find  the  Irish  as 
difficult  to  conquer  as  the  Romans  had  found 
the  Gauls,  Britons,  or  Germans.  On  the 
other  hand  we  have  an  actual  letter  in  which 
Bacon  encourages  Essex  to  go,  on  the  grounds 
that  he  is  likely  to  succeed,  and  that,  as  the 
Romans  gained  greater  glory  by  reducing  to 
civilisation  barbarians  like  the  Germans  and 
Britons,  he  might  gain  glory  by  bringing  the 
Irish  under  a  just  and  civil  government. 
He  ends  by  begging  Essex  to  remember '  that 
merit  is  worthier  than  fame,'  and  '  obedience 
is  better  than  sacrifice,'  and,  in  short,  that 
he  is  not  to  act  in  the  hot-headed  manner 
usual  to  him.  It  is  possible,  as  Dr.  Abbott 
has  suggested  (Bacon  and  Essex,  115),  that 
there  was  but  one  letter,  and  that  Bacon's 
memory  played  him  false  :  and  it  is  also  pos- 
sible that  there  were  really  two  written,  the 
one  before  Essex  had  made  up  his  mind,  and 
the  other  after  he  had  determined  on  his 
coiu'se,  and  that  Bacon  might  urge  at  one 
time  that  people  like  the  Britons  and  Gauls 
were  hard  to  conquer,  and  at  the  other  that 
glory  might  be  achieved  by  bringing  them 
under  law  and  order.  Such  repetitions  are 
very  much  after  Bacon's  style.  At  all  events, 
even  if  this  explanation  be  rejected,  it  is  plain 
from  the  published  letter  that  Bacon  took 
the  opportunity  of  warning  Essex  against  a 
very  real  danger  in  his  path. 

On  27  March  1599  Essex  set  out.  He  was 
neither  a  good  strategist  nor  a  good  adminis- 
trator. By  the  beginning  of  August  he  had 
lost  the  greater  part  of  his  army  in  useless 
marches,  so  that  the  Irish  council  advised 
him  not  to  proceed  to  Ulster  against  the 
chief  rebel,  Tyrone,  that  year  at  all.  Just  at 
this  time,  however,  he  received  a  letter  from 
the  queen  foi'bidding  him  to  return  to  Eng^- 
land  before  he  had  attacked  Tyrone.  On  this 
Essex  lost  his  temper,  and  talked  wildly  to 
his  confidants  of  going  to  England  with  two 
or  three  thousand  soldiers,  apparently  to 
drive  away  from  the  queen  those  enemies  to 
whose  influence  he  attributed  his  misfortunes. 


Bacon 


334 


Bacon 


The  idea,  however,  was  promptly  abandoned. 
Essex  marched  into  Ulster*,  failed  signally, 
and,  fearing  what  might  be  the  effect  on  the 
queen  if  his  rivals  had  the  telling  of  the  tale, 
took  ship  for  England,  and  on  28  Sept.  pre- 
sented himself  before  Elizabeth  in  his  travel- 
stained  attire.  He  was  well  received  at  first, 
bnt  before  night  was  ordered  to  keep  his 
chamber  and  satisfy  the  lords  of  the  council. 
A  day  or  two  later  Essex  was  transferred  to 
the  custody  of  the  lord  keeper.  The  queen 
did  not  wish  to  be  hard  with  him.  Bacon 
did  Avhat  he  could  to  encourage  her  in  this 
frame  of  mind,  and  to  urge  Essex  to  sub- 
mission. As  nothing  was  yet  known  of  the 
earl's  conversation  about  bringing  3,000  men 
to  England,  he  might  reasonably  hope  to 
nccomplish  his  object.  The  queen,  however, 
insisted  on  a  public  declaration  of  the  offences 
of  Essex  in  the  Star  Chamber,  which  took 
place  29  Nov.  As  Essex  was  not  called  upon 
to  answer,  he  grew  more  ])opular  than  ever, 
as  a  man  struck  without  the  means  of  mak- 
ing a  defence. 

JBacon  was  not  present  in  the  Star  Cham- 
ber. From  the  disjointed  evidence  which  has 
reached  us,  it  is  impossible  to  track  his  con- 
duct in  details.  He  seems  to  have  wished 
to  see  Essex  once  more  in  favour  at  court, 
and  removed  from  further  temptation  to 
aspire  after  success  in  a  military  career  for 
which  he  had  shown  himself  unfit.  To  ac- 
complish this  he  had  to  use  his  utmost  di- 
plomacy, as  Elizabeth  was  bent  on  humbling 
Essex  and  punishing  him  in  some  way  for 
his  misconduct.  Bacon,  therefore,  with  the 
best  Avish  to  serve  Essex,  would  have  to 
suggest  not  such  treatment  as  he  considered 
Essex  to  have  merited,  but  the  least  bad 
treatment  which  would  seem  at  any  given 
moment  to  be  likely  to  satisfy  the  queen. 
Add  to  this  that  even  his  mind  did  not  woi'k 
with  tlie  accuracy  of  a  calculating  machine, 
but  was  liable  to  make  mistakes,  and  even — 
as  appears  from  his  letter  to  the  queen  on 
his  absence  from  the  Star  Chamber — to  oc- 
casional ill-temper,  and  there  Avill  be  no 
difficulty  in  understanding  how  it  was  that 
he  offended  botli  parties,  and  was  thought  by 
the  queen  to  be  remiss  in  her  service,  and  by 
the  numerous  friends  of  Essex  to  be  betray- 
ing his  patron. 

At  last,  on  5  June  1600,  Essex  had  to  sub- 
mit to  an  informal  trial  at  York  House.  In 
the  proceedings,  Avhich  were  intended  to 
satisfy  public  opinion.  Bacon,  as  one  of  the 
queen's  learned  counsel,  took  part.  He  ad- 
mits that  he  handled  his  part  of  the  charge 
'  not  tenderly,'  as  it  was  only  by  a  show  of 
vigour  that  he  would  be  able  to  retain  the 
queen's  favour  so  as  to  be  able  to  use  his 


influence  on  behalf  of  Essex.  It  is  no 
Avonder  that  liis  conduct  did  not  a])pear  to 
the  friends  of  Essex  in  the  same  light  as  it 
did  to  himself.  His  calculation,  hoAvever,  Avas 
for  the  time  justified  by  the  result,  and  in 
six  weeks  after  the  proceedings  Essex  Av-as 
once  more  at  liberty,  though  he  Avas  de- 
baiTed  from  appearing  at  coui-t. 

In  a  letter  to  Essex  of  20  July  Bacon  used 
Avords  Avliich  may  be  taken  as  expressing  liis 
innermost  thoughts  on  his  relation  toP]ssex  : 
'  I  desii'e  your  lordship,'  he  wrote,  '  also  to 
think  that  though  I  confess  I  love  some  things 
much  better  than  I  love  your  lordship,  as  tlie 
queen's  service,  her  quiet  and  contentment, 
lier  honour,  her  faA'Our,  the  good  of  my  coun- 
try, and  the  like,  yet  I  loA'e  feAV  persons  bet- 
ter than  yourself,  both  for  gratitude's  sake  and 
for  your  own  A'irtues,  Avhich  cannot  hurt  but 
by  accident  or  abuse.' 

Before  long  Bacon  Avas  called  on  to  weigh 
one  against  the  other  his  obligations  to  the 
queen  and  the  earl.  As  months  passed  on 
Avithout  bringing  Avith  them  a  restoration  to 
I  faA'our,  the  discontent  of  Essex  took  the  form 
of  Avild  projects,  ultimately  settling  doAvn  into 
a  determination  to  make  himself  master  of  the 
court  by  Auolence,  to  bring  to  justice  his  ene- 
mies amongst  the  queen's  ministers,  and  to 
substitute  for  them  himself  and  his  support  ei"s. 
On  8  Feb.  1001,  having  reason  to  suppose  that 
his  ])urpose  AA^as  knoAvn,  he  was  persuaded  by 
liis  folloAvers  to  betake  himself  to  the  city 
AA'ith  some  tAvo  hundred  armed  men  at  his 
heels,  and  to  call  on  the  citizens  to  rally  round 
him.  Fail  ing  to  gain  support  he  returned  to 
Essex  House,  and  was  soon  a  prisoner  in  the 
liands  of  the  goA'ernment.  On  1 1  Feb.  Bacon 
Avas  appointed  among  others  to  investigate  the 
causes  of  the  sudden  reA'olt,  and  on  the  18th 
information  AA^as  obtained  which  brought  to 
light  tlie  earl's  previous  treasonable  intrigues. 
On  the  19th  Essex  was  brought  up  for  trial. 

In  obtaining tlu?  conA'iction  AvhichfolloAA'ed, 
Bacon  Avas  most  serviceable.  He  called  back 
the  attention  of  the  court  from  Coke's  digres- 
sions, and  he  fixed  upon  Essex  the  responsi- 
bility for  his  actions,  arguing  that  they  af- 
forded eA'idence  of  an  intention  to  collect  an 
armed  force,  and  that  for  '  armed  petitioners  ' 
to  present  petitions  '  must  needs  bring  loss 
of  liberty  to  the  prince,'  and  Avas  therefore 
treasonable. 

To  Bacon's  conduct  on  this  occasion  excep- 
tion has  been  taken  on  tAA'o  grounds.  In  the 
first  place,  it  has  been  said  that  he  ouglit  not 
to  have  appeared  against  liis  benefactor  at  all. 
That  the  course  Avhich  lie  took  indicates 
poverty  of  moral  feeling  cannot  be  denied. 
Yet  our  sentiment  on  the  precedence  of  per- 
sonal over  political  ties  is  based  upon  our  in- 


Bacon 


.>03 


Bacon 


<reased  scnso  of  political  seeurity,  and  isliardly  I 
ii])]!! it-able  to  a  state  of  aft'airs  in  which  anar- 
{•hv,  -with  all  its  attendant  miseries,  would 
indubitably  follow  on  the  violent  overthrow 
of  the  queen's  right  to  select  hev  ministers, 
(n(!n  if  her  ])erson  continued  for  a  time  to  be 
outwardly  respected ;  and  it  is,  at  all  evtmts, 
one  which  Bacon  studiously  renounced  from 
the  very  beginning  of  his  connection  with 
Essex.  In  the  second  ])lace  it  has  been  al- 
leged (^Vbbott,  Bacon  and  Essex,  19-t-:i4:?) 
that  Bacon  sinned  in  charging  Essex  with  a 
consistent  purpose  of  treason  which  was 
foreign  to  his  nature.  It  is  no  doubt  true  that 
Essex  never  did  anything  consistently,  and 
that  an  analysis  of  character  would  spare  his 
heart  at  the  expense  of  his  head.  It  does  not, 
however,  follow  that  Bacon  went  deliberately 
wrong.  On  the  day  of  the  trial  he  had  only 
veiy  recently  become  acquainted  with  the 
■•sari's  very  questionable  proceedings  in  Ire- 
land, and  it  was  only  in  consonance  with  the 
weak  side  of  his  intellect  to  adopt  a  compact 
theoiy  rather  than  one  which  left  room  for 
vagueness  and  uncertainty.  As  Avas  after- 
wards the  case  in  the  opinion  which  he  formed 
of  Raleigh's  guilt  in  the  Guiana  voyage,  he 
left  out  of  sight  those  tentative  and  shadowy 
intentions  which  had  )io  place  in  his  own 
mental  constitution.  At  all  events,  whatever 
the  character  of  Essex  may  have  been,  his 
actions  were  none  the  less  dangerous  to  the 
state.  A  government  without  the  ])rotect  ion 
of  an  araied  force  was  liable  to  be  overturned 
by  a  man  who,  like  Essex,  was  the  darling  of 
the  military  class  which  was  at  that  time 
fcn-ming,  without  that  tie  of  discipline  which, 
in  standing  armies,  counterbalances  the  ten- 
dency of  military  men  to  use  force  rather  than 
]»ersuasion.  Th(>  new  form  of  danger  which 
had  succeeded  to  the  danger  from  a  feudal 
nobility  lent  wei)«ht  to  the  opinion  to  which 
Bacon  gave  expression  in  his  attack  on  Essex  : 
*  You,  my  lord,'  he  said,  '  should  know  that 
though  princes  give  their  subjects  cause  of 
discontent,  though  they  take  away  the  honours 
they  have  heajjed  upon  them,  though  they 
bring  them  to  a  lower  estate  than  they  raised 
them  from,  yet  ought  they  not  to  be  so  for- 
getful of  their  allegiance  that  they  should 
•enter  into  any  undutiful  act,  much  less  upon 
rebellion,  as  you,  my  lord,  have  done.'  To 
Bacon  the  maintenance  of  the  authority  of 
the  state  was  a  sacred  work,  and  in  the  six- 
teenth century  the  authority  of  the  queen 
was  the  equivahiut  of  the  authoritv  of  the 
state. 

The  two  years  which  succeeded  the  trial 
of  Essex  were  not  years  of  great  importance 
in  Bacon's  life.  He  drew  vip  the  official 
declaration  of  the  trea-son  of  Essex,  but  that 


])aper  was  so  altered  by  others  that  it  is  im- 
possible to  say  how  much  proceeded  from 
himself. 

In  the  ])arlianient  which  met  on  27  Oct. 
1(501  Bacon  contributed  to  induce  the  house 
to  ap])ly  to  the  queen  by  petition  to  redress 
the  grievance  caused  by  monojK)lies  instead 
of  proceeding  in  a  more  oflensive  manner  by 
bill.  In  the  autumn  of  1  (302,  after  the  defeat 
of  the  Spanish  invasion  of  Ireland,  he  wrote 
a  letter  to  Cecil,  in  which  he  boldly  advocated, 
for  that  country,  a  toleration  in  religion,  and 
the  establishment  of  courts  to  do  justice  un- 
fettered by  the  technicalities  of  English  law. 
English  and  Irish  were  to  be  treated  as  one 
nation.  In  Ireland,  however,  the  difficulty 
of  maintaining  order,  in  consequence  of  the 
inability  of  the  English  exchequer  to  main- 
tain there  a  large  militaiy  force,  always  stared 
the  reformer  iii  the  face,  and  Bacon,  like  the 
rest  of  his  contemporaries,  had  no  better 
remedy  to  propose  than  the  introduction  of 
English  settlers  as  a  standing  garrison,  a  plan 
which,  when  actually  adopted,  spoiled  the 
whole  scheme  of  reform.  

The  death  of  Elizabeth  on  24  March  1003 
opened  anew  ])rospect  to  Bacon,  which  might 
be  turned  to  account  if  he  could  gain  the  ear 
of  James.  At  first,  however,  his  hope  of  use- 
fulness was  rather  discouraged  by  the  change. 
He  Avas  indeed  continiied  as  one  of  the  king's 
learned  counsel,  and  on  23  July  Avas  knighted 
at  the  same  time  as  three  hundred  others ;  but 
neither  Coke  nor  Cecil  Avas  likely  to  help  him 
to  that  familiarity  of  access  to  James  which 
he  had  long  enjoyed  at  Elizabeth's  court.  It 
Av^as  probably  in  these  days  of  expectancy  that 
be  Avrote  the  '  Apology '  concerning  the  late 
Earl  of  Essex,  of  Avhich  the  earliest  knoAAJi 
printed  copy  bears  the  date  of  1(X)4.  During 
the  same  period,  besides  a  slight  sketch  of  a 
pi'oemto  that  great  Avork  on  the  intei-pretation 
of  nature  AA'hich  Avas  never  quite  out  of  his 
mind,  he  dedicated  to  James  a  ])aper  on  the 
mode  of  carrying  out  the  union  between  Scot- 
land and  England  aaIucIi  they  both  desired, 
and  another  on  the  pacification  and  edification 
of  the  church  of  England,  in  Avhich  he  once 
more  restated  those  comprehensive  and  tole- 
rant princi])les  Avhich  animated  his  former 
treatise  on  the  same  subject.  James  Avas  to 
Bacon,  at  tliis  stage  of  his  career,  very  much 
Avhat  Essex  had  been  before,  a  man  powerful 
for  canying  out  Bacon's  ])lans  :  but  Avith  this 
;  difference,  that  he  Avas  himself  the  head  and 
'  representative  of  the  state,  and  that  in  his 
'  case,  therefore,  there  could  neAer  be  that  col- 
\  lision  betAveen  personal  and  political  claims 
to  devotion  Avhich  had  brought  about  so  tragic 
an  ending  to  Bacon's  relations  Avith  the  fa- 
I  vourite  of  Elizabeth.    I'nfortunately,  though 


Bacon 


33^ 


Bacoa- 


the  natures  of  Essex  and  James  were  entirely 
dissimilar,  they  were  equally  incapable  of 
serving  Bacon's  high  purposes,  the  king's  want 
of  earnestness  and  wisteadiness  of  pui-pose 
being  as  fatal  to  his  chance  of  proving  a  suc- 
cessful ruler  as  the  inconsistent  vehemence  of 
the  earl.  In  weighing  the  terms  of  adulation 
in  which  Bacon  continued  to  address  him  to 
the  end,  it  must,  however,  be  remembered 
that,  if  there  was  some  hypocrisy,  it  was  for 
the  most  part  unconscious,  and  that  Bacon's 
hopeful  disposition  was  apt  to  fix  as  long  as 
])ossible  rather  on  the  signs  favourable  to  suc- 
cess than  upon  the  indications  of  failure.  In 
James's  case  the  reasons  for  hoping  better 
things  than  ultimately  resulted  from  his  reign 
Avere  certainly  not  wanting.  The  mind  of  the 
new  king  was  capable  of  taking  in  large  ideas, 
and  he  had  a  dislike  of  intolerance  which 
promised  well,  and  which  mvist  have  led 
Bacon  to  contrast  him  fiivourably  with  the 
average  Englishman  of  the  time,  whose  vieAva 
were  represented  in  the  House  of  Commons. 

An  unhappy  indication  of  the  mode  in  wh  i  ch 
James  was  likely  to  deal  with  the  ideas  which  ^ 
he  had  in  common  with  Bacon  was  given  at 
tlie  Hampton  Court  conference  which  opened 
on  14  Jan,  1604,  where  the  intention  of  in- 
troducing rational  reforms  in  the  church  was 
smothered  in  an  outbreak  of  temper,  and  was 
followed  before  long  by  a  resolution  to  draw 
the  bonds  of  conformity  even  more  tightly 
than  they  had  been  drawn  in  the  days  of 
Elizabeth. 

When  James's  first  parliament  met  on 
19  March  1604,  the  possibility  that  Bacon's 
scheme  of  church  reform  might  be,  at  least 
to  some  extent,  carried  out,  was  not  quite  at 
an  end.  Bacon  therefore,  Avhen  he  took  his 
seat  in  it,  might  still  hope  to  do  something 
in  this  direction,  and  might  cherish  even 
greater  hopes  of  doing  something  in  the  direc- 
tion of  the  union  with  Scotland.  Yet  it 
would  be  to  misunderstand  Bacon  to  associate 
him  merely  with  the  desire  to  pass  particular 
reforms.  Eager  as  he  Avas  to  proA^de  remedies 
for  the  disorders  of  his  time,  he  Avas  still 
more  eager  to  avert  that  breach  of  sympathy 
betAveen  the  king  and  the  House  of  Commons 
Avhich  is  noAA'  understood  to  haA^e  been  the 
root  of  the  miseries  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury far  more  than  any  special  tyrannical 
propensities  of  the  Stuart  kings.  It  Avas  this 
intuitive  perception  of  the  source  of  danger 
Avhich  raises  Bacon  to  the  first  I'ank  amongst 
st.atesmen,  whilst,  at  the  same  time,  his 
failure  to  recognise  that  it  Avas  as  impossible 
to  bring  James  and  the  House  of  Commons 
to  Avork  together,  as  it  had  been  to  bring 
Elizabeth  and  Essex  to  Avork  together — a 
failure  the  causes  of  Avhich  lay  in  Bacon's 


moral  as  aa'cII  as  his  intellectual  nature — led 
to  the  great  catastrophe  of  his  misused  life. 

Tlie  session  of  1604  gaA'e  Bacon  many 
opportunities  of  exercising  his  reconciling 
powers.  The  commons  Avanted  to  obtain 
from  the  king  the  redress  of  grievances  aris- 
ing from  feudal  tenures,  from  purveyance, 
and  other  antiquated  rights  of  the  crown, 
without  sufficiently  acknowledging  the  neces- 
sity of  providing  a  sufficient  income  for  the- 
fulfilment  of  the  duties  of  government.  On 
the  other  hand,  James  Avas  anxious  to  press 
on  the  union  with  Scotland  AA-ithout  fitting 
consideration  of  the  prejudices  of  his  ncAv  sub- 
jects. On  all  these  points,  as  Avell  as  on  cer- 
tain questions  of  privilege  Avhich  arose.  Bacon 
had  much  to  say,  and  Avliat  he  did  say  Avas 
conciliatory  in  the  best  Avay,  by  suggesting 
plans  Avhich  might  carry  out  the  most  justifi- 
able desires  of  both  parties.  When,  hoAv- 
ever,  the  end  of  the  session  aiTived  on  7  July, 
Bacon  had  effected  no  I'econciUation.  The 
question  of  the  union  Avas  refeiTed  to  a  joint 
committee  of  Scottish  and  English  commis- 
.  sioners  to  be  put  in  shape  for  a  future  parlia- 
ment :  and  the  question  of  the  grieA'ances  had 
been  discussed  Avith  such  acrimony,  that,  in 
dismissing  the  commons,  the  king  gave  vent 
to  his  feelings  in  a  speecli  of  mere  scolding-. 

The  breach  thus  accomplished  A\-as  practi- 
cally final ;  but  it  Avas  not  in  Bacon's  nature, 
perhaps  not  in  the  nature  of  any  man,  to 
acknoAvledge  that  the  case  A\'as  hopeless.  His 
OAvn  political  position  AA^as  A'ery  similar  to  his 
scientific  position.  In  both  he  had  teachings 
to  ^ive  Avhich  his  own  generation  Av^as  in- 
capable nt"  conTjTrehenflinpr~~Tn~Tffffhj  there- 
fore, all  that  he  coulxTreally  hope  to  accom- 
plish Avas  to  expound  his  principles  in  such  a 
Avay  that  future  generations  might  act  upon 
them.  It  is  no  Avonder  that  from  time  tO' 
time  he  felt  regi'et  that  he  had  not  devoted 
himself  to  a  scientific  life,  especially  as  he 
was  himself  unaware  that  he  had  not  the 
qualifications  of  a  scientific  obsei-ver.  It  is  no 
Avonder  either  that,  in  addition  to  the  attrac- 
tion of  worldly  success,  the  great  attraction 
of  possibly  averting  the  coming  evil  weighed 
Avith  him  in  chaining  him  to  the  oar  of  poli- 
tical service.  In  so  doing  he  no  doubt  under- 
estimated the  obstacles  caused  by  the  com- 
monplace industry  of  men  like  Coke  and 
Cecil,  and  overestimated  the  receptivity  of 
James's  mind.  The  fact  is,  that  he  stood  to 
the  English  revolution  Avith  all  its  miseries 
as  Turgot  stood  to  the  French  revolution, 
and  he  was  as  distrustful  as  Turgot  Avas  of 
the  domination  of  elected  political  assemblies. 
Turgot's  stem  independence  of  character,  how- 
ever, contrasts  nobly  Avith  Bacon's  suppleness ; 
but  both  Bacon  and  Tm-got  undertook  a  task 


Bacon 


337 


Bacon 


in  itself  impossible,  that  of  reconciling  classes 
who  already  stood  too  far  apart  to  be  recon- 
ciled. 

For  the  moment  Bacon  found  employment 
suital)le  to  him.  He  was  chosen  as  one  of  the 
commissioners  to  discuss  with  the  Scottish 
commissioners  the  tei'ms  of  union.  His  in- 
terest in  the  matter  had  gained  him  the 
notice  of  James,  and  on  18  Aug.  1004  he  wjis 
confirmed  by  patent  in  his  office  of  learned 
counsel,  with  a  pension  of  00/.  a  year.  He 
was  soon  busy  in  drawing  up  papers  on  the 
subject  of  the  union.  The  actual  business  of 
discussion  between  tlie  commissioners  began 
on  29  Oct.,  and  the  last  meeting  was  held  on 
(5  Dec.  Bacon,  wlio  liad  been  an  active  mem- 
ber of  the  commission,  might  have  expected 
to  be  soon  em])loyed  in  defending  its  scheme 
in  the  House  of  Commons.  As  it  happened, 
however,  partly  through  the  prorogation  of 
parliament,  and  partly  through  the  interrup- 
tion caused  by  the  Gunpowder  Plot,  the  sub- 
ject was  not  brought  forward  till  nearly  two 
years  later,  towards  the  end  of  1000.  Bacon 
had  therefore  time  to  devote  himself  to 
literary  Avork.  About  the  end  of  October 
1005  he  published  his '  Advancement  of  Learn- 
ing.' In  a  letter  to  Sir  T.  Bodley  he  gave 
vent  to  his  feeling  of  satisfaction  in  returning 
to  the  work  in  which  he  was  able  to  do  his 
best  in  the  place  of  w(n-k  in  which  others  did 
not  allow  hira  to  do  his  best.  '  I  think,'  he 
wrote,  *  no  man  may  more  truly  say  with  the 
Vsalmist ,  Midf ion  incolafuit  anima  »ie«,than 
myself.  For  I  do  confess,  since  I  was  of  any 
understanding,  my  mind  hath  in  effect  been 
absent  from  that  I  have  done  ;  and  in  absence 
are  nuiny  errors  wli id 1 1  do  willingly  acknow- 
ledge, and  amongst  the  rest  this  great  one 
that  led  the  rest  :  that  knowing  myself  by 
inward  calling  to  be  fitter  to  hold  a  book  than 
to  i)lay  a  ])art,  I  have  led  my  life  in  civil 
causes,  for  which  I  was  not  very  fit  by 
nature,  aiul  more  unfit  by  the  preoccupation 
of  my  mind.'  This  confession  must  not  be 
taken  too  literally.  Eveiy  man  deeply  en- 
gaged in  ])olitics  sighs  at  times  for  a  freer 
life ;  and  if  Bacon  had  a  special  reason  for 
longingfor  it,  in  order  that  he  might  develope 
his  scientific  work,  it  is  unnecessary  to  sup- 
pose that,  except  in  moments  of  weariness, 
he  regarded  his  political  work  as  unworthy  of 
himself. 

In  the  session  of  1005-0,  which  followed 
the  Gunpowder  plot.  Bacon  Avas  once  more 
immersed  in  civil  causes,  contributing  to  the 
discussion  on  purveyance  and  su])])ly,  the 
chief  business  of  the  session,  that  of  provid- 
ing new  laws  against  the  catholics  being  in 
other  hands.  The  sense  of  a  common  danger 
to  king  and  people  arising  from  the  Gun- 

VOL.   II. 


powder  plot  had,  however,  brought  about  a 
more  friendly  temper,  which  was  sliown  in 
the  gi-ant  of  three  subsidies  with  their  ac- 
companying fifteenths. 

On  27  May  parliament  was  prorogued.  On 
10  May  Bacon  had  been  maiTied  to  Alice 
Barnham,  Avhose  father  had  been  a  sheriff  of 
London  [see  Baknham,  Beitkdict],  and  was 
dead,  and  whose  mother,  a  '  little  violent 
lady,'  as  Chamberlain  calls  her,  had  married 
Sir  John  Packington.  About  the  same  time 
Bacon  had  a  prospect  of  legal  promotion.  In 
October  1004  there  had  indeed  been  a  vacancy 
in  the  solicitor-generalship ;  but  as  Bacon 
did  not  at  that  time  even  ask  for  the  place,  it 
is  probable  that  he  did  not  wish  to  have  it  as 
long  as  the  attorney-generalship  was  held  by 
Coke.  On  29  June  1000  this  obstacle  was 
removed  by  Coke's  promotion  to  the  bench 
as  chief  justice  of  the  common  pleas.  The 
attorney-generalship,  hoAvever,  Avas  giA^en  to 
Hobart,  upon  which  Bacon  Avrote  to  the  king, 
reminding  him  that  promotion  had  been  pro- 
mised to  him,  and  asking  that  a  suggestion 
which  had  been  already  made,  of  a])])ointing 
him  solicitor-general  and  ])r()viding  for  Dode- 
ridge,  the  actual  solicitor-general,  in  another 
Avay,  might  be  carried  out.  In  the  same  Avay 
he  Avrote  to  Ellesmere  and  Salisbury.  Nothing, 
hoAvcA^er,  Avas  done  for  the  present,  and  it  Avas 
only  in  the  beginning  of  1007  that  Bacon  re- 
ceived a  distinct  promise  of  the  place  Avhen- 
CA^er  Doderidge  should  be  remoA'ed.  It  is  (juite 
possible  that  the  obstaclf!  lay  Avith  Cecil,  now 
knoAA'u  as  the  Earl  of  Salisbury,  Avho  Avas  as 
profuse  in  promises  as  Bacon  Avas  in  compli- 
ments, but  no  eA'idence  exists  on  the  point. 
It  is  possible  too,  though  eA'idence  is  here 
equally  Avanting,  that  the  king  Avas  attracted 
to  Bacon  by  his  energy  in  supporting  the 
union  with  Scotland  in  ])arliament,  and  Avas 
thus  led  to  OA^errule  Salisbury's  objections. 

The  session  Avhich  o])ened  on  18  Nov.  KKX? 
was  mainly  taken  up  in  discussing  the  pro- 
posals of  the  commissioners  for  the  union. 
They  had  suggested,  besides  measui'es  for 
the  abolition  of  hostile  laAvs  and  for  the  ex- 
tradition of  criminals,  to  Avhich  no  serious 
opposition  AAas  oft'ei-ed,  one  for  freedom  of 
commercial  intercourse,  and  another  for  the 
naturalisation  of  Englishmen  in  Scotland  and 
of  Scots  in  England.  To  both  these  latter 
proposals  the  .sentiment  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons was  incurably  hostile.  Bacon,  Avho  had 
taken  no  inconsiderable  part  as  a  commis- 
sioner in  draAving  up  the  plan,  now  became 
its  Avarmest  cham])ion  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons. The  vieAV  taken  in  the  house  Avas  the 
narroAA'  one  Avhich  Avas  natural  to  occur  to 
aA-erage  human  intelligence.  The  commercial 
rivalry  of  the  poor  and  hardy  Scots  was  a 


Bacon 


338 


Bacon 


danger  which  every  one  could  foresee.  To 
look  forward  imaginatively  to  the  value  of 
the  union  required  either  the  mind  of  aBacon, 
or  one  which,  like  that  of  James,  was  brought 
to  consider  the  question  from  a  special  point 
of  view.  Bacon's  gi-eat  speech,  delivered  on 
17  Feb.  1607,  seems  to  indicate  that  in  the 
high  view  which  he  took  of  the  subject  he 
stood  alone,  and  he  found  himself  obliged  to 
refer  to  the  natural  belief  that  he  spoke  to 
please  the  king  rather  than  to  satisfy  his  con- 
science. *  If  any  man,'  he  said,  '  shall  think 
that  I  have  sung  placebo  for  mine  own  par- 
ticular, I  would  have  him  know  that  I  am 
not  so  unseen  in  the  world  but  that  I  discern 
it  were  much  alike  for  my  private  fortune  to 
rest  a  placebo  in  this  business.  But  I  have 
spoke  out  of  the  fountain  of  my  heart.  Cre- 
didi,  propter  quod  locutus  sum — I  believed, 
therefore  I  spake.  So  as  my  duty  is  per- 
formed.' There  is  every  reason  to  sup])ose 
that  Bacon  spoke  truly  on  the  17th.  From 
a  letter  "WTitten  on  the  22nd  we  learu  that  he 
had  received  the  ])romise  of  the  solicitor- 
generalship,  for  which  he  had  long  been 
hoping.  All  through  the  session  he  struggled 
in  the  cause  of  the  union.  Long  before  par- 
liament was  prorogued  on  4  July,  however, 
it  was  evident  that,  as  far  as  the  commons 
were  concerned,  it  was  hopeless  to  expect  to 
gain  their  consent  to  the  king's  proposals. 
On  25  June  Bacon  became  solicitor-general. 
The  post  was  not  indeed  as  im])ortant  as  it 
is  now,  but  it  gave  a  definite  place  in  the 
service  of  the  crown  with  the  ho])e  of  rising 
higher,  as  well  as  an  income  of  about  1 ,0001. 
a  year,  equivalent  to  one  of  about  4,000/.  at 
the  present  day. 

For  the  time  being  Bacon  acquired  no 
political  influence.  Salisbmy  had  ])osses8ion 
of  the  king's  ear,  and  Bacon  was  not  likely 
to  be  allowed  to  reach  it.  It  is,  therefore, 
all  the  more  interesting  to  know  something 
of  his  political  views  at  a  time  when  they 
■were  not  warped  by  the  consciousness  of  the 
possession  of  power.  This  we  are  enabled  to 
do  through  a  paper,  entitled  '  A  A'iew  of 
the  Differences  in  question  betwixt  the  King's 
Bench  and  the  Council  in  the  Marches,'  which 
was  written  not  later  than  June  1(50(5,  and 
therefore  at  least  a  year  before  Bacon  se- 
cured his  first  important  advancement. 

The  paper  refers  to  a  quarrel  Avhich  had 
sprung  up  between  the  president  and  council 
of  Wales  and  the  court  of  King's  Bench, 
which  claimed  a  right  to  interfere  with  the 
lurisdiction  of  the  former  body  over  the  four 
English  bord^V  counties.  In  the  course  of 
this  quarrel  the  qiiestion  was  mooted  whether 
the  king  could  give  jurisdiction  without  the 
authority  of  an  act  of  parliament.     In  argu- 


ing in  the  affirmative.  Bacon  fell  back  on  the 
assertion  '  that  the  king  holdeth  not  his  pre- 
rogatives of  this  kind  mediately  from  the  law, 
but  immediately  from  God,  as  he  holdeth 
his  crown;  and  though  other  prerogatives 
by  which  he  claimeth  any  matter  of  revenue, 
or  other  right  pleadable  in  his  ordinary 
courts  of  justice,  may  be  there  disputed,  yet 
his  sovereign  power,  which  no  judge  can 
censure,  is  not  of  that  nature ;  and  therefore 
whatsoever  partaketh  or  dependeth  thereon, 
being  matter  of  government  and  not  of  law, 
must  be  left  to  his  managing  by  his  council 
of  state.  .  .  .  God  forbid  also,  upon  pretence 
of  liberties  or  laws,  government  should  haA'e 
any  head  but  the  king.  For  then,  as  the 
popes  of  Rome,  by  making  their  seat  the  only 
oracle  of  God's  religion,  advanced  themselves 
first  above  religion,  and  then  above  God;  so 
we  may  fear  Avhat  may  in  time  become  of  our 
laws,  Avhen  those  reverend  fathers,  in  whose 
bi-eaststhey  are  safe,  shallleave  them  toothers, 
perchance  of  more  ambition  and  less  faith.' 

From  these  words,  and  still  more  from  the 
part  of  the  paper  headed '  The  Reasons  of  Con- 
venience or  Inconvenience,'  it  is  evident  from 
what  quarter  Bacon  apprehended  danger. 
The  lawyers  struggling  for  fees  and  import- 
ance, the  members  of  the  House  of  Commons 
as  yet  with  no  experience  in  the  conduct  of 
national  politics,  and  with  no  definite  leader- 
ship, Avould  put  an  end  to  all  intelligent 
guidance  of  the  state.  *  All  who  know  those 
]mrts,'  he  -wn-ites,  *  must  acknowledge  that 
the  power  of  the  gentry  is  the  chief  fear  and 
danger  of  the  good  subject  thei-e ;  and  even 
this  is  the  sum  of  all  their  heinous  com- 
])laijits  against  the  president  and  council, 
that  for  incontinency,  striking,  and  every 
disorder,  they  are  forthwith  molested  with 
process  and  fines.'  Further,  if  the  jurisdiction 
were  taken  aAvay,  those  who  sought  for  justice 
would  be  put  to  the  expense  of  seeking  it 
at  Westminster.  In  order  that  justice  might 
be  done,  the  king's  authority  must  be  main- 
tained. .  Bacon  evidently  thought  that  it 
was  not  to  be  had  from  the  rule  of  an  as- 
sembly in  which  the  country  gentlemen  were 
predominant.  So  opposed  was  this  view  to 
the  course  which  national  progTess  took,  that 
it  is  difficult  for  us  now  to  put  ourselves  in 
Bacon's  position  or  to  realise  the  earnestness 
with  which  he  threw  himself  into  the  cause 
of  the  supremacy  o^'  the  monarchy  as  a  means 
of  can-ying  out- what  would  now  be  con- 
sidered as  radical  reforms  in  spite  of  a  conser- 
vative and  interested  opposition. 

Bacon's  position  was,  in  fact,  not  unlike 
that  of  Burke  in  the  eighteenth  centiu-y. 
Both  these  great  men  were  anxious  to  effect 
important  improvements,  and  both  of  them, 


Bacon 


339 


Bacon 


in  accordance  with  that  law  of  oui*  nature 
by  which  desii-e  for  change  in  one  direction 
is  always  accompanied  by  a  strong  dislike  of 
change  in  another,  were  as  consei'vative  in 
their  respect  for  the  existing  constitution  as 
they  were  eager  to  cut  themselves  loose  fnmi 
the  old  moorings  in  political  action.  What 
the  Rockingham  whigs  were  to  Burke,  King 
James  Avas  to  Bacon,  the  depositary  of  exist- 
ing constitutional  authority,  Avith  tlie  help 
of  which  the  ignorant  masses — to  Bacon  the 
masses  represented  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
to  Burke  the  masses  unrepresented  in  it — 
might  safely  be  controlled. 

It  was  only  in  the  nature  of  things  that 
Bacon  should  think  more  of  .lames,  as  Burke 
thought  more  of  Rockingham,  than  he  Avas 
really  w^orth  ;  and  Bacon  unfortunately  had 
none  of  that  moral  dignity  AA^hich  Burke 
possessed.  He  calculated  on  Avinning  ground 
t)y  appealing  to  the  loAA'er  side  of  men's 
natui-es  as  aa-cII  as  to  the  higher.  He  had 
had  a  bad  training  in  the  court  of  Elizabeth, 
and  there  Avas  nothing  in  his  nature  to  make 
that  training  innocuous. 

To  gi\'e  us  an  insight  into  Bacon's  mind,  we 
have  a  collection  of  priA^ite  memoranda  known 
as  the  '  Coramentarius  Solutus,'  set  doAvn  in 
the  end  of  July  and  the  beginning  of  August 
1608.  It  is  full  of  hints  as  to  the  advance- 
ment of  his  great  schemes  in  science  and 
politics  as  Avell  as  to  the  advancement  of  his 
own  fortunes.  Great  ideas  jostle  Avith  small 
ones,  and  the  thought  of  a  restoration  of 
philosophy  or  of  laying  the  foundations 
of  a  showy  and  attractive  foreign  policy  is 
found  side  by  side  Avith  a  plan  for  flattering 
the  lord  cliamberlain  aa'Iio  might  be  helpful, 
or  exposing  the  demerits  of  an  attorney- 
general  Avho  is  a  riA'al.  Altogether  Bacon's 
chai'acter  is  noAvhere  else  de])icted  so  com- 
pletely as  a  whole  as  in  these  loose  jottings. 

To  the  same  year  are  to  be  assigned  the 
treatise  '  In  felicem  memoriam  Elizabethse,' 
Avhich,  as  composed  in  honour  of  a  sovereign 
who  had  no  longer  anytliing  to  giA'e,  is 
valuable  as  another  key  to  Bacon's  real 
thoughts,  and  a  '  Discourse  on  tlie  Plantation 
of  Ireland,'  presented  to  the  king  as  a  ncAV- 
year's  gift  at  tlie  opening  of  1 000.  As,  hoA\-- 
ever,  the  question  of  the  treatment  of  the 
native  jiopulation,  Avhich  is  noAv  knoAvn  to 
have  been  the  most  important  part  of  the 
business,  is  not  even  alluded  to,  it  is  enough 
to  speak  of  the  paper  as  containing  excellent 
advice,  on  the  hyfiothesis  that  such  a  settle- 
ment as  that  which  Avas  proposed  AA'as  a  good 
thing  in  itself. 

Bacon's  con*espondence  during  1609  is  the 
best  evidence  that  he  Avas  not  making  Avay 
with  James  as  a  political  ad\'iser.    Salisbury, 


in  fact,  blocked  his  path,  having  become  lord 
treasurer  in  1 008,  and  being  noAV  at  the  height 
of  his  credit  as  a  financial  reformer,  Avith 
hopes  of  so  far  increasing  the  reA'enue  and 
diminishing  tlie  expenditure  of  the  crown  as 
to  restore  the  financial  balance,  I^t^tters  to 
Toby  Matthew,  on  the  other  hand,  sIioav 
Bacon  pushing  forward  the  '  Instauratio 
Magna'  Avhich  Avas  to  reform  philoso])hy,  and 
one  of  them  of  10  Oct.  Avas  accompanied  by 
a  fragment  of  the  Avork,  sup])08ed  to  have 
been  the  'Redargutio  philosophiarum.'  About 
the  same  time  he  sent  to  Andrewes  his 
'Cogitata  et  Visa,'  and  on  17  Feb.  1(510  for- 
Avai'ded  to  Toby  Matthew  his  '  De  Sapient  i  a 
A'eterum.' 

By  this  time  parliament  Avas  already  in 
session,  haA'ing  met  on  9  Feb.  "With  his 
longing  for  harmony  between  tlu;  public 
])0A\'ers,  Bacon  must  liaA'e  felt  this  session  to 
he  unusually  trying.  Salisbury,  having  failed 
to  bring  about  a  balance  between  revenue  and 
expenditure,  attempted  to  strike  a  bargain 
AA'ith  the  commons  AA'hich  came  to  he  knoAvn 
as  the  Great  Contract.  It  Avas  ])recisely  the 
method  Avhich  Bacon  thoroughly  distrusted. 
He  thought  that  failure  in  making  a  bargain 
Avould  only  leave  both  sides  more  imtated 
Avith  one  another  than  before,  and  he  kneAV 
that  Salisbury  had  already  caused  consider- 
able irritation  by  laying  on  the  new  imposi- 
tions, the  levy  of  Avhich  was  justified  as  legal 
by  the  judg-ment  of  the  court  of  Exchequer 
in  Bate  s  case,  but  Avhich  alarmed  the  House 
of  Commons  as  endangering  the  principle  of 
the  parliamentary  basis  of  taxation.  (Jn  the 
legal  question  involved.  Bacon  argued  in  de- 
fence of  the  king's  claim  ;  but  his  argument 
Avas  no  measure  of  his  political  judgment, 
and  he  Avas  probably  Avell  satisfied  at  the 
compromise  offered  by  James,  by  which  the 
commons  Avei'e  to  gi'ant  about  tAvo-thirds  of 
the  impositions  levied,  Avhilst  James  Avas  to 
bind  himself  ne\'er  to  levy  more  Avithout 
their  consent.  In  the  same  Avay  Bacon 
Avould,  no  doubt,  have  been  pleased  if  the 
Great  Contract  could  have  been  carried  into 
efifect,  by  AA'hich  James  Avas  to  abandon  his 
income  from  feudal  tenures  and  other  ob- 
noxious sources,  Avhile  he  Avas  to  receive  in 
exchange  :200,000/.  a  year,  a  sum  Avhich, 
though  it  Avould  not  make  him  altogether  in- 
dependent of  future  subsidies,  Avould,  Avith 
the  exercise  of  due  economy,  raise  him  aboA'e 
that  constant  necessity  of  courting  the  com- 
mons for  subsistence'  sake  Avhicli  Bacon  de- 
precated. Bacon,  hoAvever, can  hardly  haAe 
felt  much  surprise  AA^hen  both  bargains  were 
Avrecked  in  the  folloAving  session,  and  Avhen, 
on  29  Feb.  1011,  James  dissoh'ed  his  first 
parliament  in  anger. 

z2 


Bacon 


340 


Bacon 


During  the  next  fifteen  months  there  is 
little  of  political  importance  from  Bacon's  pen. 
The  only  exception  is  his  '  Advice  touching 
Sutton's  Estate.'  He  must  have  felt  that  as 
long  as  Salishury  lived  there  was  no  chance  of 
gaining  the  king's  ear  for  his  greater  projects, 
thougli  he  succeeded  in  ohtaining  from  him 
a  promise  of  the  attorney-generalship  when- 
ever it  fell  vacant.  In  writing  to  Salishury 
he  continued  to  use  the  language  of  high- 
flown  compliment ;  hut  the  thorough  hatred 
with  which  he  regarded  the  lord  treasurer, 
whose  policy  he  despised,  and  to  whose  per- 
sonal intervention  he  ascribed  his  own  long 
exclusion  from  political  influence,  burst  out 
after  Salisbury's  death  on  24  May  1612  in 
the  essay '  On  I3eformity,'  which  he  now  added 
to  a  new  edition  of  his  essays. 

A  week  after  Salisbury's  death  Bacoju 
offered  his  political  services  to  the  king.  '  The, 
great  matter  and  most  instant  for  the  ])resent, 
he  wrote,  *  is  the  consideration  of  a  parliamen 
for  two  effects  ;  the  one  for  the  supply  of  you 
estate,  the  other  for  the  better  knitting  of  th 
hearts  of  your  subjects  unto  your  majesty,] 
according  to  your  infinite  merit,  for  both' 
Avhich  parliaments  have  been  and  are  the  an- 
cient and  honourable  remedy.  "Sow,  because 
I  take  myself  to  have  a  little  skill  in  that  re- 
gion, as  one  that  ever  affected  that  your  ma- 
jesty mought  in  all  your  causes  not  only 
prevail,  but  prevail  with  the  satisfaction  of 
the  inner  man ;  and  though  no  man  can  say 
but  I  was  a  perfect  and  peremptory  royalist, 
yet  every  man  makes  me  believe  that  I  Avas 
never  one  hour  out  of  credit  with  the  lower 
house,  my  desire  is  to  know  whether  your 
majesty  will  give  me  leav^e  to  meditate  and 
proi)ound  unto  you  some  preparative  remem- 
brances touching  the  future  parliament.' 
This  letter  was  followed  by  another,  in  which 
Bacon  directly  offered  to  abandon  the  law  for 
the  council  table.  It  was  perhaps  in  pur- 
suance of  this  idea  that  Bacon  asked  for  the 
mastership  of  the  wai'ds  vacant  by  Salisbury's 
death,  and  drew  up  a  declaration  to  be  made 
bv  tlie  new  master  on  his  entiy  upon  office, 
lie  was,  however,  disappointed,  as  the  place 
was  given  toSirGeorge  Carew,and  on  Carew's 
/dying  shortly  afterwards  it  was  given,  not  to 
Bacon,  but  to  Sir  AValter  Cope.  It  is  said 
that  on  this  latter  occasion  he  was  so  certain 
of  success  that  he  '  put  most  of  his  men  into 
new  cloaks.'  ,  Some  jester  observed  '  that  Sir 
Walter  was  master  of  the  wards,  and  Sir  Fran- 
cis Bacon  of  the  liveries.' 

During  the  year  and  a  half  which  followed 
Salisbury's  deatli  Bacon  found  employment 
as  solicitor-general  in  a  charge  against  the 
Countess  of  Shrewsbury  forassisting  the  flight 
of  Arabella  Stuart,  and  in  another  charge 


against  TVTiitelocke  for  what  was  considered 
to  be  an  attack  on  the  king's  prerogative.  Of 
far  greater  importance  is  the  use  Avhich  he 
made  of  James  s  permission  to  Avrite  to  him 
on  affairs  of  state,  which  might  possibly  pave 
the  way  to  the  higher  political  employment 
for  Avhich  he  had  asked. 

Of  summoning  parliament  there  Avas  no  im- 
mediate thought.     It  was  still  believed  pos- 
sible that  a  hody  of  sub-commissioners,  of 
whom  Bacon  was  one,  might  succeed  where 
Salisbury  had  failed,  in  procuring  an  adequate 
revenue  for  the  ci'own  without  recurring  to 
parhament.    On  18  Sept.  1612  Bacon  wrote  to 
the  king  to  have  patience,  begging  him  not 
again  to  have  his  Avants  and  necessities  in 
particular,  as  it  were,  hung  up  in  tAVO  tablets 
before  the  eyes  of  his  *  lords  and  commons  to  li 
be  talked  of  for  four  months  together.'     Some  U^ 
\  months  later,  when  the  scheme  of  supplying  f 
I  the  king  Avithout  a  parliament  had  brokerr-' 
I  down,  these  words  were  expanded  by  their 
Avriter  into  a  series  of  remarkable  state  papers^ 
in  Avhiph  he  indicated  the  relations  which 
ought  to  subsist  betAveen  king  and  ])arliament. 
In  these  papers  there  is  indeed  much  which 
it  is  impossible  to  regard  Avith  complete  satis- 
faction.    There  is  in  them  too  much  respect 
for  mere  management,  and  too  strong  an  in- 
clination to  regard  the  opposition  to  the  king- 
as  in  the  main  personal.     Yet,  on  the  Avhole, 
the  ground  Avhich  they  take  is  unassailable. 
Tliere  is  to  be  no  more  bai'gaining  betAveen 
king  and  subjects.     The  king  is  to  shoAV  his 
determination  to  lead  in  the  right  direction, 
and  to  be  content  to  wait  till  his  subjects  are 
])repared  to  follow.     He  is  not  to  pi-ess  for 
supply,  but  to  Avait  till  the  commons  are  suf- 
ficiently im]n'essed  AA'ith  his  deA^otion  to  the 
nation  to  offer  him  all  that  he  needs.     '  In 
bargains,'  wrote  Bacon  in  some  notes  which 
he  dreAv  up  for  the  king's  speech  to  the  new 
])arliament,   'the  manner  is  for  eitlier  part 
chiefly  to  take  cai'e  of  the  other.     "  Charita.' 
non  quferit  qute  sua  sunt."     The  kingtotake^ 
care  of  his  sjihjects,  and  the  subjects  to  take 
care  of  their  king.'     The  easiest  AA'ay  to  un^ 
derstand  Bacoifs  political  position  is  to  read 
these  papers  in  connection  AA'ith  the  ])a])er  on 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  council  of  Wales,  in 
AA'hich  he  adA'ocates  the  maintenance  of  pre- 
rogatiA^e  government  in  the  interests  of  the 
humbler  classes,  and  Avith  the  pajiers  on  the 
church,  in  Avhich  he  adA'ocates  a  relaxation  of 
the  restrictions  on  nonconformity. 

To  cany  out  this  progTamme  Avould  haA^e 
been  to  avert,  the  evils  of  the  next  half-cen- 
tury. No  one  to  AA'hose  mind  the  history  of 
that  half-century  is  present  can  agree  Avith 
those  numerous  AATiters  who  speak  of  Bacon's 
political  Avork  as  inferior  to  his  scientific.    He 


Bacon 


341 


Bacon 


was  the  one  man  capable  of  preventing  a  ca- 
tastro])he  by  anticipating  the  demands  of  the 
jige.  Humanity  would  have  been  at  least  as 
much  benefited  if  tlie  civil  war,  with  its  at- 
tendant evils,  could  have  been  made  impos- 
sible, as  it  was  by  the  completion  of  the 
'  Novum  Organum.  Unhappily  for  Bacon  he 
<-(uild  ])ublish  as  much  of  the  '  Novum  Or- 
ganum  '  as  he  could  find  time  to  write;  but  he 
could  not  ])rocure  acceptance  for  his  political 
ideas.  Salisbury  and  Coke  turned  a  deaf  ear 
to  all  of  them  ;  the  House  of  Commons  would 
take  part  of  them,  and  James  would  take 
another  part,  Avhereas  it  was  only  in  their  en- 
tirety that  tbey  could  exercise  a  healing  in- 
fluence. 

In  the  advice  given  to  James  in  1613  it 
becomes  manifest  that  Bacon  could  not  ven- 
ture to  lay  his  whole  thoughts  before  the 
king.  There  is  a  reticence  in  it  on  the  higher 
matters  of  statesmao»hip,  which  does  not  suit 
the  trusted  adviser.  Even  the  argument  cut 
short  was  too  large  for  James.  He  opened 
the  parliament  of  l()14witharenewedattempt 
to  bargain  with  the  commons,  and  without 
any  serious  attempt  to  come  to  a  friendly 
understanding  with  them  on  the  subject  of  the 
impositions.  The  result  was  that  after  a  short 
and  stormy  session  parliament  was  dissolved,  \ 
and  James  was  once  more  thrown  on  his  own 
resources. 

Bacon's  personal  position  in  thtj^  second 
])arliament  of  James  Avas  as  high  as  it  had 
been  in  the  first.  On  27  Oct.  1613  he  had 
become  attorney-general,  and  the  commons 
on  meeting  declared  that  no  attorney-general 
in  future  should  sit  in  the  house  ;  but  they 
made  a  special  exception  in  Bacon's  favour. 
He  had,  therefore,  reason  to  think  that  if  a 
reconciliation  could  be  effected  between  the 
king  and  the  house  he  was  himself  specially 
qualified  by  his  relations  with  both  pax-ties  for 
bringing  it  about. 

Perhaps  if  any  date  can  be  fixed  as  that  on 
which  Bacon's  chance  of  serving  the  nation 
politically  was  at  an  end,  it  is  that  of  the  dis- 
solution which  took  place  on  7  June  1014; 
James  then  deliberately  took  one  way,  and 
the  nation  took  another.  Yet  it  does  not  fol- 
low that  Bacon  was  likely  to  see  that  this 
was  the  case.  Of  James's  secret  understand- 
ing Avith  the  Spanish  ambassador,  which  pre- 
ceded the  dissolution,  he  Avas  entirely  igno- 
rant, and  he  may  have  argued  that  as  it  w^as 
by  disregarding  his  adA'ice  that  James  had 
failed,  it  Avas  possible  that  he  Avould  be  better 
listened  to  on  a  subsequent  occasion.  Add 
to  this  his  inborn  habit  of  placing  himself  on 
the  side  of  authority,  and  the  difficulty  which 
any  man  Avould  feel  in  throAving  up  a  course 
of  life  on  Avhich  he  has  embarked,  and  it  be- 


comes unnecessaiy  to  throAV  undue  stress 
upon  that  Avhich,  after  all,  must  not  be  left 
out  of  calculation — his  disinclination,  after 
tasting  the  allurements  of  competency  and 
station,  to  choose,  in  adA'anced  middle  age, 
obscure  poverty  as  his  bride.  Yet,  however 
Ave  may  explain  Bacon's  choice,  his  future  life 
Avas  sad  enough,  and  that  none  the  less  b«!- 
cause  he  Avas  not  himself  conscio\is  of  Avrong. 
The  support  of  ])OAver  for  the  sake  of  doing 
good  became  a  support  of  ])oAV<n-  from  Avhich 
no  good  AAas  to  be  hoped.  The  loAA'er  ])art  of 
Bacon's  nature  Avas  perhaps  not  more  actiA'e 
than  it  had  been  before  ;  but  the  higher  ])art, 
had  no  prospect  of  being  called  into  action. 
The  subser\-ience  to  authority  and  the  flattery 
of  the  great  Avere  there  as  they  had  been 
before :  but  not  <mly  Avas  there  nothing  to 
shoAV  in  return,  but  the  inqmrtial  s])ectator 
has  to  acknoAvledge  that  it  ought  to  haA'e  been 
evident  to  Bacon  himself  that  there  never 
AA'ould  be  any  prospect  of  his  being  able  to 
accomplish  any  statesmanlike  Avork. 

That  Bacon  did  not  see  this  may  have  been 
to  some  extent  oAving  to  his  \'iew  of  the  po- 
litical circumstances  of  the  time.  EA'en  be- 
fore Salisbury's  death  James  had  taken  a 
liking  to  a  young  Scotchman,  Robert  Carr, 
and  had  successiA^ely  created  him  Viscount 
Rochester  and  Earl  of  Somerset.  The  young- 
man  had  attached  himself  to  Lady  Essex,  pro- 
cured her  divorce  from  her  husband  under 
circumstances  Avhich  appear  to  us  to  be  pecu- 
liarly disgraceful,  though  it  is  only  fair  to  re- 
member that  the  diA'orce  Avas  approved  at  the 
time  by  AndrcAves,  and  had  married  her  Avith 
eA'ery  demonstration  of  James's  satisfaction.. 
As  the  ncAv  countess  of  Somerset  Avas  a  Hoav-  , 
ard,  James's  fa\ourite  and  James  through 
him  Avere  brought  into  close  connection  Avith 
the  family  of  the  HoAvards,  and  more  espe- 
cially Avitli  its  leading  member,  the  Earl  of 
Northampton.  Northampton  was  a  con- 
cealed catholic,  and  an  adA'ocate  of  a  S])anish 
alliance.  He  had  done  all  he  could  to  frus- 
trate the  meeting  of  the  parliament  of  1614, 
and  Avas  suspected  of  haAnng  a  hand  in  the 
disputes  Avhich  brought  about  a  dissolution. 
His  death,  hoAvever,  Avliich  took  place  on 
15  June  1614,  remoAcd  from  the  scene  a 
powerful  influence  hostile  to  Bacon's  ideas ; 
and  Bacon,  Avho  had  followed  the  fashion  by 
presenting  a  gorgeous  masque  on  the  occasion 
of  Somerset's  maiTiage,  but  Avho  had  neA'er 
shoAvn  any  iticlination  to  suppolt  the  policy  of 
Somerset  and  the  HoAvards,may  have  thought 
once  more  after  Northampton's  death  that  his 
chance  of  gaining  the  king's  ear  Avas  more 
favourable  than  it  had  been  before. 

Nor  was  this  all.     A  quarrel  Avas  impend- 
ing between  James  and  Coke,  on  Avhich  all 


Bacon 


34^ 


Bacon 


Bacon's  sympathies  were  on  the  side  of  James. 
As  Bacon  had  ])leaded  for  a  hirger  statesman- 
ship than  Salishvny's,  he  now  ph^aded  for 
statesmanship  itself  as  against  the  technical 
legality  of  Coke.  His  fundamental  strength 
lay  in  recognition  of  the  truth  that  political 
wisdom  is  greater  than  legality.  His  funda- 
mental weakness  lay  in  his  failure  to  discover 
that  ])olitical  wisdom  was  not  to  be  expected 
from  .Fames,  and  that  consequently  it  would 
be  necessary  to  reconstruct  the  whole  frame- 
"W'ork  of  the  state. 

The  claim  of  the  judges  to  be  the  supreme 
mediators  in  political  disputes  had  ripened 
partly  through  the  weakness  of  the  king,  and 
])artly  through  the  Avide  learning  and  master- 
ful temper  of  Coke,  who  had  reduced  the  other 
judges  to  be  scarcely  more  than  satellites  of 
himself.  In  1613  the  struggle  between  Bacon 
and  Coke  Avas  opened  by  the  removal  of  the 
latter,  at  Bacon's  advice,  from  the  chief  jus- 
ticeshi])  of  the  common  pleas  to  that  of  the 
king's  bench,  where  it  Avas  thought  that  he 
Avovdd  be  less  able  to  do  mischief. 

On  the  question  of  the  issue  of  a  demand 
for  a  bene\'olence.  Bacon  and  Coke  did  not 
come  into  collision.  Bacon  strongly  advised 
that  it  should  be  as  voluntary  in  reality  as  it 
was  in  name,  but  as  he  Avas  not  a  i)rivy  coun- 
cillor he  had  nothing  to  do  AA'ith  any  pressure 
that  Avas  ])ut  on  those  Avho  AA'ere  backAvard.  In 
the  prosecution  of  St.  John  in  1615  for  the 
abusive  terms  in  which  he  had  urged  resistance 
to  the  benvolence,  thelanguage  used  by  Bacon 
may  liaA'e  beenjustly  aimed  at  so  intemperate 
an  opponent  of  the  goA'ernment  as  St.  John 
was,  but  it  shoAvs  an  entire  incapacity  to  under- 
stand the  grounds  on  which  honourable  men 
Avere  at  this  time  tending  to  resist  the  court. 

The  actual  collision  betAveen  Bacon  and 
Coke  Avas  brought  about  by  the  proceedings 
taken  against  Edniond  Peacham,  a  clergy- 
man of  Somerset,  amongst  Avhose  papers  had 
been  found  a  i)a])er  reprobating  the  king's 
proceedings,  and  a])parently  intended  to  be 
read  from  the  pulpit  in  the  form  of  a  sermon. 
The  council,  knoAving  that  grave  dissatisfac- 
tion existed,  suspected  that  Peacham  Avas 
only  the  mouthpiece  of  others,  and  ordered 
him  to  be  tortm'ed,  in  the  ho])e  of  obtaining 
disclosures  from  him.  Of  his  torture  Bacon 
was  an  official  witness,  but  he  had  nothing 
to  do  Avith  the  order  for  it,  though  there  is 
no  reason  to  suppose  that  he  Avould  have  ob- 
jected. As,  hoAVCA'er,  the  torture  produced 
no  hint  of  a  conspiracy,  the  government  re- 
sohed  to  proceed  against  Peacham  himself 
on  a  charge  of  treason.  It  had,  in  fact,  re- 
solved, eA'en  before  the  torture,  to  consult  the 
judges  of  the  king's  bench  as  to  AA'hether 
Peacham's  offence  Avas  treasonable  or  not. 


To  consult  the  judges  was  at  that  time  the 
usual  practice.  In  this  case,  however,  thei'e 
Avas  a  special  difficulty.  Coke's  masterful 
temper,  combined  with  his  legal  attainments, 
Avas  apt  to  reduce  the  other  judges  to  de- 
pendence on  himself,  and  James  therefore 
ordered  that  the  four  judges  should  be  con- 
sulted individualh'.  To  this  unusual  pro- 
ceeding Coke  not  unnaturally  objected.  '  Such 
particular  and  auricular  taking  of  opinions,' 
he  said,  '  is  not  according  to  the  custom  of 
the  realm.'  The  three  puisne  judges  gave 
a  compliant  ansAver.  Bacon,  as  attorney- 
general,  Avas  intrusted  Avith  the  examination 
of  Coke,  and,  as  might  haA'e  been  expected, 
did  not  receiA'e  a  reply  Avhich  Avas  satisfactory 
to  himself.  Whatever  might  be  the  true 
decision  according  to  the  legal  doctrines  then 
])re\'alent,  it  is  evident  that  Coke  and  Bacon 
a])proached  the  constitutional  question  from  \ 
opposite  points  of  vieAV.  Coke  wished  the 
bench  to  be  so  organised  as  to  be  ap])ealed 
to  as  an  independent  authority  betAveen  the 
croAvn  and  the  subject.  Bacon,  Avith  a  Avider 
])olitical  instinct,Avished  to  confine  it  to  purely 
legal  questions,  leaAnng  political  matters  t» 
])olitical  men.  He  forgot  to  ask  Avhether 
James,  standing  as  he  did  apart  from  the 
nation,  could  justly  claim  the  respect  due  to 
the  supremacy  of  a  political  government- 
What  Avas  still  Avorse  is  that  he  adA'ised  that 
a  false  rumoiu"  shoidd  be  giA^en  out  as  to  the 
opinion  of  the  judges,  lest  others  should  be 
encouraged  to  publish  attacks  on  the  crown. 

This  reliance  on  management  at  the  ex- 
pense of  truthfulness  Avas  Bacon's  Avorst  fault. 
It  cannot,  lioAveA-er,  be  said  of  him  that  if  he 
defended  James  overmuch,  he  did  not  tiy 
his  best  to  make  James's  policy  other  than  it 
Avas.  In  a  paper  Avritten  at  the  end  of  Sep- 
tember or  the  beginning  of  October  1615,  at 
the  time  Avhen  the  council  recommended  the 
calling  of  another  parliament,  Bacon  gaA'e  his 
opinion  strongly,  not  only  in  the  same  direc- 
tion, but  in  faAour  of  the  course,  Avhich  he 
had  ahvays  advised,  of  abandoning  all  attempts 
at  bargaining,  '  Let  there  be  an  utter  silence,'' 
he  Avrote,  '  as  of  the  king's  part,  of  money  or 
supply,  or  of  the  king's  debts  or  Avants ;  they 
are  things  too  Avell  knoAvn.  And  let  not  the 
king  doubt  but  some  honest  man  Avill,  after 
they  have  sat  aAvhile,  fall  upon  them,  though 
it  proceed  not  from  the  king.  Nay,  I  will 
presume  further  to  say  (as  putting  a  case 
speculatiA'e,  Avhich  in  act  and  eAent  I  hold 
an  impossibility),  if  subsidies  should  nevei- 
be  giA'en  nor  spoken  of  in  the  next  pai'lia- 
ment,  yet  the  meeting  and  parting  of  the 
king  and  his  parliament  with  due  conserva- 
tion of  the  majesty  and  authority  of  the 
king,  Avhich  heretofore  hath  suffi>red,  and  Avill 


Bacon 


343 


Bacon 


suffer  as  long  as  money  is  made  the  mere 
object  oftLe  parliament,  and  without  heats  or 
contestations,  or  oppositions  between  him  and 
his  parliament,  I  hold  to  be  a  thing  of  in- 
valuable consequence,  both  in  reputation  and 
towards  the  substance  of  future  affairs.'  If 
Bacon  wished  to  see  the  king  formally  abso- 
lute, he  wished  him  to  be  sm-rounded  by  the 
impalpable  atmosphere  of  a  sympathetic  union 
with  his  people. 

It  was  not  entirely  to  James's  discredit 
that  he  could  not  realise  Bacon's  ideal.  One 
of  the  modes  of  Avinning  favour  recommended 
by  Bacon  in  this  paper  is  that  of  taking  ad- 
vantage of  the  good  understanding  between 
France  and  S])ain,  to  '  give  fire  to  our  nation, 
and  make  them  aspire  to  be  again  umpires  in 
those  wai'S ;  or,  at  least,  to  retrench  and  ! 
amuse  the  greatness  of  Sjjain  for  their  own  i 
I)re8ervation.'  Bacon  could  give  this  advice 
honestly  because  he  had  always  advocated 
a  stirring  foreign  policy,  pushed  even  to  war- 
like action,  as  a  means  of  bringing  king  and 
people  together.  With  all  his  powers  he  was 
an  English  politician  ;  James,  on  the  other 
hand,  with  all  his  faults,  was  an  international 
politician.  To  make  war  to  advance  his  own 
greatness  or  the  greatness  of  England  was 
hateful  to  him.  Unfortunately  he  was 
already  deep  in  a  negotiation  for  a  marriage 
between  his  son  and  a  Spanish  infanta. 
Bacon's  allusion  to  this  is  characteristic  of 
the  tenderness  with  which  he  handles  the 
king's  actions,  and  of  the  way  in  Avhich  he 
manages  to  spoil  even  the  best  advice  by 
overmuch  cleverness.  James,  he  says,  might 
frighten  the  commons  into  a  grant  of  supply 
u])on  the  opinion  of  some  gxeat  offer  for  a 
marriage  of  the  prince  with  Spain.  '  Not,'  he 
proceeds,  'that  I  shall  easily  advise  that  that 
should  be  really  effected ;  but  I  say  the 
opinion  of  it  may  have  singular  use,  both 
because  it  will  easily  be  believed  that  the 
offer  may  be  so  great  from  that  hand  as  may 
at  once  free  the  king's  estate ;  and  chiefly 
because  it  will  be  a  noteable  attractive  to  the 
parliament,  that  hates  the  Spaniard,  so  to  do 
for  the  king  as  his  state  may  not  force  him  to 
fall  upon  that  condition.'  How  much  higher 
would  Bacon  have  stood  with  posterity  if  he 
had  boldly  spoken  out  the  opinion  which  he 
indicated,  instead  of  advocating  such  a  poor 
trick  as  this ! 

No  parliament  was  summoned  at  this  time. 
The  court  was  for  some  months  fully  occu- 
pied in  the  questions  arising  out  of  the  detec- 
tion of  the  murder  of  Sir  Thomas  Overbiuy. 
AVhen  on  26  May  1010  Somerset  was  tried. 
Bacon  appeared  as  chief  prosecutor,  doing 
his  part  with  decorum,  being  anxious  to 
secure  a  conviction,  though  he  was  aware  that 


James  intended  to  pardon  both  the  earl  and 

the  countess. 

Some  time  before  Somerset's  disgrace  Bacon 
iuid  welcomed  the  rise  of  Villiers.  If  there 
was  to  be  a  favourite  at  all,  the  change  may 
well  have  seemed  to  be  a  good  one,  for  Vil- 
liers was  supported  by  the  men  of  the  airK-- 
Spanish  party.  Villiers,  too,  was  affable 
wnilst  Somerset  had  been  morose,  and  Bacon 
once  more  hopefully  believed  that  he  had 
discovered  that  for  which  he  had  so  long 
been  seeking  in  vain,  an  influential  perspn- 
age  who  would  support  him  in  his  great 
undertakings.  Once  more  that  yearning  for 
political  and  scientific  achievement  which  in 
Bacon  was  so  inseparably  mingled  with  desire 
for  the  good  things  of  life,  blinded  his  eyes 
to  the  instability  of  the  foundations  on 
which  he  was  building,  and  he  threw  him- 
self with  unabated  ardour  into  the  service 
of  Villiers,  advised  him  as  to  his  conduct,  and 
assisted  him  in  the  management  of  his  estate. 
His  own  hope  of  advancement  was  now 
greater  than  it  had  ever  been  before.  "When, 
in  January  1016,  lord  chancellor  Ellesmere 
was  apparently  dying.  Bacon  proposed  him- 
self as  his  successor.  James  gave  him  the 
promise  for  which  he  asked.  Ellesmpre, 
however,  recovered,  and  Bacon  had  to  wait 
about  a  year  longer.  His  language  to  Vil- 
liers was,  as  it  remained  to  the  end,  that  of 
devotion  too  warm  to  be  altogether  real. 
'  I  am  yours,'  he  wrote,  '  surer  to  you  than 
my  own  life.  Eor,  as  they  speak  of  the  tur- 
quois  stone  in  a  ring,  I  will  break  into  twenty 
pieces  before  you  have  the  least  fall.' 

In  asking  to  succeed  Ellesmere  as  chan- 
cellor. Bacon  was  not  asking  merely  for  his 
own  personal  advancement.  It  Avas  the  sys- 
tem of  Ellesmere  that  he  wished  to  continue. 
'  Let  me  tell  your  majesty,'  he  explained 
himself  to  James, '  that  that  part  of  the  chan- 
cellor's place  AA'hich  is  to  judge  in  equity 
between  party  and  jiarty  .  .  .  concerneth 
your  majesty  least.  .  .  .  But  it  is  the  other 
parts,  of  a  moderator  amongst  your  council, 
of  an  overseer  over  your  judges,  of  a  planter 
of  fit  justices  and  governors  in  the  country, 
that  importeth  jour  affairs  and  these  times 
most.' 

The  part  of  an  overseer  over  the  judges 
M-as  that  Avhich  had  the  greatest  immediate 
interest  for  Bacon.  The  struggle  with  Coke, 
of  Avhich  the  separate  consultation  with  tin 
judges  on  Peacham's  case  had  been  the  preli- 
minary skinnish,  was  by  this  time  at  its  height . 
An  action  had  been  brought  in  the  King's 
Bench  in  which  the  king's  ri^ht  of  appoint- 
ing to  office  was  invoh'ed,  and  m  1615  Bacon, 
as  attorney-general,  produced  a  writ,  'De  non 
procedendo  liege  inconsulto,'  prohibiting  the- 


Bacon 


344 


Bacon 


court  from  proceeding  till  the  question  had 
been  referred  to  chancery,  and  its  permission 
obtained  for  the  parties  to  proceed  at  common 
law.  Bacon's  object  was  to  secure  for  the 
king  the  su])port  of  the  chancellor  who,  as  a 
great  political  officer,  was  likely  to  decide  in 
his  favour.  On  '2o  Jan.  1(510  he  pleaded  on 
the  king's  behalf  in  what  Coke  himself  ac- 
knowledged to  be  '  a  famous  argument.'  The 
dispute  ended  in  a  compromise,  and  Bacon 
failed  to  obtain  from  the  judges  any  recogni- 
tion of  the  position  which  he  had  claimed 
for  chancery. 

Before  long  Coke's  arrogant  temper  gave 
Bacon  the  advantage.  Coke  was  indignant 
at  the  attempt  to  place  his  own  court  under 
the  ordera  of  chancery,  and  he  replied  to  it 
by  an  attempt  to  place  chancery  under  the 
orders  of  his  own  court.  He  instigated  two 
rascals,  who  had  obtained  judgments  in  their 
favour  in  a  common  law  court,  and  whose 
victims  had  subsequently  obtained  the  pro- 
tection of  chancery,  to  prefer  indictments  of 
2)r(emtmire  in  the  King's  Bench,  not  onlv 
against  the  suitors,  but  against  all  who  had 
taken  part  in  the  proceedings  in  chancery. 

On  the  immediate  point  at  issue  Coke  was 
baffled  by  the  refusal  of  the  grand  jury  to 
bring  in  a  true  bill.  Bacon,  however,  recom- 
mended James  to  settle  the  question  whether 
the  King's  Bench  had  a  right  to  interfere 
with  the  equitable  jurisdiction  of  chanceiy, 
and  the  law  officers  being  consulted  gave  it 
as  their  opinion  that  it  had  not. 

Before  anything  could  be  done  to  give 
effijct  to  this  opinion,  a  new  dispute  arose^ 
In  a  case  before  the  twelve  judges  in  the 
exchequer  chamber,  relating  to  a  commen- 
dam,  one  of  the  counsel  argued  against  the 
king's  real  or  supposed  prerogative,  after 
which,  by  James's  orders.  Bacon  wrote  to 
Coke  on  2')  April  requiring  him  to  inform 
the  otlier  judges  that  they  were  not  to  pro- 
ceed till  tlie  king  had  spoken  to  them.  Tlie 
judges,  however,  went  on  with  the  case,  and 
on  the  27th  they  signed  a  letter  drawn  up 
by  Coke,  in  which  they  gave  reasons  for  re- 
fusing obedience.  On  6  June  they  v/ere  all 
summoned  before  the  king,  when  Coke  was 
alone  in  protesting  tliat  to  put  off  the  argu- 
ment would  have  been  a  delay  of  justice. 
After  some  further  dispute  the  judges  were 
asked  '  whether,  if,  at  any  time,  in  a  case 
depending  before  the  judges,  his  majesty  con- 
ceived it  to  concern  him  either  in  power  or 
profit,  and  therefore  required  to  consult Avith 
them,  and  that  they  should  stay  proceedings 
in  the  meantime,  they-ouglit  not  to  stay  ac- 
cordingly.' Eleven  of  the  judges-  answered 
in  the  affirmative :  Coke  alone  held  out.  On 
20  June  tlie  king  came  into  the  Star  Chamber 


and  laid  down  the  principle  that  it  was  the 
office  of  tlie  crown  to  settle  all  questions  of 
jurisdiction  between  courts.  On  the  20th 
Coke  was  summoned  before  the  council,  on 
the  30th  he  Avas  suspended  from  his  office, 
and  on  15  Nov.  he  was  dismissed.  Bacon's 
rise  kept  pace  Avith  Coke's  decline.  On  9  June 
he  had  become  a  priAy  councillor,  on  7  March 
1017  he  succeeded  Ellesmere  with  the  title 
of  lord  keeper. 

Bacon's  mounting  fortunesAvere  thus  raised 
by  his  successful  struggle  with  Coke.  As  in 
all  gi'eat  political  questions,  the  point  at 
issue  Avas  by  no  means  so  simple  as  it  looked. 
To  Bacon  the  question  Avas  one  of  the  rela- 
tion betAveen  laAV  and  politics.  The  judges, 
as  he  expressed  himself  in  one  of  his  essays, 
should  be  'lions,  but  yet  lions  under  the 
throne,  being  circumspect  that  they  do  not 
check  or  oppose  any  points  of  sovei'eignty,' 
Coke's  attempt  to  erect  tlie  bench  into  the 
position  of  an  arbiter  of  the  constitution  was 
rightly  distasteful  to  him,  and  so  far  as  Bacon 
succeeded  in  thwarting  this  his  success  Avas 
Avell  deserved.  It  Avas  the  last  real  success 
that  he  Avas  ever  to  lia\'e.  The  greater  the 
political  power  acquired  by  the  king,  the 
sooner  Avould  the  question  be  asked  whether 
he  deserved  to  exercise  it.  Bacon's  const i-  i 
tutional  vieAV  presupposed  a  king  standing  ' 
above  all  parties  and  all  interests,  and  ' 
thoroughly  sensitive  to  the  deeper  currents  ; 
of  public  opinion.  His  character  rendered 
him  OA'er-trustful  of  persons  in  authority,  ; 
and  he  Avas  noAA^  to  pay  the  jienalty.  James  '< 
took  so  much  of  his  policy  as  made  for  tlie 
enhancement  of  the  royal  dignity,  and  re- 
jected all  that  made  for  the  subordination  of 
his  OAvn  ideas  to^ose  of  the  nation.  Thus 
it  came  about  that  tlie  appointment  of  Bacon 
as  lord  keeper  Avas  but  the  signal  of  his  disas- 
trous failure  in  all  the  higher  purposes  of  his 
political  life,  a  fact  Avliich  has  Ijeen  too  easily 
forgotten  in  the  more  dramatic  spectacle  of 
his  fall  from  the  appearance  of  political  poAA'er. 

The  unity  of  Bacon's  thought  in  science 
and  politics  may  be  gathered  from  his  in- 
complete Avork  entitled  'The  New  Atlantis,' 
Avliich  has  hitherto  been  ascribed  to  a  later 
period  in  his  life,  but  Avhich  is  tAvice  men- 
tioned by  him  in  an  unpublished  paper 
{Sarleian  Charters,  iii.  D.  14),  the  date  of 
Avhich  lies  between  the  dissolution  of  the 
pai-liament  in  1614  and  Bacon's  appointment 
as  lord  keeper  in  1617.  In  the  '  Ncaa'  At- 
lantis' there  are  tAA"o  conspicuous  points. 
On  the  one  hand  is  the  desire  to  benefit  man- 
kind by  a  science  founded  on  obserAation 
and  experiment :  on  the  other  hand  is  the 
tendency  to  under-estimate  the  difficulty  of 
the  task,  Avhich  leads  to  the  belief  that  it 


Bacon 


345 


Bacon 


can  be  entrusted  to  an  official  body  organised 
Ibrtlie  pui-pose.  If  Bacon  had  been  allowed 
to  carry  out  his  scheme,  it  would  probably 
bav<!  been  found  that  officialism  would  have 
smothered  scientific  inquiry.  At  all  events, 
lie  reached  a  somewhat  similar  result  in 
])olitics.  lie  had  improved  the  official  or- 
ganisation of  the  state  only  to  find  it  useless 
for  all  good  purj)oses  in  his  hands. 

Even  before  his  elevation  Bacon  learned 
liow  little  his  advice  was  likely  to  be  fol- 
lowed on  the  great  question  of  the  day.  On 
2  March  1017  James  announced  to  a  body  of 
commissioners,  of  whom  Bacon  was  one,  that 
he  had  practically  accepted  the  terms  offered 
by  Si)ain  for  a  marriage  between  Prince 
Charles  and  the  Infanta  Maria.  To  this 
declaration  the  commissioners  replied  on  the 
7th,  giving  a  somewhat  hesitating  assent, 
and  on  the  '2SrA  Bacon  proposed  certain 
additional  instructions  for  Sir  John  Digby, 
who  was  going  Jis  ambassador  to  Spain,  sug- 
gesting that  the  alliance  between  Spain  and 
England  might  be  used  to  establish  a  court 
of  arbitration  between  christian  princes,  and 
to  head  a  general  defensive  war  against  the 
Turks.  Among  all  Bacon's  state  papers 
there  is  none  more  characteristic  of  his  habit 
■of  mJTking  the  best  of  a  disagreeable  situa- 
tion. Regarding,  as  he  did,  the  Spanish 
alliance  as  not  only  bad  in  itself,  but  as  fatal 
to  the  good  understanding  which  he  wished 
to  see  established  between  king  and  parlia- 
ment, he  was  yet  able  to  sit  down  coolly  to 
ask  whether  any  advantage  could  be  reaped 
even  from  what  appeared  to  him  to  be  a 
policy  fraught  with  disaster. 

It  is  only  the  extraordinarily  unemotional 
character  of  Bacon's  mind  which  made  it 
X)0ssible  for  him  to  act  as  he  did  during  the 
next  four  years.  lie  had  not  long  been 
lord  keeper  before  he  learned  how  far  Buck- 
ingham—for by  that  name  Villiers  was  now 
known — fell  short  of  the  ideal  of  a  favouinte. 
While  the  court  was  absent  in  Scotland  a 
man-iage  was  agreed  on  betM'een  Bucking- 
ham's brother,  Sir  John  Villiers,  and  Frances 
Ooke,  the  daughter  of  the  late  chief  justice. 
Bacon  saw  in  the  project,  what  it  no  doubt 
really  was,  an  attempt  once  more  to  ingi-atiate 
Coke  with  the  king.  lie  accordingly  took 
])art  with  the  young  lady's  mother,  who  op- 
po.sed  the  match,  and  wrote  to  James  to  pro- 
test against  it.  He  found  that  Buckingham 
was  warmly  interested  in  the  project,  and 
was  not  only  angiy  himself,  but  made  James 
angi-y  with  the  lord  keeper's  interference. 
Buckingliam  talked  of  Bacon  as  showing  the 
•same  ingratitude  -to  himself  which  he  had 
formerly  shown  to  Essex  and  Somerset.  It 
was  only  by  the  most  profuse  apologies  that 


Bacf)n  nnide  good  his  imperilled  ])osition. 
The  political  danger  which  he  feared  was  in- 
deed averted,  and  Coke  was  no  nearer  to 
restorati(m  to  the  bench  than  he  was  before, 
but  Bacon  learned  a  lesson  regarding  the 
manner  in  which  Buckingham  was  to  be  a]H 
])r(jached.  That  Buckingham  demanded  olj- 
sequiousness  and  flattery  was  as  much  a  fact 
as  that  James  wished  to  ally  himself  with 
Spain,  and  Bacon  was  as  ready  to  take  ac- 
count of  one  of  these  facts  as  he  was  of  the 
other. 

For  the  time  he  had  his  reward.  On 
7  Jan.  1018  he  became  lord  chancellor,  and 
on  12  July  he  was  raised  to  the  peerage  as 
Baron  Verulam.  During  the  whole  of  Eliza- 
beth's reign  no  one  had  borne  the  title  of 
lord  chancellor,  and  no  lord  kt'eper  had  been 
'  made  a  peer. 

Bacon  was  obliged  mainly  to  content  him- 
self with  judicial  work.     On  8  June  1017, 
;  three  months  after  he  had  taken  his  seat  in 
■  chanceiy,  he  had  cleared  ofi"  all  the  arrears  of 
j  business  in  that  court.   As  far  as  we  know,  his 
justice  was,  on  the  Avhole,  as  exem])laiy  as  his 
energ}'.     Not  only  were  no  complaints  heard 
at  the  time,  which  may  easily  be  accounted 
I  for,  but   in  later  years,  when  every   man's 
mouth  was  opened  against  him,  no  successful 
attempt  was  made  to  reverse  his  decisions. 
Yet  even  in  his  court  he  wAs  made  to  feel 
the  Aveight  of  the  favourite's  patronage,  and 
was  ex])osed  to  a  constant  flow   of  letters 
from  Buckingham  asking  him  toshoAV  favour 
to  this  person  or  to  that,  of  course  under  the 
reservation  that  he  would  do  so  only  so  far 
as  was  consonant  with  justice.     One  of  the 
cases  in  which  Buckingham's  favour  was  in- 
voked has  recently  been  subjected  to  a  search- 
'.  ing  criticism  by  Mr.  I).  D.  Heath  (Speddixg, 
I  vii.  app.  i.).    A  certain  Dr.  Steward  appealed 
!  to  Buckingham  against  a  decision  jironounced 
j  by  Bacon  in  favour  of  Steward's  nephew,  and 
j  Bacon,  instead  of  openly  maintaining  the  jus- 
tice of  his  OAvn  decision  or  openly  acknoAv- 
j  ledging  his  mistake,  allowed  the  affair  to  be 
.  settled  by  arbitration.     As  there  is  no  record 
of  the  decision  of  the  arbitrators,  it  has  been 
[  ])resumed  that  the  young  man  abandoned  his 
j  case,  as  knowing  that  the  decision  was  likely 
I  to  go  against  him  on  other  grounds  than  those 
j  which  would  liaAe  availed  him  before  a  just 
and  competent  tribunal.     If  this  is  a  connect 
representation  of  the  matter — and  it  seems 
:  probable,  though  far  from  absolutely  certain, 
that  it   was  so — Bacon's   conduct  was  dis- 
I  tinctly  blameworthy,  though  the  a])pointment 
of  arbitrators  may  have  veiled  for  him  the 
I  real  nature  of  the  offence,  which  consisted  in 
'  transferring  to  others  the  responsibility  wliich 
should  have  been  borne  by  himself  alone. 


Bacon 


346 


Bacon 


Of  judicial  mattei's  outside  the  court  of 
Chancery  the  most  notable  with  which  Bacon 
was  concerned  w(?re  the  jjrosecution  of  Ra- 
leigh [see  Raleigh,  Sir  Waltek]  in  1G18, 
of  SuiFolk  in  1619,  and  of  Yelverton  [see 
Yelverton,  Sir  Henry]  in  1620.  In  the 
first  two  of  these  cases  Bacon's  feelings,  as 
well  as  his  official  duty,  were  enlisted  on  the 
side  of  the  court.  Raleigli  was  to  him  an  un- 
scrupulous pirate,  and  Suttblk  [see  Howard, 
Thomas]  an  unscrupulous  peculator.  Yel- 
verton's  case  was  somewhat  different.  He 
had,  tlirough  inadvertence,  given  his  assent 
to  a  charter  for  the  city  of  London  which 
contained  larger  powers  than  he  was  war- 
ranted to  allow.  Bacon  urged  strongly  that 
carelessness  was  an  offence  of  presumption, 
and  contributed  to  the  passing  of  a  heavy 
sentence. 

Looked  at  from  the  point  of  view  of  a  guar- 
dian of  official  duty,  the  sentence  on  Yelverton 
might  easily  bejustified.  What  did  not  appear 
in  court  was  that  Buckingham  was  hostile  to 
Y'elverton.  That  hostility  arose  out  of  a  series 
of  transactions  in  Avhich  Bacon  also  was  in- 
volved. Though  Elizabeth  at  the  end  of  her 
reign,  and  James  at  the  beginning  of  his,  abo- 
lished the  greater  number  of  the  existing  mo- 
nopolies, the  futm-e  issue  of  similar  grants  was 
not  regulated  by  stat  ute  law.  By  degrees  many 
new  patents  were  issued,  conveying  to  certain 
persons  the  sole  right  of  manufacturing  va- 
rious articles,  sometimes  in  cases  where  the 
patentees  were  the  actual  inventors  of  some 
new  process  of  manufacture,  but  frequently 
where  public  policy,  as  then  understood,  de- 
manded that  the  manufacture  should  be  placed 
in  the  hands  of  persons  Avho  might  be  ac- 
countable for  the  production  of  the  various 
articles  in  accordance  with  the  ideas  of  the 
government.  In  this  way  a  patent  was  issued 
for  the  manufacture  of  glass,  because  the  pa- 
tentees offijred  to  use  coal  instead  of  wood,  so 
as  to  spare  the  timber  of  the  realm  ;  whilst 
another  patent  protected  the  manufacture  of 
gold  and  silver  lace,  because  the  patentees 
offered  to  use  bullion  ipiported  from  abroad 
instead  of  bullion  within  the  realm,  which, 
according  to  the  economical  ideas  of  the  day, 
constituted  the  wealth  of  the  country.  Be- 
sides these  patents  of  monopoly  there  were 
also  commissions  issued  for  the  regulating  of 
inns  and  alehouses.  There  is  every  reason  to 
su])pose  that  Bacon  was  in  favour  of  these 
patents,  and  there  Avas  nothing  in  them  Avhich 
might  not  have  been  expected  to  commend 
itself  to  the  ideas  of  the  age. 

"N'arious  circumstances,  however,  concun-ed 
to  render  these  patents  unpopular.  In  the 
first  place  the  government  ^vas  itself  unpopular 
at  the  time,  and  when  it  was  known  that 


some  payments  out  of  the  proceeds  were  re- 
served for  Buckingham's  kinsmen  and  follow- 
ers it  was  suspected  that  the  whole  affair  had 
been  arranged  for  the  ])urpose  of  bringing 
money  to  Buckingham.  In  the  second  place^ 
some  of  the  grants  had  been  supported  against 
competitors  in  violation  of  the  law,  and  there 
was  a  growing  feeling  that  the  prerogative  of 
the  sovereign  had  lately  been  made  to  over- 
ride the  law  more  than  had  been  the  case  be- 
fore. Bacon,  therefore,  when  the  summoning- 
of  a  new  parliament  was  announced,  knowing 
as  he  did  what  was  the  state  of  public  opinion 
on  the  subject,  recommended  the  Avithdrawal 
of  the  most  obnoxious  patents.  In  his  most 
characteristic  style  he  announced  to  Buck- 
ingham what  he  had  done.  '  The  king,'  he- 
Avrote,  'did  wisely  put  it  upon  a  consult, 
whether  the  patents  which  we  mentioned  in 
our  joint  letter  were  at  this  t  ime  to  be  removed 
by  act  of  council  before  parliament.  I  opined 
(but  yet  somewhat  like  Ovid's  mistress,  that 
strove,  but  yet  as  one  that  would  be  over- 
comen)  that  yes.'  Bacon's  habit  of  suiting 
at  least  the  mode  in  which  he  expressed  hi& 
thoughts  to  the  pleasure  of  those  in  power, 
never  found  a  stronger  expression. 

The  summoning  of  parliament  itself  was  all 
that  Bacon  wished.  The  king  was  at  last 
appealing  to  the  nation  for  assistance  in  the 
defence  of  the  Palatinate  ;  and  whether  that 
policy  were  right  or  wrong,  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  Bacon  believed  it  to  be  thoroughly 
right,  not  only  in  itself,  but  as  bringing  for- 
ward a  question  on  which  the  king  could 
sympathise  with  his  people.  Once  more,  how- 
ever. Bacon  Avas  disappointed.  James  hesi- 
tated, asked  for  money  to  prepare  for  Avar,  and 
announced  his  intention  of  making  a  fresh 
diplomatic  effijrt,  Avhich  AAOuld enable  him  to 
avoid  war.  The  commons  AA^ere  puzzled,  of- 
fered him  tAvo  subsidies  in  token  of  their 
goodwill,  and  waited  to  see  in  Avhat  his 
diplomacy  might  end. 

It  looked  very  much  as  if  the  slight  gleam 
of  hope  Avhich  had  shone  upon  that  foreign 
policy  which,  in  Bacon's  mind,  Avas  so  closely 
connected  with  his  home  policy,  Avovild  die- 
aAvay,  Of  his  personal  position  he  never  felt 
more  assured  than  Avhen  parliament  was 
opened.  On  12  Oct.  1620  he  published  the- 
'  Novum  Organum.'  On  22  Jan.  1621  he  had 
kept  his  sixtieth  birthday  at  York  House,  and 
received  the  homage  of  Ben  Jonson  as  one 

Whose  even  thread  the  fates  spin  round  and  full 
Out  of  their  choicest  and  their  Avhitest  -wool. 

On  27  Jan.  he  Avas  raised  a  step  in  the  peer- 
age, and  became  Viscount  St.  Albans.  Nor 
had  he  reason  to  suspect  that  the  new  House 
of  Commons,  Avhich  met  on  30  Jan.,  Avould  be 


Bacon 


347 


Bacon 


otherwise  than  friendly  to  him.  He  had  long 
advocated  tlie  policy  of  which  the  commons 
approved ;  and  he  had  always  given  his 
voice  in  favour  of  a  good  understanding  be- 
tween them  and  the  king.  Yet,  for  all  that, 
a  storm  was  gathering  against  him. 

Naturally  Bacon  had  made  enemies.  Coke, 
who  was  a  niemher  of  this  parliament,  and 
was  soon  to  appear  as  a  very  influential  one, 
both  hated  and  despised  him.  Cranfield,  the 
master  of  the  wards,  who  was  also  a  member, 
must  have  discovered  that  Bacon  looked doAvn 
onhimasamere  accountant, and  consequently 
was  as  bitterly  disposed  towards  him  as  Coke 
had  always  been.  Taken  alone  the  opposition 
of  the  practical  commonplace  official  might 
not  have  led  to  much,  but  it  had  at  its  back 
a  sentiment  which  was  all  the  more  dange- 
rous, because  it  did  not  imply  any  personal 
dislike  of  Bacon  himself  amongst  the  mem- 
bers of  the  house.  That  sentiment  was  one 
of  dissatisfaction  Avith  the  government  of 
which  Bacon  had  made  himself  the  instru- 
ment, not  sufficiently  pronounced  to  make  the 
house  wish  to  place  itself  in  direct  opposition 
to  the  king,  but  sufficiently  strong  to  make  it 
ill-disposed  to  one  Avho,  like  Bacon,  had  al- 
lowed his  devotion  to  monarchical  princi])les 
to  be  publicly  known,  whilst  he  had  thrown 
a  veil  of  secrecy  over  his  disapproval  of  the 
policy  of  the  actual  monarch. 

To  this  sentiment  the  strong  feeling  against 
the  monopolies  was  certain  to  minister.  The 
natural  desire  of  finding  some  one  to  punish 
when  things  had  gone  Avrongled  men  toseai'ch 
for  victims.  IMompesson  and  Michell  were 
not  of  sufficient  importance  to  satisfy  this 
desire.  Buckingham  could  not  be  touched 
without  touching  the  king,  and,  besides,  he 
expressed  an  ardent  wish  to  join  the  commons 
in  hunting  down  abuses.  There  remained  the 
referees,  who  had  certified  that  the  monopo- 
lies were  either  good  in  law  or  beneficial  in 
practice,  and  of  these  referees  Bacon  was  the 
most  conspicuous.  For  a  time  there  was  a 
call,  strongly  supported  by  Coke  and  Cran- 
field, for  bringing  the  referees  to  account  ; 
but  James  stood  firm,  and  the  question  of 
ministerial  responsibility  was  shelved  for  the 
time. 

If  Bacon's  conduct  as  a  referee  escaped 
inquiry,  he  was  more  exposed  to  attack  than 
before.  Those  who  wished  to  bring  charges 
of  any  kind  against  him  would  know  that 
they  would  have  a  favourable  audience  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  and  probably  also 
in  the  House  of  Lords.  On  14  March  Cran- 
field, who  had  led  the  attack  uj)on  the  re- 
ferees, complained  of  the  court  of  chancery 
for  the  protection  which  it  offi-red  to  in- 
solvents, and  Coke  followed  in   the   same 


strain.  Before  anything  could  be  done  to 
put  the  charge  into  sha])e,  a  certain  Christo- 
pher Aubrey  presented  a  petition  to  the 
commons  in  which  the  chancellor  was  directly 
charged  with  bribeiy.  He  was  followed  by- 
Edward  Egerton,  who  made  much  the  same 
complaint.  The  peculiarity  of  these  cases 
was  that  Bacon  had  decided  against  the 
persons  who  had  given  him  money. 

On  17  March  the  commons  resolved  to  send 
the  complaints  before  the  lords  for  inquiry, 
without  committing  themselves  on  one  side 
or  the  other.  Bacon's  own  feeling  during- 
these  days  was  one  of  assurance  that  the 
charges  against  him  had  been  concocted  by 
those  who  had  failed  to  pimisli  him  as  a 
refei-ee.  '  Your  lordship,'  he  wrote  to  Buck- 
ingham, '  spoke  of  purgatoi-y ;  I  am  now  in 
it,  but  my  mind  is  calm,  for  my  fortune  is 
not  my  felicity.  I  know  I  have  clean  hands 
and  a  clean  heart,  and  I  hope  a  clean  house 
for  friends  or  sei*vants ;  but  Job  himself, 
or  whoever  was  the  justest  judge,  by  such 
hunting  for  matters  against  him  as  hath  been 
used  against  me,  may  for  a  time  seem  foul, 
especially  in  a  time  when  greatness  is  the 
mark  and  accusation  is  the  game.  And  if 
this  be  to  be  a  chancellor,  I  think  if  the 
great  seal  lay  uponHounslow  Heath  nobody 
would  take  it  up.' 

Under  the  trial  his  health  broke  down. 
On  the  18th  he  was  unable  to  leave  his 
house,  and  on  the  following  day  begged  for 
time  to  reply  to  the  accusations  against  him. 
Fresh  charges  were  soon  brought,  amongst 
them  that  of  Lady  Whaiton,  who  had  given 
money  directly  into  Bacon's  hands  and  had 
received  a  crushing  sentence  almost  imme- 
diately afterwards.  That  Bacon  had  taken 
the  money  as  a  bribe  is  most  improbable,  but 
he  had  certainly  sinned  against  the  rule  which 
he  laid  down  for  himself,  that  though,  ac- 
cording to  the  custom  of  the  day,  presents 
might  be  taken  from  suitors,  they  should 
never  be  accepted  while  the  suit  was  pending. 
The  best  explanation  of  his  conduct  is  that, 
according  to  his  usual  habit  of  caring  to  do 
the  right  thing  without  regarding  how  it  was 
done,  he  had  satisfied  himself  with  judging 
justly,  and  had  been  almost  incredibly  care- 
less of  the  appearance  of  his  conduct  in  the 
eyes  of  others.  On  16  April  Bacon,  who  was 
sufficiently  recovered  to  leave  his  house,  had 
an  intei-view  with  the  king.  The  memo- 
randa of  what  he  intended  to  say  to  James 
have  been  preserved.  '  There  be  three  causes 
of  bribery,  he  Avrote, '  charged  or  supposed  in 
a  judge :  the  first,  of  bargain  or  contract  for 
reward  to  pervert  justice ;  the  second,  where 
the  judge  conceives  the  cause  to  be  at  an  end 
by  the  information  of  the  party  or  otherwise. 


Bacon 


348 


Bacon 


aud  iiseth  not  such  diligence  as  lie  ought  to  , 
inquire  of  it ;  and  the  third,  when  the  cause 
is  really  ended,  and  it  is  sine  fraude,  without  ' 
relation  to  any  precedent  promise.'  i 

When  he  wrote  these  words  he  had  not  j 
yet  seen  the  charges  against  him  in  detail. 
He  acknowledged  that  he  might  have  done 
things  falling  under  the  second  head.  What 
he  asked  for  Avas  a  fair  trial.  On  the  :20th 
he  knew  enoxigh  of  the  particulars  of  the 
charges  to  he  aware  that  the  case  against 
him  woidd  he  difficult  to  answer.  Within  a 
few  hours  a  copy  of  the  examinations  taken  in 
the  House  of  Lords  reached  him,  and  he  then 
knew  that  defence  was  impossible.  Though 
he  might  be  certain  that  he  had  never  taken  a 
bribe  from  corrupt  motives,  he  knew  that  he 
had  done  the  very  things  which  corrupt  men 
do.  He  had  taken  money  whilst  cases  were 
pending.  On  the  27th  he  made  his  formal 
submission  to  the  lords,  hoping  that  they 
would  be  content  with  depriving  him  of 
office.  The  lords,  however,  pressed  for  an  an- 
swer to  the  charges.  Bacon  was  again  ill, 
and  the  answer  brought  by  the  lords'  mes- 
sengers was  that  he  would  make  no  defence, 
but  wished  to  explain  some  points.  On  the 
•JiOth  the  explanation  was  given.  '  I  do  again 
confess,'  Bacon  wrote  at  the  end  of  his  state- 
ment, '  that  in  the  points  charged  upon  me,, 
although  they  should  be  taken  as  myself  have 
declared  them,  there  is  a  great  deal  of  cor- 
ruption and  neglect,  for  which  I  am  heartily 
<'ind  penitently  sorry.'  On  1  May  the  great 
seal  was  taken  from  him.  As  he  was  still 
too  ill  to  attend  in  person,  the  sentence  was 
passed  on  3  May  in  his  absence.  He  was  to 
be  fined  40,000/.,  imprisoned  during  the  king's 
pleasure,  and  disabled  from  sitting  in  parlia- 
ment and  from  coming  within  the  verge  of 
the  court. 

Bacon  only  remained  for  a  few  days  in  the 
Tower.  On  20  Sept.  the  king  signed  a  war- 
rant assigning  his  fine  to  trustees  for  his 
own  use,  and  directing  a  pardon  to  be  drawn 
which  would  protect  him  from  all  demands 
other  than  those  arising  out  of  his  parlia- 
mentary sentence. 

Bacon  had  more  difficulty  in  ])rocuring  a 
relaxation  of  that  part  of  the  sentence  which 
prohibited  him  from  coming  within  twelve 
miles  of  the  court.  Buckingham  Avished  to 
become  the  owner  of  York  House,  and  it 
was  not  till,  in  the  spring  of  1622,  Bacon 
consented  to  sell  it  to  him,  that  the  required 
permission  was  obtained. 

Bacon  was  not  a  man  Avho  could  allow 
himself  to  remain  idle.  As  early  as  October 
U521  he  completed  his'  History  of  Henry  VH,' 
which  was  published  in  the  following  year. 
Then  he  busied  himself  with  the  comple- 


tion and  translation  into  l^atin  of  the  'Ad- 
vancement of  Learning,'  which  appeared  in 
October  1(523  as  '  De  Augment  is  Scien- 
tiarum.'  To  his  fonner  feelings  towards  the 
king  was  now  added  gi-atitude  for  having 
tem])ered  the  blow  which  had  fallen  on  him, 
aud  his  language  was  as  flattering  after  his 
fall  as  it  had  been  before.  In  March  1(522 
he  offered  to  do  what  had  long  been  on  his 
heart,  to  draw  up  a  digest  of  the  law.  If 
he  Avrote  of  the  '  Instauratio '  as  his  'great 
work,'  it  does  not  foUoAV  that  he  regarded 
political  Avork  as  much  inferior  in  importance. 
His  corres])ondence  shows  hoAv  eagerly  he 
desired  to  be  employed  in  political  matters 
again,  and  it  is  one  of  the  most  curious 
features  of  that  correspondence  that  he  neAer 
seems  to  haA^e  understood  that  the  sentence 
passed  on  him  Avas  an  insuperable  bar  to  em- 
ployment in  the  service  of  the  state. 

The  return  of  Buckingham  and  the  prince 
from  Spain  gave  Bacon  an  opportunity  of 
appearing  on  the  side  AA'hich  AA-as  at  the  same 
time  ])o])ular  and  courtly,  and  the  support  of 
Avhich  Avas  also  in  harmony  Avith  his  oaa'u 
lifelong  couA'ictions.  In  a  speech  Avhich  he 
drcAv  up  for  the  use  of  some  member  of  the 
House  of  Commons  in  1624,  and  in  the 
'  Considerations  touching  a  War  Avith  Spain,' 
which  he  addressed  to  the  prince,  he  took 
the  course  Avhich  satisfied  his  conscience,  if 
it  seemed  also  calculated  to  gain  satisfaction 
for  Avhat  ambition  Avas  left  to  him.  In  spite 
of  all,  hoAA'ever,  he  remained  a  disappointed 
man.  li^ven  the  provostship  of  Eton  Avas  re- 
fused him  in  1023,  and  in  162o  he  pressed 
the  new  king  in  vain  for  the  grant  of  the  full 
pardon  Avhich  Avould  enable  him  to  take  his 
seat  in  parliament.  Charles  and  Buckingham 
no  doubt  regarded  him  as  an  importunate  old 
man,  Avliose  advice  they  were  cA'en  less  likely 
to  regard  than  James  had  been. 

Nothing  remained  to  Bacon  but  to  devote 
himself  to  further  work  upon  the '  Instauratio 
Magna.'  Increasing  Aveakness  of  health,  hoAV- 
ever,  made  eveiy  task  difficult.  At  the  end 
of  March  162(5,  being  near  Highgate  on  a 
snoAvy  day,  he  left  his  coach  to  collect  snoAV 
Avith  Avhich  he  meant  to  stuff  a  foAA'l  in  oixler 
to  obserA^e  the  effect  of  cold  on  the  preserva- 
tion of  its  flesh.  In  so  doing  he  caught  a 
chill,  and  took  refuge  in  Lord  Arundel's 
house,  Avhere,  on  9  April,  he  died  of  the 
disease  Avhich  is  noAv  knoAvn  as  bronchitis. 
He  Avas  buried  at  St.  Michael's  Church,  St. 
Albans. 

*  For  my  name  and  memory,'  AA^rote  Bacon 
in  the  Avill  Avhich  he  drew  up  on  19  Dec. 
1625,  '  I  leave  it  to  men's  charitable  speeches 
and  to  foreign  nations  and  the  next  ages.' 
He  surely  ncA'er  contemplated  that  his  devo- 


Bacon 


349 


Bacon 


ti<m  to  science  would  he  held  to  he  indirectly 
damaginf^'  to  his  character,  and  that  writer 
after  writer  would  regard  his  claim  to  be 
a  ])rophet  of  scientific  knowledge  so  super- 
eminent  as  to  consign  to  oblivion  his  equally 
great  chiim  as  a  pro])het  of  political  know- 
ledge. As  his  contribution  to  science  rests 
on  his  pei'ception  of  the  greatness  and  variety 
of  nature,  so  his  contribution  to  politics  rests 
upon  his  perception  of  the  complexity  of  hu- 
man society.  In  pol it  ics,  as  well  as  in  science, 
he  found  himself  too  much  in  advance  of  the 
times  to  secure  a  following.  8ome  men  would 
have  grown  misanthropical,  and  would  have 
abandoned  the  thankless  task  in  despair. 
It  was  alike  the  strength  and  weakness  of 
Bacon's  character  which  pre\  euted  him  from 
doing  this.  He  must  strive  against  siu-h  a 
disaster,  must  seek  help  wherever  it  could  be 
-found,  must  speak  fa  ir  words  to  those  who  had 
it  in  their  power  to  assist  him,  must  be  ])a- 
tient  beyond  all  ordinary  patience,  content  if 
he  could  get  but  a  little  done  of  the  great 
things  which  he  designed,  sometimes  content 
if  he  could  have  the  vaguest  hope  of  being 
some  day  able  to  accomplish  a  little.  As  far 
as  science  was  concerned,  all  this  brought  no- 
thing dishonourable.  In  politics  it  was  other- 
wise. Power  to  do  good  in  ])olitics  was,  ac- 
cording to  the  possibility  of  his  day,  insepa- 
rably connected  with  high  ])lace  and  the  good 
things  of  the  w(n"ld,  to  the  advantages  of  which 
Bacon  was  by  no  means  insensible.  If  Bacon 
never  lost  sight  of  the  higher  object  in  the 
pursuit  of  the  lower,  if  James  Avas  to  him  the 
only  possible  reconcilerof  sectional  ambitions, 
as  well  as  the  dispenser  of  coronets  and  offices, 
it  was  not  to  be  expected  that  those  who 
watched  his  progress  should  be  charitable 
enough  to  acknowledge  these  points  in  his 
favour.  Bacon  was  too  great  a  man  to  play 
other  than  a  second-rate  ])art  in  the  age  in 
which  he  lived,  and  he  struggled  hard,  to  the 
detriment  of  his  own  character  as  well  as  of 
his  fame,  to  avoid  the  inevitable  consequence. 

[In  all  things  relating  to  Bacon  Mr.  Spedding's 
Letters  and  Life  is  .so  xmivei-sally  acknowledged 
as  the  one  authority  on  matters  of  fact,  that  it  has 
been  unnecessary  to  encumber  these  pages  with 
references  to  a  book  to  which  every  reader  who 
wishes  for  fm>ther  information  will  turn.  Those 
who  -wish  to  find  the  view  of  Bacon's  character 
which  is  here  treated  as  insufficient,  set  forth 
with  that  knowledge  and  thought  fulness  which 
is  singularly  wanting  in  Maeaulay's  well-known 
essjiy  on  Bacon,  may  be  referred  to  Dean  Church's 
*  Life  of  Bacon '  in  the  Men  of  Let  tei-s  Series.] 

S.  R.  G. 

Bacon's  Woeks  may  be  divided  into  three 
classes,  the  philosophical,  which  form  far  the 


largest  portion,  the  literary,  and  the  pro- 
fessional works.  Many  of  these  are  mere 
fragments  or  short,  essays,  afterwards  thrown 
asid«!  and  replaced  by  other  essays,  also  un^ 
finished,  or  by  the  larger  and  more  complete 
works  as  known  to  the  general  reader.  All 
that  remains  of  Bacon's  writings,  however 
brief  or  fragmentary,  has  been  collected  in 
the  edition  by  J.  Spedding,  R.  L.  Ellis,  and 
D.  D.  Heath  (7  vols.,  London,  1854-59). 
The  principal  and  best  known  of  the  philo- 
sophical works  are  (1)  the  'Advancement 
of  Learning,'  which  was  published  in  English 
in  I60o,  as  'The  Twoo  Bookes  of  Francis 
Bacon  of  the  Proficience  and  Advancement 
of  Learning  Divine  and  Humane:'  (2)  the 
*  Novum  Organum,'  published  in  Latin  in 
1620  under  the  general  title,  '  Francisci  de 
Verulamio  .  .  .  Instauratio  Magna,'  with  a 
second  title  (after the  preface)  'Pars  secunda 
operis,  quae  dicittir  Novum  Organum  sive  in- 
dicia vera  de  interpretatione  naturae  : '  and 
(3)  the  ' De  Augmentis,'  published  in  Latin 
in  1623  with  the  title,  '  Opera  F.  Baconis  de 
Verulamio  .  .  .  Tomus  primus,  qui  continet 
de  Dignitate  et  Augmentis  Scientiarum 
libros  ix.'  The  last  of  these  works  may  be 
regarded  as  a  much  enlarged  edition  of  the 
first,  though  the  first  has  a  certain  advantage 
over  its  larger  and  more  pretentious  rival 
from  being  presented  in  a  more  compendious 
form  and  in  the  noble  and  flowing  periods  of 
the  author's  English  instead  of  in  a  foreign 
tongue  or  a  translation. 

When  Bacon  wrote  the  '  Advancement  of 
Learning,'  he  does  not  seem  to  have  had  any 
idea  of  constituting  it  a  part  of  the  '  Great 
Instauration,'  but,  as  time  went  on,  he  ap- 
pears to  have  thought  that  the  attempt  to 
build  up  a  new  philosophy  might  fittingly 
be  preceded  by  a  review  of  the  present  state 
of  knowledge.  Hence,  in  the  'Distributio 
Operis,'  which  is  prefixed  to  the  'Novum 
Organum,'  the  first  place  in  the  '  Gi'eat  In- 
stauration' is  assigned  to  what  he  calls 
'  partitiones  scientiarum,'  or  '  a  summaiy  or 
general  description  of  the  knowledge  which 
the  human  race  at  present  possesses,'  in- 
cluding, however,  '  not  only  things  already 
invented  and  known,  but  likewise  things 
omitted  which  ought  to  be  there.' 

The  remaining  parts  of  the  'Great  In- 
stauration,' as  enumerated  in  the  *  Distributio 
Operis,  or  Plan  of  the  Work,'  are :  (2)  the 
'  Novum  Organum,  or  Indications  concerning 
the  Interpretation  of  Nature ; '  (3)  '  Pluenor 
mena  IJniversi,  or  a  Natural  and  Experi- 
mental History  for  the  Construction  of  Phi- 
losophy ; '  (4)  '  Scala  Intellect  us,  the  Ladder 
of  the  Intellect ; '  (5)  '  Prodromi,  the  Fore- 
runners, or  Anticipations  of  the  New  Philo- 


Bacon 


350 


Bacon 


sopliy  ; '  (6)  '  Philosophia  Secunda,  or  Active 
Science.' 

The  second  part,  or  the  proper  method  of 
interj)reting  nature,  was  evidently  the  one 
( if  Ave  except  the  sixth,  which  was  to  be  the 
crown  of  the  whole  designi  and  the  gradual 
work  of  posterity)  to  which  Bacon  attached 
the  greatest  importance.  It  is  mainly  re- 
presented in  the  '  Novum  Organum,'  though 
]>relimlnary  drafts  of  portions  of  this  work, 
often  curiously  differing  from  it  in  detail, 
are  to  be  found  in  pai'ts  f)f  the  '  Valerius 
Terminus,'  and  in  the  '  Pai'tis  Secundte  De- 
lineatio,'  the  'Cogitata  et  Visa,'  the  'Temporis 
Partus  Masculus,'  and  the  '  Filum  Labyrinthi 
sive  Inquisitio  Legitima  de  Motu/  to  say 
nothing  of  smaller  pieces.  The  composition 
of  the  'Novum  Organum'  appears  to  have 
been  begun  about  1608.  For  the  first  edition 
appeared  in  1620,  and  Dr.  Rawley  (in  the 
iife  of  Bacon  ju'efixed  to  the  '  Resuscitatio ') 
tells  us  that  he  had  himself  seen  at  least 
twelve  copies  of  the  Avork  '  revised  year  by 
year,  one  after  another ;  and  every  year 
altered  and  amended  in  the  frame  thereof.' 

The  '  Novum  Organum,'  in  the  shape  in 
Avhich  its  author  left  it,  is  only  a  fragment 
of  the  lai'ger  work  which  Bacon  contemplated 
nnder  that  title,  as  adequately  representing 
tlie  second  part,  of  the  '  Great  Instauration.' 
Nevertheless,  though  only  a  fragment,  the 
'  Novum  Organum,'  and  especially  the  first 
book,  is  the  most  carefully  written  of  all 
Bacon's  philosophical  works.  MoreoA'er,  as 
describing  the  new  method  of  Avhich  the 
renovation  of  knowledge  Avas  to  be  the  result, 
it  is  the  keystone  of  the  entire  system. 

The  third  part  of  the  '  Great  Tn.stauration,' 
the  '  Phpenomena  Universi,'  Avas  to  contain 
a  collection  of  arranged  and  sifted  materials 
on  which  the  method  of  induction  Avas  to 
woi-k.  Of  this  pai't,  CA'en  according  to  Bacon's 
limited  conception  of  the  extent  and  variety 
of  nature,  we  have  only  a  very  small  portion, 
and,  according  to  a  juster  estimate  of  the 
boundless  extent  of  the  '  Phjienomena  Uni- 
versi,' that  portion  might  almost  be  described 
as  infinitesimal.  Such  as  it  is,  hoAvever,  it 
is  contained  mainly  in  the  '  Hi.storia  Yen- 
toruni,'  the  '  Historia  Vitie  et  Mortis,'  the 
*  Historia  Densi  et  Rari,'  and  the  '  Sylva 
SylA'arum."  Tlie  first  of  these  Avorks,  an 
attempt  to  collect  and  digest  various  facts 
in  connection  AA'ith  the  Avinds,  AA-as  published 
in  November  1622,  in  a  Aolume  entitled 
'Historia  Naturalis  et  Experimental  is  ad 
condendam  Philosophiam  :  sive  Pluenomena 
Universi ;  quis  est  Instaurationis  Magnje 
Pars  tertia  (Historia  Ventorum).'  The  '  His- 
toria Vitaj  et  Mortis'  Avas  published  about 
the  end  of  JanuarA'  1622-3.     The  '  Historia 


Densi  et  Rari '  did  not  appear  during  Bacon's 
lifetime,  and  Avas  first  published  in  Dr.  RaAv- 
ley's  '  Opuscula  Varia  Posthuma,'  in  1658. 

The  last  Avork  on  AAdiich  Bacon  Avas  engaged 
Avas  the '  Sylva  Sylvarum '  (meaning  probably 
a  collection  of  collections),  a  miscellaneous 
collection  of  observations  and  experiments 
in  natural  history.  It  was  published  by  Dr. 
RaAA-ley  in  1627,  the  year  after  Bacon's  death, 
but  the  preface  was  AA'ritten  by  Rawley  duririg 
his  lifetime.  It  Avas  repeatedly  reissued, 
reaching  a  tenth  edition  in  1676.  This 
book  has  furnished  Bacon's  critics,  especially 
Lasson  and  Liebig,  Avitli  some  of  their  most 
telling  shafts.  It  treats  seriously  of  such 
conceits  as  that  '  the  blood-stone  is  good  for 
them  tha^  bleed  at  the  nose ; '  as  the  '  re- 
port' of  '  the  writers  of  natural  magic'  that 
'  the  heart  of  an  ape  worn  near  the  heart, 
comforteth  the  heart  and  increaseth  audacity ; ' 
as  the  notion  that  Avater  is  congealed  into 
crystals,  and  so  forth.  But,  defective  and 
often  ridiculous  as  this  book  is  from  our 
point  of  view,  it  is,  if  Ave  refer  it  to  its  place 
in  the  history  of  science,  far  from  being  con- 
temptible. It  is  probably  the  best  and  most 
complete  single  collection  of  the  kind  that, 
up  to  that  time,  had  been  published. 

Appended  to  the  '  Sylva  Sylvarum '  in 
RaAvley's  edition  is  the '  Ncav  Atlantis.'  This, 
as  observed  in  the  aboA'e  life  (p.  344),  was 
AA^ritten  before  1617.  It  is  deservedly  one 
of  the  most  popiilar  of  Bacon's  works;  it 
bears  the  stamp  of  his  genius  as  much,  per- 
haps, as  anything  AV'hich  he  Avrote :  and, 
lastly,  it  is  credited  Avith  liaA'ing,  to  a  large 
extent,  suggested  the  foundation  and  ])ro- 
gramme  of  our  own  Royal  Society,  as  Avell  as 
of  several  scientific  associations  abroad. 

To  the  fourth  and  fifth  parts  of  the  '  In- 
stauratio '  we  possess  the  prefaces.  Whether 
anything  more  relating  to  those  parts  is 
extant  seems  doubtful.  Though  Bacon  hoped 
himself  fittingly  to  inaugurate  tlie  work  of 
setting  forth  his  '  second  philosophy,'  Avt^ 
search  in  \ain  amongst  his  Avritings  for  any 
special  treatise  which  can  be  referred  to  tin' 
sixth  part. 

Of  Bacon's  litei'ary,  as  distinct  from  his 
philosophical  and  jirofessional,  Avorks,  far  the 
most  popular  and  important  are  the  '  Essays.' 
These,  in  their  earliest  shape,  formed  part  of 
a  A'ery  small  octavo  A'olume,  published  in 
1597,  and  were  ouIa'  ten  in  number.  Thev 
were  reprinted  in  l'o98,  1604,  and  1606.  lii 
1612  a  new  edition  Avas  brought-  out,  Avith 
many  alterations  and  additions.  The  editions 
of  1597  and  1612  are  reprinted  in  Spedding's 
edition  of  the  works  (a'oI.  xi.).  This  edition 
contained  thirty-eight  e.ssays.  Finally,  the 
book  in   its   present  form,  and   containing 


Bacon 


351 


Bacon 


fifty-eight  essays,  was  published  in  1625,  the 
year  before  Bacon's  deatli.  This  greatlj-  en- 
larged edition,  which  is  entitled  '  The  Essayes 
or  Counsels,  Civill  and  Morall,  of  Francis 
Lo.  Verulam,  Viscount  St.  Alban,  newly 
enlarged,'  may  be  regarded  as  a  storehouse 
of  the  practical  wisdom  gathered  during  its 
author's  lifetime,  a  life  singularly  rich  in  op- 
port  unities  for  such  accumulations.  A  Latin 
translation  published  by  liawley  in  1638  as 
'  Sermoues  Fideles  sive  Interiora  llerum,' 
was  executed  or  superintended  by  Bacon. 

The  title  of 'Essajs'  is  probably  taken  from 
the  'Essais'  of  Montaigne  (who  is  quoted 
by  name  in  the  first  essay),  which  first  ap- 
peared at  Bordeaux  in  1580.  Hallam  says 
of  these  that  they  are  the  first  writings  in 
the  French  language  '  which  a  gentleman  is 
ashamed  not  to  have  read.'  A  similar  remark, 
if  we  confine  ourselves  to  prose  works,  might 
be  made  of  Bacon's  'Essays.'  To  attempt 
to  describe  the  characteristics  of  a  book  so 
familiar  to  the  reader,  would,  in  a  work  like 
this,  be  to  occupy  space  unnecessarily.  But 
it  may  not  be  supeilfluous  to  remark  that  the 
*  Essays '  are  the  most  original  of  all  Bacon's 
works,  those  which,  in  detail,  he  seems  to 
have  thought  out  most  completely  for  himself, 
apart  from  books  and  collections  of  common- 
places. The  last  edition  teems  indeed  with 
quotations  and  illustrations,  but  they  are 
suggested  by  his  own  matter  and  do  not 
.suggest  it.  Though  the  '  Essays '  have  the 
upame  title  as  the  larger  collection  of  Mon- 
■baigne,  the  two  works  have  little  in  common, 
fexcept  their  rare  power  of  exciting  interest 
and  the  unmistakable  mark  of  genius  which 
jis  impressed  on  them  both. 

The  literary  production  which,  during 
Bacon's  lifetime  and  for  many  years  after- 
wards, ranked  next  in  popularity  and  was  re- 
garded as  next  in  importance  to  the '  Essays,' 
was  undoubtedly  the '  De  Sapientia  Veterum,' 
the  treatise  on  the  wisdom  of  the  ancients. 
This  work  was  first  published,  in  a  small 
duodecimo  volume,  in  1609.  A  second  edi- 
tion appeared  in  London  in  1617 ;  a  third  at 
Leyden  in  1633 ;  and  a  fourth  at  London  in 
1634.  A  translat  ion  by  Sir  A.  Gorges,  Knight, 
was  published  in  16i9.  Its  plan  is  to  re- 
cite certain  classical  fables,  or,  as  we  should 
now  call  them,  myths,  disclosing,  as  it  pro- 
ceeds, the  moral  and  physical  lessons  which 
are  supposed  to  lie  latent  in  them.  The  hy- 
pothesis on  which  the  intei"])i'etations  rest, 
of  a  primeval  wisdom  expressing  itself  in 
allegorical  symbols,  fell  in  with  the  usual 
mode  of  thinking  in  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, and  then,  and  even  later,  doubtless 
found  many  adherents  amongst  the  most 
learned  and  judicious  men  of  the  time. 


Appended  to  the  first  edition  of  the 
'  Essays '  was  a  fragment  entitled  *  Of  tlie 
Colours  of  Good  and  Evil.'  Like  the '  Essays' 
and  the  *  De  Sapientia  Veterum,'  it  is  full  of 
shrewd  remarks  suggested  by  Bacon's  know- 
ledge of  life  and  observations  of  humau 
nature.  These  'Colours  of  Good  and  Evil,' 
with  additions,  were  afterwards  embodied 
in  the  sixth  book  of  the  'De  Augmentis.' 
Bacon  there  states  that,  when  a  young  man, 
he  had  collected  many  other  'colours'  or 
'  popular  signs  '  of  good  and  evil,  but,  as  he 
had  not  yet  found  time  to  illustrate  or  ex- 
amine them,  he  refrained  from  setting  them 
out.  These  are  contained  in  a  manuscript  in 
the  British  Museum,  published  in  1882  by 
Mrs.  Henry  Pott  under  the  title  of  '  Promus 
of  Formidaries  and  Elegancies ; '  a  few  s])e- 
cimens  of  them  are  given  by  Mr.  Spedding 
{Bacon's  Works,  vii.  67,  68). 

The  'Apophthegms  New  and  Old'  were 
first  published  in  December  1624,  but  the 
volume  containing  them  is  dated  1625.  The 
subsequent  history  of  the  various  collections 
which  went  under  the  name  of  '  Bacon's 
Apophthegms'  will  be  found  in  Mr.  Sped- 
ding's  preface  to  the  'Apophthegms'  (Bacon'!  s 
Works,  y\\.  113-20). 

Of  the  historical  works,  the  only  one  of  any 
size  is  the  *  History  of  Henry  the  Seventh.' 
This  book,  though  the  subject  had  long  been 
familiar  to  Bacon,  and  a  fragment  on  this 
and  the  four  following  reigns  dates  back  as 
far  as  the  time  of  Elizabeth,  seems  to  have 
been  wholly  composed  during  the  long  va- 
cation succeeding  his  fall.  On  8  Oct.  1621 
he  was  ready  to  send  a  fair  manuscript  to 
the  king.  This  was  returned  shortly  after 
7  Jan.,  and  on  20  March  1621-2  the  book 
was  printed  and  ready  for  publication.  Sir 
James  Mackintosh,  in  his  'History  of  Eng- 
land,' appears  to  regard  Bacon  as  having 
simply  set  to  work,  in  order  to  gratify 
James  I,  to  produce  a  flattering  portraiture 
of  his  royal  ancestor.  Spedding,  who  has  a 
better  title  to  be  heard  on  this  subject  than 
any  other  authority,  delivers  this  weighty 
judgment :  '  Though  not  one  of  his  works 
which  stand  highest,  either  in  reputation  or 
popularity,  with  later  times,  the  "  Histoiy 
of  Henry  the  Seventh "  has  done  its  work 
more  effectually  perhaps  than  any  of  them. 
None  of  the  histories  which  had  been  written 
before  conveyed  any  idea  either  of  the  dis- 
tinctive character  of  the  man  or  the  real 
business  of  his  reign.  Every  history  wliich 
has  been  wTitten  since  has  derived  all  its 
light  from  this,  and  followed  its  guidance 
in  every  question  of  importance;  and  the 
additional  materials  which  come  to  light 
from  time  to  time,  and  enable  us  to  make 


Bacon 


352 


Bacon 


many  cori'ections  in  the  history  of  the  events, 
only  serve  to  confirm  and  illustrate  the  triitli 
of  its  interpretation  of  them.' 

Amongst  the  smaller  historical  remains  of 
Bacon  are  the  open i no-  paragraph  of  a  pro- 
jected *  History  of  Henry  the  Eighth,'  a 
piece  entitled  '  In  felicem  Memoriam  Eliza- 
bethfe,'  a  memorial  of  Henry  Prince  of  Wales, 
the  eldest  son  of  James,  who  died  prematurely 
in  1612,  and  a  small  fragment  in  English, 
entitled  'The  Beginning  of  the  History  of 
Great  Britain,'  giving  an  account  of  the 
accession  of  James  I  to  the  crown  of  Eng- 
land. Mr.  Spedding  says  of  the  last :  '  As 
an  account  of  the  temper  of  men's  minds  at 
James's  entrance,  it  is  complete ;  and  in  my 
judgment  one  of  the  best  things  in  its  kind 
that  Bacon  ever  wrote.' 

Bacon's  religious  works,  though  they  con- 
tain some  of  his  finest  sentiments  and  are 
mostly  written  in  his  best  style,  miglit  be 
contained  in  a  very  thin  volume.   The  largest 
of  them   is  the  '  Meditationes  Sacrfe,'  first 
published,   in  the   same  volume  with   the 
'  Essays '  and  the  *  Colours  of  Good  and  Evil,' 
in  1597.     The  other  genuine  works  of  this 
class  are  '  A  Confession  of  Faith,'  first  pub- 
lished in  the  '  Remains'  in  1648,  but  written 
before  (how  long  before  we  cannot  determine) 
the  summer  of  1603  ;  a  '  Translation  of  cer- 
tain Psalms  into  English  Verse,'  composed 
during  his  fit  of  sickness  jn  1 624,  which  were 
dedicated  to  '  his  very  good  friend  Mr.  George 
Herbert,'  and  published  in  1625  ;  and  three 
prayers,  'The  Student's  Prayer,'  'The  Writer's 
Prayer,'  and  a  third  composed,  in  the  midst 
of  his  troubles,  in  the  spring  of  1621.    Of  this 
last  prayer  Addison  (in  the  Tafler,  No.  267) 
says  that  'for  the  elevation  of  thought  and 
greatness  of  expression,  it  seems  rather  the 
devotion  of  an  angel  than  of  a  man.'     A 
fourth  prayer,  described  in  the  'Remains'] 
as  '  made  and  used  by  the  late  lord  chan-  ; 
cellor,'  but  not  mentioned  by  either  Rawley  [ 
or    Tenison,    is    of    doubtful    authenticity,  j 
Lastly,  a  piece  entitled  'The  Characters  of  a  j 
BelievingChristian  in  Paradoxes  and  Seeming  i 
Contradictions,' which  was  also  published  in 
the  'Remains/ and  has  frequently  been  ((uoted  I 
as  Bacon's  under  the  short  title  of  '  Christian  I 
Paradoxes,'  has  been  shown  by  Br.  Grosait 
to  have  been  written  by  another  hand.  j 

A  collection  of  all  tlie  ])rofessional  works 
which  still  possess  any  im]K)rtance  has  been  i 
brought  together  and  annotated  by  Mr.  D.  D. 
Heath  in  the  seventh  volume  of  the  last 
edition  of  Bacon's  works.  The  largest  and 
most  important  of  these  are  the  treatises 
entitled  '  Maxims  of  the  Law,'  and  the 
'Reading  on  the  Statute  of  Uses.'  The 
'  Maxims   of  the  Law '   were  Bacon's  con- 


tribution, 'a  sheaf  and  cluster  of  fruit,' 
;  towards  that  digest  of  the  laws  of  Jlngland 
which  became  at  an  early  period  of  his  life 
a  favourite  idea  with  him,  and  of  which  he 
never  wholly  lost  sight. 

It  may  be  convenient  if  I  here  notice  the 
various  collections  of  Bacon's  posthumous 
works,  which  appeared  from  time  to  time 
during  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  cen- 
'  turies.  In  1627,  the  year  after  his  death, 
his  chaplain.  Dr.  Rawley,  brought  out  the 
'  Sylva  Sylvarum,'  with  the  '  New  Atlantis  ' 
appended.  All  Bacon's  more  important  works 
had  thusbeen  published  in  1627.  But  amongst 
his  papers  were  found  a  number  of  speeches, 
letters,  beginnings  or  first  drafts  of  treatises, 
heads  of  advice,  memoranda,  &c.,  which 
served  several  successive  editors  for  collec- 
tions of  miscellanies.  The  first  of  these 
collections  was  that  contained  in  the  small 
volume,  published  by  Dr.  Rawley  in  l(i29, 
under  the  title  of '  Certain  Miscellany  A\'orks.' 
In  1638  Dr.  Rawley  published  the  Latin 
volume  entitled  'Opera  Moralia  et  Civilia.' 
The  next  volume  of  collections  was  published 
anonymously  in  1648,  and  was  entitled  '  The 
Remains  of  Francis,  Lord  Verulam,  kc, 
being  essays  and  several  letters  to  several 
great  personages,  and  other  pieces  of  various 
and  high  concernment  not  heretofore  pub- 
lished.' The  authenticity  of  any  document 
contained  in  this  collection  requires  to  be 
supported  by  independent  testimony. 

In  1653  appeared  a  far  more  important 
volume,  that  published  in  an  elegant  duo- 
decimo at  Amsterdam  by  Isaac  Gruter,  and 
entitled  'Francisci  Baconi  de  Verulamio 
Scripta  in  Naturali  et  Universal  i  Philoso- 
phia.'  Another  important  collection  of  pieces 
was  issued  in  1657.  This  was  a  miscellaneous 
collection,  edited  by  Rawley,  under  the  title 
of  'Resuscitatio,  or  Bringing  into  publick 
Liglit  several  Pieces  of  the  Works,  Civil, 
Historical,  Philosophical,  and  Theological, 
hitlierto  sleeping,  of  the  Right  Honourable 
Francis  Bacon,'  &c.  To  it  is  prefixed  a  '  Life 
of  the  Honourable  Author,'  since  frequently 
reprinted.  New  editions  of  the '  Resuscitatio ' 
were  brought  out  in  1661  and  1671  re- 
spectively, both  containing  new  matter,  but 
Dr.  Rawley,  who  died  in  1667,  is  onlv  re- 
sponsible for  the  second  edition.  The  '  Re- 
suscitatio '  is  a  collection  of  English  ])ieces 
or  translations  only,  but  in  1658  Rawley 
redeemed  his  promise  of  bringing  out  a  small 
collection  of  Latin  works,  so  as  not  '  to 
leave  to  a  future  hand  anything  of  moment 
and  commimicable  to  the  public'  This  col- 
lection is  entitled  'Opuscula  VariaPosthuma, 
Philosophica,  Civilia,  et  Theologica,  P"'rancisci 
Baconi,  &c. 


Bacon 


353 


Bacon 


Thomas  Tcnison,  afterwards  archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  who  had  access  to  Rawley's 
papers  after  his  death,  published  in  1679  a 
small  volume  entitled  '  Baconiana,  or  certain 
genuine  Remains  of  Sir  Francis  Bacon,'  &c. 
This  volume  contains,  by  way  of  introduction, 
an  *  account  of  all  the  Lord  JBacon's  works '  of 
considerable  interest  to  the  bibliographer. 

A  collection  of  Bacon's  unpublished  letters, 
written  during  the  reign  of  James  I,  was 
published  by  Robert  Stephens  in  1702.  A 
second  volume,  also  collected  by  him,  was 
published  in  1734.  In  addition  to  letters,  this 
latter  volume  contains  several  tracts  and  frag- 
ments, the  most  important,  perhaps,  of  which 
is  the  *  Redargutio  Philosophiarum,'  only  a 
small  portion  of  Avhich  had  been  published 
by  Gruter  in  1653.  Finally,  another  collec- 
tion of  unpublished  letters,  speeches,  &c.,  was 
issued  by  Dr.  Thomas  Birch  in  1763. 

None  of  Bacon's  legal  works  were  pub- 
lished during  his  lifetime.  In  1630  appeared 
the  '  Maxims  of  the  Law,'  together  with  a 
second  edition  of  the  '  Use  of  the  Law,' 
under  the  common  title  'The  Elements  of 
the  Common  Law.'  Mr.  Heath  thinks  that 
the  attribution  of  the  second  tract  (the  first 
edition  of  which  appeared  in  1629)  to  Bacon 
is  erroneous.  The  '  Reading  on  the  Statute 
of  Uses'  was  first  published,  in  a  very  in- 
correct form,  in  1642.  Three  speeches  con- 
cerning the  Post-Nati  of  Scotland,  the  Na- 
turalisation of  the  Scotch  in  England,  and 
the  Union  of  the  Laws  of  the  kingdoms  of 
England  and  Scotland,  were  first  published 
in  1641.  The  Four  Arguments  on  Impeach- 
ment of  Waste,  Lowe's  case  of  Tenures,  the 
case  of  Revocation  of  L^ses,  and  the  Juris- 
diction of  the  Council  of  the  Marches,  first 
appeared  in  Blackboume's  edition  of  Bacon's 
entire  works,  published  in  1730.  The  argu- 
ment in  Chudleigh's  case  was  recovered  by 
Mr.  Spedding. 

The  first  edition,  professing  to  be  complete, 
of  Bacon's  Avorks,  issued  in  England,  was 
that  of  Blackboume,  in  1730.  An  edition, 
with  life,  by  Mallet,  appeared  in  1740,  in 
4  vols,  folio ;  another  by  the  same  in  1753, 
in  3  vols,  folio.  What  long  served  as  the 
trade  edition  was  a  reprint  of  the  edition 
put  out  by  Birch  in  1765.  A  handsome  but 
ill-arranged  edition,  under  the  superinten- 
dence of  Mr.  Basil  Montagu,  was  issued  by 
Pickering  (in  17  vols.  8vo.)  between  1825 
and  1836.  The  appearance  of  this  edition 
was  the  occasion  of  Macaulay's  Essay.  The 
splendid  and  carefully  annotated  edition  of 
Ellis,  Spedding,  and  Heath,  in  seven  volumes, 
was  brought  out  by  Longmans  in  1857  and 
following  years.  Mr.  Spedding  has  incor- 
porated the  letters  and  occasional  works  of 

VOL.  II, 


Bacon  in  another  work,  occiiiiviiig  seven 
volumes,  entitled  *  Letters  and  Life  of  Bacon,' 
Longmans,  1861  and  following  years.  The 
substance  of  this  work,  omitting  most  of  the 
letters,  but  retaining  the  greater  part,  of  the 
biography,  has  recently  ajjpeared  under  the 
title  of  '  The  Life  and  Times  of  Francis 
Bacon,'  2  vols.,  Triibner  and  Co.,  1878. 

Of  Bacon's  separate  works,  the  most  recent 
edition  of  the  'Advancement  of  Learning' 
is  that  by  Aldis  Wright  (1869),  and  of  the 
'Novum  Organum '  that  by  T.  Fowler  (1878), 
both  issued  by  the  Clarendon  Press  at  Oxford. 
Amongst  recent  editions  of  the  '  Essays '  are 
those  of  Archbishop  Whately  (1856, 6th  edit. 
1864),  Mr.  Aldis  Wright  (1862),  and  Dr. 
Abbott  (1879).  '  A  Harmony  of  the  Essays ' 
— the  texts  of  the  first  four  editions  printed 
in  parallel  columns — was  issued  by  Professor 
Edward  Arber  in  1869. 

In  the  history  of  literature  Bacon  is  mainly 
known  as  the  waiter  of  the  '  Essays.'  But  in 
the  history  of  science,  logic,  and  philosophy, 
the  chief  interest  Avhich  attaches  to  his  name 
is  that  of  a  reformer  of  scientific  method. 

The  method  which  obtained  almost  ex- 
clusively in  scientific  inquiries  during  the 
middle  ages  is  what  is  commonly  called  the 
deductive  method.  It  is  absurd  to  speak  as  if 
Bacon  were  the  inventor  of  induction.  What 
Bacon  complained  of,  and  rightly  complained 
of,  was  not  that  the  writers  and  teachers  of 
his  time  had  no  recourse  to  the  observation 
of  facts  at  all,  but  that  they  only  looked  out 
for  facts  in  support  of  preconceived  theories, 
or  constructed  their  theories  on  a  hasty  and 
unmethodical  examination  of  a  few  facts- 
collected  at  random.  In  either  case  they 
neglected  to  test  or  verify  their  generalisa- 
tions, while  they  wasted  their  efforts  in 
drawing  out  syllogistically  long  trains  of 
elaborate  conclusions,  which,  for  aught  they 
knew,  might  be  vitiated  by  the  unsoundness 
of  the  original  premisses. 

It  was  to  remedy  these  defects  that  Bacon 
designed  the  second  part  of  his  '  Great  In- 
stauration,'  the  '  Novum  Organum.'  The 
first  book  consists  of  a  number  of  brilliant 
and  pregnant  aphorisms.  In  the  second  book 
Bacon  sets  to  work  to  construct  his  own 
method,  and,  though  the  book  ends  abruptly 
before  he  has  completed  one  quarter  of  his 
scheme,  he  succeeds  in  laying  the  founda- 
tions of  a  science  for  the  interpretation  of 
nature,  which,  rough  and  cumbrous  as  are 
some  of  the  materials  of  which  they  are  com- 
posed, furnish  the  ground-plan  on  which 
almost  all  subsequent  workers  in  this  de- 
partment of  knowledge  have  built.  Induc- 
tive logic,  that  is,  the  systematic  analysis 
and  arrangement  of  inductive  evidence,  as 

A   A. 


Bacon 


354 


Bacon 


distinct  from  the  natural  induction  which 
all  men  practise,  is  almost  as  much  the 
creation  of  Bacon  as  deductive  logic  is  that 
of  Aristotle.  It  must,  however,  be  acknow- 
ledged that  the  one  left  far  more  to  he  added 
and  remodelled  by  his  successors  than  did 
the  other. 

'  !Man,'  says  Bacon,  *  is  the  servant  and 
interpreter  of  nature.'  But  as  the  bare  hand 
is  of  little  use  in  mechanical  work,  so  the 
imassisted  intellect  can  effect  little  in  the 
work  of  reasoning.  The  one  requires  in- 
struments, the  other  rides.  The  rules  sup- 
plied by  the  logic  in  vogue  lend  no  aid  in 
the  examination  of  principles.  He  who  takes 
the  wrong  road  wanders  the  further  from 
las  goal,  the  further  he  goes.  The  syllogism 
is,  from  the  very  nature  of  the  case,  incom- 
petent to  prove  the  ultimate  premisses  from 
which  it  proceeds.  The  only  hope,  therefore, 
of  those  who  Avish  to  establish  knowledge  on 
a  firm  basis  is  in  a  logic  which  shall  be  com- 
petent to  examine  these  higher  generalisa- 
tions or  first  principles  from  which  the  various 
sciences  start,  that  is  to  say,  in  a  true  in- 
duction. Before,  liowever,  attempting  to 
supply  this  want.  Bacon  lingers  for  a  while 
over  the  existing  condition  of  knowledge, 
points  out  the  phantoms  which  obscure  the 
vision  of  truth,  enumerates  the  causes  of 
past  errors,  and  suggests  grounds  of  hoi)e  for 
the  future. 

Perhaps  the  best  known  part  of  the  *  No- 
vum Organum,'  certainly  one  of  the  most 
valuable  parts,  is  the  account  of  the  '  Idola 
Mentis  Ilumanfe,'  or  'phantoms  of  the  human 
mind,'  Avhich  occupies  Aphorisms  38-70  of 
Book  i.  These  '  idols '  (eiSwXa,  phantoms  or 
spectres,  and  not,  as  they  have  sometimes 
been  erroneously  interpreted,  false  gods)  are 
four  in  number,  and  are  enimierated  as  '  idols 
of  the  tribe  '  (idola  tribus),  '  idols  of  the  den ' 
(idola  specus),  '  idols  of  the  market-place ' 
(idola  fori),  and  *  idols  of  the  theatre '  (idola 
theatri).  In  number  they  happen  to  con-e- 
spond  with  the  '  ofFendicula '  of  Roger  Bacon ; 
namely,  unworthy  authority,  custom,  vulgar 
opinion,  and  concealment  of  ignorance  com- 
bined with  the  ostentation  of  apparent  wis- 
dom. There  is,  however,  little  otlier  re- 
semblance between  the  '  idola '  and  the 
*  offendicula,'  and  Francis  Bacon  is  probably 
in  no  way  indebted  to  his  elder  namesake 
for  this  part  of  his  doctrine. 

*  The  idols  of  the  tribe  have  their  founda- 
tion in  human  nature  itself,  and  in  the  very 
tribe  or  race  of  men.'  .  .  .  '  The  idols  of  the 
den  have  their  origin  in  the  peculiar  consti- 
tution, mental  or  bodily,  of  each  individual ; 
and  also  in  education,  habit,  and  accident.' 
The  idols  of  the  market-place  ('  idola  fori'), 


which  have  insinuated  themselves  into  the 
mind  through  the  association  of  words  and 
names  with  things,  are.  Bacon  says,  the  most 
troublesome  of  all.  They  are  of  two  kinds, 
being  either  names  of  supposed  entities  which 
have  no  real  existence,  or  words  inade- 
quately or  erroneously  representing  things 
or  qualities  actually  existing.  The  idols  of 
the  theatre,  so  called  because  tliey  succeed 
one  another  like  the  plays  on  a  stage,  arise 
either  from  false  systems  of  philosophy  or 
from  perverse  laws  of  demonstration. 

The  enumeration  of  the  grounds  of  hope 
naturally  includes  many  criticisms  on  the 
methods  then  in  vogue,  favourable  auguries 
being  drawn  from  the  likelihood  of  their 
amelioration.  Thus,  in  Aph.  104,  where  lie 
protests  against  the  prevalent  habit  of  flying 
off  at  once  from  particular  facts  to  first 
principles  or  the  most  general  axioms  of  all, 
he  insists  on  the  impoilance  of  establishing 
by  a  careful  induction  a  sufficient  number  of 
intermediate  axioms  {'  axiomata  media ' ), 
which  are  'the  true  and  solid  and  living 
axioms,  on  which  depend  the  affairs  and 
fortunes  of  men.'  Again,  in  Aph.  105,  he 
emphatically  condemns  the  method  of  induc- 
tion by  simple  enumeration,  or  mere  addition 
of  instances.  Then,  after  contrasting  witli 
this  unscientific  and  faulty  form  the  induc- 
tion which  he  himself  contemplates,  he  adds 
with  a  true  appreciation  of  the  difficulties 
of  his  task :  '  But  in  oi-der  to  furnish  this 
induction  or  demonstration  well  and  duly 
for  its  work,  A"ery  many  things  are  to  bt^ 
provided  which  have  never  yet  entered  tlv 
thoughts  of  any  mortal  man ;  insomuch  thai 
greater  labour  will  have  to  be  spent  on  it 
than  has  hitherto  been  spent  on  the  syllo- 
gism.' It  is  in  this  new  kind  of  induction 
that  his  chief  hope  lies. 

In  the  concluding  aphorisms  of  the  first 
book,  Bacon  answers,  by  anticipation,  the 
important  question  whether  he  intends  his 
new  method  to  be  confined  to  the  pi'oblems 
of  natural  philosophy,  or  contemplates  its 
application  to  the  other  sciences  as  well, 
*  logic,  ethics,  and  politics.'  To  this  question 
he  replies  (Aph.  127) :  '  Now  I  certainly 
mean  what  I  have  said  to  be  understood  of 
them  all ;  and  as  the  common  logic,  which 
governs  by  the  syllogism,  extends  not  only 
I  to  natural  but  to  all  sciences;  so  does  miii-' 
I  also,  which  proceeds  by  induction,  embrac' 
!  eveiything.  For  I  form  a  history  and  tables 
i  of  discovery  for  anger,  fear,  sharne,  and  the 
j  like  ;  for  matters  political,  and  again  for  tlie 
mental  operations  of  memory,  affirmation 
and  negation,  judgment  and  the  rest:  nor 
less  than  for  heat  and  cold,  or  light,  or  vege- 
tation, or  the  like.'     This  statement  should 


Bacon 


355 


Bacon 


carefully  be  noted ;  for,  on  a  hasty  reading 
of  the  '  "Xovxim  Organum/  it  might  easily  be 
supposed  that  Bacon's  object  was  confined 
to  an  instauration  of  what  we  now  call  the 
natural  sciences.  lie  here,lioweyer,explicitly 
tells  us  that  his  method  is  applicable,  and 
intended  to  be  applied,  to  the  whole  realm 
of  knowledge. 

From  the  prefatory  remarks  of  Book  i., 
Bacon  passes  in  Book  ii.  to  a  more  formal 
and  systematic  exposition  of  his  method.  In 
tlie  11th  Aphorism  the  real  business  of  the 
book  begins,  and  this  and  the  next  two 
aphorisms  contain  the  celebrated  inductive 
tables  which,  together  with  the  '  exclusion 
or  rejection  of  natures '  of  which  an  example 
is  given  in  Aph.  18,  constitute  Bacon's  prin- 
cipal apparatus  for  an-iving  at  a  knowledge 
of  tlie  'form,'  a  word  which  in  modern 
scientific  terminology  may  usually  be  best 
replaced  by  the  word  '  cause.' 

His  own  method  is  simply  contrasted  witli 
the  inductio  per  enumerationem  simplicem, 
ov  method  of  induction  then  in  vogue.  This 
method  consisted  in  merely  accumulating 
instances  presenting  the  phenomenon  in  ques- 
tion, without  following  any  rule  of  selection. 
Instead  of  this  hasty  and  haphazard  kind 
of  induction,  it  is  the  peculiar  merit  of  Bacon 
to  have  conceived,  and  to  a  certain  extent 
to  ha"\'e  elaborated,  a  regular  and  scientific 
method,  proceeding  by  way  of  elimination, 
and  thus  carrying  up  an  effect  to  its  cause 
or  following  a  cause  into  its  effects  by  a  chain 
■of  demonstrative  reasoning.  This  method 
he  calls  the  method  of  exclusions  or  rejec- 
tions, and  it  is  in  this  device  that  he  con- 
ceives the  peculiar  value  and  originality  of 
his  logical  system  to  consist. 

The  path  to  be  followed  by  the  method  of 
exclusions  is.  Bacon  confesses,  a  long  and 
intricate  one  (Aph.  16),  and  hence  he  pro- 
poses, for  the  present  at  least,  to  employ,  ns 
auxiliary  and  preparatory  to  it,  other  aids 
for  the  vmderstanding  (Aphs.  19,  21). 

Before,  however,  describing  these  other 
aids,  he  hazards  an  hypothesis  (Aph.  20)  on 
the  form  of  heat,  based  on  the  materials  col- 
lected in  the  tables.  This  '  giving  reins  to 
the  understanding, or  first  vintage'  (permissio 
intellect  us  or  vindemiatio  prima),  must  be 
regarded  as  a  sort  of  parenthesis,  inserted, 
by  way  of  encouragement  and  relief,  during 
the  conduct  of  the  more  stringent  nietliod 
of  exclusions  with  its  various  aids.  It  seems 
to  afford  an  example  of  that  very  process 
of  'flying  off  from  sense  and  particulars  to 
the  widest  generalisations,'  which  Bacon 
himself  condemns  in  the  First  Book  (see 
Nov.  Orr/.  book  i.  aph,  19).  The  result, 
however,  is  remarkable   in   the   histoi-y    of 


science.  Anticipating  tlie  rlieory  of  heat 
now  generally  accepted,  he  defines  it  as  '  u 
motion,  expansive,  restrained,  and  striving 
amongst  the  smaller  particles  of  bodies.' 
Even  the  modem  theory  as  to  the  undulatorv 
character  of  this  motion  seems  to  be  anti- 
cipated in  tlie  following  passage,  which  is 
quoted  with  approbation  by  Professor  Tyii- 
dall :  '  The  third  specific  difference  is  this, 
that  heat  is  a  motion  of  expansion,  not  uni- 
formly of  the  whole  body  together,  but  in 
its  ultimate  particles ;  and  at  the  same  time 
checked,  repelled,  and  beaten  back,  so  that 
the  particles  acquire  a  motion  alternative, 
perpetually  quivering,  striving  and  stiiig- 
gling,  and  irritated  by  repercussion,  whence 
springs  the  fury  of  fire  and  heat.' 

In  the  21st  Aphorism  he  proceeds  to  enu- 
merate '  the  remaining  helps  of  the  undei'- 
standing,  as  they  promote  the  intei-pretation 
of  nature  and  a  true  and  perfect  induction.* 
The  only  '  help '  which  Bacon  describes  is 
the  'Prerogatives  of  Instances '  (Prierogativse 
Instantiarmn).  These  are  so  called  from  the 
'tribus  prajrogativa,'  which,  being  selected 
by  lot,  voted  first  in  the  '  comitia  tributa ' 
of  the  Romans,  and  thus  not  only  afforded 
an  indication  of  the  mode  in  which  the  other 
tribes  were  likely  to  vote,  but  also  frequently 
exercised  a  considerable  influence  on  their 
decision.  They  are,  as  Sir  John  Herschel 
says,  'characteristic  phenomena,  selected  from 
the  gi-eat  miscellaneous  mass  of  facts  which 
occur  in  nature,  and  which,  by  their  number, 
indistinctness,  and  complication,  tend  rather 
to  confuse  than  to  direct  the  mind  in  its 
search  for  causes  and  general  heads  of  induc- 
tion. Phenomena  so  selected  on  account  of 
some  peculiarly  forcible  way  in  which  they 
strike  the  reason,  and  impress  us  with  a  kind 
of  sense  of  caiisation  or  a  particular  aptitude 
for  generalisation.  Bacon  considers,  and  justly, 
as  holding  a  kind  of  prerogative  dig-nity,  and 
claiming  our  first  and  especial  attention  in 
physical  inquiries.'  Far  the  most  famous  of 
all  these  instances  are  the  crucial  instances 
(instantise  crucis),  a  term  which  is,  perhaps, 
more  widely  used  than  any  other  technical 
term  of  inductive  logic.  According  to  the 
metaphor  there  are  two  or  more  ways  before 
us,  and  the  observation  or  experiment  in 
question  acts  as  a  '  guide-post '  (crux)  in  de- 
termining us  which  to  take.  A  celebrated 
historical  example  is  that  by  which  Pascal 
demonstrated  the  weight  of  the  atmosphere. 
After  the  description  of  the  Prerogative  In- 
stances the  '  Novum  Organum  '  comes  to  an 
abrvipt  termination. 

What,  we  may  now  ask,  are  the  principal 
merits  of  this  magnificent  fragment."  Per- 
haps the  main  interest  now  attaching  to  the 

A  a2 


Bacon 


356 


Bacon 


'  Novum  Organum '  is  the  historical  one  of 
its  subsequent  influence  on  logic,  philosophy, 
and  science.   As  Macaiilay  finely  says,  Bacon 

*  moved  the  intellects  which  have  moved  the 
world.'  But  the  intrinsic  value  of  this  work 
is  still  considerable.  There  is  probably  no 
Avork  of  the  same  kind  so  stimulating  to  a 
young  reader,  or  so  likely  to  foster  habits  of 
cautious  and  independent  investigation,  as 
the  first  book  of  the  'Novum  Organum.' 
Wliat  Bacon  says  of  Plato  is  pre-eminently 
true  of  himself.  He  was '  a  man  of  a  sublime 
genius,  who  took  a  view  of  everything  as 
from  a  high  rock.'     Maxims  such  as  these, 

*  Man  is  the  servant  and  interpreter  of  nature,' 
'  Human  knowledge  and  human  power  meet 
in  one/  *  It  is  not  fruit-bringing  but  light- 
bringing  experiments  that  should  be  sought,' 
'  Truth  is  rightly  called  the  daughter  of  time, 
not  of  authority,'  '  The  worst  thing  of  all  is 
the  apotheosis  of  en-or,'  Avliich  sparkle  on 
almost  every  page  of  the  '  Novum  Organum,' 
live  long  in  the  memory,  and  insensibly  in- 
fluence the  whole  habit  of  thought.  There 
is  something  about  Bacon's  diction,  his  quaint- 
ness  of  expression,  and  his  power  of  illus- 
tration, which  lays  hold  of  the  mind,  and 
lodges  itself  in  the  memoi'y,  in  a  way  which 
Ave  hardly  find  paralleled  in  any  other  autlior, 
except  it  be  Shakespeare. 

As  regards  the  amount  of  definite  logical 
teaching  in  the  '  Novum  Organum '  Avhich 
retains  a  permanent  value,  we  may  notice 
the  constant  emphasis  Avith  which  it  dwells 
on  the  necessity  of  a  thorough  acquaintance 
Avith  the  facts  of  nature,  as  the  only  sure 
preservative  against  the  delusions  of  fancy 
or  prejudice  and  the  misleading  influence  of 
authority ;  and  upon  the  importance  of  not 
contenting  ourselves  with  mere  observation, 
but  of  also  instituting,  where  possible,  arti- 
ficial experiments  for  the  purpose  of  obtain- 
ing more  precise  answers  to  our  questions. 

On  a  wide  and  A"aried  collection  of  facts 
Bacon  proposed  to  raise  scientific  inductions, 
as  opposed  to  inductions  based  on  mere  enu- 
meration. This  conception  of  a  scientific 
process  of  induction,  proceeding  by  Avay  of 
selection  and  elimination,  and  possessing,  if 
all  the  conditions  are  satisfied,  the  force  of 
demonstration,  Avas  a  perfectly  sound  and 
very  fertile  idea,  though  it  has  been  slow  to 
make  its  Avay,  and  is  not  even  yet  universally 
accepted  by  professed  logicians.  Nor  does 
Bacon  neglect  to  point  out  the  proper  re- 
lation between  the  inductive  and  deductive 
processes  of  reasoning.  From  the  often  re- 
iterated emphasis  with  which  he  insists  on 
the  necessity  of  employing  and  refoi*ming 
induction,  it  has  frequently  been  supposed 
that  he  slighted  deduction  as  an  instrimient 


of  thought.  But  tills  Avas  by  no  means  the 
case.  The  syllogism,  he  conceived,  was  in- 
deed incompetent  to  establish  the  first  prin- 
ciples from  which  it  reasons,  but,  AA'hen  these 
Avere  once  fii-mly  established  by  induction 
on  the  basis  of  experience,  it  AA^as  perfectly 
competent  to  reason  correctly  from  them. 
EA'en  the  mathematical  form  Avhich  the  de- 
ductive branch  assumes  in  the  more  advanced 
sciences  is  fully  recognised  by  Bacon,  and  its 
proper  position  assigned  to  it.  'Mathematics 
ought  to  terminate  natural  philosophy,  not 
to  generate  it.'  'Natural  inquiries  have  the 
best  issue  Avhen  physics  are  terminated  in 
mathematics.' 

Bacon  distinctly  sees  that  the  real  object 
of  science  is  the  ascertainment  of  causes  or 
facts  of  causation.  '  It  is  rightly  laid  down 
that  to  knoAv  truly,  is  to  knoAV  by  means  of 
causes.'  He  reads  a  A^aluable  lesson  also, 
when  he  insists  on  the  imity  of  nature  and  the 
unity  of  science.  Nature,  he  conceives,  is  a 
continuous  and  orderly  whole,  admitting  of 
no  breaks  and  no  exceptions.  Objects  and 
qualities  apparently  the  most  heterogeneous 
are  often  united  under  the  same  form,  or,  as 
Ave  might  say,  ai*e  manifestations  of  the  same 
law  (Book  ii.  aph.  17) ;  and  he  Avho  best 
knows  the  ways  of  nature,  also  best  knoAvs 
her  deviations  (Book  ii.  aph.  29).  Similarly, 
to  knoAv  any  one  science  really  well,  a  man 
must  know  at  least  the  general  aspects  and 
fundamental  principles  of  all  sciences.  For 
the  individual  sciences  are  like  the  branches 
of  a  tree  which  meet  in  one  trunk,  and  each 
science  must  suffer  if  rudely  dissevered  from 
the  rest. 

The  principal  objections  Avhich  have  been 
directed  against  Bacon's  method  of  scientific 
investigation  are:  (1)  that  Bacon's  theory 
of  induction  is  too  mechanical ;  (2)  that  he 
unduly  neglects  the  proper  use  of  hypothesis; 
(3)  that  Ids  conception  of  a  gradual  ascent 
from  axioms  of  the  lowest  to  axioms  of  the 
highest  degree  of  generality  does  not  cor- 
respond with  the  actual  conduct  of  scientific 
investigation.  There  is  a  considerable  amount 
of  force  in  these  objections.  The  office  of 
the  imagination  (a  faculty  in  which  he  AA'as 
himself  so  marvellously  rich)  is  undoubtedly 
too  much  ignored  throughout  the  '  Novum 
Organiim.'  And  hence  it  is  that  he  says  so 
little  of  hypothesis.  Except  in  Book  i.  aph. 
106  and  Book  ii.  aph.  20,  this  indispensable 
aid  of  the  greater  part  of  our  inductive 
reasoning  is  hardly  ever  referred  to.  The 
Avild  license  of  imagination  exemplified  in  so 
many  of  the  scientific  Avriters  of  his  time 
naturally  caused  an  extreme  recoil  against 
hasty  generalisation  and  theories  Avhich 
seemed  to  be  in  advance  of  the  facts.     It 


Bacon 


357 


Bacon 


was  this  same  feeling,  doubtless,  which  sug- 
gested to  Bacon  the  oft-repeated  maxim 
that  induction  should  proceed  from  particu- 
lars to  axioms  of  a  very  low  degree  of  gene- 
ralisation (axiomata  infima),  and  thence 
slowly  and  gradually,  through  successive 
stages  of  intermediate  axioms  (axiomata 
media),  up  to  the  liighest  axioms  of  all 
(axiomata  maxime  generalia),  and  that  we 
should  never  arrive  at  these  last,  or  indeed 
at  any  axioms  of  any  liigli  degree  of  gene- 
rality, by  sudden  leaps.  But  this  method  of 
gi-adual  and  continuous  ascent  is  not  the 
method  which,  for  tlie  most  part,  has  been 
actually  pursued  by  the  most  successful  in- 
terrogators of  nature.  Though  a  more  am- 
bitious i)rocess  is  a  common  and  a  perfectly 
legitimate  method  of  discovery,  the  proof  of 
the  higher  axioms,  when  established,  will 
generally  be  found  to  rest  on  intermediate 
axioms,  and  of  these  on  still  lower  axioms, 
and  so  on,  after  the  manner  which  Bacon 
describes.  Moreover,  when  a  science  has 
attained  anything  like  completeness,  this 
will  always  be  found  to  be  the  most  con- 
venient method  of  exhibiting  the  relation 
of  its  various  laws.  Though  stated  too  ex- 
clusively, therefore,  this  part  of  Bacon's  doc- 
trine is  by  no  means  so  untrue  to  facts  or  to 
the  reason  of  the  thing  as  it  lias  sometimes 
been  represented  to  be. 

One  of  the  main  peculiarities  of  Bacon's 
system  was  his  rejection  of  the  inquiry  into 
final  causes,  a  characteristic  of  his  philosophy 
for  which  he  has  often  been  severely  censured. 
But  it  should  be  noted  in  the  first  place  that 
he  did  not  propose  to  banish  this  inquiry 
altogether,  but  to  relegate  it  from  physic, 
which  he  supposed  to  be  concerned  solely 
with  material  and  efficient  causes,  to  what 
he  called  metaphysic,  which  was  to  inquire 
into  formal  and  final  causes,  and  which  would 
include  what  we  now  call  natural  theology. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  Bacon  was  not 
fully  abreast  of  the  scientific  knowledge  of 
his  own  day.  Much  is  doubtless  to  be  said 
in  extenuation,  but  an  impartial  judge  can 
only  advise  a  plea  of '  guilty '  on  many  of  the 
counts  in  the  indictment.  lie  makes  no 
mention,  for  instance,  of  Harvey's  great  dis- 
co veiy  of  the  circulation  of  the  blood,  though 
Harvey  had  already  begun  to  teach  it  in 
1619,  the  year  before  the  appearance  of  the 
*  Novum  Organum.'  Bacon  appears  never  to 
have  heard  of  the  astronomical  discoveries 
recently  made  by  means  of  Kepler's  calcula- 
tions, and  he  was  singidarly  ignorant  of  many 
facts  both  in  the  theory  and  the  history  of 
mathematics  and  mechanics.  But  far  tlie 
most  important  and  perhaps,  at  first  sight, 
the  least  excusable  of  his  scientific  eiTors 


Avas  his  i)er8istent  rejection  of  the  Coper- 
nican  theory.  It  seems  indeed  strange  that 
one  who  laid  claim  to  be  the  great  reformer 
of  science  should  have  steadily  refused  to 
admit  the  greatest  reform  in  scientific  con- 
ceptions which  had  been  proposed  for  many 
generations,  and  which  had  already  been 
before  tlie  world  for  eighty  years.  And, 
undoubtedly,  the  discovery  by  Galileo  of  the 
satellites  of  Jupiter  in  1609,  as  well  as  the 
calculations  of  Kepler  announced  about  the 
same  time  (with  whicli  last,  however.  Bacon 
does  not  seem  to  have  been  acquainted),  had 
considerably  added  to  the  evidence  in  favour 
of  the  heliocentric  system,  even  while  the 
*  Novum  Organum  '  was  being  written.  Still, 
it  cannot  be  said  that,  till  the  laws  of  formal 
astronomy  were  connected  by  Newton  witli 
the  physical  laws  of  matter  and  motion,  the 
motions  of  the  earth  or  its  relation  to  the  rest 
of  the  solar  system  could  in  any  way  be  re- 
garded as  placed  beyond  the  range  of  dispute. 
And  Bacon  certainly  did  not  stand  alone  in 
his  opposition  among  the  eminent  men  of 
that  age.  Among  those  of  his  contemporaries 
who  rejected  the  Copemican  theory  were 
Tycho  Brahe  (who,  however,  died  in  1601), 
Vieta,  the  greatest  mathematician  of  the 
sixteenth  century  (who  also  died  as  early  as 
1603),  Clavius,  who  was  employed  by  Gre- 
gory XIII  to  reform  the  Calendar  and  Avas 
called  the  Euclid  of  his  age,  and  possibly, 
from  his  silence,  the  famous  mechanician 
Stevinus. 

It  would  be  an  injustice  to  Bacon  not  to 
notice  that,  even  in  the  particular  sciences,  he 
threw  out  many  suggestions  of  rare  sagacity, 
and,  in  a  certain  sense,  anticipated  more  re- 
cent discoveries.  Such  were  his  speculations 
on  colour,  his  anticipation  of  the  recent  theory 
of  heat,  his  experiment  on  the  compressibility 
of  water,  and  his  wonderful  appreciation  of 
the  combined  unity  and  variety  in  nature. 
To  these  instances  may  be  added  his  sagacious 
and  possibly  fertile  suggestion  of  a  closer 
union  between  formal  and  physical  astro- 
nomy, as  well  as  of  the  necessity  of  com- 
bining the  explanations  of  celestial  and  ter- 
restrial phenomena  ;  the  remarkable  passage 
on  Attraction,  and  the  ingenious  experiment 
proposed  in  connection  with  it,  in  '  Novum 
Organum '  (ii.  36, 3) ;  the  brilliant  conjecture, 
in  *  Novum  Organum '  (ii.  46),  that  the  actual 
state  of  the  starry  sky  precedes  by  an  interval 
of  time  that  which  is  apparent  to  us,  or,  in 
other  words,  that  light  requires  time  for  its 
transmission;  the  implied  criticism  of  the 
ordinary  doctrine  of  species  contained  in  a 
passage  on  Realism  in  'Novum  Organum' 
(i.  66)  ;  and  lastly  (though  this  list  is  by  no 
means  exhaustive)  the  attempt  made  in  the 


Bacon 


358 


Bacon 


'IlistoriaVentorum' to  consider  the  direction  '  and  -what  are  the  ultimate  meaning  and  re- 
of  the  winds  in  connection  with  temperature  lation  of  the  two  terms  in  this  comparison, 
and  aqueous  phenomena,  on  which  Humboldt  On  questions  of  psychology,  as  distinct 
liighly  compliments  him  as  having  thereby  ,  from  metaphysics,  we  find  a  fair  number  of 
laid  the  foundations  of  a  theory  of  the  cur-  ^  passages  in  Bacon's  writings.  The  most  im- 
rents  of  the  atmosphere.  !  portant  perhaps  ai"e  those  in  which,  foUow- 

The  pliilosophical  opinions  of  Bacon,  as  ing  Telesius,  the  celebrated  philosopher  of 
distinguished  from  his  teaching  on  logic  and  Cosenza  (1509-1588),  whose  works  seem 
the  method  of  science,  are  mainly  to  be  greatly  to  have  interested  him,  he  asserts 
found  in  the  '  De  Augmentis  Scientiarum.'  the  duality  of  the  human  soul.  Man,  ac- 
It  is  the  object  of  tliis  book,  which  was  an  cording  to  this  doctrine  (which  is  stated 
expansion  of  two  earlier  works,  the  '  Ad-  most  fully  in  De  Augmentis,  iv.  3),  has  two 
vancement  of  Learning,'  already  mentioned,  souls,  one  peculiar  to  himself,  the  rational 
and  the  'Descriptio  Globi  Intellectualis '  soul  which  he  derives  from  the  breath  of 
(a  fragment  written  about  1612,  but  first  God,  the  other,  shared  by  him  in  common 
])ublished  by  Gruter  in  1653),  to  note  the  with  the  brutes,  the  irrational  soul,  which 
divisions,  the   existing    condition,  and   the    comes  from  Hhe  wombs  of  the  elements.' 


deficiencies  of  the  various  sciences.  The 
'  De  Augment  is "  abounds  in  fine  thoughts 
and  felicitous  suggestions,  and  the  classi- 
fication of  the  sciences,  which,  Avith  corn- 


It  is,  in  this  connection,  Avorth  noting  that 
Bacon  makes  the  profound  remark  that  the 
origins  of  the  mental  faculties  should  be 
handled,  and  that  psychologically  or  physio- 


j)aratively  slight  alterations,  Avas  adopted  by  I  logically  ('  idque  physice '),  a  Avork  tOAv^ards 
]  )'Alembert  in  his  preliminary  discourse  to  Avhich,  as  he  says,  nothing  of  importance  has 
the   French   '  Encyclop6die,'   Avas   the   first    yet  been  done. 

considerable  attempt  of  the  kind,  and  still  )•  Bacon's  moral  philosophy,  which  is  mainly 
remains,  notAvithstanding  all  its  faults,  a  contained  in  the  seventh  book  of  the  *De 
remarkable  production.  '  The  object  of  phi-  Augmentis,'  has,  perhaps,  hardly  receiAed  the 
losophy,'  he  there  saj's,  '  is  threefold — God, 
Nature,  and  Man ;  as  thei*e  are  likewise 
three  kinds  of  rays — direct,  refracted,  and 
reflected.  For  nature  strikes  the  understand- 
ing with  a  ray  direct ;  God,  by  reason  of  the 
imequal  medium  (namely,  his  creatures),  Avith 
a  ray  refracted ;  man,  as  shoAA^n  and  exhibited 
to  himself,  with  a  ray  reflected."  These  three 
branches  of  philosophy,  hoAvever,  all  meet 
in  one  trunk,  the  Philosophia  Prima,  which 
is,  as  it  Avere,  the  common  parent  of  the  par- 
ticiilar  sciences,  embodying  tliose  axioms 
and  discussing  those  problems  which  are  not 
])ecid.iar  to  any  one  science,  but  find  their 
])lace  in  all  knowledge  alike. 

On  Avhat,  for  Avant  of  a  better  name,  may 
be  called  ontological  or  metaphysical  ques- 
tions, his  ordinary  attitude  is  that  of  a  dis- 
interested if  not  a  contemptuous  silence. 
Bacon  lived  too  early  or  too  late  to  take  any 
serious  part  in  these  metaphysical  discussions. 
In  their  scholastic  form  they  had  become 
discredited,  and  their  new  form,  under  which 
they  Avere  to  exercise  so  much  of  the  best 


attention  Avhich  it  deserves.  As  logic  treats 
of  the  intellect,  ethics  treat  of  the  wiU. 
'  The  will  is  gOAerned  by  i"ight  reason,  seduced 
by  apparent  good :  haA'ing  for  its  spurs  the 
passions,  for  its  ministers  the  organs  and 
A'oluntary  motions.'  Ethics  may  be  divided 
into  tAvo  principal  doctrines,  one  theoretical, 
treating  of  the  exemplar  or  image  of  good, 
the  other  (to  AA'hich  he  gi\"es  the  fanciful  title 
of  the  Georgics  of  the  mind)  practical,  laying 
doAvn  rules  for  the  regulation  and  culture  of 
the  A'arious  parts  of  our  nature,  so  as  to  bring 
them  into  conformity  Avitli  the  image  of  good, 
AA'hen  found.  Of  this  practical  side  of  ethics 
he  complains  that,  for  the  most  part,  it  has 
been  passed  OA^er,  as  not  enabling  men  to 
display  the  point  of  their  wit  or  the  power 
of  their  eloquence.  On  the  theoretical  side, 
he  finds  fault  with  pi'evious  philosophers  for 
not  haA'ing  carried  their  inquiries  deeper,  by 
searching  for  the  roots  of  good  and  e\'il.  He 
then  endeavours  to  'open  and  cleanse  the 
fountains  of  morality'  by  examining  its  fimda- 
mental  conception  of  good.     Good,  he  finds, 


thought  of  the  two  succeeding  centuries,  had    is  either  public  or  private,  and  the  appetite 
not  yet  been  impressed  on  them  by  the  genius    to  both  these  kinds  of  good  is  native  to  the 


of  Descartes.  Bacon  assumes  the  ordinary 
distinction  of  mind  and  matter,  a  universe 
of  objects  to  be  known  and  a  thinking  sub- 
ject capable,  with  due  care  and  discipline,  of 
attaining  to  a  knowledge  of  them,  without 
apparently  troubling  himself  as  to  the  ulterior 
(juestions,  what  is  knowledge,  how  can  I 
become  conscious  of  that  which  is  not  myself, 


human  mind,  and,  indeed,  to  everything 
which  exists.  '  There  is  formed  and  imprinted 
in  everything  an  appetite  to Avards  tAvo  natiu-es 
of  good :  to  one  nature,  inasmuch  as  every- 
thing is  a  whole  in  itself ;  to  the  other,  inas- 
much as  it  is  a  part  of  a  greater  Avhole.  And 
this  latter  nature  is  more  worthy  and  power- 
ful than  the  former,  as  it  tends  to  the  con- 


Bacon 


359 


Bacon 


^^el■^■atioll  of  a  more  gt-noral  form.  Let  the 
former  be  named '  individual  or  self  good,'  the 
latter  '  good  of  communion.'  Those  who  are 
acquainted  with  the  subsequent  development 
of  moral  philosophy  in  England  will  not  fail 
to  find  in  this  sentence  the  germ  of  one  of 
the  leading  ideas  in  the  systems  of  Shaftes- 
bury, Hutcheson,  and  many  other  English 
moralists. 

To  the  fundamental  questions  of  morals, 
AVhat  makes  an  action  right.  How  do  I  know 
t  hat  it  is  right,  and  AVhy  should  I  do  a  right 
action  rather  than  a  wrong  one,  Bacon  sup- 
]»lies  no  direct  answers.  Nor  did  he  ])robably 
j)ut  these  questions  to  himself  in  this  direct 
manner.  But  if  I  may  venture,  from  the 
fragments  of  a  system  which  he  has  left  lis, 
to  construct  answers  such  as  I  think  he  would 
have  given,  had  the  questions  been  put  to 
him,  I  would  suggest  that  he  might  have 
expressed  his  views  much  as  follows.  An 
action  is  right  which  is  good — good,  that  is 
to  say,  either  for  ourselves  or  for  others,  and, 
A\herever  the  good  of  self  or  of  a  smaller 
aggregate  conflicts  with  that  of  a  larger  one, 
tliat  action  will,  generally  speaking,  be  right 
which  promotes  the  good  of  the  community 
or  of  the  larger  community  of  the  two.  I 
know  an  action  to  be  right,  pai'tly  by  my 
reason  exercised  on  its  eftects  and  on  the 
effects  of  actions  similar  to  it,  partly  also  by 
that  '  inward  instinct,  according  to  the  law  of 
conscience,  which  is  a  relic  of  man's  ancient 
purity,  and  partly  too  by  the  words  of  God's 
llevelation.  What  impels  me  to  do  an  action 
Avhen  I  know  it  to  be  right,  is  partly  obe- 
dience to  the  will  of  God,  hope  of  His  re- 
wards, and  fear  of  His  punishments  ;  partly 
a  natural  appetite,  impressed  on  me  as  on  all 
other  objects,  to  seek  good,  and  to  seek  the 
greater  good  rather  than  the  lesser.  That 
two  or  more  inconsistent  modes  of  thought 
are  implied  in  these  answers  I  am  aware.  But 
Bacon  and  his  generation  had  not  yet  reached 
that  stage  in  the  history  of  ethical  speculation 
when  thought  on  these  subjects  was  clear 
and  consistent.  Bacon  still  regarded  ethics 
as  the  *  handmaid  '  of  theology.  Hobbes  was 
the  first  English  writer  who  treated  ethics 
as  an  independent  science.  But  he  bad  been 
anticipated  in  this  respect  by  Grotius,  whose 
'  l)e  Jure  Belli  et  Pacis'  was  published  as 
early  as  1625. 

The  title  of  founder  or  father  of  experi- 
mental philosophy,  so  often  ascribed  to  him 
l)y  his  admirers  and  so  often  criticised  by 
his  detractors,  expresses  the  nature  of  Bacon's 
influence  in  a  rough  and  perhaps  a  some- 
Avliat  exaggerated  as  well  as  a  somewhat 
inadequate  form,  but  one  which  is  in  the 
main  true. 


Bacon  called  men  as  with  the  voice  of  a 
lierald  to  lay  themselves  alongside  of  nature, 
to  study  her  waj^s,  and  imitate  her  processes. 
To  use  his  own  homely  simile,  he  rang  the 
bell  which  called  the  other  wits  together 
He  insisted,  both  by  example  and  precept, 
on  the  importance  of  experiment  as  well  as 
observation.  Nature,  like  a  witness,  when 
put  to  the  torture,  would  reveal  her  secrets. 
In  both  these  ways  Bacon  recalled  men  to 
the  study  of  facts,  and  though,  in  the  first 
instance,  he  had  mainly  in  view  the  facts 
of  external  nature,  the  influence  of  his  teach- 
ing soon  extended  itself,  as  he  undoubtedly 
pui-posed  that  it  should  do,  to  the  facts  of 
mind,  conduct,  and  society. 

In  order  to  set  men  free  to  study  facts,  . 
it  was  necessary  to  deliver  them  from  the 
pernicious  subjection  to  authority  to  which 
they  had  so  long  been  enslaved.  Here  and 
there  throughout  the  middle  ages  a  solitary 
thinker  like  Roger  Bacon  may  ha\e  asserted 
his  independence,  and,  during  the  centuiy 
preceding  Bacon's  time,  the  murmurs  of  dis- 
content had  been  becomingloud  and  frequent, 
but  it  required  a  voice,  like  that  of  the  au- 
thor of  the  '  Great  Instauration,'  effectually 
to  awaken  men  from  their  slumber.  Hardly 
less  important  than  deliverance  from  the 
bondage  of  authority  was  the  emancipation 
of  reason  from  the  bewitching  enchantments 
of  imagination.  '  Hypotheses  non  fingo  ' 
was  a  maxim  which  Newton  inherited  di- 
rectly from  the  teaching  of  Bacon.  And, 
though  the  reaction  against  hypothesis  was 
caiTied  much  too  far,  the  warning  was  one 
which,  in  his  own  time,  was  sorely  needed. 

Bacon  insisted  on  the  necessity  of  a 
logic  of  induction,  effecting  for  the  premisses 
what  the  old  logic,  the  logic  of  deduction, 
effected  for  the  conclusion.  And  to  this 
logic  of  induction  he  himself  made  no  con- 
temptible contributions.  That  our  instances 
require  to  be  selected  and  not  merely  accu- 
mulated, was  a  very  true  and  a  very  needful 
lesson  which  he  was  never  weary  of  repeating. 
And,  surely,  in  this  maxim  consists  the  whole 
gist  of  the  inductive  logic.  On  what  principles 
we  shall  select  our  instances,  and  by  what 
means  we'  shall  satisfy  ourselves  of  their 
sufficiency,  are  other  and  further  questions, 
confessedly  most  difficult  to  answer,  on  which 
we  could  hardly  expect  much  detailed  or  per- 
manently useful  information  from  a  pioneer 
in  this  method  of  inquiry.  And  yet  Bacon 
is  very  full  on  at  least  the  first  of  these 
questions,  and  much  of  what  he  says  has 
even  still  a  value  for  the  student. 

Nor  must  we  forget  the  hopefulness  of 
Bacon  as  an  important  element  in  his  in- 
fluence.    He  stood,  like  a  prophet,  on  the 


Bacon 


360 


Bacon 


verge  of  the  promised  land,  bidding  men 
leave,  without  regret,  the  desert  which  lay- 
behind  them,  and  enter  with  joyfulness  and 
hopefulness  on  the  rich  inheritance  that  was 
spread  out  before  them.  The  sixth  part  of 
the  '  Great  Inst aurat ion,'  to  which  all  the 
rest  was  subservient,  the  philosophy  itself 
which  was  to  be  the  result  of  the  right  em- 
])loyment  of  the  method,  he  hoped  only  to 
begin.  *  The  fortune  of  the  human  race,'  he 
.says,  '  will  give  the  issue ;  such  an  issue,  it 
may  be,  as  in  the  present  condition  of  things 
and  of  the  minds  of  men  cannot  easily  be 
conceived  or  imagined.  For  the  object  in 
view  is  not  only  the  contemplative  happi- 
ness, but  the  whole  fortunes,  and  affairs,  and 
poAvers,  and  works  of  men.' 

To  all  these  sources  of  influence  we 
must  add  the  marvellous  language  in  which 
Bacon  often  clothes  his  thoughts.  His  ut- 
terances are  not  infrequently  marked  with 
a  grandeur  and  solemnity  of  tone,  a  majesty 
of  diction,  which  renders  it  impossible  to 
forget  and  difficult  even  to  criticise  them.  He 
speaks  as  one  having  authority,  and  it  is  im- 
possible to  resist  the  magic  of  his  voice. 
Whenever  he  wishes  to  be  emphatic,  there  is 
the  true  ring  of  genius  about  all  that  he  says. 
Hence,  pei'haps,  it  is  that  there  is  no  author, 
unless  it  be  Sliakspeare,  who  is  so  easily  re- 
membered or  so  frequently  quoted.  Hence, 
too,  perhaps,  it  is  that  there  is  no  author  so 
stimulating.  Bacon  might  well  be  called 
the  British  Socrates.  Even  had  his  indivi- 
dual precepts  been  utterly  worthless,  many 
men  must  have  owed  their  first  impulse  to 
the  study  of  nature,  or  to  independent  in- 
vestigation in  general,  to  the  terse  and  burn- 
ing words,  issuing,  as  it  were,  from  the  lips 
of  an  irresistible  commander,  Avith  Avhich  he 
urges  them  to  the  work. 

[In  this  article  free  use  has  been  made  of  the 
author's  '  Francis  Bacon,'  in  the  series  of  English 
Philosophers,  published  by  Messrs.  Sampson 
Low  &  Co.,  as  well  as  of  the  introduction  to  his 
edition  of  the  '  Novum  Organum,'  published  hj 
the  Clarendon  Press  at  Oxford.  The  article  Bacon 
in  the  British  Museum  Catalogue  is  printed 
separately,  and  will  be  found  useful  for  the 
liibliography.]  T.  F. 

BACON,  Sir  FRANCIS  (1587-1657), 
judge,  was  son  of  '  John  Bacon,  of  Bang's 
Lynn,  Norfolk,  gentleman  '  (Francis,  Ad- 
mission to  Gray's  Inn),  and  gi'andson  of 
Tliomas  Bacon,  of  Hesset,  in  Suffolk.  As 
Hesset  belonged  to  the  immediate  ancestors 
of  the  lord-keeper.  Sir  Nicholas  Bacon,  it 
seems  probable  that  Francis  was  sprung  from 
the  same  stock  as  his  illustrious  namesakes, 
being  therefore  the  fifth  of  that  family  who 
attained  judicial  rank.     Born  about  1587,  be 


commenced  his  legal  studies  at  Barnard's 
Inn,  and  was  admitted  a  member  of  Gray's 
Inn  in  Feb.  1607.  He  was  not  called  to  the 
bar  until  eight  years  later  in  1615.  His  name 
as  counsel  not  being  found  in  any  contem- 
porary reports,  it  has  been  inferred  that  his 
practice  must  have  been  either  in  chancery 
or  in  the  provinces.  In  1624  and  1626  he  is 
mentioned  as  having  contributed  consider- 
able sums  towards  the  repair  of  the  font  and 
east  Avindow  of  St.  Gregory's  Church,  Nor- 
Avich  (BLOMEriELD,  Norwich,  ii.  274).  In 
1634  he  was  autumn  reader  at  Gray's  Inn 
(  Gray's  hm  Books)  ;  tAvo  years  later  the  king 
granted  liim  the  office  of  drawing  licenses 
and  pardons  of  alienations  to  the  great  seal 
during  his  life  in  reAersion  (Rymer,  xx.  123) ; 
and  in  1640  he  Avas  admitted  to  the  degree 
of  serjeant-at-law.  In  October  1642,  the 
king,  being  then  at  Bridgnorth  on  his  way 
to  London,  appointed  Bacon  to  a  seat  in  the 
King's  Bench  (Dugdale,  Chron.  Ser.  110), 
and  at  the  same  time  knighted  him.  Tliis 
appointment  seems  to  have  giA'en  satisfaction 
to  the  parliament,  as  we  find  among  the  pro- 
positions tendered  by  parliament  to  the  king 
in  Feb.  1643,  demands  for  the  dismissal  of 
seA'eral  of  the  judges,  but  'that  Mr.  Justice 
Bacon  may  be  continued '  (Clarendon,  vi. 
231).  While  Charles  was  at  Oxford,  Bacon 
was  one  of  '  the  sAvorn  judges  still  at  West- 
minster, of  which  there  Avere  three  in  num- 
ber,' and  presided  alone  in  the  King's  Bench, 
as  his  '  brothers '  Reeve  and  Trevor  did  in 
the  Common  Pleas  and  Exchequer  {ibid.  vii. 
317). 

At  the  important  trial  of  Lord  Macguire, 
in  Hilary  term  1645,  on  the  charge  of  high 
treason  for  his  share  in  the  Irish  rebellion  and 
massacre  of  1641,  Bacon  was  the  only  judge, 
and  he  appears  to  have  conducted  the  trial 
Avith  gi-eat  patience  and  fairness.  Lord  Mac- 
guire had  demanded  to  be  tried  by  a  jury  of 
Irish  peers.  *  On  this  plea  at  the  beginning 
of  Hilary  term  Judge  Bacon  delivered  his 
judgment  that  a  baron  of  Ireland  was  triable 
by  a  jury  in  this  kingdom'  (State  Trials,  iv. 
665) ;  and  this  judgment  was  formally  ap- 
proved of  by  both  houses.  One  of  the  counsel 
for  the  prosecution  desiring  '  speedy  progress, 
this  being  a  public  case,'  Avas  reminded  from 
the  bench  that  '  a  public  case  must  have 
public  ju.stice  on  both  sides.  .  .  .  We  must 
do  that  Avhich  the  laAv  doth  allow '  {ibid.  668). 
Bacon's  determination  t  o  discharge  his  duties 
impartially  is  further  shoAvn  by  his  commit- 
ting to  prison  James  Symbal  and  others  '  for 
speaking  of  Avords  against  the  king  in  time 
of  war'  (Whitelocke,  269).  He  continued 
to  sit  on  the  bench  until  the  execution  of 
Charles,  but  after  that  event  new  commis- 


Bacon 


361 


Bacon 


sions  were  issued  to  the  judges,  and  they 
were  required  to  take  the  oath  in  the  name 
of  the  people  inslfcead  of  in  the  king's  name. 
Bacon  and  five  of  his  brethren  '  were  not 
satisfied  to  hold '  on  these  terms,  and  had  the 
■courage  to  resign  their  seats.  The  other  six 
judges,  after  some  hesitation,  agreed  to  hold 
office, '  provided  that  by  act  of  the  commons 
the  fundamental  laws  be  not  abolished' 
{ibid.  378).  After  his  resignation  Bacon 
lived  in  retirement  until  his  death  on  22  Aug. 
1657,  Over  his  grave  in  St.  Gregory's  Church, 
Norwich,  a  handsome  monument  was  raised 
by  his  eldest  son  Francis,  who  became  reader 
in  Gray's  Inn  in  1662.  By  his  wife  Eliza- 
beth, daughter  of  William  Robinson,  he  had 
several  children,  but  the  family  has  long  been 
extinct  (VVotton,  Baronetage,  i.  2). 

[Foss's  Judges  of  England,  and  works  cited 
-ahove.]  G.  V.  B. 

BACON,  JOHN.    [See  Baconthokpe.] 

BACON,  JOHN  {d.  1321),  judge,  is  first 
mentioned  as  acting  in  the  capacity  of 
attorney  to  Queen  Eleanor  in  1278-9,  and  is 
described  in  certain  indentures  of  the  ex- 
chequer, dated  1288,  as  '  clericus  Regis '  and 
'  custos  rotulorum  et  brevium  de  Banco '  and 
^  Regis  thesauriarius  et  camerarius,'  his  busi- 
ness being  to  keep  a  list  of  the  cases  argued 
in  the  common  pleas,  and  to  transmit  records 
thereof,  and  also  *  pedes  chirographorum,'  i.e. 
memoranda  of  fines  levied  throughout  the 
country,  to  the  treasurers  and  chamberlains 
of  the  exchequer,  of  the  receipt  of  which  the 
indentures  already  mentioned  Avere  acknow- 
ledgments. The  '  chirographa,'  or  fines  in 
question,  were  fictitious  suits,  by  means  of 
which  it  was  the  custom  to  bar  entails  and 
convey  the  landed  property  of  mamed  women. 
Bacon  seems  to  have  held  this  post  as  late  as 
1309.  In  1291  he  was  entrusted  with  the 
charge  of  Ledes  Castle  in  Kent  (a  royal  resi- 
dence). In  1313  he  was  appointed  to  a  justice- 
ship of  the  common  pleas,  and  in  the  same  year 
we  read  of  his  being  retained  in  London  to 
advise  the  king  upon  some  important  matters. 
In  1314  he  was  made  one  of  the  commis- 
sioners of  oyer  and  terminer  for  the  counties 
of  Norfolk  and  Suffolk,  to  try  certain  asses- 
sors and  collectors  of  the  revenue  charged 
with  breach  of  trust.  In  1315  William  de 
Beresford,  the  chief  justice  of  the  common 
pleas,  being  suddenly  summoned  to  the  king, 
the  business  of  the  court  devolved  upon 
Thrikingham  and  Bacon  exclusively.  We 
may  conjecture  that  it  was  not  very  promptly 
or  efficiently  despatched,  for  it  was  but  a 
short  time  since  he  had  been  enjoined  to  pay 
a  more  diligent  attention  to  duty.     In  1317 


he  was  summoned  with  the  rest  of  the  judges 
to  parliament  at  Lincoln,  but  the  invasion 
of  the  Scots  in  that  year  caused  the  post- 
ponement of  the  parliament  sine  die.  In 
1320  he  was  placed  on  a  commission  to  try 
certain  persons  charged  with  debasing  and 
counterfeiting  the  coinage  in  the  counties  of 
Essex,  Norfolk,  and  Suffolk,  and  in  1321 
upon  another  directed  to  inquire  into  offences 
committed  by  sheriffs  and  other  legal  func- 
tionaries under  colour  of  their  official  duties 
in  the  counties  of  Norfolk,  Suffolk,  Cam- 
bridge, and  Huntingdon.  He  appears  to  have 
died  in  this  year,  Stonore  bemg  appointed 
justice  of  the  common  pleas  in  his  place. 
He  had  landed  property  in  Reston,  Hemings- 
ton,  Cleydon,  and  Akenham,  places  all  of 
them  in  the  county  of  Suffolk,  and  also  in 
Essex,  and  at  Shouldham  in  Norfolk. 

[Devon's  Issues  of  the  Exchequer,  i.  98 ;  Kals. 
and  Invs.  of  the  Exch.  iii.  97-112  ;  Abbrev.  Rot. 
Orig.  i.  65  ;  Pari.  Writs,  ii.  div.  ii.  pt.  i.  40,  100, 
155,  174,  176,  179,  181,  220,  pt.  ii.  3,  60,  79,  98, 
136.  137,  147,  152,  154,  302;  Cal.  Rot.  Pat.  56, 
69,  75,  88]  J.  M.  R. 

BACON,  JOHN,  R.A.  (1740-1799), 
sculptor,  was  bom  in  Southwark,  24  Nov. 
1740.  He  was  the  son  of  a  cloth  worker  of 
that  place,  and  the  descendant  of  an  old 
Somersetshire  family.  At  the  age  of  fourteen 
Bacon  was  apprenticed  to  a  Mr.  Crispe,  of 
whom  there  is  but  little  known  except  the 
fact  that  the  young  artist  modelled  groups 
of  figures  for  him,  and  was  employed  m 
painting  upon  his  plates  and  dishes.  After 
tAvo  years  of  this  service  Bacon  was  able  to 
make  all  the  models  required  for  Crispe's 
factory.  His  term  of  apprenticeship  expired 
in  1762.  The  accounts  of  his  later  con- 
nection with  Coades's  artificial  stone  works 
are  vague.  '  By  his  art,'  says  Redgrave,  *  he 
was  the  means  of  restoring  Coades's  manu- 
facture, then  falling  into  disuse.'  Anyhow, 
in  1762  and  afterwards,  we  find  him  at 
work  in  this  '  lithodipra '  factory,  and  may 
believe  the  repeated  assurances  that  he  did 
much  to  improve  the  invention,  and  stood 
high  in  favour  with  his  employers.  *  Groups 
and  statues  as  large  as  life,  coats  of  arms, 
sculptured  key-stones,  wreaths  of  flowers, 
and  all  that  species  of  work  known  by  the 
general  name  of  ornamental,  were  here 
modelled  and  burnt.'  Whilst  still  an  ap- 
prentice Bacon  gained  (1758)  a  premium 
from  the  Society  of  Arts  for  a  small  figure 
of  Peace.  Nine  times  altogether  he  secured 
the  award  of  this  society,  obtaining  on  one 
occasion  fifty  guineas  for  an  emblematic 
figure  of  '  Ocean.'  On  the  foundation  of 
the  Royal  Academy  in  1768  Bacon  entered 


Bacon 


362 


Bacon 


as  a  student,  and  removed  at  the  same  time 
from  the  city  to  a  lodging  in  Wardoiir 
Street.  A  colossal  head  of  Ossian  was  the 
first  of  his  works  to  attract  attention.  In 
1769  he  received  from  the  hand  of  Reynolds 
the  first  gold  medal  for  sculpture  awarded 
by  the  Royal  Academy.  His  subject  was 
a  bas-relief  representing  '  ^Eneas  escaping 
from  Troy.'  He  further  increased  his  repu- 
tation by  a  statue  of  Mars.  This  work  ob- 
tained for  its  artist  the  gold  medal  of  the 
Society  of  Arts,  and  his  election  (in  1770) 
as  an  associate  of  the  Royal  Academy.  It 
tittracted  the  attention  also  of  the  Archbishop 
of  York,  and  so  led  to  a  commission  for  a 
bust  of  the  king  for  the  hall  of  Christ  Church, 
Oxford.  From  that  time  Bacon's  career  was 
one  of  unbroken  prosperity.  lie  Avas  suc- 
cessful in  fifteen  oxit  of  the  sixteen  public 
competitions  in  which  he  took  a  part. 
Amongst  his  works  may  be  mentioned  the 
monuments  to  Pitt  in  the  Guildhall  and  in 
"Westminster  Abbey;  to  Dr.  Johnson,  and 
to  Howard,  the  philanthropist,  in  St.  Paul's  ; 
to  Blackstone  at  All  Souls  College,  Oxford  ; 
the  bronze  statue  of  George  III,  and  the  two 
groups  and  colossal  figure  of  the  *  Thames  ' 
in  Somerset  House ;  and  the  monument  to 
Mrs.  Draper  (Sterne's  Eliza)  in  Bristol  Ca- 
thedral. Bacon  wrote  the  article  '  Sculpture ' 
for  Rees's  'Cycloptedia.' 

Bacon  was,  to  a  great  extent,  a  self-taught 
man.  It  was  said  that  he  had  no  knowledge 
of  the  antique,  or  power  of  producing  work 
of  a  classic  character.  But  this  charge  he 
was  able  to  refute  by  a  sculpture  which  his 
brother  artists  mistook  for  a  genuine  frag- 
ment of  antique  skill.  It  was  true,  however, 
that  his  natural  bent  was  not  towards  clas- 
sic art.  He  had  no  imagination,  and  little 
fire  of  genius ;  but  he  had  good  sense  and  a 
quickened  commercial  instinct,  Avhich  led  to 
a  just  apprehension  of  what  was  wanted  to 
be  done.  These  qualities,  with  a  delicacy  of 
handling  which  he  owed  perhaps  to  his  early 
employment  in  the  potteries,  gave  to  his 
works,  according  to  the  ideas  of  his  time,  a 
certain  quality  of  simplicity  and  good  taste. 

Bacon  died  in  the  prime  of  life  from  in- 
flammation of  the  bowels,  at  his  house  in 
Newman  Street,  on  4  Aug.  1799.  He  was 
buried  in  Whitfield's  Tabernacle.  His  grave 
bore  the  following  epitaph,  written  by  him- 
self : — '  What  I  Avas  as  an  artist  seemed  of 
some  importance  while  I  lived ;  but  Avhat  I 
really  Avas  as  a  belicAcr  in  Jesus  Christ  is  the 
only  thing  of  importance  to  me  now.'  He 
Avas  tAvice  married :  (1)  to  a  Miss  Wade  in 
1773,  who  died  in  1776 ;  and  (2)  with  un- 
due haste,  as  his  enemies  represented  it,  to 
Martha  Holland,  immediately  on  the  death 


of  his  first  wife.  He  left  60,000/.  to  be 
diA'ided  among  his  fiA'e  children. 

Bacon  was  agreeable  in  person,  siuiA'e  in 
manner,  and  a  methodist  of  high  doctrine 
and  blameless  life.  His  biographer,  Cecil,  a 
humble  admirer,  considers  him  to  haA'e  ex- 
hibited in  all  essentials  a  pattern  of  excel- 
lence. Allan  Cunningham's  more  disparaging 
vieAA'  Avas  considered  by  Bacon's  relations  to 
have  been  coloured  by  personal  prejudice. 

[Cunningham's  Lives  of  the  Painters ;  Memoir 
by  EoLert  Cecil,  M.A.  ;  Jewitt's  History  of  the 
Ceramic  Art  in  Great  Britain  ;  Chaifers's  Marks 
and  Monograms  on  Pottery  and  Porcelain ;  Eed- 
grave's  Dictionary  of  English  Artists;  NoUekens's 
Life  and  Times.]  E.  R. 

BACON,  JOHN,  F.S.A.  (1738-1816), 
spent  nearly  the  whole  of  his  Avorking  life  in 
the  first-fruits  department  of  the  office  of 
Queen  Anne's  Bounty,  and  is  now  remem- 
bered by  church  antiquaries  for  his  improved 
edition  of  Ecton's  *  Thesaurus,'  a  detailed 
account  of  the  A'aluations  of  all  ecclesiastical 
benefices  which  Avere  charged  Avith  first 
fruits  and  tenths.  His  first  appointment  in 
that  branch  of  the  office  was  as  junior  clerk 
to  the  deputy  remembrancer,  and  he  rose  ta 
become  the  senior  clerk  in  1778  and  the 
receiver  in  1782.  With  these  offices  he 
combined  the  duties  of  treasurer  to  the  Cor- 
poration of  the  Sons  of  the  Clergy.  He 
obtained  the  leasehold  interest,  under  the 
dean  and  chapter  of  St.  Paul's,  of  the  manor 
of  Whetstone,  or  Friern  Barnet,  and  wheu  the 
Land  Tax  Redemption  Act  authorised  them 
to  eflect  a  sale  of  their  landed  property,  he 
purchased  the  reversion  of  the  manor-house 
and  the  AA'hole  of  their  estate  in  the  parish 
of  Friern  Barnet.  A  description  of  the 
house  and  the  curiosities  which  it  contained 
may  be  found  in  Lysons's  '  EnAirons  of  Lon- 
don,' ii.  22.  He  died  in  the  manor-house 
26  Feb.  1816,  and  was  buried  in  a  small 
Aault  on  the  outside  of  the  church.  His 
tombstone  in  the  churchyard  records  his 
second  son  and  his  son's  wife ;  his  only 
daughter,  Maria,  Avas  married  to  Sir  William 
J  ohnston,  of  that  ilk,  Aberdeenshire.  His  edi- 
tion of  the  *  Liber  regis,  vel  thesaurus  rerum 
ecclesiasticarum '  Avas  published  in  1786, 
and  some  severe,  but  not  unjustifiable,  com- 
ments were  made  at  that  time  in  the  '  Gentle- 
man's Magazine '  on  the  omission  of  any 
mention  in  the  title-page  or  the  preface  of 
the  previous  compilation  of  John  Ecton. 

[Gent.  Mag.  Ixxxvi.  pt.  i.  276  (1816);  Can- 
sick's  Epitaphs  of  Middlesex,  iii.  123  ;  Nichols's 
Lit.  Anecdotes,  ix.  6-7.]  W.  P.  C. 

BACON,  JOHN  (1777  1859),  sculptor, 
Avas  the  second   son   of  John  Bacon,  R.A. 


Bacon 


363 


Bacon 


At  twelve  years  old  he  entered  the  Academy 
scliools,  at  fifteen  he  exhibited  his  first  work, 
iit  sixteen  he  gained  a  silver  medal,  and  ut 
seventeen  the  gold  medal  of  the  lloyal  Aca- 
demy. His  prize  work  was  a  statue  of  Cas- 
sandra. The  elder  Bacon  died  in  1799,  and 
John  Bacon,  junior,  succeeded  to  his  busi- 
ness. He  finished  such  works  as  he  found 
in  progress,  including  the  w-ell-kuown  statue 
of  Lord  Cornwallis,  and  was  able,  besides, 
to  secure  ample  patronage  for  himself.  He 
ceased  to  exhibit  at  the  Academy  in  1824. 
There  are  six  of  his  monuments  in  St.  Paul's 
Cathedral,  and  some  in  Westminster  Abbey. 
He  died  in  1859.  A  brother,  Thomas  Bacox, 
also  obtained  some  reputation  as  a  sculptor. 
He  exhibited  at  the  lloyal  Academy  in  179-3, 
1794,  and  1795.  The  statue  of  William  HI 
in  St.  James's  Square,  erected  in  1808,  was 
his  work. 

[Allan  Cunningham's  Lives  of  the  Painters,  ii.; 
Kedgrave's  Diet,  of  Painters  of  the  English 
School.]  E.  K. 

BACON,  MONTAGU  (1688-1749), 
scliolar  and  critic,  was  the  second  of  the 
three  sons  of  Nicholas  Bacon,  Esq.,  son 
and  heir  of  Sir  Nicholas  Bacon,  of  Shrixb- 
Lind  Hall,  Coddenham,  Suffolk,  who  was 
one  of  the  sixtv-eight  knights  of  the  Bath 
created,  19  April  1661,  by  Charles  II,  '  to 
attend  his  majesty's  coronation '  four  days 
later  (Salmon,  Chronological  Historian, 
1747).  Paternally  he  was  descended  from 
the  lord  keeper  Bacon ;  and  maternally 
from  '  the  Earl  of  Sandwich,  who,  next  to 
Monk,  had,  I  believe,  the  chief  hand  in  the 
llestoration ;  for  King  Charles,  on  his  first 
landing,  gave  him  an  earldom,  a  garter, 
and  4,000/.  a  year  in  land,  besides  places  to 
tlie  value  of  10,000/.  a  year  more' (Bacon, 
Letter  to  the  Rev.  Philip  Williams,  1734). 
Bacon's  mother  was  the  Lady  Catherine 
INlontagu,  youngest  daughter  of  Edward, 
first  earl  of  Sandwich,  who  survived  two 
husbands,  and  died  19  Jan.  1757  (Gent. 
May.),  at  the  advanced  age  of  96,  being  at 
that  time  the  widow  of  the  llev.  Balthazar 
Gardeman,  vicar  of  Coddenham.  Her  son 
]\Iontagu  was  born  in  December  1688  at 
Coddenham,  and  baptised  on  the  13th  of 
that  month  (Nichols,  Illustrations,  iv.  243). 
He  was  admitted  a  fellow-commoner  of  Tri- 
nity College,  Cambridge,  in  1704-5,  but  seems 
to  have  taken  no  degTee  until  the  year  1784, 
when  he  proceeded  M.A./»e?'  literas  regias,  in 
Avhich  he  is  styled  *  Edvardi  primi  comitis  de 
Sandwich  ex  filia  nepos.'  It  seems  that,  on 
the  day  before  his  admission  to  this  degree,  he 
wrote  to  Mr.  Williams,  as  public  orator  of  the 
university,  the  letter  already  cited,  in  which. 


on  the  ground  that  the  restoration  of  the 
royal  family  was  also  the  restoring  of  the 
church,  he  begs  Mr.  Williams  officially  to 
*  insist  chiefly  on  the  services  of  his  family 
to  the  church  as  their  greatest  honour,'  and, 
if  one  more  word  must  be  said  of  himself 
personally,  entreats  that  it  might  be  'barely 
this — that  he  had  always  been  a  lover  of 
learning  and  learned  men.'  Previous  to  his 
graduation,  Bacon  had  resided  in  Leicester- 
sliire,  where,  as  Mr.  Nichols  surmises,  lie 
may  have  been  curate  of  Newbold  Verdun 
(Illustrations,  iv.  243),  '  the  ancient  inherit- 
ance and  seat  of  the  Crewes  and  Montagues ' 
(Bibliotheca  Topograj)hica  Britaniiica,  viii. 
886) ;  to  his  residence  there  Bacon  refers  in 
the  first  of  three  letters  to  George  Jeffreys, 
Esq.,  dated  from  'Cambridge,  6  Oct.  1732,  at 
Quarles's  cofffee-house,'  in  -which  the  writer 
complains  of  the  university  as  '  a  very  dull 
place,'  and  professes  himself '  mortally  sick  of 
all  college  news.'  In  the  last  of  these  letters, 
10  Dec.  1732,  Bacon  vindicates  the  genius  and 
character  of  Malebranche  against  his  detrac- 
tors, and  chiefly  those  who  would  charge 
that  philosopher  with  atheism  (Duncombe, 
Letters,  &c.,  ii.  17-33).  In  1743  Bacon  was 
presented  by  the  university  of  Cambridge, 
in  whose  gift  it  then  was,  in  consequence  of 
the  disability  of  the  proper  patron,  the  Duke 
of  Norfolk,  to  tlie  rectory  of  Newbold 
Verdun.  '  But  he  did  not  long  enjoy  the 
rectory,  being  soon  after  afflicted  with  con- 
temporary derangement  of  intellect,  wliich 
occasioned  his  removal  to  lodgings  in  Chel- 
sea for  the  convenience  of  proper  medical 
assistance ;  and  he  relinquished  his  clerical 
garb,  though  he  was  permitted  to  retain  the 
rectory  till  his  death,  which  happened  at 
Chelsea,  7  April  1749 '  (Nichols,  Illustra- 
tions, 'i\.  243).  He  was  buried  at  Coddenham 
on  the  19th  of  the  same  month.  A '  note '  by 
the  liev.  Thomas  Martyn,  botany  professor 
at  Cambridge,  records  the  circumstance  that 
Montagu  Bacon's  last  lodgings  Avere  in 
Manor  Street,  Chelsea,  'before  which  he 
had  been  in  Duffield's  madhouse  at  Little 
Chelsea,  where  he  was  attended  by  his 
[Martyn's]  father.  .  .  .  Mr.  Bacon  always 
appeared  as  a  layman.  ...  I  never  appre- 
hended that  he  was  in  orders '  (Nichols's 
Literary  Anecdotes,  viii.  417).  The  wide 
range  of  Mr.  Bacon's  studies  in  poetical  lite- 
rature may  be  estimated  from  his  statement 
to  Dr.  Zac'hary  Grey,  that  'not  many  English 
or  foreign  poets  had  escaped  him'  (Letter 
dated  8  April  1746,  in  Nichols's  Illustra- 
tions, iv.  244).  His  literary  work  was  small 
in  quantity,  and  may  be  found  in  a  volume 
published  after  his  death,  entitled  '  Critical, 
Historical,   and    Explanatory   Notes    upon 


Bacon 


364 


Bacon 


Iliidibras,  by  way  of  Supplement  to  the  two 
Editions  published  in  the  years  1744  and 
1745,  by  Zachary  Grey,  LL.D.  To  which 
is  prefixed  a  Dissertation  upon  Burlesque 
Poetry  by  the  late  learned  and  ingenious 
Montagu  Bacon,  Esq.  And  an  Appendix, 
in  which  is  a  Translation  of  Part  of  the  first 
Canto  into  Latin  Doggrel,'  8vo,  London, 
1752. 

[Davy's  MS.  additions  to  Grraduati  Cantabri- 
gienses;  Bacon's  Letter  to  the  Public  Orator, 
1734,  in  G-ent.  Mag.  Jan.  1781,  and  in  Nichols's 
Illustrations,  iv.  242;  Duncombe's  Letters  of 
several  Imminent  Persons  deceased,  1773  ;  Ni- 
chols's Literary  Anecdotes,  viii.  417  ;  CoUins's 
Peerage  of  England,  1812,  iii.  467-8.1 

A.  H.  a. 

BACON,  SiE  NATHANIEL  (^.1640), 

painter,  was  the  seventh  son  of  Sir  Nicholas 
Bacon,  the  first  baronet  created  by  James  I : 
who,  again,  was  eldest  son  of  Sir  Nicholas,  the 
lord  keeper.  Walpole  confounds  the  painter 
with  his  uncle.  Sir  Nathaniel  of  Stiff*key  [see 
Bacoit,  Sir  Nicholas,  adjin.'],  half-brother  of 
Sir  Francis,  afterwards  lord  chancellor,  who 
was  sherifi"  of  Norfolk  in  1599,  and  knighted 
in  1604.  The  nephew  entered  Corpus  Christi 
College,  Cambridge,  in  1621,  and  graduated 
M.A.  in  1628.  He  lived  at  Culford,  in  Suf- 
folk, on  an  estate  given  to  him  by  his  father. 
There  is  a  monument  to  him  in  the  church 
there,  and  one  to  his  wife,  Jane  Meautys, 
the  widow  of  Sir  William  Cornwallis.  He 
is  there  described  as  '  well  skilled  in  the  his- 
tory of  plants,  and  in  delineating  them  with 
his  pencil.'  Walpole  speaks  of  him  as  having 
*  really  attained  the  perfection  of  a  master.' 
He  studied  painting  in  Italy,  but  his  style 
was  rather  Flemish  than  Italian.  In  Wal- 
pole's  time  there  were  works  of  his  to  be 
seen  at  Culford,  where  he  lived,  and  at  Gor- 
hambury.  At  the  latter  place  is  a  *  Cook- 
maid  with  dead  fowls,'  painted  '  with  great 
nature,'  and  a  much-admired  portrait  of  him- 
self. The  latter  is  engraved  in  the '  Anec- 
dotes '  of  Walpole.  He  painted  a  *  Ceres ' 
and  a  *  Hercules,'  and  left  some  paintings  at 
Redgrave  Hall,  Sufiblk,  his  father's  seat.  In 
a  note  to  Walpole  is  a  recipe  for  the  pre- 
paration of  a  particular '  browne-pinke'  colour 
used  by  the  said  Nathaniel,  which  was  *  so 
very  good'  that  a  certain  painter,  *  P.  Oliver, 
did  highly  commend  it,  and  used  none  other 
to  his  dyinge  day,  wherewith,  and  witli  In- 
dian lake,  he  made  sure  expressions  of  those 
deep  and  glowing  shadows  in  those  histories 
he  copied  after  Titian,  that  no  painting  should 
appear  more  warm  and  fleshy  than  those  of 
his  hand  ' !  He  was  created  a  knight  of  the 
Bath  at  the  coronation  of  Charles  I,  and  was 


^•vl) 


living  in  1648  (  Wills  at  Bury  8t.  Edmunds, 
ed.  S.  Tymms,  Camden  Soc.  p.  216).  He 
had  three  children,  of  whom  Nicholas  and 
Jane  died  unmarried,  and  Anne,  his  heiress, 
married,  firstly,  her  cousin.  Sir  Thomas 
Meautys,  and  secondly.  Sir  Harbottle  Grim- 
ston.  From  this  second  marriage  are  de- 
scended the  earls  of  Verulam,  the  owners  of 
the  famous  Gorhambury  estate. 

[Walpole's  Anecdotes,  i.  190;  Peacham  on 
Limning,  p.  126 ;  Chalmers's  Biog.  Diet. ;  Kippis's 
Biog.  Brit. ;  Redgrave's  Diet,  of  English  Painters ; 
Nagler'sKunstler-Lexicon,ed.  1878 ;  R.Masters's 
Corpiis  Christi  Coll.  ed.  Lamb,  p.  456  ;  Norfolk 
Archaeology,  viii.  152 ;  Camden's  Britannia,  ed. 
Gough,  ii.  82;  Notes  and  Queries,  5th  ser.  x. 
232.]  E.  R. 

BACON,    NATHANIEL    (1593-1660), 
puritan,  was  the  third  son  of  Edward  Bacon 
of  Shrubland  Hall,  SuflTolk,  son  of  lord  keeper 
Bacon  by   his  first  wife,  and  half-brother 
of  the  gi-eat  Francis  Bacon  [see  Bacoit,  SiR^Ka'<<>^^ 
Nicholas,  «<?_/???.].  Nathaniel  Bacon\was  bred  'V*  ]^ 
to  the  bar  and  admitted  of  Gray's  Inn  1 6  Aug. '^  ^  J^^s 
1611,   of  which    he    became    ultimately   a  i-^  ibio 
bencher.     He  was  called  to  the  bar  2  Aug.  (^^»ri1U 
1617,  and   for  some   time  after  resided  in  '^•''•^<" 
Essex,  and  was  one  of  the  commission  of 
the  peace   for  that  county.     Removing  to 
Ipswich  he  was  elected  in  1643  recorder  of 
that  town,  and  is  said  to  have  been  at  one 
time  recorder  of  Bury  St.  Edmunds  also. 
From  the  commencement  of  the  struggle  be- 
tween Charles  I  and  the  Long  parliament 
he  was  a  zealous  adherent  of  the  parliament. 
He  is  said  to  have  acted  as  chairman  of  the 
central  committee,  sitting  at  Cambridge,  of 
the  seven  associated  counties  known  as  the 
Eastern  Association,  formed  for  common  de- 
fence against  the  royalist  forces.     Certainly 
he  was  one  of  the  most  active  members  of 
the  committee  for  Suffolk.     Cromwell  began 
his  military  career  by  co-operating  with  this 
Eastern  Association,  and  Bacon  may  have 
thus  early  attracted  his  notice  and  gained  his 
regard.     In  November  1645  Bacon  was  sent 
to  the  Long  parliament  as  one  of  the  mem- 
bers for  Cambridge  University  on  the  oc- 
currence of  a  vacancy  in  its  representation. 
In   1647   appeared   the  work  to  which  he 
owes  his   reputation,   'An  Historical   Dis- 
covery of  the   Uniformity  of  the  Govern- 
ment of  England ;  the  first  part  from  the 
first  times   till  the   reign   of  Edward  III.' 
A  '  Continuation  .  .  .  until  the  end  of  the 
reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  with  a  preface,  be- 
ing a  vindication  of  the  ancient  way  of  par- 
liaments in  England,'  was  not  published  until 
1651.     With  his  brother  Francis  he  repre- 
sented Ipswich  in  the  two  protectorate  par- 
liaments of  Oliver    Cromwell,   in   Richard 


Bacon 


365 


Bacon 


Cromwell's  solitary-  parliament,  and  he  sat  in  , 
the  revived  Long  parliament  of  1660.  After 
the  establishment  of  the  commonwealth  he 
had  been  appointed  one  of  the  admiralty  j 
judges,  an  office  Avhich  he  exchanged  for  that 
of  master  of  requests  to  the  Protector.  One 
of  his  chief  functions  appears  to  have  been  to 
act  as  a  medium  of  communication  between  | 
Cromwell  and  his  council  of  state ;  and  this 
body  often  commissioned  him  to  inquire  into 
and  report  on  claims,  gTievances,  and  other  \ 
matters  brought  before  them  and  requiring  ] 
careful  investigation.  He  remained  master  i 
of  requests  during  the  brief  protectorate  of 
Ilichard  Cromwell,  and  died  in  1660.  He 
was  buried  at  Coddenham.  It  has  been  said 
that  he  received  3,000/.  for  his  anti-royalist  | 
services,  and  a  salary  of  500/.  a  year  as  master 
of  requests  ('  The  Mystery  of  the  Good  Old 
Cause'  in  Parliamentary  History,  iii.  1591).  ! 
Bacon's  '  Historical  Discourse '  is  a  sort  of  j 
constitutional  history  of  England,  showing  ; 
much  knowledge  of  the  development  of  its 
institutions,  civil  and  ecclesiastical,  and  per- 
vaded by  a  strong  spirit  of  hostility  to  the 
claims  of  the  royal  prerogative  and  to  hierar- 
chical pretensions.  For  this  reason  the  edition 
of  it,  published  after  the  Restoration  in  1665, 
was  suppressed  by  the  government,  and  for 
the  publication  of  one  in  1676  its  printer  was 
])rosecuted,  and  had  to  take  refuge  abroad. 
After  the  revolution  of  1688  the  edition  of 
1665  was  reissued  (in  1689),  with  the  addition 
of  a  new  title-page,  on  which  the  work  was 
represented  as  having  been  '  collected '  by 
Bacon  '  from  some  manuscript  notes  of  John 
Selden,  Esq.'  The  statement  seems  to  have 
no  better  foundation  than  a  vague  assertion 
of  Chief  Justice  Vaughan,  one  of  Selden's 
executors,  that  the  'groundwork'  of  the  book 
was  Selden's.  A  fifth  edition  was  issued  so 
late  as  1760.  The  spirit  of  liberty  which  it 
breathed  commended  it  to  Lord  Chatham,  who, 
in  his  letters  to  his  nephew,  speaks  of  it  as 
*  the  best  and  most  instructive  book  we  have 
on  matters  of  the  kind,'  adding  that  though 
its  '  style  '  be  '  uncouth,'  '  the  expression  is 
striking  and  forcible.'  Carlyle  has  surmised 
{Oliver  CromwelV s  Letters  and  Speeches,  popu- 
lar edition,  iv.  240,  note)  that  '  one  of  the 
two  Suffolk  Bacons,  most  probably  Nathaniel 
Bacon,'  was  the  writer  of  the  '  Diary '  pub- 
lished in  1828  as  that  of  '  Thomas  Burton, 
member  in  the  parliaments  of  Oliver  and 
Richard  Cromwell  from  1656  to  1659.'  But 
as  the  diarist  speaks  of  himself  in  the  first 
person  and  of  the  two  Bacons  in  the  third, 
besides  making  disparaging  mention  of  at 
least  one  speech  of  Francis  Bacon,  Carlyle 
was  in  all  likelihood  mistaken  in  his  surmise. 
Nathaniel  Bacon  has  also  been  credited  with 


the  authorship  of  the  curious  piece  (probably 
a  translation),  '  A  Relation  of  the  fearful  Es- 
tate of  Francis  Spira  in  the  year  1548,'  an 
account  of  an  Italian  lawyer  who,  after  quit- 
ting Romanism  for  protestantism,  reverted  to 
his  first  creed,  suffering  in  consequence  ago- 
nies of  remorse  and  coming  to  an  unhappy 
end.  The  first  edition  of  it  was  publistit'd 
anonymously  in  1638,  and  it  was  not,  appa- 
rently, until  the  publication  of  that  of  1665, 
some  years  after  his  death,  that  it  was  said 
on  the  title-page  to  have  been  '  compiled '  by 
Nathaniel  Bacon.  Many  editions  of  it  have 
been  issued,  one  in  1845  as  'An  Everlasting 
Proof  of  the  Falsehood  of  Popeiy.'  A  trans- 
lation of  it  into  Welsh  appeared  in  1820.  In 
the  catalogue  of  the  library  of  the  British 
Museum  there  are  various  entries  under  this 
Nathaniel  Bacon,  which  properly  belong  to 
another  Nathaniel  Bacon,  the  Virginian  rebel. 
[Gent.  Mag.  Ixxiv.  pt.  ii.  p.  807,  and  xcv.  22  ; 
Parliaments  of  England,  1213-1700,  printed  as 
a  return  to  the  House  of  Commons  in  1878  ;  Ca- 
lendars of  State  Papers,  Domestic  Series,  16a5, 
&c.,  1881-2;  Foster's  Kegister  of  Admissions  to 
Gi-ay's  Inn,  p.  3 1 ;  Carlyle's  Cromwell ;  Catalogue 
of  the  Library  of  the  British  Museum.]    F.  E. 

BACON,  NATHANIEL  (1642  P-1676), 
Virginian  patriot,  is  vaguely  stated  in  Ame- 
rican books  to  have  been  a  native  of  London, 
and  to  have  kept  tenns  at  one  of  the  inns 
of  court.  From  a  contemporary  pamphlet 
{Strange  News  from  Virginia,  being  a  full 
and  true  Account  of  the  Life  and  Death  of 
Nathaniel  Bacon,  Esq.,  London,  printed  for 
Wm.  Harris,  1677),  we  learn  that  he  was 
the  son  of  Thomas  Bacon,  of  Friston  Hall, 
Suffolk,  and  thus  descended  from  a  younger 
branch  of  the  gi'eat  house  of  Bacon.  He 
entered  Gray's  Inn  22  Nov.  1664  (Foster, 
Register  of  Admissions  to  Gray^s  Inn,  1882, 
p.  31).  About  1673  he  married  Elizabeth, 
daughter  of  Sir  Edward  Duke,  a  Suffolk 
baronet.  There  appears  to  be  no  ground  for 
a  statement  in  the  '  Gentleman's  Magazine ' 
(Ixxxvi.  297)  that  he  did  so  against  his 
father's  wish, '  who  violently  marked  his  dis- 
approbation.' On  the  contrary,  the  writer  of 
the  pamphlet  above  quoted  mentions  that 
he  was  allowed  a  '  gentle  competency '  from 
his  father,  which,  however,  his  '  expen- 
sive habits  '  rendered  insufficient.  Possibly 
with  a  view  of  breaking  these  off",  and  also 
from  a  spirit  of  adventure,  he  emigrated  to 
Virginia,  his  father  supplying  him  with  stock 
to  the  value  of  1,800/.  He  settled  on  the 
plantation  of  Curies,  in  the  upper  part  of 
the  James  river,  on  the  Indian  frontier. 
Both  friends  and  foes  are  agreed  as  to  his 
remarkable  abilities,  and  the  grace  and  charm 
of  his  manner.    His  acquirements  as  a  lawyer 


Bacon 


366 


Bacon 


also  rendered  his  advice  of  great  value  to  the 
colonists  in  their  disputes  Avith  the  governor ; 
and  the  prestige  of  his  descent  secured  him  • 
a  large  amount  of  deference.  Shortly  after 
his  arrival  he  became  a  member  of  the  go- 
vernor's council.  His  estates  being  specially 
exposed  to  Indian  raids,  he  was  one  of  the 
foremost  in  concerting  measures  of  resist- 
ance ;  and  he  was  chosen  general  by  the  vo- 
lunteer colonists.  An  application  was  made 
to  the  governor  for  a  commission,  but  as  he 
deferred  granting  the  request,  Bacon  set  out 
against  the  Indians  without  obtaining  his 
sanction.  Thereupon  he  was  declared  a  rebel, 
but  an  insurrection  in  the  middle  counties 
compelled  the  governor  to  yield  to  the  popular 
demands.  Writs  were  issued  for  the  elec- 
tion of  a  new  council  on  a  system  of  wider 
suiTrage.  Bacon  was  elected  for  his  county, 
and  though  aiTested  on  his  return,  he  Avas 
soon  set  at  liberty,  and  sat  in  the  assembly 
which  passed  the  code  known  as  '  Bacon's 
Laws.'  In  another  expedition  against  the 
Indians,  he  defeated  them  with  great 
slaughter.  The  governor,  having  meanwhile 
received  reinforcements,  again  declared  him 
a  rebel,  but,  after  a  stubborn  contest,  was 
compelled  to  take  refuge  in  the  English  ves- 
sels. Jamestown  thereupon  fell  into  the 
hands  of  Bacon,  who,  being  unable  to  gar- 
rison it,  burned  it  to  the  ground.  While 
organising  further  and  more  comprehensive 
measures  on  behalf  of  the  colonists,  he  died 
somewhat  suddenly  in  October  1676.  He 
left  an  only  daughter,  Mary,  who  was  mar- 
ried to  Hugh  Chamberlain,  M.D.,  of  Alder- 
ton  Hall,  Suffolk,  physician  to  Queen  Anne. 
Oldys  in  a  manuscript  note  to  the  article  on 
Mrs.  Behn,  authoress  of  'Widow  Ranter, 
or  the  History  of  Bacon  in  Virginia,'  1690, 
in  Langbaine's  '  Dramatic  Authors  '  (letter 
of  Samuel  Egerton  Brydges,  in  Gent.  Mag. 
Ixxiv.  808),  attributes  to  the  Virginian  the 
'  Historical  Discourse  of  the  Government  of 
England,'  1647,  but  the  date  of  the  publi- 
cation of  the  work  is  sufficient  to  disprove 
that  he  was  the  author  of  it. 

[Sparkes's  American  Biography  (1848),  iii. 
243-306  ;  Strange  News  from  Virginia,  London, 
1677;  History  of  Bacon  and  Ingram's  Rebellion 
in  Virginia  in  1675  and  1676,  a  contemporary 
account  first  published  in  1867;  Gent.  Mag. 
Ixxiv.  807-8,  Ixxxvi.  part  ii.  297-8,  xcv.  part  i. 
20-24 ;  Notes  and  Queries,  2nd  series,  xi.  202, 
3rd  series,  xii.  480-81 ;  MS.  Eger.  2395,  pp.  156- 
198,  where,  besides  other  documents,  will  be 
found  a  copy  of  Nathaniel  Bacon's  description  of 
the  fight  with  the  Indians  in  May  1676,  of  his 
letter  to  the  governor,  26  May  1676,  and  of  a 
letter  of  his  wife  to  her  sister,  describing  their 
mode  of  life  and  the  raids  of  the  Indians.] 

T.  F.  H. 


BACON,  alias  Southwell,  NATHA- 
NIEL (1598-1676),   Jesuit.     [See  Soutu- 

AVELL.] 

BACON,  Sir  NICHOLAS  (1609-1579), 
lord  keeper,  born  in  1509,  probably  in  a  house 
belonging  to  the  parents  of  Sir  Francis  Wiil- 
singham  at  Chislehurst,  Kent,  was  the  second 
son  of  Robert  Bacon,  of  Drinkstone,  Suffolk, 
sheepreeve  to  the  abbey  of  Bury  St.  Ed- 
munds. His  mother  was  Isabella,  daughter 
of  John  Cage,  of  Pakenham.  A  younger 
brother,  James,  engaged  in  trade  in  London  ; 
was  elected  an  alderman  24  April  1567;  was 
sheriff  in  1568;  died  5  June  1573;  and  A\-as 
buried  in  the  church  of  St.  Dunstan's  in  the 
East  (Stoav's  iowfZow,  1633,  p.  139 ;  Overall's 
Remeinbrancia,  \^.  21  w.).  There  is  reason  to 
believe  that  Nicholas  was  at  first  educated  at 
the  abbey  school  of  Bury.  In  1523  he  pro- 
ceeded to  Corpus  Christi  College,  Cambridge, 
where  he  obtained  a  bible-clerkship,  and  gi-a- 
duated  B.A.  in  1527.  At  the  university  he 
made  friends  Avith  two  felloAv-students,  Wil- 
liam Cecil,  afterAvards  Lord  Burghley,  and 
Matthew  Parker,  afterwards  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  with  both  of  whom  he  remained 
on  intimate  terms  in  after  life  (Stetpe,  Life 
of  Parker,  8vo,  i.  9).  Shortly  after  taking 
his  degree  he  made  a  journey  to  France,  and 
stayed  at  Paris.  On  his  return  he  studied 
common  law  at  Gray's  Inn,  being  called  to 
the  bar  in  1533,  and  becoming  an  '  ancient ' 
of  the  society  in  1536.  A  little  later  Arch- 
bishop Cranmer  recommended  Bacon  to  the 
minister  Cromwell  for  the  appointment  of 
town-clerk  of  Calais.  Cranmer  describes 
the  young  man  as  being  of  such  toward- 
ness  in  the  law,  and  of  so  good  judgment 
touching  Christ's  religion,  that  in  that  stead 
he  should  be  able  to  do  God  and  the  king 
right  acceptable  service  (Cranmer,  WorJis, 
Parker  Soc,  ii.  384).  But  the  recommenda- 
tion does  not  seem  to  haA'e  had  any  effect. 
In  1537  he  was  nominated  solicitor  of  the 
Court  of  Augmentations,  at  an  anniial  salary 
of  about  70/.  In  1540  he  Avas  one  of  the 
commissioners  appointed  to  arrange  for  tlie 
dissolution  of  the  chapter  of  the  collegiate 
church  of  Southwell.  At  the  time  he  was 
described  as  the  solicitor  of  Cambridge  uni- 
A'ersity. 

Bacon  was  desirous  that  the  confiscated 
revenues  of  the  dissoU'ed  monasteries  should 
be  applied  to  useful  pui"poses,  and  with  tAA'o 
friends,  Thomas  Denton  and  Robert  Cary, 
drafted  a  scheme  for  their  employment  in 
the  establishment  of  a  college  for  the  edu- 
cation of  statesmen.  It  Avas  proposed  to 
erect  a  house  in  London  where  young  men 
of  good  family  and  attainments  should  be 


Bacon 


367 


Bacon 


taufrlit  civil  law,  Latin,  and  French.     Some 
of  the  students  Avere  to  be  attached  to  foreif^ 
embassies,  and  others  were  to  compile  his- 
tories of  official  transactions.     But  the  pro- 
posal met  with  little  favour,  and  the  monastic 
estates  were  distributed   among  the  king's 
friends.     Bacon  himself  secured  a  share  of 
the  spoils.    Lands  in  Hertfordshire,  Norfolk, 
Wilts,   and    Hampshire,   belonging  to   the 
monasteries  of  St.  Albans,  Walsingham,  arid 
Thetford,  and  to  the  imfortunate  Countess  of 
Salisbury,  who  had  been  executed  in  1541, 
were  bestowed  upcm  him  in  1543  and  1544. 
Redgi-ave  Park,  Suffolk,  one  of  these  estates,  \ 
he   exchanged  in  the   latter  year  with  the 
king  for  the  manors  and  woods  of  Great 
Holland,  Essex,  and  of  lledgrave,  Botesdale, 
and  Gillingham,  Suftblk,  all  of  which  hall 
been  the  property  of  the  abbey  of  Bury  St. 
Edmunds.     Other  lands  in  Suffolk,  Bedford- 
shire, and  London  and  Westminster  fell  \o 
him  towards  the  end  of  the  same  year  (1544)  j 
and  in  May  1545.    In  December  1544  he  ob-  j 
tained  a  thirty  years'  lease  of  the  rectory  of 
Burwell  St.  Mary,  Cambridgeshire.    In  154G^ 
he  was  made  attorney  of  the  court  of  wards 
and  liveries,  an  office  in  which  he  was  con-  1 
tinued  by  Edward  VI  in  the  following  year. 
In  February  1547-8  he  was  one  of  the  com- 
missioners to  survey  the  suppressed  colleges  j 
in  Norfolk  and  Suffolk.     In  1550  he  became  i 
a  bencher  of  Gray's  Inn ;    and  in  the  same  i 
year  he  was  granted  by  the  king  a  pension  I 
of  5/.  as  a '  studeant  at  the  lawe '  (  Trevelyan  1 
Papers,   Camden   Soc,  passim).     He   pur-  ^ 
chased  the  famous  estate  of  Gorhambiiry,  ' 
near  St.  Albans,  in  1550.     On  24  Oct.  1552 
he  was  chosen  treasurer  of  his  inn,  and  a  few 
months  later  he  obtained  from  Edward  VI 
a  charter  of  incorporation  for  the  town  of 
St.   Albans,   of  which   he   was   afterwards 
nominated    high    steward   (Newcojie's   St. 
Albans,  p.  481). 

Under  INIary,  Bacon  retained  his  office  in 
the  court  of  wards,  and,  in  spite  of  his  pro- 
testantism, escaped  persecution.  The  only 
restriction  placed  upon  Bacon  by  the  queen's 
advisers  was  a  prohibition  against  his  leav- 
ing England :  it  was  feared  that  he  might 
enter  into  dangerous  relat  ions  with  protestant 
exiles.  He  was  at  the  time  in  continual 
intercourse  with  his  old  friend  Sir  William 
Cecil,  afterwards  Lord  Burghley,  who  had 
man-ied  a  sister  of  Bacon's  second  wife, 
and  in  1557  the  friends  interchanged  visits 
at  their  countiy  houses  at  Redgrave  and 
Burghley  respectively. 

The  accession  of  Elizabeth  brought  Bacon 
into  active  political  life.  Cecil  was  at  once 
created  secretary  of  state,  and  Bacon,  pos- 
sibly through  Cecil's  influence,  received  at 


Somerset  House  on  22  Dec.  1558  the  ])ost  of 
lord  keej)er  of  the  great  seal  (in  the  place  of 
lord  cluincellor  Heath).  .  He  was  afterwards 
admitted  to  the  privy  council  and  knighted. 
One  of  the  first  duties  of  his  new  office  wa.s 
to  communicate  to  his  friend  Parker  the 
news  of  his  appointment — chiefly  at  his  own 
recommendation — to  the  archbishopric  of 
Canterbury,  and  the  queen  was  content  for 
many  years  following  to  leave  '  the  ordering 
of  churcli  matters  for  the  most  part '  in  the 
hands  of  Bacon  and  Cecil.  The  reformed 
religion  largely  benefited  by  this  arrange- 
ment. On  25  Jan.  1558-9,  Elizabeth  opened 
her  first  ])arliament.  Bacon,  who  by  virtue 
of  his  office  presided  in  the  House  of  Lords, 
explained  in  her  presence  to  the  two  house-i 
the  causes  of  their  assembling,  and  procured 
an  act  for  the  recognition  of  the  queen's 
title  (D'EwEs's  Jourmils,  ii.).  On  31  March, 
Bacon,  with  Heath,  archbishop  of  York,  pre- 
sided over  a  public  disputation  at  West- 
minster between  champions  of  protestantism 
and  Catholicism.  The  meeting  continued 
till  3  April,  when  Sir  Nicholas  was  com- 
pelled to  dissolve  the  assembly  by  the  re- 
fusal of  the  catholics  to  begin  the  discus- 
sion. At  first  the  lord  keeper  sought  to 
conciliate  the  disputants  by  '  words  of  amity 
and  office,'  but  he  was  ultimately  roused  to 
anger  by  the  obstinacy  of  the  catholics,  and 
*  at  his  departure  said,  "  Seeing  you  are  not 
willing  that  we  should  heare  you,  it  is  likely 
that  shortly  you  shall  heare  of  us " '  (Hay- 
waeb's  Annals  (Camden  Soc),  pp.  22-3). 
Two  of  the  disputants.  White,  bishop  of 
Winchester,  and  Watson,  bishop  of  Lincoln, 
were  sent  to  prison,  and  the  rest  had  to 
enter  into  their  recognisances  to  remain  in 
London,  and  to  appear  again  when  sum- 
moned. On  14  April  1559  letters  patent 
were  issued  authorising  Bacon,  as  keeper  of 
the  great  seal,  to  hear  causes  in  chancery, 
and  to  exercise  the  full  jurisdiction  of  lord 
chancellor  {Er/erton  Papers  (Camd,  Soc), 
p.  29). 

Before  1559  closed,  Bacon  had  shown  him- 
self a  statesman  of  no  ordinary  ability.  Cecil 
was  anxious  that  the  queen  should  aid  tlie 
Scotch  protestants,  avIio  were  in  rebellion 
against  their  catholic  sovereign,  Mary  Stuart, 
and  her  French  friends.  Tlie  failure  of  this 
Avarlike  proposal  was  mainly  due  to  Bacon's 
opposition.  On  15  Dec.  1559,  while  address- 
ing the  House  of  Lords  on  the  subject,  he  for- 
cibly described  the  impoverished  condition  of 
the  country,  the  doubtful  wisdom  of  a  policy 
which  should  aid  subjects  to  oppose  their 
sovereign,  and  the  criminality  of  breaking  the 
public  peace,  especially  Avith  so  jwwerful  an 
enemy  as  France,  without  adequate  provoca- 


Bacon 


368 


Bacon 


tion.  He  acknowledged  the  danger  to  Eng- 
land of  the  establishment  of  a  strong  French 
catholic  power  in  Scotland,  but  urged  delay, 
at  any  rate  until  it  was  clearly  seen  how 
likely  it  was  that  this  danger  would  be 
realised  {Harl.  MS.  398,  p.  8).  But  Bacon 
was  not  desirous  that  England  should  apjjear 
to  temporise  with  Catholicism,  or  should  re- 
main a  passive  spectator  of  catholic  hostili- 
ties in  Europe  whenever  action  had  good 
chances  of  success.  In  1501  he  strongly  urged 
an  English  alliance  with  the  King  of  Navarre 
and  the  French  Calvinists,  and  in  1562  he 
opposed  in  a  forcible  speech  delivered  before 
the  privy  council  in  the  queen's  presence  the 
suggestion  that  she  and  Mary  Stuart  should 
meet  in  England  to  discuss  the  questions  at 
issue  in  Scotland,  although  he  was  well 
aware  of  Elizabeth's  desire  for  the  interview 
(Harl  MS.  398,  p.  17).  At  the  opening  of 
the  parliament  of  1563,  the  lord  keeper  made 
another  lucid  speech  describing  the  internal 
disorders  of  the  country,  the  laxity  of  reli- 
gious observances,  and  the  dangers  to  be 
apprehended  from  the  fanatical  Guises  in 
Scotland  and  France.  In  1566  Bacon  had  to 
read  to  the  queen  at  Westminster  an  address 
framed  by  a  joint  committee  of  the  two 
houses  of  parliament  entreating  her  to  marry, 
or,  in  case  of  her  refusal  to  accede  to  that 
request,  to  make  arrangements  for  the  suc- 
cession. When  the  parliament  of  1567  sent 
a  deputation  to  address  her  again  on  the  sub- 
ject, and  the  speakers  added  menacing  words 
as  to  the  queen's  practice  of  taking  '  money 
or  other  things  ...  at  her  own  pleasure,' 
Bacon  was  ordered  by  the  queen  to  express 
her  displeasure,  and  to  summarily  declare 
parliament  dissolved.  He  obeyed  the  com- 
mand, but  Elizabeth  supplemented  his  speech 
with  one  of  her  own. 

Bacon  was  never  anxious  to  pose  as  the 
mere  spokesman  of  Elizabeth.  In  1564  he  fell 
under  her  displeasure  on  suspicion  of  having 
prompted  the  publication  of  a  work  entitled 
'  A  Declaration  of  the  Succession  of  the 
Crowne  Imperiall  of  Ingland.'  The  pamphlet 
Avas  attributed  to  John  Hales,  clerk  of  the 
hanaper,  and  in  it  the  claims  of  the  Stuart 
line  were  passed  over  in  favour  of  those  of 
Lady  Catherine  Grey,  granddaughter  of  Mary, 
Henry  "Skill's  younger  sister,  and  Charles 
Brandon,  duke  of  Suffolk.  Lady  Catherine 
was  out  of  favour  with  Elizabeth,  and  the 
queen,  listening  to  the  suggestions  of  Dudley, 
who  had  no  liking  for  the  lord  keeper,  hur- 
riedly assumed  that  Bacon  was  compromised 
in  the  matter.  She  therefore  ordered  him 
'from  the  court,  and  from  intermeddling 
with  any  other  thing  but  Chancery,'  and 
threatened  to  dismiss  him  from  her  service 


(Strype,  Annals,  8vo,  i.  ii.  121 ;  cf.  Wood's 
Athence,  ed.  Bliss,  i.  405).  Elizabeth  was 
right  in  ascribing  to  Bacon  an  increasing 
distrust  of  Mary  Stuart,  but  she  was  Avrong 
in  identifying  his  views  on  the  succession 
with  those  of  the  author  of  the  *  Declaration,' 
and  he  was  ultimately  restored  to  favour. 
Bacon  afterwards  drew  up  an  answer  to 
another  vindication  of  the  rights  of  the  house 
of  Suffolk  from  the  pen  of  Sir  Anthony 
Browne  [q.v.],  and  there  he  distinctly  se- 
conded the  claims  of  the  house  of  Stuart, 
'  exclusive  of  Mary  Queen  of  Scots,  wlio  had 
forfeited  her  rights.'  Browne's  argument 
and  Bacon's  refutation  were  published  to- 
gether in  1723  under  the  title  of  'The  Right 
of  Succession  to  the  Crown  of  England  in  the 
Family  of  the  Stuarts  exclusive  of  Mary- 
Queen  of  Scots,  learnedly  asserted  by  Sir 
Nicholas  Bacon,  Lord  Keeper  of  the  Great 
Seal,  against  Sir  Anthony  Brown,  Lord  Chief 
Justice  of  the  Common  Pleas.  Faithfully 
published  from  the  original  MS.  by  Na- 
thaniel Booth,  Esq.,  of  Gray's  Inn.' 

In  all  the  discussions  in  the  English  council 
and  parliament  as  to  Mary  Stuart,  both  before 
and  after  her  imprisonment  in  England  in 
1568,  he  took  up  a  very  independent  attitude. 
He  became  honestly  convinced  that  whatever 
influence  she  could  command  would  be  used 
to  the  injury  of  protestantism  in  England, 
and  advocated  stringent  measures  against 
her.  But  he  was  credited  with  sufficient  im- 
partiality as  a  judge  to  admit  of  his  appoint- 
ment to  the  presidency  of  two  conferences 
held  in  London  in  1568  and  1570  respectively 
to  consider  the  fortunes  of  Mary  Stuart  and 
the  English  relations  with  Scotland,  and  in 
that  capacity  he  is  reported  to  have  acted 
with  dignity  and  propriety.  In  1569  hfr 
showed  himself  averse  to  the  proposal  to 
marry  her  to  the  Duke  of  Norfolk,  and 
when  in  1570  Elizabeth  seemed  to  incline  to 
her  restoration,  he  spoke  so  directly  against 
the  plan — implying  in  the  course  of  his 
speech  that  her  execution  might  possibly  be 
necessary  in  the  interests  of  protestantism — • 
as  to  call  forth  the  rebuke  from  the  queen's 
lips  that  '  his  counsels  were  like  himself, 
rash  and  dangerous.'  On  13  Aug.  1570, 
Bacon  in  a  letter  to  Cecil  pointed  out  the 
risks  to  which  Elizabeth  exposed  herself  by 
allowing  a  momentary  cessation  of  hostilities 
between  foreign  protestants  and  catholics  to 
lead  her  to  adopt  a  conciliatory  policy  to- 
wards Mary  Stuart  and  her  friends.  Early 
in  the  next  year  he  declared  that, '  if,'  as  was 
still  contemplated,  '  the  Queen  of  Scots  was 
restored,  in  three  months  she  would  kindle  a 
fire  which  would  wrap  the  island  in  flames^ 
and  which  the  power  of  man  would  fail  to 


Bacon 


369 


Bacon 


extinguish.'  In  Bacon's  speech  at  the  open- 
ing of  the  parliament  of  1571,  he  confined 
himself  to  a  vigorously  worded  appeal  for 
literal  grants  01  money  to  put  the  country 
in  an  etficient  state  of  defence  against  its 
numerous  enemies. 

A  ditHculty  has  been  raised  as  to  Bacon's 
views  on  the  queen's  marriage  during  the 
last  years  of  his  life.  An  elaborately  argu- 
mentative paper  printed  among  the  *  Egerton 
Tapers'  (pp.  50-7),  under  date  1570,  and 
doubtfully  attributed  to  the  lord  keeper,  dis- 
cusses fully 'the  discommodities'  and  'the 
commodities  that  might  ensue  from '  Eliza- 
beth's proposed  marriage  with  the  Duke  of 
Anjou ;  and  although  the  religious  conse- 
quences of  the  match  are  not  dwelt  on,  as 
Sir  Walter  ^lildmay,  to  whom  it  was  ad- 
dressed, rightly  remarked,  its  general  conclu- 
sion is  in  favour  of  the  French  alliance.  Mr. 
J'roude  (x.  488-9),  quoting  a  Spanish  des- 
patch, asserts  that  after  Bacon's  death  a 
letter  was  found  in  his  desk  written  in  1577, 
in  which  a  French  man*iage  was  denounced 
as  having  for  its  object  the  death  of  the  queen 
and  the  liberation  of  Mary  Stuart.  This 
opinion  is  certainly  more  in  accordance  with 
the  tenor  of  Bacon's  general  policy  than  the 
former.  But  Sir  Nicholas  was  well  able  to 
look  at  a  question  judicially ;  and  the  first 
paper,  if  we  admit  him  to  have  been  the 
author  of  it,  may  be  regarded  as  a  tentative 
examination  of  the  subject  in  all  its  bear- 
ings, and  no  final  exjn-ession  of  opinion. 
It  was  clearly  not  intended  for  publication. 
In  1572  Bacon,  confirmed  in  his  habitual 
distrust  of  the  French  catholics  by  the  St. 
Bartholomew  massacre,  supported  a  bill  for 
the  ex])ulsion  of  all  French  denizens  from 
this  country.  Such  conduct  as  this  made 
Bacon  the  butt  of  all  catholic  libellers  con- 
cealed in  England  or  living  openly  abroad. 
In  157.-}  a  royal  proclamation  against  the 
]»ublication  of  catholic  libels  was  issued, 
in  which  the  services  of  Bacon  to  the  state 
and  to  religion  were  highly  commended. 

Meanwhile  Bacon  was  endeavouring  to 
strengthen  the  position  of  the  church  in 
England.  In  the  parliament  of  1570  he  had 
suggested  sensible  means  for  the  better  ob- 
servance of  doctrine  and  discipline  in  the 
church.  On  the  latter  question  he  always 
oftered  judicious  counsel,  and  the  only  re- 
corded (juarrel  which  he  had  with  his  friend 
Parker  concerned  the  archbishop's  occasional 
laxity  in  this  matter.  Parker  at  the  time 
charged  Bacon  with  being  'a  passionate 
man,'  but  the  friends  were  reconciled  before 
Parker's  death  in  1575,  when  he  aftectionately 
remembered  Bacon  in  his  will. 

Sir  Nicholas  died  in  London  at  his  resi- 

VOL.  II. 


dence,  York  House  by  Charing  Cross,  on 
20  Feb.  1578-9, '  about  eight  in  the  morning ' 
{Hist.  MSS.  Com.  Hep.  iv.  336).  According 
to  an  old  story,  re])orted  by  Dr.  llawley, 
Francis  Bacon's  biographer,  he  owed  his  fatal 
illness  to  the  carelessness  of  his  barber,  who 
allowed  him  to  fall  asleep  Avith  a  draught 
blowing  full  upon  him  (F.  Bacon's  Works, 
ed.  S])edding,  vii.  183).  Bacon  had  arranged 
in  1574  for  his  burial  in  St.  Paul's  Cathe- 
dral, and  there  is  a  letter,  dated  4  Aug.  1574, 
among  the  manuscripts  belonging  to  the 
chapter  (from  Alexander  Nowell,  dean  of 
St.  Paul's)  directing  that  the  lord  keeper's 
workmen  should  have  access  '  at  all  tymes 
convenient  into  the  south  syde  of  the  queai-e 
at  Powles  ...  to  make  roome  for  his  lord- 
ships toombe  thereto  be  sett  upp'  (?'6.  ix.71). 
In  tills  tomb  Sir  Nicholas  was  buried  on 
9  March,  and  upon  it  was  engraved  a  very 
laudatory  epitaph  (see  Weevjik's  Funerall 
Monuments,  812).  *  The  whole  charges  of 
the  funeralles'  reached  the  large  sum  of 
919/.  Vis.  \d.  (Black's  Ashmol.  MSS.  Cat. 
No.  836,  ff".  21,  23-36,  73-4). 

Sir  Nicholas  began  his  famous  house  at 
Gorhambury  in  1563.  It  was  completed  in 
1568,  and  in  these  five  years  he  spent  upon 
it,  exclusive  of  the  timber  and  stone  which 
came  from  his  estates,  1,894/.  lis.  9^^.  {Bacon 
MSS.  in  Lambeth  Library,  047,  if.  5  and  9). 
Over  the  entrance  were  inscribed  the  verses  : 

Hsec  cum  perfecit  Nicholaiis  tecta  Baconus, 
Elizabeth  regni  lustra  fuere  duo  ; 

Factus  eques,  magni  custos  fuit  ipse  sigiili. 
Gloria  sit  soli  tota  tributa  Deo. 
Beneath  the  lines  was  Bacon's  motto, '  Medio- 
cria  firma.'  On  the  walls  of  the  chief  ban- 
queting I'oom  were  Latin  verses  by  Bacon  on 
grammar,  arithmetic,  logic,  music,  rhetoric, 
geometry,  and  astrology  (Weever's  Fun. 
Mon.  584).  He  added  a  gallery  to  the  house 
before  1576  in  honour  of  an  approacliing  visit 
of  the  queen.  Elizabeth  fre(][uently  stayed 
at  Gorhambury,  and  before  its  erection  she 
had  visited  Bacon  at  lledgrave.  She  was  at 
Gorhambury  in  1572  and  in  1573,  and  pre- 
sented to  the  lord  keeper  a  portrait  of  herself, 
painted  by  Hilliard,  on  her  first  visit.  In 
May  1577  she  stayed  there  for  six  days  and 
received  a  very  sumptuous  entertainment,  on 
which  Bacon  spent  600/.  On  that  occasion 
Sir  Nicholas  caused  the  door  by  which  the 
queen  had  entered  to  be  nailed  up,  so  that  no 
one  might  ever  pass  over  the  same  threshold. 
In  London  Bacon  lived  before  he  held  office 
in  Noble  Street,  Foster  Lane,  in  a  house  built 
by  himself.  After  1558,  York  House,  near 
Charing  Cross,  became  his  official  residence. 

Sir  Nicholas  enjoyed  a  wide  popularity  in 
his  lifetime,  and  his  death  was  celebrated  in 

B  B 


Bacon 


370 


Bacon 


many  poetical  effusions.  George  Whetstone 
was  the  author  of  a  long  poem  entitled  *  A 
Remembrance  of  the  woorthie  and  well  im- 
ployed  life  of  the  Right  Honourable  Sir 
Nicholas  Bacon,  Knight  .  .  .  who  deceased 
the  20th  daye  of  Februarie  1578  [-9].'  This 
interesting  encomium  was  reprinted  in  1816 
in  the  'Frondes  Caducse.'  Another  pane- 
gyric in  verse,  by  L.  Ramsey,  was  called  '  A 
short  discourse  of  Plan's  fatall  end,  with  an 
unfaigned  commendation  of  the  worthiness 
of  Sir  Nicholas  Bacon.'  It  was  printed  as  a 
broadside  in  1578,  and  was  republished  in 
I'arr's  *  Select  Poetry '  (Parker  Society)  in 
1845. 

Bacon's  political  opinions  bore  the  stamp 
of  honest  conviction,  and  he  could  express 
them  Avith  a  fluency  and  directness  which 
nearly  made  him  a  great  orator.   Puttenham 
in   his   '  Arte  of  Poesie,'  1589  (ed.  Arber, 
p.  152),  praises  '  his  grave  and  naturall  elo- 
quence,' and  asserts  that  '  in  deede  he  was  a 
most  eloquent  man '  (ibid.).   Nash  in  *  Pierce 
Pennilesse,'  1592  (ed.  J.  P.  Collier,  p.  46), 
writes :  *  What  age  will  not  prayse  immortal 
Sir  Philip  Sidney   .  .  .   together  with   Sir 
Nicholas  Bacon,  lord  keeper,  and  meiTV  Sir 
Thomas  More,  for  the  chiefe  pillars  of  our  i 
English  speech  ? '      His  '  rare  learning  and 
wisedome  '  were  also  generally  commended. 
'  I  have  come  to  the  lord  keeper,  Sir  Nicholas 
Jiacon,'   says  Puttenham,  'and   found   him 
sitting  in  his  gallery  alone  with  the  works 
of  Quintillian  before  him.'    Naunton  calls 
him  '  an  archpiece  of  wit  and  wisdom '  {Frag- 
menta  Regalia,  ed.  Arber,  p.  38),  and  Parker 
attests  his  readiness  to  aid  him  in  his  anti- 
quarian pursuits  (Strtpe's  Parker,  i.  522-3). 
His  interest  in  education  was  far  in  advance 
of  his  age.     We  have  seen  that  the  subject 
interested  him  at  the  time  of  the  dissolution 
of  the  monasteries.    Later  in  life — in  1561  — 
he  sent  to  Sir  William  Cecil  an  admirable 
memorandum  on  the  desirability  of  refoniiing 
the  court  of  wards,  and  of  reorganising  the 
education  of  tlie  minors  under  its  control. 
There  he  sketched  out  a  very  wise  system  for 
the  training  of  young  men  and  women,  not 
only  in  literature  and  the  arts,  but  in  morals 
and   atliletic    exercises    (J.  P.  Colliek   in 
Archceologia,'K.xx.\'\.  339).  In  the  same  year  he 
founded  a  free  grammar  school  at  Redgi*ave. 
Just  before  his  death  he  gave  200^.  towards 
the  erection  of  a  chapel  for  his  old  college 
of  Corpus  Christi,  and  by  his  will  created 
six  scholarships  to  enable  poor  scholars  from 
his  school  at  Redgrave  to  study  at  Cam- 
bridge.    He  made  frequent  contributions  of 
books  to  the  university  library. 

His  knowledge   of  law  Avas  remai-kably 
full  and  sound.     The  rights  of  the  court  of 


Chancery  he  justly  upheld  in  his  little  ])am- 
phlet  called  '  Arguments  exhibited  in  Par- 
liament whereby  it  is  proved  that  the  Per- 
sons of  Noblemen  Avere  attachable  by  Law  for 
Contempts  in  the  High  Court  of  Chancery,' 
which  was  printed  from  his  manuscript  in 
1641.  He  was  anxious  to  simplify  the  ar- 
rangement of  the  statutes,  and  to  print  them 
so  as  to  make  them  generally  accessible 
{Harl.  MS.  249,  p.  117  A).  The  cursitor's 
ofiice  in  Chancery  Lane  was  erected  by  him. 
The  advantage  he  derived  from  his  legal 
training  in  his  general  administrative  work  is 
well  indicated  in  an  extant  paper  on  the  royal 
revenue  addressed  to  Sir  Walter  Mildmay, 
the  chancellor  of  the  exchequer,  about  1564. 
His  patience,  courtesy,  and  straightforward- 
ness on  the  bench  made  him  popular  with 
suitors  (cf.  Campbell,  Chancellors,  ii.  213). 
As  to  his  general  character,  Hayward,  a  con- 
temporary, describes  him  as  '  a  man  of  greate 
diligence  and  ability  in  his  place,  whose  good- 
nesse  preserved  his  greatnesse  from  suspicion, 
envye,  and  hate '  (Annals  (Camden  Soc),  p. 
13 ;  cf.  Camden's  Annales,  sub  1579).  Lloyd 
in  his  'State  Worthies'  (p.  471),  attributes 
to  him  the  maxim,  '  Let  us  stay  a  little 
that  we  may  have  done  the  sooner,'  and 
thus  sums  up  his  administrative  capacity: 
'  His  account  of  England  and  all  affaires  was 
punctual;  his  use  of  learned  artists  con- 
tinual ;  his  correspondence  Avith  his  fellow- 
statesmen  exact :  his  apprehension  of  our  laAvs 
and  government  clear ;  his  model  of  both 
methodical;  his  faithfulness  to  the  church 
eminent;  his  industrious  invention  for  the 
state  indefatigable.'  But  his  cheery  humour 
was  doubtless  his  most  attractive  charac- 
teristic. His  good-natured  repartees  Avere  far 
famed,  although  most  of  their  wit  has  now 
evaporated.  Many  of  them  are  preserved  in 
Francis  Bacon's  collections  of '  Apophthegms.' 
On  one  occasion  when  the  queen  visited  him 
at  Gorhambuiy,  she  remarked,  'My lord,  what 
a  little  house  you  have  gotten ! '  and  I3acon 
replied,  '  Madam,  my  house  is  well,  but  it  is 
you  AA'lio  have  made  me  too  great  for  my 
house '  (Bacon's  Apophthegins,  in  Spedding's 
edition  of  the  Works,  vii.  144).  He  conscien- 
tiously avoided  the  danger  of  jesting  at  his 
friends'  expense.  '  He  had  a  Aery  quaint 
saying,  and  he  used  it  often  to  good  purpose 
— that  he  loA'ed  the  jest  Avell,  but  not  the 
losse  of  his  friend '  (I'f attnton,  p.  38). 

In  person  Bacon  Avas  (in  Camden's  phrase) 
*  exceeding  gToss-bodied.'  As  Elizabeth  said 
of  him,  '  his  soul  lodged  well '  (NAtrNTOif ,  p. 
38).  The  uuAvieldiness  of  his  body  is  fre- 
quently the  subject  of  amusing  comment  in 
his  OAvn  letters.  A  portrait  of  Sir  Nicholas 
by  Zucchero  has  been  often  engraved,  and  a 


Bacon 


371 


Bacon 


coloured  terra  cotta  bust  besides  two  portraits 
are  at  the  modern  Gorhambury  house. 

Bacon  was  twice  married,  first  to  Jane, 
daughter  of  William  Fernley  of  West  Creting, 
iSuttblk,  by  whom  he  had  three  sons,  Nicholas, 
Nathaniel,  and  Edward,  and  three  daughters, 
Anne,  Jane,  and  Elizabeth.  His  second  wife 
was  Ann  [q.v.],  daughter  of  Sir  Anthony 
Cooke,  by  whom  he  had  two  sons,  Anthony 
[q.v.]  and  the  illustrious  Francis  [q.v.l. 

Of  the  lord  keeper's  first  family,  Nicho- 
las, usually  described  as  of  Redgrave,  Suf- 
folk, became  an  '  ancient '  of  Gray's  Inn  on 

21  Nov.  1576,  having  been  admitted  a  student 
on  15  Dec.  1562  ;  was  knighted  by  Elizabeth 
at  Norwich  on  22  Aug.  1578 ;  was  high 
sheriff  of  Suffolk  in  1581 ;  was  M.P.  for  the 
same  county  from  1572  to  1583 ;  was  created 
the  premier  baronet  of  England  by  James  I  on 

22  May  1611,  died  22  Nov.  1624,  and  was 
buried  at  Redgrave.  Seven  sons  survived 
him,  and  he  was  succeeded  in  the  baronetcy 
by  Edmund,  the  eldest  of  them,  a  friend  and 
•con-espondent  of  Sir  Henry  Wotton,  whose 
niece,  Philippa,  he  married.  His  will  is 
printed  in  '  Bury  Wills  \Camden  Soc.\>.  211). 
On  Sir  Edmund's  death  without  issue,  in  1649, 
his  brother  Robert  became  third  baronet.  A 
third  brother,  Butts,  of  Mildenhall,  Suffolk, 
■was  himself  created  a  baronet  in  1627. 
Nicholas  of  Gillingham,  son  of  the  lord 
keeper's  fourth  son  Nicholas,  Avas  also  created 
a  baronet  in  1616,  but  this  baronetcy  became 
extinct  in  1685.  In  1755  Richard,  eighth 
baronet  of  ^Mildenhall,  became  seventh  baro- 
net of  RedgTave,  and  thus  united  the  honours 
•of  both  branches  of  the  family  {Bury  Wills, 
p.  266).  The  title  is  still  held  by  lineal 
descendants  of  the  lord  keeper. 

Nathaniel,  the  lord  keeper's  second  son, 
•  usually  described  as  of  Stiffkey,  Norfolk,  was 
admitted  to  Gray's  Inn  on  15  Dec.  1562 ;  be- 
■came  an  '  ancient '  of  the  society  on  21  Nov. 
1576 :  was  M.P.  for  Tavistock  in  1571  and 
1572,' for  Norfolk  in  1584  and  1593,  and  for 
Lynn  in  1597 ;  was  sheriff  of  Norfolk  in 
1599;  was  knighted  at  Whitehall  on  21  .Tuly 
1604;  and  died  7  Nov.  1622,  at  the  age  of 
vseventy-five.  There  is  a  monument  to  the 
memory  of  his  two  wives,  erected  by  himself 
in  1615,  in  Stiffkey  Church,  where  he  is  also 
buried.  A  will  drawn  up  by  him  in  1614, 
when  he  believed  himself  to  be  dying,  is 
printed  in  the  *  State  Papers  Calendars.'  He 
left  no  male  issue,  and  his  eldest  daughter, 
Anne,  man-ied  Sir  John  Townshend,  the 
ancestor  of  the  marquises  of  Townshend.  A 
number  of  manuscripts  in  his  handwriting, 
chiefly  dealing  with  his  estates,  are  among 
the  Townshend  papers. 

Ed  WARD,  t  he  lord  keeper's  t  liird  son,  usually 


described  as  of  Shrubland  Hall,  Suffolk,  be- 

I  came  '  ancient '  of  Grav's  Inn  on  21  Nov. 

1  1576 ;  was  M.P.  for  Yarmouth  (1576-83), 
for  Tavistock  (1584),  for  Wevmouth  (1586), 

\  for  Suffolk  (1592-3)  ;  was  sheriff  of  Suffolk 

I  in  1601;  was  knighted  on  11  May  1603; 

'  died  8  Sept.  1618,  and  was  buried  at  Banham. 
[Cooper's  Athenae  Cantab,  i.  389-96 ;  Biog.  Brit. ; 

I  Cal.  State  Papers,  1547-80  ;  Fronde's  History ; 
Cantiana  Arcliseologia,  xiii.  391 ;  Masters's  Hist. 

I  Corpus  Christi  Coll.  ed.  Lamb;  Htrype's  Annals 
and  Life  of  Parker  ;  Foss's  Judges  of  P^ngland,  v. 

!  447  ;  Foster's  Register  of  Admissions  to  Gray's 
Inn ;  Burke's  Peerage  and  Baronetage.   Mr.  J.  P. 

:  Collier,  in  Archseologia,  xxxvi.  339  et  seq.,  de- 

I  scribed  a  number  of  manuscript  speeches  and 
memoranda  by  Sir  Jsicbolas  in  his  possession. 
Other  manuscripts  of  speeches  and  letters  are  to 
be  found  among  the  Harleian,  Lansdowne,  and 

,  Cottonian  MS8.  at  tlie  British  Museum,  in  the 
Cambridge  University  Library,  and  among  the 
papers  at  Hatfield.  Sir  Nicholas's  name  appears 
frequently  in  the  archives  of  Ipswich,  where  the 
burgesses  often  entertained  him  (cf.  Hist.  MS8. 
Com.  Rep.  ix.  2.50-1).  A  hidicrous  attempt  to 
identify  Bacon  with  the  original  of  two  of 
Shakespeare's  characters — Hamlet's  uncle  Clau- 
dius and  Sir  John  Falstaff — was  made  in  Notes 
and  Queries,  3rd  ser.  iii.  83,  105.  Other  re- 
ferences are  given  in  the  text.]  S.  L.  L. 

BACON,  PHANUEL   (1700-1783),  di- 
vine and  dramatist,  the  sonoi  Phanuel  Bacon, 
felloAV  of  St.  John's  College,  Oxford,  vicar 
'  of  St.  Lawrence's,  Reading,  and  author  of 
'  A  Pastor's  Admonition  to  his  Parishioners ' 
I  (Reading,  1727-8),  was  born  on  13  Oct.  1700, 
at  Reading,  was  a  demy  of  IMagdalen  College, 
Oxford,  and  proceeded  B.A.  12  June  1719, 
M.A.  17  April  1722,  B.D.  29  April  1731,  and 
D.D.  9  Dec.  1735.    He  became  vicar  of  Bram- 
ber,  in  Sussex,  and  rectot  of  Balden,  in  Oxford- 
shire, at  Avhicli  place  he  died  10  Jan.  1783. 
His  literary  efforts  Avon  for  him  a  reputation 
which,  small  as  it  is,  is  now  difficult  to  under- 
stand.    The  'Kite,"  a  poem,  first  published  in 
1719,  appears  in  the  *  Gentleman's  Magazine ' 
for  1756,  not  in  1758,  as  Watt,  in  the  '  Biblio- 
theca  Britannica,'  states,  and  all  subsequent 
writers  repeat.     It  is  an  ingenious  mock-he- 
roical  poem,  in  the  style  of  the  '  Rape  of 
the  Lock.'      A  humorous  ballad,  called  the 
''Snipe,'  is  printed  in  the  '  Oxford  Sausage.' 
In  this,  which  is  said  to  be  founded  on  fact, 
the  author  depicts  himself  in  the  character  of 
the  friar,  and  his  fellow-collegian,  Peter  Zin- 
zan,  M.D.,  in  that  of  Peter.     A  'Song  of 
Similes,'  also  by  him,  is  foimd  in  the  same 
compilation.     His  most  considerable   effort, 
consists  of  five  plays :  1.  '  The  Taxes,'  a  dra- 
matic entertainment  ;  2.  '  The  Insignificants,' 
a  comedy;  3.  '  The  Tryal  of  the  Time-Killers,' 
a  comedy ;  4.  '  Tlie  ]\Ioral  Quack,'  a  dramatic 

bb2 


Bacon 


372 


Bacon 


satire;  5.  'The  Oculist,  a  dramatic  entertain- 
ment. These  all  bear  the  date  of  1757.  They 
were  collected  in  a  Aolume,  entitled  ' Hu- 
mourous Ethics.'  Some  praise  has  been  ac- 
corded these  works.  They  are,  however, 
sufficiently  feeble  productions,  without  a  pre- 
tence to  dramatic  value  or  significance.  In 
the  '  Insignificants '  characters  named  Sir 
Timbelly  Epiciu'e,  Hazard,  Buttei-fly,  Rattle, 
Lady  Racket,  &c.,  bearing  names  indicative 
of  worldly  pursuits,  are  convicted,  on  ac- 
count of  the  triviality  of  their  occupations, 
of  being  dead,  and  are  buried  in  the  Reposi- 
tory of  Insignificants.  In  the  '  Tryal  of  the 
Time-Killers,'  Methusalem  Rust,  Esq.,  Sir 
Barnaby  Bumper,  Seignior  Violoncello,  &c., 
are  tried  for  injuring  Timothy  Time,  watch 
and  clock  maker.  The  other  plays  are  similar 
in  character. 

[Genest'sAccount  of  the  English  Stage;  Baker's 
BiographiaDramatica;  Gent.  Mag. ;  Watt's  Bibl. 
Brit.:  Rawlinson MSS. (Bodleian  Libr.)]  J.  K. 

BACON,  PHILEMON  {d.  1666),  captain 
in  the  royal  navy,  was  made  a  lieutenant  in 
1661,  and  in  1664  was  advanced  to  be  cap- 
tain of  the  Nonsuch.  In  1665  he  commanded 
the  Oxford,  a  ship  of  the  fifth  rate,  in  the 
action  of  3  June  with  the  Dutch  off  Lowes- 
toft ;  the  following  year  he  was  in  the 
Bristol,  and  led  the  van  when  the  English 
and  Dutch  fleets  engaged  off  the  North  Fore- 
land on  1  June.  Of  the  many  brave  men 
who  were  slain  in  that  bloody  and  protracted 
battle,  Captain  Bacon  was  one  of  the  first. 

[Charnock's  Biog.  Nav.  i.  93.]  J.  K.  L. 

;^  BACON,     RICHARD     MACKENZIE 

yi5io(\s  (1775-1844),  journalist,  musician,  and  mis- 
lodcift'  cellaneo us  writer,  was  bom  at  Norwich  in  or 
<^  of  about  1775,  and  laid  the  foundation  of  a 
^  o  classical  education  at  the  free  school  of  his 
native  city.  Turning  his  attention  to  litera- 
tiu-e,  he  became  connected  with  the '  Norwich 
Mercury,'  one  of  the  leading  provincial  organs 
of  liberal  opinion,  in  his  eighteenth  year, 
and  from  1816  until  his  death  was  imremit- 
tingly  engaged  in  editing  that  journal,  of 
which  he  was  principal  proprietor.  In  1813 
he  and  Bryan  Donkin  obtained  a  patent  for 
certain  improvements  in  the  implements  or 
apparatus  employed  in  printing,  whether 
from  types,  from  blocks,  or  from  plates.  In 
the  *  Norwich  Mercury '  of  30  Nov.  1814  is  a 
prospectus  of  Bacon's  printing  machine,  with 
an  account  of  the  progress  it  had  then  made. 
The  invention  is  highly  praised  by  the  author 
of  the  article  '  Printing '  in  Rees's  '  Cyclo- 
paedia' (1819),  who  says:  'A  patent  has  re- 
cently been  obtained  by  Messrs.  Bacon  and 


Donkin  for  a  machine  which  they  publicly 
exhibited  before  the  university  of  Cambridge, 
and  they  are  now  making  one  for  printing 
bibles  and  prayer-books  at  the  uniA^ersity. 
We  have  examined  their  machine  at  work,. 
and  found  it  to  display  so  much  mechanical 
ingenuity,  and  to  produce  such  beautiful 
specimens  of  printing,  with  a  rapidity  un- 
equalled by  any  other  means,  that  we  have 
made  a  drawing  of  it.' 

He  was  also  the  proprietor  and  projector  of 
the  'Quarterly  Musical  Magazine  and  Re- 
view,' which  he  began  to  publish  in  London 
in  1818,  and  continued  to  edit  for  ten  years. 
It  was  principally  owing  to  his  exertions  that 
theNorwichMusical  Festival  was  established. 
Mr.  Chappell  remarks  {Popular  Music  of  the 
Olden  "Time,  142  m.)  that  Bacon's  '  memory 
was  so  stored  with  traditional  songs,  learnt 
in  boyhood,  that,  having  accepted  a  chal- 
lenge at  the  tea-table  to  sing  a  song  upon 
any  subject  a  lady  would  mention,  I  have 
heard  him  sing  verse  after  verse  upon  tea- 
spoons and  other  such  themes,  proposed  as 
the  most  unlikely  for  songs  to  have  been 
written  upon.  He  had  learnt  a  number  of 
sea  songs,  principally  from  one  old  sailor,  and 
some  were  so  descriptive  that  it  was  almost 
thrilling  to  hear  them  sung  by  him.  Seven- 
teen years  ago  these  appeared  to  me  too 
irregular  and  declamatory  to  be  reduced  to 
rhythm ;  but  I  have  since  greatly  regretted  the 
loss  of  an  opportunity  that  can  never  recur.*^ 

Bacon  died  at  Cossev,  near  Norwich, 
27  Nov.  1844. 

His  principal  works  are:  1.  'Life  of  Pitt,'' 
Norsvich,  1806.  2.  '  Pamphlet  relative  to 
the  Regular,  the  Militia,  and  the  A^olunteer 
Forces,  in  reply  to  the  Right  Hon.  William 
Windham,' Ipswich,  1806.  3.  'Independent 
Remarks  on  the  Queen's  Case,'  Norwich, 
1820.  4.  '  Reply  to  Mr.  Cobbett,'  Noi-wich, 
1822.  5.  '  Address  to  the  People  on  Stack- 
burning,'  1822.  6.  '  Elements  of  Vocal 
Science,  being  a  philosophical  inquiry  inta 
some  of  the  principles  of  singing,'  London,. 
1824,  8vo.  7.  'Letter  to  Edward,  Lord 
Suffield,  upon  the  Distress  of  the  Labourers 
and  its  Remedy,'  London  and  Norwich,  1831. 
8.  'Letters  to  the  Viscount  Stormont  and 
Sir  James  Scarlett,  Knt.,'on  the  bribery  and 
corruption  practised  at  the  Noi'wich  election, 
London  and  Norwich,  1831.  9.  'A  Memoir 
of  the  Life  of  Edward,  third  Baron  Suffield,' 
Norwich,  1838,  4to  (privately  printed). 
10.  'A  Musical  Dictionary,'  completed  but 
never  published. 

[Norwich  Mercury.  7  Dec.  1844 ;  Norfolk 
Chronicle,  30  Nov.  1844;  Timperley's  Diet,  of 
Printers,  852,  857 ;  Chappell's  Popular  Music 
of  the  Olden  Time,  141  ;  Eees's  Cyclopaedia,  art. 


Bacon 


373 


Bacon 


'Printing;'  Martin's  Privately  Printed  Books, 
476  ;  Chambers's  Norfolk,  1284;  Gent.  Mag.  N.S. 
xxiii.  109.]  T.  C. 

BACON,  ROBERT  (d.  1248),  first  Do- 
ininican  writer  in  England,  was,  according 
to  some  accounts  the  brother,  according  to 
others  tlie  uncle,  of  his  more  famous  name- 
sake Roger,  witli  whom  he  has  by  our 
earlier  biographers  been  very  commonly  con- 
founded. To  quote  Fuller's  words,  we  may 
in  '  this  Robert  Bacon  behold  the  senior  of 
all  the  Bacons  which,  like  tributary  streams, 
liave  disembogued  themselves  with  all  the 
credit  of  their  actions  into  Roger  Bacon, 
who  in  process  of  time  hath  monopolised  the 
honour  of  all  his  sirname-sakes,'  and  the  chief 
task  of  his  biographer  is  to  assign  to  him 
those  actions  which  seem  to  be  his  due. 
Of  the  date  of  Robert's  birth  we  have  no 
certain  indication,  but  as  he  is  described  as 
already  an  old  man  in  1233,  we  shall  pro- 
bablv  not  be  far  wrong  if  we  assign  it  to  the 
middle  of  Henry  II's  reig-n  (1160-70).  He 
was  educated  at  Oxford,  where  he  was  first  the 
pupil  and  afterwards  the  friend  and  fellow- 
lecturer  of  Edmund  Rich,  of  Avhose  life  he 
afterwards  wrote  at  least  one  account.  Like 
Rich  and  so  many  other  of  his  contemporaries 
he  passed  with  liis  bosom  friend,  Richard 
Fishaker,  to  study  at  Paris,  and  is  said 
always — even  wlien  in  later  life  once  more 
resident  at  Oxford — to  have  kept  up  a  con- 
stant communication  with  the  confraternity 
of  learning  there.  According  to  the  '  Bio- 
graphia  Bintannica,'  in  1233  he  succeeded 
Edmund  Rich  as  treasurer  of  Salisbury 
Cathedral.  But,  be  this  as  it  may,  he  had 
certainly  by  this  time  joined  the  order  of  the 
Dominicans  (which  had  already  been  some 
twelve  years  settled  near  Oxford),  and  was 
lectui'ing  in  the  new  schools  they  had  founded 
in  St.  Edward's  parish.  It  was  in  this  year 
that  the  most  important  of  his  recorded  acts 
took  place. 

Henry  IH  had  sent  a  second  and  a  third 
summons  to  his  baronage  to  meet  him  at 
Oxford,  but  they,  justly  incensed  at  his 
notorious  fondness  for  foreigners  and  sub- 
servience to  his  two  stranger  favourites, 
Peter  des  Roches,  bishop  of  Winchester,  and 
Peter  de  Rivaux,  refused  to  appear.  It  was 
in  this  time  of  waiting  and  suspense  that 
Robert  Bacon,  one  of  the  new  order  of  friar 
preachei's  or  Dominicans  who  had  been 
chosen  to  preach  before  the  king  and  his 
assembled  bishops,  had  the  boldness  to  tell 
Henry  to  his  face  that  he  would  never  enjoy 
lasting  peace  until  he  had  banished  Peter 
<les  Roclies  (Petrum  de  Rupibus)  and  his 
fellows  from  liis  councils.     To  this  advice 


many  of  those  present  assented,  and,  after  u 
while,  the  king  himself  acknowledged  the 
wisdom  of  the  course  recommended  ;  where- 
upon, seeing  the  king  in  so  gracious  a  mood, 
a  certain  clerk  attached  to  the  royal  court, 
called  by  the  old  authorities  Roger  Bacon, 
asked  a  sarcastic  riddle :  '  Lord  king,  what 
is  the  greatest  danger  to  those  who  are  cross- 
ing the  straits?'  Henry  made  answer  in  the 
words  of  Scripture  that  they  could  tell  whose 
businesswasonthegreat deep.  'Nay,mylord,' 
answered  the  clerk, '  I  will  tell  thee — Petrse  et 
Rupes' — a  bitter  allusion  to  Peter  des  Roches. 
It  seems  almost  certain  that  the  Roger  here 
must  be  a  mistake.  Roger  Bacon  cannot  at 
this  time  have  been  old  enough  to  play  such 
a  part,  and  was  then  a  young  student  at 
Oxford  or  elsewhere.  ^Moreover,  as  there 
is  clear  evidence  that  the  first  half  of 
this  story  (which  on  the  best  mauuscri])t 
authority  belongs  to  Robert)  has  been  attri- 
buted to  Roger  Bacon  by  later  mediaeval 
writers,  we  can  hardly  be  wrong  if  we  bear 
Fuller's  words  in  mind,  and  with  him  read 
Robert  in  the  second  instance  as  well  as  in 
the  first. 

Robert  Bacon,  then,  was  a  Dominican  friar 
in  1233,  and  to  this  fact  we  may  add  that 
although  an  old  man  upon  entering  that 
order  he  did  not  desist  from  his  public  lec- 
tures. His  friend  Richard  Fishaker  was 
associated  with  him  in  this  work — a  pair  of 
friends  so  devoted  to  one  another  that  Leland 
says  writers  of  that  age  never  disassociated 
their  names,  and  that  even  death  could  not 
divide  them.  Both  died  in  the  same  yeai", 
1248,  and  were  buried  in  the  church  of  their 
order  at  Oxford.  Matthew  Paris  considers 
their  decease  worthy  of  a  place  in  his  history, 
adding  that  it  was  the  common  opinion  of 
that  age  that  no  contemporary  writers  sur- 
passed or  even  equalled  these  two,  whether 
in  theology  or  other  branches  of  learning, 
and  paying  a  final  tribute  to  their  great  zeal 
in  the  work  of  public  preaching. 

In  addition  to  the  above  facts  a  few  others 
may  be  gleaned  from  sti-ay  letters  of  the 
period.  It  is  probable  that  it  is  to  Robert 
Bacon  and  not  to  Roger  that  Thomas  de 
Eccleston  alludes  (Bkewek,  ilfow.i^ranc.  56) 
as  having  entered  the  order  of  friar  preachers 
on  the  first  day  without  a  year's  novitiate. 
The  manuscript  has  R.  Bacon,  but  the  con- 
text seems  to  show  that  the  date  of  the 
occun'ence  was  under  Gregory  IX,  at  which 
time  Roger  would  be  too  young ;  the  person 
alluded  to  is  spoken  of  as  *  bona}  memorise,' 
j  a  phrase  which  could  hardly  be  applied  to 
i  one  still  living,  as  Roger  would  be  at  that 
time  ;  and,  lastly,  the  whole  preceding  pas- 
sage has  reference  to  the  '  Fratres  Priedica- 


Bacon 


374 


Bacon 


tores,'  of  wliicli  body  Ivobi'rt  was  ii  member, 
whoreaa  Roger  JJucon  was  a  Franciscan. 
Again,  Orossetestc,  in  a  lettiu'  to  William  de 
llaleger,  refusing  to  ai)])oint  the  hitter's 
nephew — a  boy  not  yet  ont  of  his  Ovid — to 
a  cure  of  souls,  calls  Itobert  Hacon  to  witness 
lluit  he  is  willing  to  allow  the  lad  ten  marks 
a  year  out  of  his  private  ])urse.  Here,  again, 
we  have  Roger  in  the  manuscript,  but  the 
date  (12i{5!'')  clearly  puts  him  out  of  court, 
and  in  Luard's  edition  of  the  bishop's  letters 
the  story  is  indexed  to  Robert.  In  any  case 
Robert  lllacon,  the  lirst  Dominican  writer  in 
England  (Wool),  Annah,  i.  192),  can  hardly 
fail  to  have  been  a  friend  of  Robert  Grosse- 
teste,  the  great  pat  ron  of  the  new  orders ;  nor 
this  last  to  have  been  acquainted  with  one 
who  was,  as  Trivet  tells  us,  the  ruling  theo- 
logical power  at  Oxford. 

The  list  of  Robert  Bacon's  works,  as  given 
by  Bale,  includes  a '  Liber  in  sententias  Petri 
Lombardi,'  '  Lectiones  Ordinariie,'  '  Liber 
super  Psalterium.'  To  this  list  Anthony  t\ 
A^  ood  adds  a  work  called '  Syncategorement,' 
on  the  manuscript  of  which  the  words 
'  Robert!  Baconis '  are  said  to  appear.  Robert 
Bacon  was  the  author  of  at  least  one  life  of 
his  friend  and  master,  Edmimd  Rich.  Por- 
tions of  this  are  probably  worked  up — with, 
however,  an  entire  alteration  of  style — into 
Surins's  *  Life  of  St.  Edmund '  (iv.  868, 
16  Nov.) ;  but  as  a  separate  work  it  has 
perished,  together  with  the  life  of  the  same 
archbishop,  which  Matthew  Paris  tells  us  he 
drew  up  on  the  same  authority, 

[Leiaud,  Bale,  and  Pits,  under  Eobert  and 
Koger  Bacon  and  Kiohard  Fitzacrius ;  Matthew 
Paris,  iii.  244,  v.  16,  369;  Trivet's  Annales  229; 
Brewer's  Mon.  Franc.  56 ;  Luard's  Epistolse 
(trosseteste ;  Haixly's  Cat.  87,  93,  108;  Bio- 
graphia  Britauniea ;  Moreri,  i.,  under  Robert 
Bacon.  I'or  a  list  of  the  various  Bacons  flourish- 
ing about  the  same  time  see  Wake's  Rex  Pla- 
tunicus,  208-10;  AVood's  Annales,  i.  192,  &c. ; 
and  authorities  cited  above.]  T.  A.  A. 

BACON,  ROGER  (1214  P-129-i),  phUo- 
sopher,  was  born  at  or  near  Ilchester,  Somer- 
setshire, about  1214.     The  materials  for  his 
life  consist,  in  the  first  place,  of  the  tradi- 
t  ional  records,  part  ly  drawn  from  early  writers  | 
on  the  history  of  his  time,  but  to  a  large  ex-  | 
tent  without  any  satisfactory   foundation ;  j 
and,  in  the  second  place,  of  the  somewhat  ^ 
numerous  references,  autobiographical  in  cha-  t 
racter,  contained  in  his  published  or  unpub-  \ 
lished  Avritings.  The  moi-e  important  of  these  ' 
writings  have  only  in  recent  times  become 
t  he  object  of  study,  and  the  task  of  the  bio-  j 
grapher  is  largely  the  correction  of  the  earlier 
tradition  bv  means  of  the  indications  so  af-  \ 


forded.     An  interesting  but  incomplete  sum-     ^1 
mary  of  the  older  material  is  furnished  by     ^B 
Anthony  h.  Wood ;  a  more  enlightened  siu-vey 
by  .lebb  in  the  preface  to  his  edition  of  the 
H)])us  Majus' (1733) ;  the  latest  researches 
have  borne  good  fruit  in  the  works  of  Brewer 
and  Charles  (cited  imder).     Doubtless  some 
obscure  points  may  yet  be  cleared  up  by  more 
thorough  study  of  the  manuscripts  than  has         J 
yet  been  undertaken,  but  it  is  not  probable         I 
that  there  can  ever  be  given  more  than  a 
scanty  outline  of  the  life  and  labours  of  a 
very  eminent  English  thinker. 

Bacon's  family  seems  to  have  been  in  good 
circumstances,  but  to  have  suffered  severe  re- 
verses during  the  stormy  reign  of  Henry  III 
(^Op.  Incd.  p.  10).  He  speaks  of  one  brother 
as  wealthy,  and  of  another  as  a  scholar  {Op. 
Ined.  13),  but  there  is  no  means  of  establish- 
ing any  relation  between  these  and  certain 
others  of  the  same  name  commemorated  iu 
the  history  of  the  time.  Robert  Bacon,  the 
Dominican,  who  lectured  at  Oxford,  may  have 
been  an  uncle  of  Roger,  but  could  hardly 
have  been  his  brother.  There  is  no  reason  to 
doubt  the  tradition  that  he  began  his  uni- 
versity studies  at  Oxford,  and  if  the  report 
by  Matthew  Paris  {Hist.  Maj.  1044,  p.  205) 
of  the  ironical  riddle  proposed  by  him  ta 
Henry  III  be  accepted,  he  must  have  been 
at  Oxford  and  in  orders  in  1233.  How  long- 
he  remained  at  Oxford  there  is  no  record  to 
determine ;  sufficiently  long,  however,  to  have 
known  and  appreciated  some  of  the  able 
teachers  who  then  gave  the  imiversity  its  re- 
noAvn — Robert  Grosset  est  e,  Adam  deMarisco,^ 
Richard  Fitzacre,  and  Edmond  Rich — and  ta 
have  been  iniluenced  by  them  in  the  direction 
of  positive  science,  natm-al  and  linguistic. 
As  the  length  of  his  stay  at  Oxford  is  im- 
certain,  so  the  date  of  the  next  event  in  his 
life,  transference  to  the  university  of  Paris, 
cannot  be  definitely  fixed.  From  his  own 
references  to  his  study  at  Paris,  his  first  resi- 
dence there  must  have  terminated  about  1250 
(Chaeles,  p.  10).  Tradition  has  assigned  to 
him  the  usual  brilliant  career  of  an  eminent 
teacher  in  a  medifeval  university.  He  is  said 
to  have  graduated  with  distinction  as  doctor, 
to  have  attracted  students  by  his  lectm-ing, 
and  to  have  been  known  by  the  significant 
cognomen  of  'doctor  admirabilis'  ("Wood, 
as  in  Brewer,  Op.  Ined.  pref.  p.  Ixxxvi).  But 
the  historians  of  the  imiversity  of  Paris 
know  or  say  little  of  him,  and  from  the  way 
in  which  he  himself  refers  to  his  Paris  studies 
it  may  be  inferred  that,  though  he  certainly 
gained  high  reputation,  his  withdrawal  from 
the  ordinaiy  current  of  thought  was  so  com- 
plete as  to  render  him  in  no  special  sense  a 
brilliant  light  in  the  scholastic  firmament. 


Bacon 


375 


Bacon 


His  contempt  for  the  kind  of  work  by  which 
honour  was  there  gained  is  unmeasured,  and 
for  his  own  part,  Avith  such  aid  as  was  afforded 
by  the  increasing  knowledge  of  the  Arab 
writers,  he  devoted  himseli  to  acquiring  a 
knowledge  of  languages,  and  to  experimental 
researches,  partly  in  alchemy,  partly  in 
optics. 

About  the  year  1250  Bacon  seems  to  have 
returned  to  England,  and  though  no  details 
are  known  of  the  next  definable  period  of  his 
life  extending  up  to  1257,  the  tradition  may 
be  accepted  that  he  spent  the  time  mainly 
at  Oxford.  The  legendary  connection  be- 
tween his  name  and  the  university  of  Oxford 
doubtless  dates  from  this  residence.  That  he 
had  left  Oxford  in  1257  is  attested  by  Bacon 
himself  (Op.  Ined.  p.  7),  but  of  the  sur- 
rounding circumstances  extremely  little  is 
known.  The  immediate  occasion  was  the 
suspicion  of  his  superiors  in  the  Franciscan 
order,  who,  perhaps  even  before  the  date 
given,  had  put  him  under  surveillance,  and 
in  1257  sent  him  to  Paris.  At  what  time 
or  for  what  reasons  he  had  joined  the  Fran- 
ciscan order,  there  are  no  means  of  deter- 
mining. As  he  refers  pointedly  to  the  fact 
that  he  had  not  written  anything  *  in  alio 
statu,'  we  may  conjecture  that  he  did  not 
enter  at  a  very  early  age.  It  was  under 
the  generalship  of  John  of  Fidanza,  better 
known  as  Bonaventura,  that  Bacon  was 
placed  under  restraint,  and  for  ten  years 
he  was  kept  in  close  confinement  in  Paris. 
During  that  time  he  was  denied  all  oppor- 
tunity of  writing ;  books  and  instruments 
were  taken  from  him,  and  the  most  jealous 
care  was  taken  that  he  should  have  no  com- 
munication with  the  outer  world. 

Partial  relief  came  from  an  unexpected 
quarter.  In  1265  Guy  de  Foulques,  who 
had  in  the  previous  year  acted  as  papal  legate 
in  England,  was  raised  to  the  papal  chair  as 
Clement  IV.  During  his  residence  in  Eng- 
land he  had  made  various  attempts  to  com- 
municate with  Bacon,  and  had  solicited  from 
him  a  general  treatise  on  the  sciences  which 
rumour  spoke  of  as  completed.  Bacon,  who 
had  no  such  general  treatise  ready,  had  been 
xmable  to  reply  to  the  friendly  request,  but, 
after  the  elevation  of  Guy  de  Foulques,  was 
successful  in  privately  laying  before  him 
a  statement  of  the  circumstances  which  had 
prevented  his  earlier  reply.  In  answer  the 
pope  sent  a  letter  enjoining  Bacon  to  forward 
to  nim  secretly  and  privately  any  writing  he 
could  prepare,  notwithstanding  all  injunc- 
tions to  the  contrary  of  his  superiors  (the 
letter  is  given  in  Bbewee's  Op.  Ined.  p.  1). 

The  opening  chapters  of  the  writing  called 
*  Opus  Tertium '  give  a  very  vivid  picture 


of  Bacon's  circumstances  when  he  received 
this  mandate,  of  the  joy  with  which  he  hailed 
the  opiwrtunity  afforded  to  him,  of  the  mani- 
fold diificulties  in  the  way  of  completing  the 
work  on  which  he  forthwith  entered,  and  of 
the  plan  he  adopted  for  laying  the  substance 
of  his  reflections  before  his  friendly  auditor. 
Deeply  impressed  with  a  sense  of  the  unity  of 
the  sciences,  he  thought  it  well  first  to  treat 
in  a  general  way  of  the  various  parts  of  human 
knowledge,  giving  a  conspectus  or  compen- 
dious view  of  the  whole  before  approaching 
the  detailed  treatment  of  the  parts.  This 
general  view  forms  the  'Opus  Majug,' and 
apparently  the  composition  and  copying  must 
have  been  accompbshed  within  a  wonderfully 
brief  space  of  time.  For  within  almost  two 
years  from  the  time  of  receiving  Clement's 
mandate,  Bacon,  in  the  '  Opus  Tertium,'  re- 
fers to  the  'Opus  Majus'  as  already  sent 
off,   and  also  to  a  subsequent  writing,  the 

;  '  Opus  Secundum,'  or  *  Opus  Minus,'  in  which 
an  abridgment  of  the  larger  work  had  been 
given,  with  a  special  treatment  of  some  es- 
sential subjects  omitted  either  by  design  or 
by  pressure  of  circumstances.  StUl  desirous 
of  conveying  his  thought  in  such  a  way  as 
to  win  the  ear  of  his  powerful  patron,  Bacon 
forthwith  began  a  newtreatment  of  the  whole, 
and  in  the  seventy-five  chapters  printed  under 
the  title  of  the  'Opus  Tertiiun'  we  have  at 
least  a  portion  of  his  new  treatment.  The 
'  Opus  Tertium  '  in  its  printed  form  contains 
an  expanded  summary  of  the  main  portions 
of  the  '  Opus  Majus ;'  but  as  it  makes  frequent 
reference  to  other  writings  which  were  in- 
tended to  be  laid  before  Clement,  it  is  pro- 
bable that  we  have  in  it  only  a  fragment  of 
a  larger  work.  EA-idently  during  the  compo- 
sition of  the  '  Opus  Tertium '  Bacon  was  re- 
lie  A"ed  from  much  of  the  restraint  under  which 
he  had  been  suffering,  and  in  1268  he  was 
again  in  England.  Whether  the  other  writ- 
ings referred  to  in  the  extant  chapters  of  the 
'  Opus  Tertium '  were  composed  in  time  to 
be  sent  to  Clement  (who  died  in  November 
1268)  we  cannot  determine.  In  all  proba- 
bility they  were  not,  and  this  circumstance 
may  to  some  extent  account  for  certain  difii- 
culties  presented  by  the  manuscripts  to  be 
afterwards  referred  to. 

That  Clement  exerted  himself  on  behalf  of 
Bacon  is  a  mere  conjecture ;  it  is  certain  that 
after  1267  he  was  in  comparative  freedom,  and 
we  may  suppose  devoted  himself  to  working 
out,  in  special  writings,  the  particular  sciences 
forming  in  his  conception  the  body  of  know- 
ledge.    There  remain  fragments  of  a  work, 

'  part  of  which  undoubtedly  was  written  in 
1271  or  1272  (Bbewek,  Op.  Ined.  pre£  5.  55), 
a  compendium  of  philosophy,  the  projected 


Bacon 


376 


Bacon 


outlines  of  which  can  be  drawn  Avith  some 
accuracy.  It  is  in  the  preliminary  portion 
of  this  work,  printed  in  the  '  Opera  Inedita ' 
(pp.  393-511),  that  Bacon  makes  his  most 
vehement  onslaught  on  the  clergy  and  the 
orders  as  withstanding  the  progress  of  true 
knowledge.  In  1278  the  general  of  the  Fran- 
ciscan order,  Jerome  of  Ascoli,  afterwards 
Nicholas  I^',  held  a  chapter  at  Paris  for  the 
consideration  of  the  heretical  propositions 
that  were  troubling  the  peace  of  the  church. 
Amongst  others  who  appeared  was  Roger 
Bacon,  who,  condemned  '  propter  quasdam 
novitates  suspectas,'  and  prevented  from  writ- 
ing to  the  po])e  (Gregory  X)  for  defence  and 
aid,  passed  into  a  prolonged  confinement. 
Tradition  at  this  point  of  his  career  becomes 
most  confused ;  there  exists,  however,  the 
manuscript  of  part  of  a  work  in  which  a  date 
is  explicitly  recorded.     The  work  is  entitled 

*  Compendium  Studii  Theologiae; '  the  date  is 
1292.  In  1292,  then.  Bacon  was  alive,  and 
moreover  in  freedom.  Perhaps  he  owed  his 
release  to  the  liberality  of  Raymond  Gau- 
fredi,  general  of  the  order  from  1289  to  1294, 
with  whom  tradition  lias  certainly  associated 
his  name,  and  to  the  fortunate  death  of 
Nicholas  IV  in  1292  (see  CiiARLES,  pp.  40-1). 
How  long  he  survived  is  imknown ;  the  old 
biogi-a})hers  mention  1294  among  other  dates, 
as  1284,  1290, 1292;  and  as  the  latter  must 
all  be  rejected,  1294  remains  in  possession  of 
the  field.  He  is  said  to  have  died  and  to 
have  been  buried  at  Oxford. 

Bacon's  writings  fall  into  the  two  groups  of 
printed  and  manuscript.  Of  the  printed  works 
an  extremely  accurate  list  is  given  by  M. 
Le  Clerc  in  the  'Ilistoire  Litt.  de  la  France ; ' 
with  some  supplement  and  correction  it  is 
liere  followed :  1.  '  Opera  Chemica  Rogeri 
Bacconis,'  1485,  fo. ;  the  same  under  the  titles 

*  Sanioris  medicinaj  magistri  D.  Rogeri  Ba- 
conis  Angli  de  Arte  ChymiiB  scripta,'  Frank- 
fort, 1003, 12mo  ;  and  '  R.  B.  Thesaurus  Che- 
micus,'  ib.  1020.  2.  '  Speculum  Alchymise,' 
Niirnberg,  1541,  4to,  repeated  in  many  col- 
lections of  writings  on  alchemy  published 
from  the  sixteenth  to  the  eighteenth  century. 
A  French  translation  appeared  in  1557,  and 
has  been  twice  reprinted,  in  1012  and  in 
1027,  under  the  false  title  '  Le  Miroir  de 
Maistre  Jean  Mehun.'    English  translation, 

*  The  Mirror  of  Alchymy,  composed  by  the 
thrice  famous  and  learned  fryer  Bacon,'  in 
1597,  4to,  London  ;  in  the  same  volume  is 
translated  part  of  the  '  De  mirabili  potestate 
Art  is  et  Naturse.'  3.  '  De  mii-abili  potestate  j 
Artis  etNaturfie  et  de  nullitate  Magia^,'  Paris, 
1542,  4to;  and  frequently  either  apart  or  in 
collections  of  alchemist  Avritings.  French  \ 
translation,  1557,  in  the  '  Miroir  'above noted,  I 


and  later  in  1012  and  1029 ;  English  trans- 
lations, 1597  and  1059,  entitled  *  Discovery 
of  the  Miracles  of  Art,  Nature,,  and  Magick.' 
The  tract  is  reprinted  in  Brewer's  '  Opera 
Inedita,'  pp.  523-51.  4.  '  Libellus  Rogei'ii 
Baconi  Angli,  doctissimi  mathematici  et  me- 
dici,  de  retardandis  senectutis  accidentibus 
et  de  sensibus  conservandis,'  Oxford,  1590. 
English  translation,  '  The  Cure  of  Old  Age 
and  Preseiwation  of  Youth,  by  the  great  ma- 
thematician and  physician,  Roger  Bacon,  a 
Franciscan  Friar.  By  Richard  Browne,'  Lon- 
don, 1083,  12mo.  5.  '  Rogerii  Baconis  Angli 
viri  eminentissimi  Perspectiva,  opera  et  studio 
Johannis  Combachii,  pliil.  prof,  in  acad.  Mar- 
purgensi,'  Frankfurt,  1014,  4to  (  =  Pt.  V.  of 
'  Opus  Majus').  0.  '  Specula  Mathematica  in 
quibus  de  specierum  multiplicatione  earun- 
demque  in  inferioribus  virtute  agitur,  Com- 
bachii St.  et  op.,'  ibid.  1014  (=Pt.  IV.  of 
'Opus  Majus').  7.  'Opus  Majus  ad  Cle- 
mentem  Papam,'  ed.  S.  Jebb,  London,  fo., 
1733:  reprint,  Venice,  1750.  8.  'Fr.  Rogeri 
Bacon  Opera  qujedam  hactenus  inedita,  Vol.  I. 
containing:  1.  Opus  Tertium;  2.  Opus  Mi- 
nus; 3.  Compendium  Philosophise,'  ed.  J.  S. 
Brewer,  London,  Rolls  Series,  1859.  9.  '  R. 
B.  de  Morali  Philosophia,'  Dublin,  1800 
(  =  Pt.  VII.  of  the  '  Opus  Majus,'  not  con- 
tained in  Jebb's  edition). 

A  glance  at  the  number  and  dates  of  these 
published  woi-ks  suffices  to  explain  how  it 
has  come  about  that  the  historical  reputation 
of  Roger  Bacon  inadequately  represents,  and 
in  many  ways  misrepresents,  his  real  work 
and  merit.  Not  till  the  eighteenth  century 
was  it  known,  nor  from  the  scanty  references 
in  the  older  authorities  could  it  have  been 
gathered,  that  Bacon  was  more  than  an  in- 
genious alchemist,  a  skilled  mechanician,  and 
perhaps  a  dabbler  in  the  black  arts.  In  this 
light  tradition  viewed  him,  and  it  is  his  le- 
gendary history  only  that  has  established 
itself  in  English  literature.  The  famous  ne- 
cromancer. Friar  Bacon,  with  his  brazen  head, 
is  no  unfamiliar  figure  in  popular  English 
\\n-iting  (see  Professor  Ward's  book  below 
cited).  The  publication  of  the  'Opus  Majus,' 
however,  rendered  possible  a  more  accurate 
conception  of  his  aims  and  labours,  and  made 
it  evident  that  the  main  interest  of  his  life 
had  been  a  struggle  towards  reform  in  the 
existing  methods  of  philosophical  or  scientific 
thinking — a  reform  Avhich  in  spirit  and  aim 
strikingly  resembled  that  more  successfully 
attempted  by  his  more  famous  namesake  in 
the  seventeenth  centuiy.  The  '  Opus  Majus,' 
in  vigorous  style  and  with  great  freedom  of 
expression,  discussed  the  obstacles  in  the  way 
of  true  science,  rejected  authority  and  verbal 
subtleties,  and  sketched  in  broad  outlines  the 


Bacon 


377 


Bacon 


essentials  of  the  great  branches  of  true  know- 
ledge. The  work  has  well  been  designated 
*  at  once  the  Encyclopsedia  and  the  Organon 
of  the  thirteenth  century.'  It  is  animated 
by  the  fresh  breath  of  originalstudy  of  nature; 
and  though,  as  was  inevitable,  the  funda- 
mental ideas  are  in  many  respects  those  of 
the  time,  the  mode  of  handling  and  applying 
them  is  wonderfully  free  from  the  batHing 
restraints  that  meet  one  in  scholastic  specu- 
lations. The  '  Opus  Maj us' itself  professed 
to  be  no  more  than  an  encyclopsedic  outline, 
and  only  touched  the  main  features  of  the 
great  sciences,  gi-ammar  and  logic,  mathe- 
matics, physics  (of  Avhich  perspective,  i.e. 
optics,  was  for  Bacon  the  type),  experimental 
research,  moral  philosophy ;  it  was  left  to 
other  works  to  give  a  more  detailed  treatment 
of  the  variy  as  branches. 

Later  investigations  have  succeeded  in  dis- 
closing/arious  interesting  and  important 
fragments  of  the  detailed  work  to  which 
BacQ^  seems  to  have  applied  himself  on  the 
con?pletion  of  the  '  Opus  Maj  us.'  It  is  not 
u^sible  to  give  an  exhaustive  enumeration 
)f  the  extant  manuscripts.  Those  known  to 
exist,  and  partially  examined,  are  very  nu- 
merous and  in  eveiy  variety  of  condition  ; 
there  are  doubtless  others  not  yet  brought 
to  light.  It  is  hardly  possible,  moreover,  so 
to  connect  the  known  manuscripts  with  the 
indications  which  can  be  gathered  of  Bacon's 
projected  or  accomplished  writings  as  to  effect 
some  partial  classification  of  them.  Either 
Bacon  himself  or  the  transcribers  of  the  ma- 
nuscripts must  have  been  in  the  habit  of  in- 
corporating an  accomplished  writing  in  anew 
work,  with  such  changes  of  beginning  and 
ending  as  to  bring  about  the  junction ;  and  as 
^he  titles  of  the  existing  manuscripts  generally 
liollow  some  of  the  introductory  sentences, 
it\is  not  uncommon  to  find  that  Avritings 
citfd  under  various  titles  and  assigned  to 
various  works  are  in  substance  identical. 
It  will  be  best  here  to  state  what  has  been 
determined  regarding  Bacon's  activity  as  a 
writer  after  the  composition  of  the  '  Opus 
Majus,'  and  to  point  out  what  manuscripts 
exist  of  the  products  of  his  activity. 

The  older  authorities  agreed  in  asserting 
that  the  'Opus  Majus'  was  not  the  only 
Avriting  prepared  by  Bacon  at  the  request  of 
Clement,  but  their  accounts  of  the  other 
treatiseswere  confused  and  imperfect.  AVood 
quotes  from  the  writing  now  called  *  Opus 
Tertium,'  but  regards  it  as  part  of  a  writ- 
ing called  *  Opus  Minus '  (Brewer,  pref 
p.  98,  says  of  the  passage  quoted  :  '  This 
passage  does  not  occur  in  the  Digby  MS.,  there- 
fore Wood  must  have  seen  some  other  copy 
of  the  "Opus  Minus  "  not  now  discoverable.' 


But  tliis  is  an  error.  The  passage  is  given  in 
Brewer's  own  I'eprint  of  the  *  Opus  Tertium,* 
pp.  272-3,  and  the  title  of  the  manuscript  is 
not  *  In  Opere  Minore,'  but  merely  '  In  Opere 
suo ').  Jebb,  who  had  carefully  consulted 
the  manuscripts  in  the  British  Museum,  came 
upon  traces  of  two  writings,  called  '  Opus 
Minus'  and  '  Opus  Tertium,  but  did  not  suc- 
ceed in  obtaining  clear  insight  into  their 
nature  and  scope.  In  1 848,  however,  Cousin 
discovered  in  the  public  library  at  Douai  an 
important  manuscript,  of  which  lie  gave  a 
full  abstract  in  the  '  Journal  des  Savants ' 
of  the  same  year.  Other  manuscripts  of  this 
work  exist,  and  it  lias  since  been  printed  by 
Brewer  under  the  undoubtedly  con-ect  title 
of  '  Opus  Tertium.'  The  biogi-aphical  details 
given  in  the  seventy-five  chapters  of  printed 
text  are  of  the  utmost  value,  and  the  refer- 
ences to  other  writings  enable  a  clear  idea 
to  be  formed  of  the  *  Opus  Minus,'  and  a 
partial  idea  to  be  formed  of  certain  projected 
treatises.  From  what  Bacon  himself  says  it 
becomes  clear  (1)  that  .Tebb's  edition  of  the 
'  Opus  Majus '  is  imperfect  as  regards  pt.  ii,, 
on  grammar ;  is  Avanting  in  pt.  vii.,  on  moral 
pliilosophy  ;  and  is  redundant  by  inclusion 
of  a  long  treatise  '  de  multiplicatione  specie- 
rum,'  which  is  either  part  of  a  later  work  or 
an  independent  tract ;  (2)  that  the  work 
called  '  Opus  Minus,'  sent  to  Clement  soon 
after  the  '  Opus  Majus,'  contained  (a)  a 
brief  view  of  the  contents  of  the  larger 
treatise,  (b)  a  criticism  of  the  errors  of  theo- 
logical study,  and  (c)  a  detailed  treatment 
of  speculative  and  practical  alchemy.  Only 
one  manuscript  (that  in  the  Bodleian,  Digby, 
218)  has  been  discovered  which  corresponds 
to  the  description  of  the  '  Opus  Minus.'  It 
is  in  very  imperfect  condition,  but  the  frag- 
ments, printed  in  Brewer's  valuable  edition, 
seem  to  represent  all  that  we  are  likely  to 
find  of  the  work.  Jebb,  misinterjjreting  some 
references  in  the  manuscripts  before  him,  had 
conjectured  that  the  *  Opus  Minus '  was  in- 
tended to  contain  a  body  of  separate  treat- 
ments of  the  various  sciences.  This  is  in- 
correct, but  it  is  certain  that  Bacon  projected 
such  separate  treatments,  and  intended  to 
send  them  to  Clement.  The  chapters  printed 
as  the  '  Opus  Tertium '  contain  many  forward 
references,  and  by  comparing  these  with  link- 
words  found  in  the  recently  disclosed  manu- 
scripts M.  Charles  has  endeavoured  to  re- 
construct the  plan  of  Bacon's  work  and  to 
determine  the  manuscript  fragments  of  it. 
From  the  circumstance  above  mentioned, 
however,  it  is  xery  difficult  to  eft'ect  this 
satisfactorily,  and  it  seems  highly  improbable 
that  Bacon  was  able  to  prepare  detailed 
treatises, following  up  the  introduction  called 


Bacon 


378 


Bacon 


now  'Opus  Tertium,'  and  to  forward  them  to 
Clement.  Rather  we  may  conjecture  that 
he  began  and  carried  out  his  plan  of  detailed 
treatment,  so  as  to  form  a  complete  body  of 
scientific  exposition,  and  that  the  several 
portions  were  indifferently  connected  with 
the  '  Opus  Tertium  '  and  with  the  later  work, 
the  '  Compendium  Philosophipe,'  of  which  the 
introduction  dates  from  1271.  For  the  in- 
dications point  to  a  substantial  identity  of 
content  in  the  two  supposed  syst  ematic  works. 
Under  the  one,  the  so-called  '  Opus  Tertium,' 
there  appear  to  fall  (1)  grammar  and  logic, 
(2)  mathematics,  (3)  physics,  (4)  metaphysics 
and  moral  philosophy ;  under  the  other,  the 
'  Compendium  Philosophia3,'  (1)  grammar, 
(2) logic,  (3)  mathematics,  (4)  physics,  (5)  al- 
chemy, (6)  experimental  science.  The  identity 
of  contents  explains  the  difficulty  of  assign- 
ing the  extant  fragments  to  the  one  or  to  the 
other,  and  probably  the  definite  designations 
we  adopt  for  the  two  works  do  not  fairly 
represent  anything  in  Bacon's  plan.  Of  the 
treatment  of  grammar,  some  part  remains  in 
the  manuscript  on  Greek  grammar  in  Uni- 
versity College,  Oxford.  Of  mathematics,  the 
discussion  of  the  general  ideas,  '  Communia 
Mathematica,'  is  contained  in  the  manu- 
scripts, Brit.  Mus.  Sloane  Coll.  2156,  and 
Bodl.  1677.  Of  physics,  a  very  important 
fragment,  treating  of  the  fundamental  ideas, 
'  Communia  Natui'alium,'  exists  in  no  fewer 
than  fom-  forms,  in  the  Mazarine  Library, 
Paris,  1271,  in  the  Brit.  Mus.  Eoyal  Lib. 
7  F.  vii.,  in  the  Bodleian,  1671,  and  in  the 
library  of  Univ.  Coll.  Oxford ;  the  publica- 
tion of  this  manuscript,  which  contains 
Bacon's  treatment  of  the  most  important 
notions  of  scholastic  thinking,  is  a  desidera- 
tum. Of  the  metaphysics,  a  small  portion  is 
found  in  the  Bodleian,  1791,  and  more  in  the 
Biblioth.  Imp.  at  Paris,  No.  7440.  A  more 
detailed  treatment  of  physics,  by  its  link- 
expressions  designed  to  form  part  of  the 
*  Compendium  Philosophiae,'  is  contained  in 
the  Brit.  Mus.  Addit.  MSS.  8786.  Of  the 
latest  work  of  Bacon,  the  '  Compendium 
Studii  Theologias,'  date  1292,  some  few  frag- 
ments, from  which  the  plan  of  the  whole 
may  be  gathered,  are  contained  in  the  British 
Mus.  7  F.  vii.  fo.  153,  and  7  F.  viii.  fo.  2,  and 
in  the  library  of  Univ.  Coll.  Oxford  (see 
Charles,  pp.  409-16).  The  British  Mu- 
seum (Royal  Lib.  7  F.  viii.  fo.  99-191)  has 
also  a  complete  manuscript  of  an  early  writ- 
ing, the  '  Computus,'  on  astronomy  and  the 
reformation  of  the  calendar,  the  date  of  which, 
as  given  in  the  manviscript  itself,  is  1263. 

It  is  much  to  be  desired  that  a  more  thorough 
and  detailed  study  of  the  known  manuscripts 
and  a  more  extensive  search  for  others  which 


doubtless  exist  should  be  undertaken.  Some 
poilions  are  in  a  condition  suitable  for  pub- 
lication, and  it  is  wellnigh  an  obligation  rest- 
ing on  English  scholars  to  continue  the  good 
work  begun  by  the  late  Professor  Brewer. 
Bacon's  works  possess  much  historical  value, 
for  his  vigorous  thinking  and  pronounced 
scientific  inclinations  are  not  to  be  regarded 
as  abnormal  and  isolated  phenomena.  He 
I'epresents  one  current  of  thought  and  work 
in  the  middle  ages  Avhich  must  have  run 
strongly  though  obscurely,  and  without  a 
thorough  comprehension  of  his  position  our 
conceptions  of  an  important  century  are  in- 
complete and  eiToneous. 

[Of  tlie  earlier  works  in  "which  Bacon  was 
dealt  with  at  large  or  incidentally,  of  Wadding, 
Cave,  Oudin,  Loland,  Bale,  Pits,  Tanner,  and 
others,  a  copious  list  will  be  foimd  in  the  Histoire 
Litteraire  de  la  France  (xx.  227-52) ;  the 
most  valuable  recent  studies  arc  those  of  Brewer 
(preface  to  E.  B.  Opera  Inedita,  London,  1859) 
and  E.  Charles  (Roger  Bacon,  sa  Vie,  ses  Ou- 
vrages,  ses  Doctrines,  d'apr^s  des  textes  inedits, 
Paris,  1861),  whose  work  is  a  model  of  industry, 
skill,  and  intelligence;  summaries,  mainly  of  these 
two  authorities,  are  to  befoundin  Siebert,  Roger 
Bacon,  Marburg,  1861 ;  Saissct,  Revue  des  deux 
Mondes,  1861;  Westminster  Review,  Jamiary 
and  April  1864  ;  Held,  R.  B.'s  praktische  I'hilo- 
sophie,  Jena,  1881.  Laying  greater  stress  on  the 
scholastic  elements  in  Bacon's  work,  and  some- 
what depreciatory  in  tone,  are  L.  Schneider, 
Roger  Bacon,  Aup;sburg,  1873,  and  K.  Werner, 
DiePsychologio,Erkenntniss-UQdWissen8chafts- 
theorie  des  R.  B.,  and  Die  Kosraologie  und  all- 
gemeine  Naturlehre  des  R.  B.,  Wien,  1879.  The 
popular  legend,  represented  by  the  Famous 
Historieof  Frjer  Bacon,  London,  1615  (reprinted 
in  Thoms's  Early  Prose  Romances,  iii.),  has  been 
turned  to  good  account  in  English  literature  ;  see 
Terilo's  A  Piece  of  Friar  Bacon's  Brazen  Heade's 
Prophesie,  1604,  reprinted  in  Percy  Society  Pub- 
lications, vol.  XV.,  1844,  and  Greene's  Friar 
Bacon  and  Friar  Bungay,  1587  or  1588.  On 
Greene  and  on  the  references  in  other  literary 
pieces  to  Roger  Bacon,  see  the  Introduction  and 
Notes  to  Ward's  Old  English  Drama,  1878.] 

R.  A. 

BACON,  THOMAS  {Jl.  1336),  judge,  was 
most  probably  a  member  of  the  same  family 
that  produced  Sir  Nicholas  and  the  great 
Francis  Bacon ;  for  he  Avas  possessed  of  pro- 
perty at  Baconsthoii)e  and  other  places  in 
Norfolk,  which  later  belonged  to  the  lord 
chancellor.  He  was  a  justice  of  the  Com- 
mon Pleas  in  the  early  years  of  Edward  Hi's 
reign,  and  in  this  capacity  was  knighted  by 
that  king  (Dugdale,  Orif/ines,  102).  Ac- 
cording to  Foss,  he  was  raised  to  the  King's 
Bench  in  1332,  and  certainly  appears  in  this 
year  as  one  of  those  appointed  to  try  and 


Bacon 


379 


Baconthorpe 


terminate  petitions  from  Gascony,  Ireland, 
Wales,  and  the  foreign  isles  in  the  parlia- 
ment held  at  York.  The  same  year,  in  con- 
junction witli  two  others,  he  was  deputed 
to  assess  the  tallages  for  Norfolk  and  Suffolk. 
He  seems  to  have  continued  a  judge  till 
1336,  and  was  possibly  still  living  in  the 
year  1339. 

[Foss's  Judges  of  England,  iii.  393  ;  Rot.  Pari. 
ii.  68,  447.]  T.  A.  A. 

BACON,  alias  Southwkll,  THOMAS 
(1592-1037),  Jesuit.     [See  Southwell.] 

BACONTHORPE,  BACON,orBACHO, 
JOHJN  {d.  1346),  the '  Resolute  Doctor,'  took 
his  name  from  Baconsthoi*pe,  a  small  Norfolk 
village  in  the  himdred  of  South  Ei-pingham. 
According  to  the  elaborate  genealogy  of  the 
Bacon  family  among  the  liritish  Museum 
manuscripts  {Add.  MS.  19116)  he  was  the 
third  son  of  Sir  Thomas  Bacon  of  Bacons- 
thorpe,  and  grandnephew  of  the  famous  Roger 
Bacon.  In  the  early  years  of  his  life  he  was 
brought  up  at  the  newly  founded  Carmelite 
monastery  of  Blakeney  or  Snitterley,  not  far 
from  Walsingham,  an  establishment  which 
reckoned  a  Sir  Robert  Bacon  amongst  its  ear- 
liest patrons.  In  process  of  time  John  Ba- 
conthorpe removed  to  Oxford,  where  the  Car- 
melite order  had  possessed  its  own  schools 
since  1253.  According  to  Pits,  he  remained 
here  only  long  enough  to  complete  his  philo- 
sophical training,  and  to  pass  through  the 
initiatory  stages  of  the  theological  course ; 
while,  to  perfect  himself  in  this  crowning 
branch  of  mediaeval  study,  he  repaired  to 
Paris.  At  this  imiversity  he  took  his  degree 
in  both  civil  and  ecclesiastical  law,  and  ap- 
plied himself  to  master  every  field  of  learn- 
ing. The  wide  range  of  his  inquiries  is  proved 
by  the  titles  of  his  works,  which,  besides  the 
ordinaiy  theological  and  logical  topics  of  the 
age,  embrace  treatises  on  astronomy  or  astro- 
log}',  on  the  pontifical  canons,  on  generation, 
the  movement  of  animals,  and  innumerable 
other  subjects.  At  Paris  he  seems  to  have 
first  displayed  that  marked  adherence  to  the 
doctrines  of  Averroes  which  gained  him  the 
title  of  '  Princeps  Averroistarum.'  But  M. 
Renan  is  explicit  in  his  statement  that  Ba- 
conthoqie  does  not  so  much  maintain  all  the 
tenets  of  AveiToes  as  strive  to  palliate  their 
heterodoxy.  His  position  was  tluit  the  argu- 
ments of  Thomas  Aquinas  and  others  had 
little  that  was  contradictory  to  the  real  sen- 
timents of  the  Arab  philosopher.  Averroes, 
according  to  his  fourteenth-centuiy  cham- 
pion, only  started  questions  from  a  purely  in- 
tellectual point  of  view,  as  a  field  in  which 
to  exercise  men's  reasoning  faculties,  without 


committing  himself  to  a  full  acceptance  of 
the  theories  he  discussed.  At  the  same  time 
M.  Renan  adds  that  Baconthorpe  was  careful 
to  soften  down  the  more  dangerous  of  his 
master's  doctrines. 

On  liis  return  from  Paris,  Baconthorpe  was 
most  probably  once  more  a  resident  at  Ox- 
ford, and  it  may  be  to  this  period  of  his  life 
that  Wood  refers  when  he  speaks  of  him  as 
a  sti'ong  opponent  of  the  mendicant  orders  in 
that  university.  It  would  be  about  the  same 
time  that  Baconthorpe  Avas  the  Oxford  in- 
structor and  friend  of  Richard  Fitzralph, 
afterwards  archbishop  of  Armagh  {ob.  1360). 
According  to  Bale  the  two  friends  began 
about  the  year  1321  to  preach  the  doctrines 
which  Wycliff'e  inculcated  so  strongly  half 
a  century  later,  that  the  priestly  power 
should  be  subordinate  to  the  kingly  -  a  state- 
ment which  well  agrees  with  the  words  of 
Walden  when  writing  against  the  Lollards 
on  the  same  subject :  '  The  great  defender  of 
this  opinion  is  Richard  of  Armagh,  and  he 
folloAvs  John  "  Bacon-town  "  (Joannem  Ba- 
conis  oppidi)  the  Carmilite.'  But  Bacon- 
thorpe does  not  seem  to  have  remained 
entirely  in  England,  as  his  name  is  said  to 
occur  in  the  accounts  of  the  general  meeting 
of  the  Carmelites  held  at  Alby  in  1327 ;  and 
again,  in  the  general  chapter  of  the  order  at 
Valence  (1330),  he  once  more  appears  as 
'  John  de  Baconstop,  provincial  of  England  ' 
(Bihh'otk.  Carmel.  i.  743).  The  appellation 
of  '  provincial '  is  due  to  the  fact  that  in  the 
preceding  year  he  had,  at  a  meeting  of  the 
Carmelite  brotherhood  in  London,  been  una- 
nimously elected  head  of  the  order  in  Eng- 
land (1329),  an  office  which  he  retained  till 
1333,  when  he  Avas  huiTiedly  summoned  to 
Rome.  He  seems  to  have  given  some  offence 
to  the  heads  of  his  OAvn  body  by  assigning 
too  much  authority  to  the  pope  in  the 
matter  of  annulling  marriages,  ^^'e  are  told 
that  at  Rome  he  was  even  hissed  during  one 
of  his  discourses ;  but  not,  Leland  assures  us, 
for  any  lack  of  argumentative  power  or  elo- 
quence. Fuller,  however,  though  apparently 
without  authority,  says  that  it  was  the  bad- 
ness of  his  Latin  and  of  his  pronunciation  that 
formed  the  pretext  for  this  treatment.  Bacon- 
thoi-pe  seems  soon  to  have  seen  the  error  of 
his  Avays,  and  made  a  recantation,  proving 
most  conclusively  that  the  pope  had  no  power 
of  dispensation  Avithin  the  prohibited  degrees. 
Taa'o  centuries  later,  we  are  told  by  Bale, 
James  Calcus  Papiensis  made  use  of  Bacon- 
thorpe's  authority  in  his  work  on  Henry  YIH's 
divorce.  From  this  time  Baconthorije's  fame 
seems  to  haAe  been  established.  EA^en  after 
the  lapse  of  150  years  the  general  of  his  order, 
Spagnuoli,  could  sing  of  him  as  the  great 


Baconthorpe 


380 


Baconthorpe 


glory  of  the  Carmelites,  adding  that  no  one 
has  ever  known  the  mind  of  Averroes  better 
than  he  ;  and  that  by  following  his  footsteps 
a  man  would  become  a  second  Aristotle.  The 
same  verses  repi'esent  him  as  demolishing  the 
'  footprints  of  the  cloudy  Scot,'  Duns  Scotus, 
the  almost  contemporaiy  pride  of  the  Fran- 
ciscans. When  summoned  to  Rome,  Bacon- 
thorpe ceased  to  be  the  English  provincial,  in 
order  that  he  might  have  more  leisure  for 
preaching  and  the  study  of  the  Scriptures 
(Bale,  Heliad.  i.  28).  It  was  probably  on 
his  return  from  Rome  that  Baconthorpe  took 
part  in  the  general  chapter  held  at  Nimes  or 
Jsarbonne  in  1333.  The  'Bibliotheca  Car- 
melitana,  basing  the  statement  apparently 
upon  John  Baptist  de  Lezana's  'Annales 
Sacri '  (iv.  555),  asserts  that  he  was  the 
leader  of  the  Parisian  Carmelites  in  their  op- 
position to  the  heretical  views  of  John  XXII 
concerning  the  state  of  the  dead;  and,  indeed, 
Baconthorpe  does  seem  to  have  written  two 
of  his  works,  the  *  De  Beatorum  Visione '  and 
the  '  Quod  sit  laus  vocalis,'  directly  against 
the  peculiar  tenets  held  by  this  pope  {Bibl. 
Carm.  i.  748;  Fabric.  7?/^/.  Lat.  162).  If 
Lezana  is  to  be  depended  on,  this  incident 
would  fit  in  very  well  with  the  last  days  of 
John  XXII  {oh.  1334),  when  the  question 
was  most  exercising  men's  minds,  and  with 
Baconthorpe's  return  journey  from  Rome  and 
Nimes.  He  is  said  to  have  returned  to  Eng- 
land, where  he  died  in  1 346,  and  was  buried 
in  the  Carmelite  church  at  liOndon.  Leland, 
however,  assures  us  that  he  had  searched 
for  his  tomb  there  vainly.  Other  accounts 
give  Blakeney  and  Norwich  as  his  place  of 
sepulture. 

Baconthorpe  was  a  man  of  extremely  small 
stature,  a  very  Zacchteus,  as  Pits  phrases  it, 
whose  body  could  never  have  supported  the 
weight  of  the  huge  volumes  his  intellect 
produced  without  being  crushed  to  death. 
Fuller  adds  that  his  pen,  penknife,  inkhorn, 
one  sheet  of  paper,  and  one  of  his  works, 
would  together  luive  made  up  his  height.  He 
was  also  a  most  voluminous  Avriter.  Zedler 
reckons  the  number  of  his  books  at  over  120, 
and  Alegre  de  Casanate  has  preserved  a  le- 
gend that  on  one  occasion  Baconthorpe's  pu- 
pils buried  their  master  twice  over  while 
standing  upright  in  his  own  Avorks,  and  even 
then  had  had  a  large  number  to  spare  (Ale- 
GKE  DE  Cas.  Paradisus  Carm.  dec.  294). 

Besides  dealing  with  tlie  subjects  mentioned 
earlier  in  this  article,  Baconthorjie  wrote 
commentaries  on  the  Old  and  New  Testament, 
on  the  Apocrypha,  on  Aristotle's  '  Ethics,' 
'  Metaphysics,'  and  '  Politics,'  treatises  upon 
Anselm's '  Cur  Verbum  sit  homo,'  and  Augus- 
tine's '  City  of  God  ; '  diatribes  against  the 


Jews,  idolaters  ( by  this  meaning  in  all  pro- 
bability Mahometans),  and  magicians ;  and  a 
work  dealing  with  a  topic  thoroughly  typical 
of  the  scholastic  mind,  *  Quod  in  coelo  sit 
laus  vocalis.'  Bale,  who  was  himself  origi- 
nally an  East- Anglian  and  a  Carmelite,  speaks 
of  him  in  the  liighest  terms :  '  I  have  found 
in  his  writings  weightier  thoughts  than  in 
those  of  any  other  author  of  his  time.'  In 
fact,  Bale  made  a  collection  of  these  gems, 
which,  however,  he  tells  us,  perished  when 
he  was  in  Ireland. 

Nearly  three  centuries  after  his  death  Ba- 
conthorpe was  still  read  in  the  university  of 
Padua,  wliere  the  Averroist  doctrines  lingered 
on  long  after  they  had  died  out  in  the  rest  of 
Europe.  He  was,  according  to  M.  Renan, 
the  classic  author  of  this  school  of  thought ; 
and  also  as  pre-eminently  the  doctor  of  the 
Carmelite  order,  as  Aquinas  was  of  the  Do- 
minicans, or  Duns  Scotus  of  the  Franciscans. 
Zabarelli,  who  was  a  professor  at  Padua  only 
a  few  years  before  Galileo  Avas  appointed  to 
the  chair  of  mathematics  at  the  same  uni- 
versity, was  an  eager  student  of  Baconthorpe, 
and  his  name  reappears  at  the  beginning  of 
the  seventeenth  century  in  connection  with 
the  memorable  name  of  Lucilius  Julius 
Csesar  Vaninus.  Though  Baconthoi-pe  had 
been  dead  nearly  two  hundred  and  fifty 
years  before  Vaninus's  birth,  yet  this  unfor- 
tunate philosopher  claimed  to  have  had  the 
great  Aven-oist  for  his  teacher,  and  professed 
to  be  following  the  example  of  his  master  in 
putting  no  other  works  than  those  of  Aver- 
roes into  his  pupils'  hands  (Rexajt,  Averroes, 
421 ;  but  compare  Vaninus'  own  works  in 
the  references  at  the  end  of  the  article). 
With  regard  to  the  great  battle-field  of 
scholastic  champions  M.  Ilaur^au  sums  up 
Baconthorpe's  jwsition  in  the  words :  '  He  is 
a  capitulating  realist,  who  entangles  himself 
in  nominalism  as  little  as  possible.' 

There  are  many  theories  advanced  to  ac- 
count for  Baconthorpe's  epithet  of  the  '  re- 
solute doctor.'  Pits  seems  very  plausibly  to 
imply  that  he  OAves  it  to  the  tenacity  Avith 
wliicli  he  maintained  his  Averroist  principles. 
Others  liaA'e  explained  it  by  his  readiness  in 
deciding  all  cases  bi'ought  before  him ;  but 
for  this  his  conduct  at  Rome  does  not  seem 
to  prove  him  to  liaAe  been  remarkable.  He 
then  appears  to  have  retracted  his  opinions 
before  leaving  the  city. 

No  complete  edition  of  Baconthorpe's 
writings  has  been  published,  though  his  works 
began  to  issue  from  the  press  seA'eral  years 
before  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
with  his  *  Commentaries  on  the  Master  of  the 
Sentences,'  printed  at  Paris  in  the  year  1484. 
Continental   students   have,  howe\-er,  been 


Badby 


381 


Badcock 


laborious  interpreters  of  his  teachings,  and 
amongst  the  numerous  treatises  devoted  to 
his  philosophy  special  mention  may  be  made 
of  the  seven  bulky  folios  of  Joseph  Zagalia 
(Ferrara  and  Parma,  1696-1706),  and  the 
three  smaller  volumes  of  II.  Aymers  (Turin, 
1667-9). 

[Leland,  Bale,  and  Pits's  Catalogue;  Tan- 
ner; Harleian  MSS.  3838,  i.  27,  28,  ii.  51-53; 
Alegre  de  Casanate's  Paradisus  Carniolitici  deco- 
ris,  294-5 ;  Zjibarella's  Do  Ilebu.s  Naturalibus, 
edit.  Frankfort,  1617,  p.  466;  St.  Etienne's 
Biblioth  Carmel.  745-53  ;  Ziigalia'.s  Liber  Prce- 
mialis;  Vaninus's  Amphitheatrum,  17.  and  De 
Naturis  Admirandis,  350 ;  Vossius  Do  Quat. 
Seient.  363  ;  Wharton's  Cave,  App.  27  ;  Eenan's 
Averroes  et  rAverro'isme,  318,  420.  421  ;  Hau- 
r^au's  Philosophie  Scolastiqne,  441-3;  Fuller 
(Church  Historj',  iii.)  seems  to  have  gone  beyond 
his  authorities ;  Lezana's  Annalcs  Sacri,  vol.  iv., 
apparently  contains  much  information  concerning 
Baconthorpe's  life  which  is  not  to  be  found  else- 
where.] T.  A.  A. 

BADBY,  JOHN  {d.  1410),  Lollard,  was 
a  blacksmith,  or,  according  to  other  accounts, 
a  tailor  in  Worcestershire,  whose  Lollard 
opinions  involved  him  in  the  persecution  of 
heresy  which  marked  the  clerical  reaction  on 
the  accession  of  Henry  lY,  and  the  passing 
of  the  statute  'de  ha^retico  comburendo.' 
Badby  seems  to  have  been  a  man  of  parts, 
of  unllinching  courage  and  resolution,  and 
possessed  of  both  ingenuity  and  dialectical 
power.  He  carried  out  to  extreme  rational- 
istic consequences  that  denial  of  transubstan- 
tiation  which  had  become  characteristic  of 
the  more  hardy  Wycliffites.  The  host,  he 
maintained,  was  in  no  sense  the  body  of 
Christ,  but  something  inanimate,  and  less 
worthj^  therefore  of  honour  than  a  toad  or 
a  spider,  which  at  least  had  the  gift  of  life. 
Such  outspoken  heresy  insured  his  condem- 
nation before  the  diocesan  court  at  Worcester ; 
but  the  case  came  for  final  decision,  probably 
by  way  of  appeal,  before  Archbishop  Arundel, 
in  the  spring  of  1410.  Arundel  strengthened 
his  court  by  the  addition  of  numerous  eccle- 
siastical and  lay  assessors ;  but  Badby's  heresy 
admitted  of  no  doubt.  He  was  condemned 
and  delivered  to  the  secular  arm  for  execu- 
tion, and  met  his  fate  on  1  March  at  Smith- 
field.  Henry,  Prince  of  Wales,  already  con- 
spicuous for  the  fervour  of  his  orthodoxy,  was 
among  the  spectators,  and  offered  Badby  a 
free  pardon  if  he  recanted.  The  Lollard  re- 
fused, but  his  piteous  groans  after  the  fire 
was  lighted  again  excited  Henry's  hopes  of 
his  conversion.  He  ordered  the  extinction 
of  the  fire,  and  offered  the  half-burnt  wretch 
life,  liberty,  and  a  pension  as  the  price  of  con- 
formity.     But  with  unflinching  constancy 


Badby  refused.  The  fire  was  rekindled,  and 
death  soon  ended  his  sufferings.  His  was  the 
second  martyrdom  to  Lollardy. 

[Walsingham's  Historia  Anglicana,  p.  282 
(Rolls  edition) ;  Foxe's  Book  of  Martyrs,  i.  593-5, 
is  very  circumstantial  if  not  very  trustworthy; 
Hook's  Lives  of  the  Archbishops  of  Canterbury, 
iv.  507-10,  gives  a  good  modern  account.] 

T.  F.  T. 

BADBY,  WILLIAM  (d.  1380),  Carmelite 
and  theological  writer,  was  a  native  of  East 
Anglia,  and  educated  at  one  of  the  Carmelite 
monasteries  (probably  Norwich)  of  that  dis- 
trict. Later  in  life  he  proceeded  to  the 
Carmelite  schools  at  Oxford.  These  were 
situated  in  the  northern  suburbs  of  that 
town,  and  as  they  were  open  not  only  to  the 
brotherhood  but  to  all  comers,  his  career  as 
a  doctor  of  theology  here  was  so  pleasing  to 
the  people  that  they  are  said  to  have  flocked, 
as  to  a  show,  to  hear  his  discourses  (Bale, 
Heliades,  Harley  MSS.  3838,  2,  67).  His 
popularity  in  this  position  seems  to  have  re- 
commended him  to  John  of  Gaunt,  always  a 
great  supporter  of  the  Carmelite  order,  and 
we  are  told  that  Badby  was  accustomed  to 
hold  forth  in  the  presence  of  this  prince  and 
the  nobility  of  England.  According  to  Bale 
{Harl.  MSS.  i.  31)  he  was,  next  to  Ral])h 
Kelly,  archbishop  of  Casliel,  one  of  the 
glories  of  his  age.  Bale  hints  yet  further 
that  it  was  in  some  degree  due  to  his  influ- 
ence, as  one  out  of  a  long  list  of  Carmelite 
monks  whose  names  are  given  as  confessors 
to  John  of  Gaunt,  that  this  prince  interested 
himself  in  attempting  to  counteract  the 
slanders  that  were  about  that  time  begin- 
ning to  be  levelled  against  this  order,  then 
in  the  height  of  its  reputation,  and  possess- 
ing over  a  thousand  brothers  in  England 
alone.  With  Badby  the  appointment  of 
confessor  to  John  of  Gaunt  was  but  the 
stepping-stone  to  the  bishopric  of  Wor- 
cester, which,  hoAvever,  he  held  for  so  short 
a  time  that  his  name  does  not  appear,  ac- 
cording to  Tanner,  in  any  list  of  the  occu- 
pants of  that  see.  He  died  on  14  April  1380. 
Badby's  writings  consisted  of  a  *  Liber  Sa- 
crarum  Contionum,'  'Liber  Determination um 
Scripturje  ;'  Tanner  adds  certain  *  Conciones 
Celebres,'  which,  however,  are  probably  the 
same  as  the  '  Liber  Sacrarum  Contionum.' 
Bale  adds  another  work,  entitled  '  De  Peni- 
tentia.' 

[Tanner ;  Bale  ;  Pits ;  Heliades  Balaei,  MSS. 
Harley,  3838,  i.  31,  ii.  67  ;  Stubbs's  Reg.  Sac] 

T.  A.  A. 

BADCOCK,  JOHN  {fl.  1816-1830),  a 
sporting-writer,  whose  birth  and  death  are 
alike  unknown,  published  between  1816  and 


Badcock 


382 


Badcock 


1830,  under  the  pseudonyms  of  Jon  Bee '  and 
'  John  Hinds,'  a  variety  of  works  on  pugilism 
and  the  turf.  When  he  issued  in  1823  his 
'  Slang,  a  Dictionary  of  the  Turf,  the  King, 
the  Chase,'  and  other  similar  amusements, 
the  preface  to  which  contains  much  informa- 
tion on  preA'ious  compilations  in  the  same 
field,  he  described  himself  as  editor  of  the 
'  Fancy,'  '  Fancy  Gazette,'  and  the  '  Living 
Picture  of  London.'  '  The  Fancy,  or  True 
Sportsman's  Guide ;  authentic  Memoirs  of 
Pugilists,'  came  out  in  monthly  parts,  begin- 
ning April  1821,  and  was  sold  in  two  volumes 
in  1826.  The  '  Fancy  Gazette '  was  a  part  of 
'  The  Annals  of  Sporting  and  Fancy  Gazette/ 
thirteen  volumes  of  which  were  published  be- 
tween 1822  and  1828.  The  '  Living  Picture 
of  London '  was  compiled  by  Badcock  as  a 
guide  to  its  condition  in  the  year  1818,  and  a 
similar  volume  was  produced  by  him  in  1 828. 
From  a  note  in  the  '  Fancy,'  i.  330,  it  appears 
that  the  volume  entitled  '  Letters  from  Lon- 
don :  Observations  of  a  Russian  during  a 
residence  in  England  of  ten  months,'  which 
pui-ported  to  be  a  translation  from  the  origi- 
nal manuscript  of  '  OloflF  Napea,  ex-officer  of 
cavalry  '  (1816),  was  the  production  of  Bad- 
cock. His  last  work  under  the  signature  of 
'  Jon  Bee  '  was  an  edition  of  the  '  Works  of 
Samuel  Foote,  Avith  remai-ks  on  each  play, 
and  an  essay  on  the  life,  genius,  and  writings 
of  the  author '  (1830),  3  vols. ;  and  from 
some  passages  in  the  essay  it  would  seem 
that  ]NIr.  Badcock  was  connected  with  DeAon 
or  Cornwall,  in  both  of  which  counties  the 
name  is  still  common.  This  supposition  is 
coiToborated  by  the  fact  that  in  the  '  Gentle- 
man's Magazine,'  1819,  pt.  i.  618-20,  pt.  ii. 
326,  there  appeared  two  letters  from  him  an- 
nouncing his  intention  of  printing  the  lives 
of  the  celebrated  natives  of  Devon  since  the 
time  of  Prince.  The  volumes  which  bear 
the  name  of  '  John  Hinds '  relate  to  the 
stable.  The  eailiest,  '  The  Veterinary  Sur- 
geon, or  Farriery  taught  on  a  new  and  easy 
plan,'  was  issued  in  1827  and  1829,  and  re- 
issued at  Philadelphia  in  1848.  It  was  fol- 
lowed by  '  Conversations  on  Conditioning : 
the  Groom's  Oracle,'  1829  and  1830.  '  Mr. 
Hinds '  was  also  credited  with  editing  new 
editions  of  W.  Osmer's  *  Treatise  on  the 
Horse,'  and  C.  Thompson's  '  Rules  for  Bad 
Horsemen,'  both  of  which  appeared  in  1830. 
This  was  the  last  year  in  which  any  work 
that  can  be  attributed  to  Badcock  Avas  pu]> 
lished,  and  he  probably  died  during  its  course. 

[Thompson  Cooper's  Biog.  Diet. ;   Works   of 
Badcock.]  W.  P.  C. 

BADCOCK,    SAMUEL    (1747  - 1788), 
theological  and  literary  critic,  Avas  born  at 


South  Molton,  Devon,  23  Feb.  1747.  His 
parents  were  dissenters,  and  he  was  educated 
in  a  school  at  Ottery  St.  Mary,  which  Avas 
reserved  for  the  sons  of  those  opposed  to  the 
English  church.  He  AA'as  trained  for  the 
dissenting  ministry,  and  in  1766  became  the 
pastor  of  a  congregation  at  Wimborne  in 
Dorset.  After  three  years  of  residence  in 
that  county  he  AA-as  appointed  to  a  similar 
post  at  the  more  important  town  of  Barn- 
staple in  Devon,  and  remained  there  until 
1778.  During  this  period  he  became  known, 
through  his  contributions  to  the '  Theological 
Repository,'  to  Dr.  Priestley,  and  sought  his 
acquaintance  in  correspondence,  and  person- 
ally by  a  journey  to  Bo  wood,  where  Priestley 
was  living  Avith  Lord  Shelburne.  This 
intercourse,  and  the  adoption  of  some  of  the 
doctor's  theological  A'iews,  led  to  an  estrange- 
ment with  the  congregation  at  Barnstaple, 
and  Badcock  returned  to  his  native  town, 
where  he  ministered  from  1778  to  1786, 
when  he  became  dissatisfied  Avith  the  doc- 
trines of  dissent  and  with  the  position  as- 
signed to  its  ministers.  He  sought  for  ordi- 
nation in  the  established  church,  and,  haA'ing 
obtained  a  title  for  the  curacy  of  Broad 
Clyst,  was  ordained  by  Bishop  Ross,  of 
Exeter,  deacon  and  priest  within  a  week  in 
June  1787.  Harassed  by  failing  health  and 
pecuniary  anxiety,  he  assisted  for  the  last 
six  months  of  his  life  at  the  Octagon  Chapel, 
Bath ;  and  Avhilst  on  a  A'isit  to  Sir  John 
Chichester,  one  of  his  Devonshire  patrons, 
at  his  town  house.  Queen  Street,  Mayfair, 
London,  died  19  May,  1788. 

Most  of  Badcock's  contributions  to  litera- 
ture appeared  in  the  magazines  of  the  day. 
From  1774,  when  he  sent  to  the  'West- 
minster Magazine'  a  series  of  articles,  the 
names  of  AA^hich  are  printed  in  the  *  Gentle- 
man's Magazine,'  Iviii.  pt.  ii.  595  (1788),  until 
his  death,  his  services  Avere  in  constant  de- 
mand by  the  conductors  of  the  critical 
papers.  He  Avrote  in  the  '  Gentleman's  Ma- 
gazine,' the  '  London  Magazine,'  *  General 
Evening  Post,'  and  '  St.  James's  Chronicle,' 
but  the  most  famous  of  his  contributions 
appeared  in  the  '  ^Monthly  ReA'ieAA^'  Al- 
though he  had  been  friendly  with  Priestley, 
and  had  published  in  1780  '  A  slight  Sketch 
of  the  Controversy  betAA^een  Dr.  Priestley  and 
his  Opponents,'  a  severe  notice  from  his  pen 
of  the  doctor's  *  History  of  the  Corruptions  of 
Christianity '  appeared  in  the  pages  of  that 
review  for  June  1783.  This,  and.  an  article 
by  him  in  the  next  year  on  *  Priestley's  Letters 
to  Dr.  Horsley,'  produced  two  answers  from 
Dr.  Priestley  and  pamphlets  from  J.  E.  Hamil- 
ton and  Edward  Harwood,  D.D.  Whilst 
resident    at    Barnstaple,  Badcock    became 


Baddeley 


383 


Baddeley 


acquainted  with  the  daughter  of  Samuel  ' 
Wesley,  the  master  of  the  Tiverton  school 
and  elder  bi-other  of  John  Wesley.  The  letters 
and  anecdotes  wliich  lie  obtained  from  her 
were  transmitted  by  him  to  the '  Westminster 
Magazine  '  in  1774.  A  subsequent  account, 
based  on  her  statements,  of  the  Wesley 
family,  provoked  a  correspondence  with  John 
Wesley  ;  this  biography  was  printed  in  the 

*  Bibl.  Topog.  Britt.  iii.  pp.  xli-xlviii,  and 
reprinted,  with  the  letters  which  it  occa- 
sioned, in  Nichols's  *  Lit.  Anecdotes,'  v.  217- 
42.  Several  letters  from  Wesley  wliich  ; 
Badcock  gave  to  Priestley  were  published  by  ^ 
the  latter  in  1791  under  the  title  of '  Original 
Letters  by  Rev.  John  Wesley  and  his  Friends.'  i 
A  sermon  which  Badcock  preached  at  the 
Octagon  Chapel,  Bath,  for  the  benefit  of  the 
General  Infirmaiy,  23  Dec.  1787,  was  printed 
for  private  distribution.  Hose,  in  his  *  Bio- 
graphical Dictionary,'  says  that  he  wi'ote  in  , 
1781  a  poem  called  the  'Hermitage,'  and 
Watt  states  that  an  assize  sermon  preached 
by  him  at  St.  Peter's,  Exeter,  in  1788,  was 
published  in  1795 ;  but  neither  of  these  works 
can  be  found  at  the  British  Museum.  After 
Badcock's  death,  his  friend.  Rev.  R.  B. 
Gabriel,  D.D.,  alleged  that  he  was  the  virtual 
author  of  Dr.  Joseph  White's  Bampton  lec- 
tures on  the  effects  of  Christianity  and  Ma- 
hometauism.  A  fierce  war  of  words  raged  in 
the  papers.  Dr.  Gabriel  published  '  Facts 
relating  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  White's  Bampton 
Lectures,'  and  the  lecturer  rejoined  with  '  A 
Statement  of  Dr.  White's  Literary  Obligations 
to  the  late  Rev.  Mr,  Samuel  Badcock  and 
the  Rev.  Samuel  Parr,  LL.D.'  (1790).  From 
this  acrimonious  controversy  it  appeared 
beyond  doubt  that  Dr.  White  had  received 
considerable  assistance,  though  not  to  the 
extent  which  his  assailants  asserted,  from 
Badcock.  The  papers  which  William  Chap- 
pie had  collected  for  an  improved  edition 
of  Risdon's  '  Suney  of  Devon,'  were  entrusted 
to  Badcock's  care  for  arrangement  and  re- 
vision, and  from  this  he  was  induced  to  con- 
template the  preparation  of  a  complete  his- 
tory of  that  county.  Several  letters  on  this 
matter  are  printed  in  Rev.  R.  Polwhele's 

*  Reminiscences,'  i.  44— 77, but  the  prosecution 
of  the  work  Avas  stopped  by  Badcock's  death. 
As  a  reviewer,  Badcock  ranks  among  the 
best  known  names  of  the  last  century. 

[Chalmers;  Gent.  Mag.  1788  and  1789; 
Priestley's  Life  and  Correspondence  (1831)  ; 
Pol-whele's  Traditions  and  Recollections,  i.  184, 
240-2.]  W.  P.  C. 

BADDELEY,  ROBERT  (1733-1794), 
comedian,  is  said  to  have  been  born  in  1733. 
When  first  heard  of  he  is  cook  in  the  esta- 


blishment of  Foote,  where  he  is  supposed  to 
have  contracted  a  taste  for  the  stage.  Subse- 
quently, as  valet  to  a  gentleman  whose  name 
has  not  been  preser\ed,  he  travelled  for  three 
years  on  wliat  was  then  called  'the  grand 
tour,'  acquiring  in  so  doing  a  smattering  of 
foreign  languages  which  stood  him  subse- 
quently in  good  stead.  In  1761  he  appeared 
at  the  Smock  Alley  Theatre,  Dublin,  the  first 
part  he  played  beingGomez,anot  unimportant 
role  '  created  '  by  Nokes  in  Dryden's '  Spanish 
Friar.'  He  must  have  acted  previously,  as 
he  was  announced  as  of  Drury  Lane  theatre. 
Two  years  later  he  was  an  established  member 
of  Drury  Lane  company,  playing  low  comedy 
parts,  and  winning  some  reputation  as  an 
exponent  of  foreign  footmen.  His  chief 
claim  to  distinction  consists  in  having  been 
the  original  Moses  in  the '  School  for  Scandal.' 
While  dressing  for  this  character  on  19  Nov. 
1794  he  fell  back  ill.  The  next  day  he  ex- 
pired. His  life  with  Mrs.  Baddeley  was  un- 
happy [see  Baddeley,  Sophia,  1745-1786], 
her  loose  conduct  involving  him  in  many 
difficulties,  among  which  must  be  counted  a 
bloodless  duel  with  George  Garrick,  a  brother 
of  David.  Baddeley  is  best  remembered  by 
his  will,  in  which  he  left  the  reversion  of  his 
house  at  Moulsey,  in  Surrey,  to  found  an 
asylum  for  decayed  actors,  adding  a  provi- 
sion that  when  the  value  of  the  property 
reached  350/.  per  annum,  pensions  were  to  be 
granted  to  the  inmates.  He  also  bequeathed 
the  interest  of  100/.  to  provide  the  actors  at 
Drury  Lane  Theatre  with  wine  and  cake  in 
the  green  room  on  Twelfth  Night.  This  cus- 
tom is  still  observed.  Baddeley  Avas  the  sub- 
ject, during  his  life,  of  many  gi'oss  charges. 
Michael  Kelly  speaks  of  him  as  a  worthy 
man,  and  in  .Jews  and  Frenchmen  a  very  good 
actor.  Baddeley  is  buried  in  St.  Paul's  Church, 
Covent  Garden. 

[Gonest's  Account  of  the  English  Stage  ;  Re- 
miniscences of  Michael  Kelly  ;  Hitchcock's  His- 
torical View  of  the  Irish  Stage  ;  Theatrical  Bio- 
graphy, 1772;  Gilliland's  Di-amatic  Mirror; 
Thespian  Dictionary.]  J.  K. 

BADDELEY,  SOPHIA  (1745-1786),  ac- 
tress and  vocalist,  was  the  subject  of  a  bio- 
graphy by  a  woman  who  was  her  companion, 
and  claims  to  have  been  her  friend.  This  so- 
called  life  has  the  air  of  having  been  Avritten 
for  the  purjjose  of  extorting  money  from  the 
men  of  rank  implicated  in  the  adventures  it 
describes.  The  name  of  !Mrs.  Elizabeth 
Steele  is  advanced  as  that  of  the  author ;  but 
the  discredit  of  the  publication  has  been  as- 
signed to  Alexander  Bicknell,  the  writer  of 
a  life  of  Alfred  the  Great.  According  to 
this  work  So][)hia  Snow  was  bom  in  1745  in 


Baddeley 


384 


Badeley 


the  parish  of  St.  Margaret's,  Westminster. 
She  was  the  daughter  of  Valentine  Snow, 
Serjeant-trumpeter  to  George  II.  From  her 
father  she  recelAed  an  education  in  music 
sufficient  to  enable  her  to  turn  to  account  a 
voice  of  much  sweetness.  When  eighteen 
years  of  age  she  eloped  with  Robert  Badde- 
ley, an  actor  of  Drury  Lane  Theatre,  whom 
shortly  afterwards  she  married.  To  the  in- 
fluence of  her  husband  she  owed  her  intro- 
duction to  Drury  Lane,  at  which  house  she 
appeared  on  27  April  1766,  when  she  played 
Ophelia.  This  is  announced  on  the  playbills 
as  her  third  appearance  on  any  stage.  Genest 
supposes  that  her  d6but  took  place  on  the 
27th  of  the  previous  September,  Avhen  the 
same  character,  Ophelia,  was  assigned  in  the 
playbills  to  a  '  young  gentlewoman.'  Her 
biographer  gives  Cordelia  as  her  first  role, 
and  supports  the  statement  by  an  assertion 
that  when  she  saw  Edgar  as  Mad  Tom  she 
screamed  with  real  teiTor,  and  so  obtained 
the  sympathies  of  the  audience.  Tlie  line 
of  Mrs.  Baddeley  scarcely  extended  beyond 
genteel  comedy,'  her  most  ambitious  eifoi't, 
consisting  in  appearing  once  or  twice  during 
an  illness  of  Mrs.  Bany  as  Mrs.  Beverley  in 
the  '  Gamester.'  As  a  singer  she  obtained 
high  terms  at  Ranelagh  and  Yauxhall. 
Separated  from  her  husband  by  her  irregula- 
rities of  life,  she  played  during  some  years 
at  the  same  theatre  with  him,  never  address- 
ing him  or  being  addressed  by  him,  except 
when  the  utterance  was  dramatic.  After 
a  scene  in  the  '  Clandestine  Marriage,'  in 
which  Baddeley,  as  Canton,  urged  King,  as 
Lord  Ogleby,  to  make  love  to  Mrs.  Baddeley 
as  Fanny,  George  III  and  Queen  Charlotte 
were  so  delighted  with  the  archness  of  the 
actress  that  they  sent  an  order  to  her  to  go 
to  Zoft'any  and  be  painted  in  the  character. 
This  order  was  of  course  obeyed.  Mrs.  Bad- 
deley's  exceptional  beauty,  her  vanity,  and 
reckless  extravagance,  made  her  the  fashion. 
When  it  was  known  that  admission  would 
be  refused  her  as  an  actress  to  a  public  en- 
tertainment, fifty  gentlemen  of  higliest  sta- 
tion are  said  to  have  waited  for  her  in  the 
lobby,  drawn  their  swords  on  the  constables 
on  her  appearance,  escorted  her  in  triumph  to 
the  rooms,  and  obtained  an  apology  from  the 
directors  of  the  entertainment,  and  a  per- 
sonally accorded  welcome  from  the  aristo- 
cratic patronesses.  The  large  sums  paid  her 
were  recklessly  squandered,  and  she  was  com- 
pelled to  take  refuge  from  her  creditors  in 
Edinburgh.  Here  she  played  during  the  sea- 
sons of  1783-5.  Her  health  appears  to  have 
been  wretched.  According  to  Tate  Wilkin- 
son (Wanderinff  Patentee,  ii.  151),  she  took 
in  her  later  years  to  laudanum,  and  was  on 


one  occasion,  about  three  years  before  her 
death,  so  stupidly  intoxicated  with  it  as  to 
be  unable  to  act.  Wilkinson  says  concerning 
her  :  '  The  quantity  of  laudanum  she  indulged 
herself  with  was  incredible.'  Gait,  in  his 
'  Lives  of  the  Players,'  asserts  that  she  died 
in  Edinburgh  1  July  1801,  an  impossible  date, 
since  in  the  '  Children  of  Thespis,'  first  printed 
in  1787,  Anthony  Pasquin  (John  Williams) 
speaks  of  Scotland  and  says  (p.  121,  ed. 
1792)  :— 

There  Baddeley  sleeps  on  Mortality's  bier. 

Emaciate  and  squalid  her  body  is  laid. 

Her  limbs  lacking  shelter,  her  muscles  decayed, 

Cadaverous,  fetid,  despised,  and  deformed. 

There  seems  no  reason  indeed  to  dispute 
the  statement  in  her  '  Memoirs '  that  she  died 
in  Edinburgh  in  July  1786,  having,  during 
her  last  days,  been  supported  by  her  fellows, 
with  whom  she  was  always  a  favourite.  She 
is  said  to  be  buried  in  Edinburgh. 

[Memoirs  of  Mrs.  Sophia  Baddeley  by  Mrs. 
Elizabeth  Steele,  6  vols.,  London,  1781  ;  Wil- 
kinson's "Wandering  Patentee,  4  vols.,  London, 
1 795 ;  Gait's  Lives  of  the  Players  ;  Dutton  Cook's 
Hours  with  the  Players ;  Genest's  Account  of  the 
English  Stage,  12  vols.,  London,  1832.]    J.  K. 

BADDELEY,  THOMAS  {Jl.  1822),  a 
Roman  catholic  priest  at  Manchester,  was 
the  author  of  the  '  Sure  AVay  to  find  out  the 
True  Religion,'  a  colloquial  defence  of  Roman 
catholic  principles,  largely  mingled  with  in- 
vective against  protestantism.  The  author 
was  stated  to  be  dead  in  1825.  The  tract 
reached  a  seventh  edition  in  1847,  and  pro- 
voked several  replies. 

[A  Sure  Way  to  find  out  the  True  Religion, 
(1820?);  Richardson's  Popery  Unmasked,  1825.] 

A.  R.  B. 

BADELEY,    EDWARD  LOWTH    {d. 

1868),  ecclesiastical  lawyer,  was  the  younger 
son  of  John  Badeley,  M.D.,  near  Chelmsford, 
by  Charlotte  Brackenbury.  He  graduated 
at  Brasenose  College,  Oxford,  as  B.A.  in  1823, 
being  in  the  second  class  in  classics,  and  he 
took  his  M.A.  degree  in  1828.  In  1841  he 
was  called  to  the  bar  as  a  member  of  the 
Inner  Temple,  and  for  a  short  time  went  the 
home  circuit,  but  his  tastes  were  for  the 
study  of  ecclesiastical  law,  and  he  was  soon 
employed  in  solving  its  intricacies  by  those 
who,  like  himself,  were  zealous  for  the  spread 
of  tractarian  principles.  A  speech  by  him 
in  proof  of  the  prohibition  of  marriage  with 
a  deceased  wife's  sister  by  Holy  Scripture 
was  printed,  with  Dr.  Pusey's  evidence  before 
the  commission  then  sitting  on  the  law  of 
marriage,  in  1849.     When  Dr.  Phillpotts, 


Badew 


385 


Badham 


the    Bishop    of   Exeter,    refused    to    admit  : 
the  Rev.  G.  C.  Gorham  to  the  vicarage  of  '• 
Brampford  Speke  on  the  ground  of  his  un- 
sound doctrine  on  the  sacrament  of  baptism, 
Badeley  argued  the  bishop's  case  before  the 
judicial  committee  of  the  privy  council,  17  | 
and  18  Dec.  1849 ;  and  his  speech  on  this  ' 
occasion  was  published  as  a  pamphlet.     He  1 
gave  an  opinion  in  1851  in  favour  of  the  ; 
legality  of  altar  lights,  which  was  printed  in 
the  '  Morning  Chronicle,'  April  1851,  and  I 
was  republished  in  1866  in  connection  with 
their  use  in  the  parish  church  of  Falmouth,  j 
This   opinion   Avas  attacked    in    1851    in  a 
pamphlet  issued  'by  a  layman,  late  fellow 
of  Trinity  Coll.  Camb.'     His  last  tract  was 
in  support  of  '  The  Privilege  of  Religious 
Confessions  in  English  Courts  of  Justice,' 
1865.      In  the   summer   of    1850   Badeley 
and  thirteen  other  members  of  the  English 
church,  including  Cardinal  Manning,  signed 
a  series  of  nine  resolntions  to  the  effect  that 
the  views  of  the  privy  council  on  baptism 
should  be  solemnly  disowned  by  the  national 
church;  and  when  no  such  action  was  taken 
Badeley  and  several  of  his  colleagues  with- 
drew to  the  Roman  communion.     In  this 
new  association  he  was  mnch  engaged    in 
settling  the  legal  points  connected  with  their 
trusts  and  charities.     Dr.  Newman's  collec- 
tion of  '  Verses  on  various  Occasions '  (1868) 
was  dedicated  to  Badeley,  with  very  warm 
expressions  of  friendship,  in  commemoration 
of  their  warm  attachment  and  their  imani- 
mity  of  religious  opinions.     Many  letters  to 
and  from  Badeley  are  printed  in  Mr.  Robert 
Ornsby's  '  Memoirs  of  Mr.  J.  R.  Hope-Scott,' 
1884.  ■  Badeley  died  29  March  1868. 

[Gent.  Mag.  v.  688  (1868);  Denison's  Notes 
of  my  Life,  pp.  197-9;  Ornsby's  Memoirs  of 
.1.  R.  Hope-Seott,  pansim.']  W.  P.  C. 

BADEW,  RICHARD  (Jl.  1320-1330), 
founder  of  University  Hall,  Cambridge,  was 
descended  from  an  ancient  and  knightly 
family  which  appears  to  have  given  its  name 
to  the  manor  of  Badew  or  Badow,  near 
Chelmsford,  Essex,  and  whose  representatives 
were  owners  of  the  manor  in  the  reigns  of 
the  first  three  Edwards.  Richard  de  Badew 
married  Isabel,  daughter  of  Peter  Marshall, 
by  whom  he  had  three  sons,  William,  Ed- 
ward, and  Richard.  The  last-named  was 
chancellor  of  the  university  of  Cambridge 
in  the  year  1326,  and  was  noted  for  his  zeal 
in  the  promotion  of  learning.  It  was  during 
his  tenure  of  office  that  he  purchased,  most 
probably  on  behalf  of  the  university,  two 
tenements  in  Milne  Street,  the  property  of 
a  Cambridge  physician  named  Nigellus  de 
Thornton.     And  here,  according  to  the  tra- 

VOT,.  II. 


dition  preserved  by  Fuller,  '  he  built  a  snmll 
college,  by  the  name  of  University  Hall, 
placing  a  principal  therein,  under  whom 
scholars  lived  on  their  own  expenses.'  Scot, 
however,  in  his  'Tables  of  the  University,' 
states  that  they  were  maintained  at  the 
charges  of  the  university.  Sixteen  years 
afterwards  the  hall  was  accidentally  burnt 
down,  when  it  was  rebuilt  and  endowed  by 
Elizabeth  de  Clare,  afterwards  the  wife  of 
John  de  Burgh,  earl  of  Ulster,  its  name  being 
changed  to  Clare  Hall. 

[Morant's  Essex,  ii.  19 ;  Fuller's  History  of 
the  University  of  Cambridge,  ed.  Prickett  and 
Wright,  83-4;  Cooper's  Memorials  of  Cam- 
bridge, i.  28.]  J.  B.  M. 

BADHAM,  CHARLES,  M.D.  (1780- 
1845),  medical  and  poetical  writer,  was  born 
in  London  on  17  April  1780.  After  receiving 
a  sound  classical  education  he  applied  him- 
self to  the  study  of  medicine,  and  proceeded 
to  Edinburgh,  where  he  graduated  M.D.  in 
1802,  on  which  occasion  he  published  his 
inaugural  dissertation, '  De  Calculis.'  He  was 
admitted  a  licentiate  of  the  Royal  College  of 
Physicians  of  London  in  1803,  and  about  that 
time  entered  Pembroke  College,  Oxford,  as  a 
gentleman  commoner.  As  a  member  of  that 
house  he  graduated  B.A.  in  1811,  M.A.  in 
1812,  M.B.  and  M.D.  in  181 7.  In  March  1818 
he  was  elected  a  fellow  of  the  Royal  Society, 
and  in  Se])tember  the  same  year  admitted  a 
fellow  of  the  Royal  College  of  Physicians. 
He  was  censor  of  the  college  in  1821,  and 
wrote  the  Harveian  oration  which  w^as  de- 
livered in  1840. 

Badham  began  to  practise  his  profession 
in  London  in  1803,  and  before  long  he  was 
appointed  physician  to  the  Duke  of  Sussex. 
He  also  became  physician  to  the  Westminster 
General  Dispensary,  and  in  conjunction  with 
Dr.  Crichton  of  Clifford  Street,  he  delivered 
lectures  in  London  on  physic,  chemistry,  and 
the  materia  viedica.  After  the  conclusion 
of  peace  in  1815  he  determined  to  enlarge 
his  stores  of  scientific  information  and  of 
general  knowledge  by  a  visit  to  the  conti- 
nent. Accordingly  he  spent  two  years  in 
travelling  through"  Europe.  Traversing  the 
less-known  parts  of  the  kingdom  of  Naples, 
he  passed  to  the  Ionian  Islands  and  thence 
to  Albania,  where  he  was  consulted  by  Ali 
Pasha.  He  then  pursued  his  course  over 
Mount  Pindus,  through  Thessaly,  and  by 
Thermopylae  to  Athens,  and  thence  by  the 
isthmus  and  gulf  of  Corinth  to  the  Neapo- 
litan coast.  Badham's  fondness  for  travel, 
in  which  he  spent  nearly  the  half  of  his  days, 
and  his  taste  for  classical  literature,  were 
unfavourable  to  his  attaining  that  celebrity 

0  0 


Badham 


386 


Badham 


and  extent  of  practice  Avhicli,  had  he  remained 
in  the  metropolis,  Avould,  with  ordinary  dili- 
gence, assuredly  have  been  his  portion ;  but 
he  preferred  the  easier,  though  less  lucrative, 
occu])ation  of  travelling  physician  to  persons 
of  high  degree. 

In  1808  he  gave  proof  of  his  attainments 
as  an  observant  practical  physician  by  the 
publication  of  '  Observations  on  the  Inflam- 
matory Affections  of  the  Mucous  Membrane 
of  the  Bronchife  '  (Lond.,  12mo),  a  second 
edition  of  which,  corrected  and  enlarged,  ap- 
peared in  1814  under  the  title  of  '  An  Essay 
on  Bronchitis,  with  a  Supplement  containing 
Remarks  on  Simple  Pulmonary  Abscess.'  In 
this  treatise  bronchitis,  acute  and  chronic, 
was  for  the  first  time  separated  from  ])eri- 
]raeumony  and  pleurisy  and  the  other  con- 
ditions with  which  it  had  ]n-eviously  been 
confounded,  and  its  history,  differential  dia- 
gnosis, and  treatment  established. 

In  1812  he  published  at  Oxford  '  Speci- 
mens of  a  New  Translation  of  Juvenal,'  which 
was  followed  by  a  forcible  and  elegant  ver- 
sion of  '  The  Satires  f)f  Juvenal,  translated 
into  English  verse '  (Lond.  1814,  8vo  ;  re- 
printed 1 83 1 ) .  These  Avorks  were  very  severely 
criticised  in  the  '  Quarterly  Keview'  by  Dr. 
Gifford,  himself  the  author  of  a  translation 
of  the  same  satirist.  Dr.  Gifford  Avas,  hoAV- 
ever,  constrained  to  admit  that  Badliam's 
performance  Avas  not  Avithout  merit,  and  that 
in  some  passages,  in  Avhichhehad  had  to  con- 
tend Avith  Dryden,  he  had  *Avell  sustained 
the  contest.' 

When,  in  1827,  the  chair  of  the  practice 
of  physic  at  GlasgOAV  became  A'acant,  Bad- 
ham Avas  recommended  by  his  friend  Sir 
Henry  Halford  to  the  Duke  of  Montrose 
as  one  Avhose  talents  and  accomplishments 
would  tend  to  increase  the  fame  of  a  rising 
university ;  and  although  Scotchmen  Avere 
not  pleased  at  seeing  an  Englishman  preferred 
before  them,  his  lectures  displayed  so  much 
ability  that  they  soon  found  they  had  reason 
to  be  ])roud  of  the  services  of  so  brilliant  and 
remarkable  a  professor.  At  GlasgoAv  Bad- 
ham Avas  but  little  solicitous  of  medical  prac- 
tice,  and  dcA^oted  himself  almost  exclusiA^ely 
to  the  duties  of  his  chair.  The  A'acationshe 
s])ent  in  traA^el,  mostly  in  the  south  of  Europe. 
He  died  in  London  10  Nov.  1845. 

He  Avas  a  contributor  to  '  BlackAvood's 
Magazine.  There  appeared  in  April  1829 
his  *  Lines  written  at  Warwick  Castle,'  AA-hich 
had  been  printed  Avith  notes,  for  priA'ate  cir- 
culation, in  1827,  4to,  He  prepared  for  the 
press  an  '  Itinerary  from  Rome  to  Athens,' 
but  it  was  never  published. 

Badham  was  tAvice  married  ;  in  early  life 
to  the  beautiful  Miss  Margaret  Campbell,  first 


cousin  of  Thomas  Cam])bell  the  poet,  and  for 
Avhose  hand  tlie  poet  is  understood  to  liaA-e 
been  an  unsuccessful  suitor.  About  1833 
Badham  maiTied,  secondly,  Caroline,  eldest 
daughter  ofAdmiral  Sir  Edward  Foote,K.C.B. 
Tavo  of  his  sons  are  noticed  in  separate  articles. 

[Private  information  ;  St.  James's  Chronicle, 
lo  Nov.  1845  ;  Quarterly  Review,  viii.  60,  xi. 
377;  Biog.  Diet,  of  Living  Authors  (1816),  11  ; 
Gent.  Mag.  N.8.  xxv.  99  ;  Munk's  College  of 
Physicians,  2nd  edit.,  iii.  190  ;  Times,  26  June 
1840.]  T.  C. 

BADHAM,  CHARLES,  D.D.  (1813- 
1884),  classical  scholar,  born  at  LudloAv,Shrop- 
shire,  on  18  July  1813,  Avas  the  son  of  Charles 
Badham,  M.D.,  F.R.S.,  regius  professor  of 
physic  in  the  university  of  Glasgow,  and  of 
Margaret  (daughter  of  Mr.  John  Cam])bell), 
a  cousin  of  Thomas  Campbell  the  poet.  He 
Avas  educated  first  under  the  celebrated  Pes- 
talozzi,  whose  faAOurite pupil  he  became,  and 
afterwards  at  Eton  ;  and  in  1830  he  obtained 
a  scholarshi])  at  Wadham  College,  Oxford, 
where  he  graduated  B.A.  in  1837,  and  M.A. 
in  1839.  After  seven  years'  study  in  Ger- 
many and  Italy  he  Avas  incorporated  M.A.  at 
Cambridge  as  a  member  of  St.  Peter's  Col- 
lege ;  Avas  ordained  priest  in  1848  ;  appointed 
head  master  of  King  Edward  '\^I's  Grammar 
School  at  Louth  in  1851  ;  took  the  degree  of 
D.D.  at  Cambridge  in  1852;  Avas  appointed 
in  1854  head  master  of  the  proprietary  school 
atEdgbaston,  near  Birmingham ;  and  in  1860 
received  from  the  uniA^ersity  of  Leyden  the 
honorary  degree  of  doctor  literarum  at  the 
suggestion  of  Professor  Cobet,  Avho  could 
discern  the  merits  Avhich  England  ignored. 
In  1863  he  Avas  appointed  examiner  in  classics 
to  the  university  of  London. 

Early  in  life  Dr.  Badham  had  become  the 
constant  comjjanion  and  A'oluntary  disciple 
of  Frederick  Denison  Maurice.  Indeed  he 
was  deban-ed  from  promotion  in  the  church 
of  England  by  the  circumstance  of  his  hold- 
ing opinions  Avhich  AA-ere  a  A'ery  serious  hin- 
drance to  preferment.  Moreover,  in  con- 
sidering liis  com])arative  Avant  of  success 
in  this  country,  it  must  be  admitted  that 
he  lacked  the  methodical,  businesslike  habits 
which  the  proper  management  of  a  large 
school  requires ;  and  although  the  most 
wai-m-hearted  and  placable  of  men  he  suffered 
from  infirmities  of  temper  AA'hich  could  not 
fail  to  some  extent  to  impair  his  influence. 
Many  years  before  he  quitted  his  native  land, 
such  men  as  Dr.  (afterwards  Cardinal)  New- 
man, Mv.  Robert  LoAve  (afterAvards  Lord 
Sherbrooke),  and  Grote,  had  pronounced  him 
to  be  the  greatest  of  living  scholars  ;  and  the 
'  Quarterly  RevieAv '  said  of  him  that  '  he 


Badham 


387 


Badham 


could  imjMirt  instruction  to  the  ripest  scholars 
of  the  age,  and  that  he  was  universally  re- 
garded on  the  continent  as  the  first  living 
scholar  in  England.' 

When  Badham  resolved  to  leave  t  he  country 
which  had  failed  to  reward  his  gi'eat  merits 
as  a  scholar  and  to  become  a  candidate  for  a 
professorial  chair  at  the  Antipodes,  the  testi- 
monials he  obtained  as  to  his  attainments 
were  of  a  most  remarkable  character.  For 
instance,  Cardinal  Newman  wrote :  '  As  to 
his  classical  attainments,  others  will  tell  you, 
who  have  a  better  claim  to  speak  than  I  have, 
that  he  is  the  first  Greek  scholar  of  the  day 
in  this  country.'  Dr.  AVilliam  Smith,  after 
testifying  to  his  geniality,  his  winning  man- 
nei'S,  his  extensive  knowledge  on  all  suWects, 
remarked :  ^  As  to  his  scholarship  I  say 
nothing  ;  he  is  ])re-eminently  the  best  verbal 
■critic  in  England,  and,  taken  altogether,  may 
be  i)ronounced  our  greatest  scholar.  It  is  a 
great  shame  and  a  reproach  to  us  that  such 
a  singularly  gifted  man  should  be  willing  to 
go  to  the  Antipodes.'  Hawtrey,  master  and 
afterwards  provost  of  Eton,  testified :  '  I 
have  known  him  for  nearer  forty  than  thirty 
years,  and  I  can  sincerely  say  that  among  all 
I  have  had  to  deal  with  in  my  Eton  expe- 
rience, I  have  never  known  a  more  remark- 
able scholar.  His  ])ublislied  editions  of  por- 
tions of  Plato  and  Euripides  recall  the  skill 
of  Person  more  than  the  criticisms  of  any 
living  scholar ; '  and  Dr.  Thompson,  regius 
professor  of  Greek  at  Cambridge,  afterwards 
master  of  Trinity  College,  wrote :  '  I  am 
therefore  able,  conscientiously,  to  state  that 
as  a  scholar  Dr.  Badham  has  few  equals,  and 
no  superior  in  England :  and  that  there  is 
no  person  in  England  or  elsewhere  to  whose 
judgment  T  should  be  moi'e  inclined  to  defer 
m  the  higher  departments  of  Greek  criticism. 
That  this  opinion  is  shared  by  the  best  con- 
tinental scholars  I  could  produce  abundant 
evidence.' 

In  18G7  Badham,  to  the  great  I'egret  of  his 
numerous  friends  here,  proceeded  to  Australia 
on  being  appointed  professor  of  classics  and 
logic  in  the  university  of  Sydney,  where  he 
passed  the  remainder  of  his  life.  His  influ- 
ence Avas  wide  and  strong  in  favour  of  intel- 
lectual cultvu-e.  One  of  his  earliest  enter- 
jjrises  after  his  arrival  in  New  South  Wales 
was  the  establishment  of  a  system  of  teach- 
ing by  correspondence  in  order  to  meet  the 
desire  for  knowledge  of  persons  living  in  the 
outlying  parts  of  the  colony.  He  likewise 
succeeded  in  raising  10,000^  in  the  colony, 
to  be  devoted  to  founding  exhibitions  at  the 
university,  and  at  the  time  of  his  decease  he 
was  engaged  in  perfecting  a  scheme  which, 
by  means  of  evening  classes,  would  practically 


bring  universitv  education  within  the  reacli 
of  even  the  laljouring  cla-sses.  He  died  at 
Sydney  on  2(>  Feb.  1884,  and  was  buried  in 
the  church  of  England  cemetery  in  West 
Street. 

Badham's  memoiy  was  marvellous.  It  is 
hardly  an  exaggeration  to  say  that  he  knew 
all  Greek  poetry  by  heart.  He  constantly 
taught  his  pupils  with  no  book  before  him, 
and  if  they  misread  a  single  word  he  would 
coiTect  them.  He  had  an  almost  equal 
masteiy  over  Latin,  English,  French,  and 
Italian  literature,  and  was  Avell  read  in  Gex"- 
man ;  and  through  his  habit  of  constantly 
illustrating  one  author  by  another  and  one 
literature  by  another,  he  taught  his  pupils  to 
look  on  letters  as  a  whole. 

He  published  editions  with  notes  of  the 
'  Iphigenia '  and '  Helena '  of  Euri])ides  ( 1 851 ), 
of  the  'Ion'  of  Euripides  (1851,  1853,  and 
18G1),  of  Plato's  '  Philebus'  (1855  and  1878), 
of  Plato's '  Eut  hydemus '  and '  Laches '  (1865) ; 
also  'Criticism  applied  to  Shakspere,' Lond. 
1840,  8vo,  being  a  partial  reprint  of  a  series 
of  essays  published  originally  in  the  '  Sur- 
plice '  newspaper ;  '  The  Text  of  Shakspeare ' 
in  '  Cambridge  Essays,  contributed  by  mem- 
bers of  the  University,'  Lond.  1856,  pp.  261- 
290;  and  'Adhortatio  ad  Juventutem  Aca- 
demicam  Sydneiensem,'  1869. 

[Private  information  ;  Sydney  Morning  Herald, 
28  Feb.  1884,  also  mail  edition  6  March  1884  ; 
Times,  10  and  14  April,  1884 ;  Crockford's  Clerical 
Dii'eetory  (1882) ;  Saturday  Review.  26  April 
1884,  p.  541 ;  Athenaeum,  19  April  1884,  p.  506  ; 
Illustrated  Sydney  News,  15  March  1884,  p.  2  ; 
Heaton's  Australian  Diet,  of  Dates  and  Men  of 
the  Time  (1879),  7;  Cat.  of  Printed  Books  in 
Brit.  Mus.]  T.  C. 

BADHAM,  CHARLES  DAVID,  M.D. 

(1806-1857),  naturalist,  son  of  Dr.  Charles, 
and  brother  of  Professor  Badham  of  Sydney, 
was  born  in  London  in  1806,  and  educated  at 
Eton  and  Oxford.  After  taking  his  degree 
he  was  appointed  a  travelling  fellow  of  the 
university,  and  resided  for  a  long  time  on 
the  continent,  especially  at  Rome  and  Paris. 
He  became  a  fellow  of  the  College  of  Phy- 
sicians, but,  the  delicacy  of  his  health 
proving  an  obstacle  to  his  obtaining  medical 
practice,  he  entered  the  church,  and  suc- 
cessively held  curacies  in  Noi-folk  and  Suffolk. 
He  died  on  14  July  1857.  He  contributed 
extensively  to  Blackwood's  and  Eraser's  IMaga- 
zines.  and  wTote  three  valuable  works:  1.  'In- 
sect Life,'  1845.  2.  'The  Esculent  Funguses 
of  England,'  1847,  a  book  Avhich  embodied 
the  results  of  much  research  on  the  conti- 
nent, and  introduced  many  varieties  of  whole- 
some mushrooms,  previously  neglected,  to 
English    tables.      3.    '  Prose   Ilalieutics,   or 

c  C  2 


Badiley 


388 


Badiley 


Ancient  and  Modern  Fish  Tattle/  1854,  a 
delightful  miscellany  of  zoological  anecdotes 
and  classical  lore,  especially  valuable  for  its 
lively  illustrations  of  Oppian  and  Athenteus, 
derived  from  the  author's  personal  experience 
of  the  Mediterranean  coasts. 

[Eraser's  Magazine,  Ivi.  152,  1.53.]       R.  Gr. 

BADILEY,  RICHARD  {fl.  1649-1656), 
admiral,  was  apparently  a  merchant,  ship- 
owner, and  ship-captain,  whom  the  course  of 
the  civil  war  called  to  a  more  stirring  life. 
Of  his  early  service  under  the  parliament, 
and  whether  on  shore  or  afloat,  nothing  is 
known.  His  name  does  not  appear  in  any 
published  list  of  the  paidiamentaiy  fleet  down 
to  May  1648  (Penn's  Life  of  Penn,  i.  255), 
but  we  find  him  in  ^Vpril  1649  captain  of  the 
Happy  Entrance  and  commander-in-chief  of 
the  tieet  in  the  Downs,  specially  charged 
with  appointing  and  regulating  the  convoys 
of  merchant  ships  and  proposing  measures  to 
the  council  of  state  for  capturing  or  destroy- 
ing the  Antelope,  one  of  the  ships  which  had 
gone  over  to  the  Prince  of  Wales  [see  Bat- 
tel, SiK  William],  and  was  lying  at  Hel- 
voetsluys.  The  attempt  was  made  with  per- 
fect success,  and  the  Antelope  destroyed  by 
a  party  of  seamen  from  the  Happy  Entrance, 
commanded  by  her  lieutenant,  Stephen  Rose, 
to  whom  a  gold  medal  and  a  gratuity  of  48/. 
was  awarded  as  encouragement.  Through 
the  years  1650  and  1651  Badiley  seems  to 
have  continued  in  the  Downs  and  the  North 
Sea,  and  in  December  1651  sailed  in  the 
Paragon,  a  ship  of  the  second  rate,  together 
with  a  small  squadron,  in  convoy  of  the  Le- 
vant trade.  On  14  Feb.  1651-2  he  over- 
haviled  an  Algerine  corsair,  and  having  the 
greater  force  took  out  of  her  all  the  English 
captives.  He  then  passed  on  to  Zante,  to 
Smyrna,  and  so  back  towards  Legliorn,  where, 
having  had  news  of  the  war  with  Holland, 
he  hoped  to  effect  a  junction  with  Commo- 
dore Appleton  [see  Appleton,  Henry].  Un- 
fortunately Appleton  could  not  or  would  not 
stir  to  meet  him,  and  the  Dutch,  leaving  two 
ships,  which  proved  sufficient  to  hold  Apple- 
ton  in  check,  turned  to  attack  Badiley,  who 
had  only  four  ships  with  which  to  oppose 
the  ten  or  eleven  now  brought  against  him. 
Oft"  the  island  of  Elba  the  fight  began  about 
four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  27  Aug.  1652, 
and  continued  till  nightfall.  The  English 
ships,  and  the  Paragon  more  especially,  were 
singly  superior  to  any  of  the  Dutch  who 
swarmed  round  them  and  endeavoured  to 
carry  them  by  force  of  numbers.  The  fight- 
ing was  mostly  hand  to  hand  or  at  very 
short  range.  '  AN'e  discharged,'  wrote  Badiley, 
*  that  day  from  this  ship  (the  Paragon)  800  j 


pieces  of  great  ordnance,  which  must  have 
done  no  small  execution,  having  sometime* 
two  of  the  enemy's  best  men-of-war  aboard^ 
and  all  the  rest  within  pistol  and  musket 
shot  of  us '  (31  Aug.)  The  Paragon  had 
26  killed  and  57  wounded,  out  of  a  comple- 
ment of  250  ;  had  fifty  shot  in  the  hull,  many 
of  them  between  wind  and  water,  and  her 
masts  and  rigging  cut  to  pieces.  Badiley 
thought  and  said  that  tlie  other  ships  might 
and  should  have  taken  some  of  the  pressure 
oft"  the  Paragon ;  but  in  fact  they  were  seve- 
rally as  hard  pi'essed  as  the  Paragon,  and 
had  not  her  size  and  strength.  They  fired 
away  almost  all  their  ammunition,  and  to- 
wards evening  the  Dutch  succeeded  in  making 
themselves  masters  of  the  Phcenix.  And  so 
the  fight  ended  ;  the  English  going  the  next 
day  into  Porto  Longone  in  Elba.  Tlie  Dutch 
contemplated  attacking  them  there,  and  of- 
fered the  governor  a  large  sum  of  money  to- 
permit  them.  He,  however,  refused  it,  and 
allowed  Badiley  to  strengthen  his  position 
by  throwing  up  some  batteries  and  landing 
some  of  his  ship's  guns.  Towards  the  end  of 
October  Badiley  received  orders  from  home  to 
take  command  of  the  squadron  at  Leghorn,. 
and,  crossing  over,  he  concerted  measures 
with  Appleton  for  the  recapture  of  the  Phoe- 
nix, the  success  of  which  led  to  the  Grand 
Duke's  ordering  the  English  to  quit  the  port. 
This  they  did,  and  were,  with  one  exception,, 
all  captured  by  the  Dutch,  before  Badiley,. 
Avho  was  in  the  offing,  but  to  leeward,  could 
offer  any  assistance.  After  this  there  was 
nothing  further  to  be  done  but  to  provide  for 
the  safety  of  the  remaining  ships,  and  Badile\ 
accordingly  went  down  the  5lediterranean, 
and  so  home,  arriving  in  the  Downs  in  the 
early  days  of  May  1653.  His  men,  he  wrote, 
were  very  turbulent  and  mutinous,  refused 
all  compromise,  and  were  determined  to  go 
into  the  river  to  be  paid  off:  They  ob- 
tained their  demands.  '  We  are  paying  off" 
the  Straits  fleet,'  wrote  Commissioner  Pett 
from  Chatham  on  1  June ;  '  they  are  the 
rudest  people  I  ever  saAv.  I  hope  the  ring- 
leaders will  be  called  to  account.'  About 
120  of  them  were,  however,  immediately 
shipped  off"  to  join  the  main  fleet  with  Blake. 
'  I  have  had  no  small  trouble  to  quiet  them,' 
MTote  Major  Bourne  on  4  June  ;  *  they  are  so 
enraged  that  they  are  sent  away.  I  have 
promised  them  that  as  soon  as  the  exigency 
of  affairs  permits  they  shall  enjoy  the  liberty 
granted  them.'  The  campaign  in  the  Medi- 
terranean had  ended  so  disastrously,  and 
Appleton  was  so  vehement  in  his  accusa- 
tions, that  Badiley's  conduct  was  formally 
inquired  into.  The  charges  recoiled  on  Ap- 
pleton, and  Badiley  was  not  only  cleared  of 


Baffin 


389 


Baffin 


all  blame  but  was  (7  Dec.)  promoted  to  be 
rear-admiral  of  the  fleet,  a  rank  equivalent 
then  to  what  was  afterwards  known  as  ad- 
miral of  the  blue  squadron.  He  served  for 
a  few  months  in  the  Vanguard,  and  was 
then  transferred  to  the  Andrew,  in  which, 
as  second  to  Blake,  he  went  to  the  Mediter- 
ranean, and  was  engaged  in  the  reduction  of 
Tunis  and  the  liberation  of  English  captives 
along  the  northern  coast  of  Africa  [seeBiAKK, 
IvOBKRt].  The  Andrew  came  home  and  was 
paid  oft"  in  the  autumn  of  1655.  In  the  sum- 
mer of  1656  Badiley  superseded  Lawson  as 

^  vice-admiral  in  the  command  of  the  fleet  in 
the  Downs.  This  ended  his  service.  In 
April  1657  he  was  living  at  Wapping,  in 

»>«i-'feeble  health;  he  probably  died  within  the 
next  two  or  three  years,  for  there  is  no  trace 

c'f  of  him  after  the  Restoration,  whilst  William 

^,t Badiley,  presumably  his  brother,  was  for 
many  years  master  attendant  at  Woolwich. 

^„v«-  |-Ca,iendars  of  State  Papers,  Domestic,  1649- 
57 ;  Captain  BadiJey's  Reply  to  Captain  Ap- 
pleton's  Remonstrance,  1653.]  J.  K.  L. 

B^DA.     [See  Bebe.] 

BAFFIN,  WILLIAM  {d.  1622),  navi- 
gator and  discoverer,  was  most  probably  a 
native  of  London,  but  nothing  is  known  of 
his  early  life.  The  earliest  mention  of  him 
is  in  1612,  as  pilot  of  the  Patience,  fitted 
out  at  Hull  by  James  Hall,  for  a  voyage  of 
discovery  to  Greenland.  Hall  was  a  York- 
ehireman,  as  Avas  Andrew  Barker,  master  of 
the  Patience's  consort,  the  Heartsease  ;  but 
four  merchants  of  London — Sir  Thomas 
Smythe  (most  commonly  misspelt  Smith), 
Sir  James  Lancaster,  Sir  William  Cockayne, 
and  Mr.  Ball — had  a  large  and  principal 
share  in  the  adventure ;  and  it  is  conjectured 
that  Baffin  may  have  been  appointed  at  their 
instance.  The  expedition  left  the  Ilumber 
on  22  April,  and  examined  the  west  coast  of 
Greenland,  as  far  as  67°  N. ;  but.  Hall 
having  been  killed  in  an  aftray  with  the 
natives,  the  ships  returned  to  England  under 
the  command  of  Barker.  The  account  of  the 
voyage  was  written  by  Baffin,  part  of  which 
only,  as  published  by  Purchas,  has  been  pre- 
served ;  another  account,  written  by  John 
Gatonby,  one  of  the  quartermasters,  is  in 
Churchill's  '  Collection  of  Voyages,'  vi.  241. 
On  his  return  from  Greenland,  Baffin  en- 
tered the  service  of  the  Muscovy  Company, 
which  had  for  some  years  past  sent  their 
ships  to  catch  whales  near  Spitzbergen. 
They  had  just  obtained  a  charter,  pretending 
to  give  them  the  exclusive  right  of  this 
fishery;  and  authorised  by  it  had,  in  1612, 
been  sufficiently  strong  to  drive  away  all 


foreigners.  In  1613  thev  again  sent  out 
a  fleet  of  seven  ships,  under  the  command 
of  Captain  Benjamin  Joseph,  in  the  Tiger, 
with  William  liaffin  as  chief  pilot.  Tliey 
found  seventeen  foreign  ships,  Dutchmen, 
Dunkirkers,  and  Biscayans,  already  on  the 
Spitzbergen  coast ;  these  all  submitted  to 
the  English  claim  without  resistance  ;  most 
of  them  were  ordered  away,  a  few  only  being 
allowed  to  fish  on  payment  of  half  their  take 
to  the  English  ships,  which  returned  safely 
in  September  with  full  cargoes.  The  narra- 
tive of  this  voyage,  Avritten  by  Baffin,  has 
been  preserved  in  Purchas ;  another  account, 
by  Robert  Fotherby,  one  of  the  party,  is 
printed  from  the  original  manuscript  in 
!  '  Transactions  and  Collections  of  the  Ameri- 
can Antiquarian  Society'  (1860),  iv.  285. 
The  following  year,  1614,  Baffin  served  again 
in  the  Spitzbergen  fisheiy  with  Captain 
Joseph,  and  in  company  with  Fotherby, 
)  whose  naiTative  of  the  voyage  is  given  by 
I  Purchas.  The  two,  leaving  their  ship,  pro- 
!  visioned  two  boats  and  persistentlj-  pushed 
i  along  the  north  coast  to  the  eastward,  as  far 
j  as  Ilinlopen  Strait ;  but  the  year  Avas  very 
unfavourable,  the  ice  coming  close  down  to 
I  the  coast  during  the  greater  part  of  the 
season.  Baffin  returned  to  London  on  4  Oct., 
and  the  next  year  took  seiwice  with  the 
company  for  the  discovery  of  a  north-west 
passage,  the  directors  of  which  Avere  Sir 
Thomas  Smythe,  Sir  Dudley  Digges,  and 
John  W^olstenholme ;  he  was  appointed  pilot 
of  the  Discovery,  commanded  by  Captain 
Robert  Bylot.  The  accoimt  of  this  voyage, 
written  by  Baffin,  was  printed  very  incor- 
rectly by  Purchas  :  the  original  manuscript, 
with  map,  is  in  the  British  Museum  {Add. 
MSS.  12,  206),  and  was  edited  for  the  Hak- 
luyt  Society  in  1849  (Rvkball,  Narratives 
of  Voyages  towards  the  North-west^.  As 
pilot  of  the  Discovery  in  1615,  Baffin  care- 
fully examined  Hudson  Strait  and  the  east- 
em  coast  of  Southampton  Island,  with  such 
accuracy  that  his  latitudes  and  his  notes  on 
the  tides  are  in  remarkable  agreement  with 
the  more  rigid  obserAations  of  the  present 
century.  They  passed  up  Fox  Channel, 
beyond  Cape  Comfort ;  but  finding  the  land 
heading  them,  and,  he  says,  S'ery  thick 
pestered  with  ice,  and  the  further  we  pro- 
ceeded the  more  ice  and  shoaler  water,  with 
small  show  of  any  tide,  we  soon  resolved 
there  could  be  no  passage  in  this  place,  and 
presently  we  bore  up  the  helm  and  turned 
the  ship's  head  to  the  southward  (13  July). 
The  laud  Avhicli  we  saw  bear  north  and 
north-east  was  about  nine  or  ten  leagues 
from  us ;  and,  surely,  without  any  question, 
this  is  the  bottom  of  the  baA'  on  the  west 


Baffin 


390 


Baffin 


side  ;  but  how  far  it  runneth  more  eastward 
is  yet  uncertain.'  In  August  1821,  Captain 
Parry,  with  better  fortune,  repeated  Baffin's 
observations ;  he  confirmed  the  remark  as  to 
the  '  small  show  of  any  tide,'  and  he  saw 
also  the  laud  to  the  north-east ;  l)ut  he  found 
this  to  be  an  island,  to  which  he  gave  the 
appropriate  name  of  Baffin's  Island,  and 
succeeded  in  passing  away  bevoud  (  Voyaye 
of  Fw-y  and  Hecla,  1824,  p.  33).  The  Dis- 
covery anchored  in  Plymouth  Sound  on 
8  Sept. ;  and  Baffin,  summing  up  the  results 
of  the  voyage,  says  that  '  doubtless  there  is 
a  passage ;  but  within  this  strait,  which  is 
called  Hudson's  Strait,  I  am  doubtful,  sup- 
posing the  contrary  .  .  .  and  my  judgment 
is  if  any  passage  within  Kesolution  Island, 
it  is  but  some  creek  or  inlet,  but  the  main 
will  be  up  Fretum  Davis.'  Acting  on  this 
opinion,  in  the  next  year,  1616,  also  in  the 
Discovery,  Avith  Captain  Bylot,  he  passed  up 
Davis  Strait,  and  pushing  to  the  north  as 
far  as  78°  N.,  discovered  and  named  Smith's 
Sound  (in  which  the  false  spelling  has  be- 
come a  geographical  fact),  Lancaster  Sound, 
Jones  Sound,  Wolstenholme  Sound,  Sir 
Dudley  Digges  Ca])e,  with  many  others,  and 
charted  the  Avhole  in  a  manner  which  we 
have  warrant  to  suppose  was  fairly  accurate 
according  to  the  nautical  science  of  the  day. 
Unfortunately,  the  map  and  the  journal,  as 
well  as  the  narrative,  were  handed  over  to 
Purchas,  who  published  the  narrative  alone, 
and  that  probably  in  a  garbled  and  imperfect 
form,  considering  the  reproduction  of  the 
chart  and  of  the  journal  too  costly  an  under- 
taking. And,  so  far  as  is  known,  neither 
the  one  nor  the  other  has  e^er  been  seen 
since,  though  Mr.  Markham  offers  the  very 
plausible  conjecture  that  the  map  published 
by  Luke  Foxe  in  1635  {North-  West  Fox,  8fc.) 
may  have  been,  in  this  part,  coj)ied  from  the 
lost  map  of  Baffin.  It  does  not  mark  all 
Baffin's  names,  but  it  does  represent  the  bay 
as  something  like  the  reality,  and  closed,  as  it 
is  described  by  Baffin.  Baffin's  conclusion, 
stated  in  his  report  to  Sir  John  Wolsten- 
holme,  is  briefly  :  '  There  is  no  passage,  nor 
hope  of  passage,  in  the  north  of  Davis  Strait, 
we  having  coasted  all  or  nearly  all  the  cir- 
cumference thereof,  and  find  it  to  be  no  other 
than  a  great  bay.'  The  want  of  the  original 
map,  however,  permitted  very  wild  state- 
ments as  to  the  shape  and  size  of  Baffin's 
Bay  to  grow  up,  so  that  in  course  of  time  it 
came  to  be  doubted  whether  the  whole  story 
was  not  a  fable ;  and  in  later  maps  the  dis- 
torted representation  of  Baffin's  most  im- 
portant discoveries  was  omitted  altogether 
as  a  mere  fancy,  till,  in  1818,  Captain  Ross 
rediscovered  them,   and   without  difficulty 


identified  the  localities  which  Baffin  had  de- 
scribed and  named  ( Voyaye  in  H.M.  ship,^ 
Isabella  and  Alexander  (4to,  1819),  140, 146). 
Baffin  had  expressed  an  opinion  against 
the  existence  of  a  north-west  passage ;  but 
his  imagination  would  not  be  convinced,  and 
suggested  that  better  fortune  might  attend 
an  expedition  on  the  other  side,  starting 
from  the  neighbourhood  of  Japan.  In  some 
such  hope,  though  (^uite  indefinite,  he  ob- 
tained an  appointment  as  master's  mate  in 
the  Anne  Royal,  a  large  ship  belonging  ta 
the  East  India  Company,  and  commanded 
by  Captain  Andrew  Shilling.  This  was  one 
of  the  fleet  which  sailed  from  the  Downs  on 
5  March  1616-7,  and  arrived  at  Surat  in 
the  following  September.  Captain  Shilling 
was  then  directed  to  proceed  into  the  Red 
Sea  for  settling  an  English  trade  in  those 
parts ;  and  arrived  off  Mocha  on  13  April 

1618.  The  Anne  Royal  remained  in  the 
Red  Sea  for  about  four  months,  during 
which  time  Baffin  was  busily  employed  in 
surveying  and  in  charting  his  observations  ; 
and  so  also,  when,  later  in  the  year,  the  ship 
went  into  the  Persian  Gulf,  In  February 
the  Anne  Royal  left  India  homeward  bound, 
and   arrived   in  the  Thames  in   September 

1619.  A  minute  of  the  court  of  directors,, 
dated  1  Oct.,  orders  '  "William  Baffin,  a 
master's  mate  in  the  Anne,  to  have  a  gratuity 
for  his  pains  and  good  art  in  draM'ing  out 
certain  plots  of  the  coast  of  Persia  and  thf 
Red  Sea,  which  are  judged  to  have  been 
very  well  and  artificially  performed  :  some 
to  be  drawn  out  by  Adam  Bowen,  for  the 
benefit  of  such  as  shall  be  employed  in  those 
parts'  {Calendar  of  State  Papers,  Colonial^ 
East  Indies,  1617-21,  267). 

Early  the  next  year.  Captain  Shilling,  in 
the  London,  a  new  ship,  again  sailed  for  the 
East  Indies,  in  command  of  a  company'.s^ 
fleet  of  four  ships,  and  Baffin  accompanied 
him  as  master.  They  arrived  at  Surat  on 
9  Nov.  1620,  and  having  learned  that  a  com- 
bined force  of  two  Portuguese  and  two 
Dutch  ships,  making  common  cause  against 
the  English,  were  waiting  at  the  entrance  of 
the  Persian  Gulf,  to  attack  such  of  their 
ships  as  came  that  way,  they  sailed  at  once 
to  look  for  and  anticipate  them.  On  16  Dec. 
the  two  fleets,  equal  in  point  of  numbers, 
met  and  engaged.  They  fought  for  nine 
hours,  and  separated  to  repair  damages. 
Twelve  days  later  they  met  again.  Captain 
Swan,  of  the  English  ship  Roebuck,  whose 
journal  is  gi^en  by  Purchas  (the  original 
manuscript  of  which  is  in  the  India  Office) 
says  :  '  Our  broadsides  were  brought  up,  and 
the  good  ordnance  from  our  whole  fleet  played 
so  fast  upon  them  that,  doubtless,  if  the  know- 


Bafifin 


391 


Bage 


It'dge  in  our  peoplo  had  been  answerable  to 
their  willing  icinds  and  ready  resolutions  not 
one  of  the  galleons,  unless  their  sides  were 
impenetrable,  had  escaped  us.'  It  was,  per- 
haps, not  oidy  the  want  of  knowledge  but 
the  imperfections  of  the  guns,  of  the  powder 
and  of  the  shot,  that  rendered  it  possible  for 
ships  to  fire  at  each  other  all  day  without 
any  decided  i-esult.  On  this  occasion,  how- 
ever, some  damage  was  done,  and  towards 
evening  the  enemy  towed  their  ships  off, 
and  were  not  pursued.  Captain  Shilling 
was  mortally  wounded,  and  died  on  6  Jan. 
1620-1 ;  Captain  Blyth  succeeded  to  the 
command,  but  the  change  made  no  difference 
to  Baffin,  who  continued  master  of  the 
London,  and  the  fleet  presently  returned  to 
Surat.  Iji  the  following  year  the  English 
in  India  agi-eed  to  assist  the  Shah  of  Persia 
in  driving  the  Portuguese  out  of  Ormuz,  a 
place  Avhich,  in  former  ages,  had  been  the 
emporium  of  the  East,  the  wonder  and  ad- 
miration of  the  world ;  and  though  in  the 
hands  of  the  Portuguese,  and  since  the  open- 
ing of  the  route  round  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope,  its  wealth  and  importance  had  de- 
clined, it  was  still  extremely  rich.  The 
Shah  had  long  regarded  the  Portuguese  pos- 
session with  jealousy,  and  had  coveted  the 
accumulated  treasures,  greater  in  repute  than 
in  fact,  and  now  hoped,  with  the  help  of  the 
English,  to  achieve  his  desire.  The  attack 
began  with  the  reduction  of  Kishm,  an  ad- 
jacent island,  on  Avhich  Ormuz  was  largely 
dependent  for  water ;  and  here,  on  23  Jan. 
1621-2,  Baffin,  whilst  taking  the  angles  of 
the  castle  wall,  in  order  to  measure  its  height 
and  distance,  received  his  death-wound.  Ac- 
cording to  the  account  given  by  Purchas, 
*  he  received  a  shot  from  the  castle  into  his 
belly,  wherewith  he  gave  three  leaps,  and 
died  immediately.'  His  death  made  little 
difference  to  the  result  of  the  siege ;  Kishm 
surrendered  on  1  Feb.,  and  Ormuz  also,  after 
a  stout  defence,  on  23  April  1622.  Baffin 
appears  to  have  left  no  surviving  children ; 
but  his  widow  preferred  a  claim  for  some 
money  which  she  asserted  belonged  to  her 
husband,  in  compensation  for  which  she 
eventually  received  oOO/.  She  is  described 
as  then,  in  1628,  a  woman  advanced  in  years 
and  deaf,  and  as  having  married  again. 

Amongst  early  navigators  Baffin  takes  a 
high  place  as  one  of  the  first  who  endea- 
voured to   determine   longitude   at    sea  by  ' 
astronomical  observations.     In  his  first  re-  ; 
corded  voyage  to  Greenland  (8  July  1612)  ' 
he  describes  his  attempt  to  deteiinine  the  j 
longitude   by   observing    the   time   of    the 
moon's  culmination  :  and  in  his  voyage  to 
Hudson's   Bay  (21   June  1615)  he  has  re- 


corded another  attempt  by  the  lunar  distance 
of  the  sun.  The  measurements  were  of  ne- 
cessity too  rude  to  give  results  even  approxi- 
mately correct,  but  that  was  the  fault  of  the 
instruments ;  and  though  the  observation  led 
to  no  immediate  improvement,  the  date  is 
noteworthy  as  that  of  the  first  lunar  observa- 
tion taken  at  sea. 

[The  Voyages  of  William  Baffin,  1612-22, 
edited,  with  notes  and  an  iiitr(xluctii)n,  by 
Clements  K.  Markham,  C.B.,  F.R.S.  (1881),  for 
the  Hakluyt  Society.  Mr.  Markham's  Introduc- 
tion embodies  the  residt  of  much  laborious  re- 
search, and  it  is  scarcely  to  be  hoped  that  any 
further  evidence  as  to  Baffin's  origin  and  early 
life  can  now  be  discovered.]  J.  K.  L. 

BAGARD,  or  BAGGARD,  THOMAS 

(d.  1544),  civilian,  was  nominated  in  1525  by 
Cardinal  Wolsey  one  of  the  first  eighteen 
canons  of  his  college  at  Oxford,  which  after- 
wards became  Christ  Church.  On  7  Oct. 
1528  he  was  admitted  to  the  college  of  advo- 
cates in  London.  Early  in  1532  he  became 
chancellor  of  the  diocese  of  Worcester  through 
the  intercession  of  Edmund  Bonner  with 
Thomas  Cromwell.  Lender  date  24  Jan. 
1531-2,  Bonner  asked  Cromwell  to  '  continue 
good  master  to  Dr.  Bagard,'  and  two  letters 
from  Bagard  to  Cromwell,  thanking  him  for 
granting  him  the  appointment  at  Worcester, 
are  extant  at  the  Record  Office.  Bagard  ap- 
pears to  have  at  first  moderately  supported 
Cromwell's  ecclesiastical  reforms,  and,  al- 
though he  disagreed  with  him  in  many  points 
of  doctrine,  to  have  been  on  good  terms  with 
Hugh  Latimer,  both  before  and  after  he  be- 
came bishop  of  Worcester  in  1535.  In  1534 
Cromwell  suspected  Bagard  of  disloyalty  to 
the  cause  of  the  Reformation,  and  Bagard 
replied  to  the  accusation  in  a  long  letter 
asserting  his  anxiety  '  to  tender  the  king's 
pleasure.'  In  1541  he  became  one  of  the  first 
canons  of  Worcester  endowed  from  the  con- 
fiscated property  of  the  disestablished  Wor- 
cester priory.     Bagard  died  in  1544. 

[Coote's  Civilians,  p.  24 ;  Wood's  Antiquities 
of  Oxford,  ed.  Guteh,  p.  423  ;  Henrj-  VIIl's  Let- 
ters and  Papers  from  1 532  to  1534.]      S.  L.  L. 

BAGE,  ROBERT  (1728-1801),  novelist, 
was  boiTi  at  Barley,  in  the  parish  of  St.  AUc- 
monds,  Derby,  on  29  Feb.  1728.  He  was 
educated  at  a  common  school  at  Derby.  At 
the  age  of  seven  he  Avas  a  proficient  in  Ijatin, 
and  his  talents  were  generally  admired.  On 
leaving  school  he  was  trained  to  his  father's 
business  of  paper-making,  but  did  not  cease 
to  study.  At  the  age  of  twenty-three  Bage 
contracted  a  happy  marriage,  and  with  the 
aid  of  his  wife's  dowry  he  was  enabled  to 
establish   a   paper   manufactory   at   Elford, 


Bage 


392 


Bage 


near  Tamworth,  which  he  caiTied  on  until 
his  death.  After  marriage  Bage  taught  him- 
self the  modern  languages,  becoming  especi- 
ally proficient  in  French  and  Italian;  and 
being  inclined  (says  Mrs.  Barbauld)  when 
about  thirty  to  learn  the  more  abstruse 
branches  of  mathematics,  heengaged  a  teacher 
at  Birmingham,  Avliere  he  spent  an  evening 
every  Aveek  for  the  pui-jjose  of  instruction. 
The  reference  to  the  science  of  mathematics 
put  into  the  mouth  of  one  of  his  characters 
probably  refers  to  its  influence  over  himself. 
'  He  was  obliged  to  this  science  for  a  correct 
imagination,  and  a  taste  for  uniformity  in 
the  common  actions  of  his  life.' 

Bage  did  not  begin  to  write  until  late  in  life. 
Sir  Walter  Scott  states,  in  the  '  Novelists' 
Library,'  that  in  the  year  1765  Bage  entered 
into  partnership  in  an  extensive  iron  manu- 
factoiy,  one  of  his  partners  being  the  cele- 
brated Dr.  Darwin.  The  firm  was  dissolved 
in  1779,  and  Bage  found  liimself  a  loser  to 
the  extent  of  1,500/.  In  order  to  divert  his 
mind  from  liis  losses  lie  turned  to  literature. 
His  first  venture  in  authorsliip  was  made  at  the 
age  of  fifty-three.  '  Mount  Henneth,'  a  novel 
in  two  volumes,  was  purcliased  by  Lowndes 
for  30/.,  and  published  in  1781.  It  is  written 
in  the  form  of  a  series  of  letters,  and  in  a 
humorous  preface  the  author  anticipates  the 
critics  by  reviewing  the  work  himself.  '  It 
puts  us  in  mind  of  Dr.  Johnson's  sarcasm  on 
Macklin's  conversation — a  perpetual  reno- 
vation of  hope,  with  perpetual  disappoint- 
ment. To  say  the  least  we  can  of  it,  it  is  bad 
in  tlie  beginning,  worse  and  worse  in  its 
progress,  but  the  end  is  heaven.'  There  were 
sins  against  decorum  in  this  novel,  but  '  the 
strong  mind,  playfulfancy, liberal  sentiments, 
and  extensive  knowledge  of  the  author  are 
everywhere  apparent '  (Scott). 

Novels  quickly  succeeded  each  other, '  Bar- 
ham  Downs,'  '  Tlie  Fair  Syrian,'  and  '  James 
Wallace,'  appearing  at  very  brief  intervals. 
After  the  publication  of  the  last-named  work 
the  author  took  a  short  respite  of  four  years, 
and  then  issued,  in  1792,  '  Man  as  he  is ; ' 
this  was  followed  in  1796  by  Bage's  last  and 
finest  novel,  '  Hermsprong,  or  Man  as  he  is 
not.'  All  his  works  were  produced  Avithin 
fifteen  years,  or  between  his  fifty-third  and 
sixty-eighth  year.  Their  freshness  and 
vigour  greatly  cliarmed  his  contemporaries, 
and  the  reputation  of  the  author  extended 
beyond  the  Channel,  several  of  Bage's  novels 
being  translated  into  German  and  published 
at  Frankfort. 

From  a  correspondence  with  his  friend 
William  Ilutton  of  Birmingham,  Bage  ap- 
pears to  have  got  into  difficulties  with  the 
excise  respecting  the  duty  on  his  paper.   But 


the  fault  lay  with  the  officials,  who  seized 
large  quantities  of  paper  after  it  had  left  the 
maker's  possession,  and  after  it  had  been 
marked,  stamped,  signed  with  the  officer's 
name,  and  the  excise  duty  paid.  In  1793 
Bage  left  Elford  and  Avent  to  liAC  at  Tam- 
Avorth,  dying  in  the  latter  tOAAm  on  1  Sept. 
1801.  We  have  the  testimony  of  Mr.  Hutton, 
his  most  intimate  friend,  that  in  private  life 
Bage  was  most  amiable,  but  he  adds  Avith 
regret  that '  he  laid  no  stress  upon  rcA-elation,' 
and  was  'barely  a  christian.  His  friends 
Avere  deeply  attached  to  him,  and  they  de- 
scribed his  temper  as  open,  mild,  and  sociable. 
He  was  A-ery  kind  to  his  domestics,  Avho  lived 
with  him  till  t  hey  were  old,  and  even  to  his 
horses  Avlien  they  were  past  AA^ork.  He  had 
three  sons,  Avho  manifested  no  small  por- 
tion of  his  ability,  but  one  of  these  died  in 
early  life. 

Notwithstanding  his  friend's  assurance 
that  he  was  '  barely  a  christian,'  there  are 
signs  in  Bage's  works  that  he  retained  a 
strong  affection  for  the  quaker  religion,  in 
Avhich  he  was  brought  up.  He  Avas  deeply 
impressed  by  the  French  revolution,  and  the 
effects  of  the  ncAv  principles  are  clearly  trace- 
able in  his  later  Avorks.  In  '  Man  as  he  is ' 
the  philosopliy  is  that  of  the  French  revolu- 
tion. The  Avork  has  been  described  as  that  of 
*  a  man  whose  mind  has  more  strength  than 
elegance,  and  Avhose  opinions,  often  just, 
sometimes  striking,  are  marked  Avith  traits 
of  singularity,  and  not  unfrequently  run 
counter  to  received  notions  and  established 
usages.'  In  reality,  it  Avas  the  keenness  of 
his  satii'e  whicli  Avas  distasteful  to  the  ortho- 
dox, and  caused  them  to  brand  as  dangerous 
works  whose  sparkling  humour,  genuine 
ability,  and  in  the  main  generous  and  ele- 
vating sentiments,  were  not  sufficiently  re- 
cognised. 

The  writer  in  Chambers's  '  Cyclop?edia  of 
English  Literature  '  describes  Bage's  noA'els 
as  decidedly  inferior  to  those  of  Holcroft, 
Avith  whom  Bage  had  no  little  in  common  ; 
and  he  expresses  suqirise  that  Sir  Walter 
Scott  should  have  admitted  them  into  his 
'  Novelists'  Library.'  But  the  reader  will  feel 
inclined  to  applaud  Sir  Walter  for  granting 
them  this  distinction.  As  novels  they  may 
not  interest  strongly  by  their  plot,  but  there 
is  a  distinct  originality  about  them.  They 
Avere  chiefly  intended  to  inculcate  certain 
political  and  philosophical  opinions.  Not 
unfrequently,  perhaps,  the  author's  strong 
convictions  betray  him  into  exaggeration. 
But  touching  the  literary  power  of  his  works 
there  can  scarcely  be  two  opinions.  Con- 
sidered altogether  apart  from  their  moral  and 
social  bearings,  the  novels  of  Bage  display 


Bagehot 


393 


Bagehot 


an  unquestionable  power  in  drawing  and  de- 
veloping character,  while  their  style  is  always 
entertaining  and  frequently  incisive. 

Bage's  novels  are  comparatively  unknown, 
and  have  not  been  reproduced  in  a  collective 
edition.  Scott  reprinted  three  of  them  in 
the  '  Novelists'  Library,'  and  Mrs.  Barbauld 
a  fourth  in  the  '  British  Novelists.'  The  full 
list,  with  tlie  respective  dates  of  publication, 
is  as  follows :  1.  *  Mount  Henneth,'  1781. 
2.  'Barham  DoAvns,'  1784.  3.  'The  Fair 
Syrian,'  1787.  4.  'James  Wallace,'  1788. 
6.  '  Man  as  he  is,'  1792,  6.  '  Hermsproug, 
or  Man  as  he  is  not,'  1796. 

[Balliuityne's  Novelists'  Library,  edited  by  Sir 
Walter  Scott;  Chalmers's  Biographiciil  Diction- 
ary ;  British  Novelists,  edited  by  Sirs.  Barbauld  ; 
and  the  various  works  of  Bage.]  Gr.  B.  S.      1 

BAGEHOT,  WALTER  (1826-1877),  an  ! 
English  economist  and  journalist,  was  born  at  | 
Langport,  in  Somersetshire,  on  3  Feb.  1826  ;  ! 
he  died  at  the  same  place  on  24  March  1877.  { 
For  the  last  seventeen  years  of  his  life  he  I 
edited  the  '  Econfiniist '  newspaper,  which  was  j 
established  by  the  late  Right  Hon.  James  I 
Wilson  during  the  anti-corn  law  agitation  | 
to  represent  free-trade  principles.     Mr.  Bage-  ! 
hot,  Avho  married  in  1858  Mr.  Wilson's  eldest 
daughter,  became  in  1860,  on  the  departure  j 
of  his   father-in-law   to  India   as  financial 
member  of  the  supreme  council,  the  editor 
and  manager  of  that  journal,  and  continued 
in  that  position  till  his  death.     lie  was  a  | 
considerable   authority   in   all  questions   of 
banking  and  finance,  and  consulted  by  chan- 
cellors of  the  exchequer  of  both  parties  on 
such  matters  at  critical  moments  ;  but  in  the 
literary  world  he  was  even  better  known  for 
his  lively,  viA'id,  and  humorous  criticisms. 
The  works  published  during  his  own  lifetime 
were:  1.  '  The  English  Constitution,' a  book 
used  at  Oxford  and  in  more  than  one  of  the 
North  American  universities  as  a  text-book 
on  the  subject ;  it  has  also  been  translated 
into  German,  French,  and  Italian.  2. '  Physics 
and  Politics,'  an  attempt  to  apply  the  pxinci- 
ciples  of  '  natural  selection,'  as  explained  by 
Mr.  Darwin,  to  the  explanation  of  the  com- 
petitions and  struggles  of  states;  this  volume, 
which  is  one  of  the  International  Scientific 
Series,  has  gone  through  four  editions,  and 
has  been  translated  into  six  or  seven  difi'erent 
languages.     3.  '  Lombard  Street,'  now  in  its 
seventh  edition ;  a  study  of  the  money  market. 
He  also  published  duringhis  lifetime  a  volume 
of  essays,  'Estimates  of  some  Englishmen  and 
Scotchmen,'  now  out  of  print,  the  whole  of 
which,  however,  is  included  in  either  the 
two  volumes  of  '  Literary  Studies,'  or  the 
single  volume  of '  Biographical  Studies,'  pub- 


lished after  liis  death.  Besides  these  works 
a  volume  on  the  'Depreciation  of  Silver,' 
which  discusses  the  causes  of  the  fall  in  silver 
between  1865  and  1875,  and  which  was  cor- 
rected for  the  press  by  himself,  appeared  im- 
mediately after  his  death  in  1877 ;  and  a 
volume  of  essays  on  political  economy,  called 
'  Economic  Studies,'  part  of  which  had  been 
published  during  his  lifetime,  while  part  was 
found  among  his  papers,  was  published  in 
1880;  Bagehot  also  published  some  essays 
on  parliamentarv  refonn,  which  were  repub- 
lished in  1883.  ^ 

Langport,  where  Walter  Bagehot  was  born 
and  died,  and  with  which  he  was  connected 
both  personally  and  by  business  ties  during 
the  whole  of  his  life,  is  a  little  Somersetshire 
town  with  a  *  portreeve  '  of  its  own,  and  a 
characteristically  sober  constitutional  his- 
tory. So  long  ago  as  in  the  reign  of  Ed- 
ward I,  Ijangport  begged  to  be  relieved  of  the 
onerous  duty  of  sending  burgesses  to  the 
House  of  Commons,  for  at  that  time  sending 
representatives  to  parliament  also  involved 
remunerating  them  for  their  responsibilities, 
dangers,  and  expenses.  This  frugality  and 
this  rather  ostentatious  indifference  to  patri- 
otic pretensions  pleased  Bagehot,  who  often 
boasted  of  it  to  his  friends  as  a  note  of  true 
political  sobriety.  It  was  at  Lang-port  that 
the  Somersetshire  bank  was  founded  hj  Mr. 
Samuel  Stuckey  in  the  eighteenth  centurv', 
and  with  this  bank  Bagehot,  Avhose  father, 
Mr.  Thomas  Watson  Bagehot,  had  married 
Mrs.  Estlin,  a  niece  of  Mr.  Stuckey's,  became 
early  connected,  and  he  succeeded  his  father 
as  vice-chairman  of  the  bank  on  the  latter's 
retirement.  Bagehot  was  sent  to  school  in 
Bristol,  where  his  mother's  brother-in-law, 
Dr.  Prichard,  lived :  and  the  influence  of  this 
relative,  Avho  Avrote  a  book  of  great  note  on 
the  '  Races  of  Man,'  is  visible  enough  in 
Bagehot's  own  subsequent  writings.  In  1842 
he  entered  L'niversity  College,  London,  where 
he  became  a  good  mathematician  under  the 
late  Professor  De  Morgan,  and  read  very 
widely  in  all  branches  of  general  literature. 
Poetry,  metaphysics,  and  history — of  which 
last  study  he  never  shirked  what  are  usually 
thought  the  dry  parts — were  his  favourite 
studies.  The  late  Professor  Long,  who  was 
a  learned  and  accurate  student  of  Roman 
law,  as  well  as  of  Roman  history,  had  almost 
as  much  influence  over  his  course  of  studies 
as  Professor  De  Morgan  himself.  Bagehot 
took  his  B.A.  degree  in  the  university  of 
London,  with  the  mathematical  scholarship, 
in  1846,  and  his  M.A.  degree  in  the  same 
university,  with  the  gold  medal  in  intellec- 
tual and  moral  philosophy  and  political  eco- 
nomy, in  1848.     Then  he' began  to  read  law, 


Bagehot 


394 


Bagehot 


in  the  chauibers,  first,  of  Mr.  Charles  Hall 
(afterwards  Vice-Chancellor  Sir  Charles 
Ilall),  and  then  of  his  friend,  Mr.  Quain 
(afterwards  the  late  Mr.  Justice  Quain), 
where  he  took  a  great  liking  for  the  art  of 
special  pleading,  an  art  of  which  lawyers 
have  now  abandoned  at  least  the  technical 
and  scientific  use.  Bagehot  always  professed 
to  regret  greatly  the  abolition  of  special  pleas. 
'  The  only  thing  I  ever  really  knew,'  he  once 
wrote, '  was  special  pleading,  and  the  moment 
I  had  learnt  that,  the  law  reformers  botched 
and  abolished  it.'  Nevertheless,  though 
called  to  the  bar  in  the  autumn  of  1852,  he 
had  already  made  up  his  mind  not  to  pursne 
the  law  as  his  profession,  bnt  to  join  his 
father  in  his  shipowning  and  banking  busi- 
ness at  Lang-port. 

Before  domg  this,  however,  Bagehot  spent 
some  months  in  Paris,  and  happened  to  be 
living  thei'e  at  the  time  of  the  couj)  iVctat  in 
December  1851.  He  adopted  keenly  at  the 
time  the  side  of  the  prince-president,  and 
horrified  some  of  his  liberal  friends  in  London 
by  addi'essing  seven  letters  on  the  snbject  of 
the  coup  cfetaf  to  a  little  weekly  paper,  called 
the  '  Inquirer.'  These  letters  have  since  been 
republished  in  an  appendix  to  the  first  volume 
of  his  '  Literary  Studies,'  which  appeared 
after  his  death.  They  are  letters  of  singular 
force  and  vivacity,  though  marked  by  more 
of  that  cynicism  not  uncommon  in  young 
men  than  any  of  his  later  Avritings.  His 
great  thesis  was  that  '  stupidity '  is  the  es- 
sential condition  of  political  freedom,  and 
that  the  French  were  a  great  deal  too  clever 
to  be  free.  He  held  that  the  only  security  for 
people's  doing  their  duty  Avas  'that  they 
should  not  know  anything  else  to  do,'  and 
that  the  only  guarantee  for  political  stability 
was  that  they  should  be  incapable  of  com- 
prehending any  other  condition  of  political 
life  than  that  to  which  they  had  been  accus- 
tomed. It  is  easy  to  see  that  this  notion,  less 
paradoxically  expressed,  pervaded  the  essay 
on  *  Physics  and  Politics '  conceived  and 
written  some  twenty  years  later. 

In  1852  Bagehot  plunged  into  business ; 
but  he  had  always  spare  energy  for  literature, 
and  contributed  first  to  the  '  Prospective  Re- 
view,'and  from  1855 onwards  to  the  'National 
Review '  (of  which  he  was,  throughout  the  ex- 
istence of  that  quarterly,  one  of  the  editors), 
a  series  of  essays  which  attracted  very  general 
attention  by  their  brilliancy  of  style  and 
lucidity  of  thought.  Bagehot's  great  cha- 
racteristic as  a  writer,  whether  on  economic 
or  literary  subjects,  was  a  very  curious  com- 
bination of  dash  and  doubt,  great  vivacity  in 
describing  the  superficial  impressions  pro- 
duced on  him  by  every  subject-matter  with 


which  he  was  dealing,  and  great  caution  in 
yielding  his  mind  to  that  superficial  impres- 
sion— one  might  almost  say  great  distrust  of 
it,  if  only  because  he  was  always  disposed 
to  believe  in  the  illusiveness  of  a  first  im- 
pression. His  face  reflected  both  phases  of 
his  mind.  He  had  heavy  black  hair,  flashing- 
black  eyes,  a  florid  complexion,  a  lissome 
figure,  and  the  look  of  high  animal  spirits ; 
but  he  had  also  something  of  good-natured 
mockery  in  his  glance,  and  his  face  reflected 
that  habitual  reserve  of  judgment  which  has 
been  called  '  detachment '  of  mind — in  other 
words,  a  power  of  holding  himself  aloof  fnmi 
the  influence  of  his  own  first  impressions  till 
he  had  checked  and  criticised  them.  Perhaps 
tlie  essays  which  would  best  represent  his  pe- 
culiar genius  are  those  on  the  '  First  Edin- 
burgh Reviewers,'  on '  Hartley  Coleridge,' and 
on  '  Bishop  Butler.'  In  those  essays  you  get 
a  glimpse  of  Bagehot's  ultimate  creed,  such 
as  you  hardly  reach  in  any  of  his  more 
elaborate  works. 

Of  these  more  elaborate  works,  probably 
the  most  adequate  to  his  own  conception  was 
that  on  the  '  English  Constitution,'  in  which 
he  tries  to  get  rid  of  all  the  formal  theory  of 
'  checks  and  balances,'  and  to  show  where 
the  centre  of  power  in  the  United  Kingdom 
really  is,  and  why  the  House  of  Commons  is 
so  much  more  powerful  than  other  represen- 
tative assemblies  of  the  same  class.  His  view 
was  that  the  throne  and  the  House  of  Lords 
are  of  the  highest  use,  not  in  directly  check- 
ing  the  House  of  Commons,  but  in  affecting 
the  wishes  of  the  people  as  to  what  the  com- 
mons should  do  and  what  they  should  not 
do.  He  regarded  '  the  dignified  parts,'  or,  as 
he  also  calls  them,  '  the  theatrical  parts,'  of 
the  constitution,  as  useful  chiefly  to  inspire 
in  the  people  political  confidence,  to  give  a 
fuller  significance  to  the  sense  of  national 
unity,  and  to  incline  the  people  to  look  above 
themselves  in  education  and  social  rank  for  the 
leaders  by  whom  they  would  be  guided.  But 
the  effective  part  of  our  constitution  is,  in 
Bagehot's  view,  the  very  close  imity  between 
the  executive  government  and  the  legislature, 
produced  by  the  machineiy  of  the  cabinet, 
which  is  at  once  responsible  for  every  ad- 
ministrative act  and  for  the  legislation  which 
enlarges,  or  contracts,  or  alters  the  scope  of, 
both  the  administration  and  the  legislature. 
He  contrasts,  at  great  length,  the  fusion  of 
the  administrative  and  legislative  functions 
in  the  English  cabinet  with  their  formal  and 
careful  separation  in  the  American  constitu- 
tion, and  he  maintains  that  the  House  of 
Commons  gains  enormously  in  efficiency  by 
its  power  of  dismissing  and  virtually  nomi- 
nating the  cabinet ;  for  that  is  the  power. 


Bagehot 


395 


Bagehot 


uccordiiif?  to  Ba^^cliot,  wliicli  g-ivt-s  no  nuich 
importance  to  its  debates,  and  which  In-ings 
home  to  the  electors  their  responsibility  for 
sending  to  parliament  the  riglit  kind  of  men, 
and  for  making  their  dissatisfaction  felt  when 
tlieir  representatives  do  not  speak  and  vote 
in  the  manner  best  calculated  to  lend  weight 
to  the  party  which  they  are  pledged  to  sup- 
port. Bagehot  held  that  a  representative  as- 
sembly which,  like  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives in  the  United  States,  cannot  eft'ect  any 
great  and  notable  change  by  its  resolutions, 
is  bound  to  be  something  of  a  cipher,  and  that 
the  people  will  never  care  enough  about  what 
such  an  assembly  does,  to  take  the  pains  re- 
quisite for  selecting  the  best  men.  Nay,  ; 
more,  the  best  men  themselves  Avill  not  fix 
their  ambition  on  becoming  members  of  an 
assembly  whicli  exerts  so  little  conspicuous 
influence  on  the  course  of  national  events. 
Bagehot  was  the  first  to  bring  out  powerfully 
the  paradox  in  'government  by  public  meet- 
ing,' as  he  called  it,  though  he  did  not  live 
to  see  all  the  practical  illustrations  of  that  ! 
paradox  which  we  have  witnessed  of  late  \ 
years  since  the  rise  of  Air.  Parnell's  Irish 
party  into  its  present  importance.  But  he 
had  fully  grasped  the  absolute  impossibility 
of  conducting  such  a  gOAernnieut  as  ours  un- 
less the  House  of  Commons,  in  Avhom  all 
power  is  centred,  is  really  docile  to  its  leaders 
on  both  sides.  And  Bagehot  held  that  no- 
thing could  make  it  docile  to  its  leaders  on 
both  sides  except  a  profound  popular  con- 
viction that  deference  to  leaders  is  of  the  very 
essence  of  parliamentary  government. 

Bagehot,  though  no  admirer  of  the  House 
of  Lords,  is,  on  the  whole,  a  decided  partisan 
of  the  House  of  Lords  as  a  revising  assem- 
bly ;  but  lie  earnestly  desired  its  reconstitu- 
tion  by  the  help  of  a  considerable  number  of 
distinguished  life-peers.  '  Most  lords,'  he 
said  pithily,  'are  feeble  and  forlorn.'  The 
young  peers  are  seldom  aware  that  '  busi- 
ness is  really  more  agreeable  than  pleasure.' 
Moreover,  they  are  timorous  creatures,  who 
do  not  kiiow  when  it  is  safe  to  resist  an  ap- 
parent current  of  popular  opinion  any  more 
than  they  know  when  it  is  fatal  to  attempt 
to  resist  it.  But  Avith  all  this  depreciation 
of  the  peers,  Bagehot  thought  that  the  ex- 
istence of  the  House  of  Lords  tended  to 
maintain  the  respect  of  the  English  ])eople 
at  large  for  the  influence  of  wealth  and  culture 
in  the  community,  and  to  prevent  hungry  and 
ignorant  men  from  dictating  foolisli  revo- 
lutionary measures  to  hungry  and  ignoi'ant 
crowds  of  followers.  AVhile  the  Ilouse  of 
Tiords  remains,  the  i)eople  w  ill  be  insensibly 
influenced  by  their  liking  for  the  wealth  and 
splendour  of  the  aristocracy,  and  this  liking 


will  act  as  a  sedative  to  keep  them  from  rasli 
and  violent  measures,  and  to  confine  refonu 
to  the  removal  of  clear  and  visible  grievances. 
'Physics  and  Politics'  was  described  by 
Bagehot  as  '  an  attempt  to  apply  the  princi- 
ples of  natuml  selection  and  inheritance  to 
political  society.'  His  general  view  was  that 
in  early  times  the  value  of  government  chiefly 
consisted  in  the  drill  of  a  society  into  fixed 
habits,  customs,  preferences,  and  rules  of  its 
own,  so  as  to  subdue  arbitrary  personal  ca- 
price, and  to  create  a  common  mind  and 
character,  a  common  groove  of  thought  and 
feeling.  He  held  that  for  this  pnqjose  a  good 
habit  or  rule  was  better  than  a  bad  habit  or 
rule ;  but  that  even  a  bad  habit  or  rule 
thoroughly  impressed  on  the  whole  people, 
and  inducing  a  common  life,  was  better  than 
a  good  habit  or  rule  which  had  not  bitten 
deeply  into  the  life  of  the  people  and  efFectu- 
ally  moulded  them  in  a  single  mould.  The 
race  of  men  avIio  cannot  help  acting  together 
if  they  would,  are  sure  to  get  the  better  over 
any  race  whose  combination  for  co-operative 
actions  is  loose  and  imperfect ;  hence  his 
preference  for  what  he  called  political  stu- 
pidity— the  dull  fixed  habit  of  acting  all  in 
one  way  as  the  English  do — ^to  the  sprightly 
divergences  and  differences  of  opinion  which 
make  it  so  difficult  for  the  French  to  know^ 
what  they  really  wish,  or  whether  they  have 
any  wish  in  common  by  which  the  masses 
are  profoundly  affected.  In  the  same  way 
Bagehot  explained,  of  course,  the  triumph  of 
Rome  over  Greece  and  other  indifferently 
welded,  though  cleverer  and  more  reflective 
communities.  He  maintained,  however,  that 
this  drill  may  be  too  effective,  may  go  too 
far,  and  that,  when  it  does  so,  we  lune  cases 
of  what  he  called  'arrested  civilisations.' 
Such  an  arrested  civilisation  we  have  in 
China,  where  the  common  drill  completely 
trampled  out  that  disposition  for  cautious 
criticism  and  review  of  national  prejudices, 
which  ought  to  come  sooner  or  later  if  there 
is  ever  to  be  an  age  of  progress  and  discus- 
sion. Bagehot  held  that  in  our  own  day 
that  respect  for  action  which  was  character- 
istic of  the  times  when  action  was  needed  to 
form  and  mould  the  national  character,  is 
excessive.  He  thought  that  reserve  of  Judg- 
ment, and  especially  reserve  of  resolve,  is  not 
half  common  enough.  Men  are  over-eager 
to  be  doing  what  they  are  not  sure  of  ap- 
proving even  when  they  have  done  it.  Tlie 
military  instincts  inherited  from  the  age  of 
drill  precipitate  us  into  all  sorts  of  premature 
action,  where  we  really  want  discussion  and 
suspense  of  judgment  till  discussion  has  done 
its  perfect  work.  '  Physics  and  Politics  '  is 
a  very  remarkable  illustration  of  the  dread 


Bagford 


396 


Baggs 


of  eagerness  inspired  by  the  doubts  of  a  re- 
flective mind.  The  eager  nations,  he  held, 
had  had  their  day.  The  time  for  deliberating, 
hesitating  and  slowly  resolving  nations,  had 
arrived. 

As  an  economist  Bagehot  belonged  de- 
cidedly to  the  Ricardo  school ;  but  he  held 
that  the  Ricardo  political  economy  does  not 
apply  to  any  country  in  which  the  larger 
commerce  and  the  system  of  open  compe- 
tition have  not  been  more  or  less  introduced. 
He  denied  altogether,  for  instance,  that  in 
such  a  country  as  India  it  is  true  that  capital 
■flows  towards  any  occupation  in  which  a  high 
rate  of  profit  is  to  be  made,  or  tliat  the  Ri- 
cardo theory  of  rent  is  true  in  India.  He 
regarded  political  economy  as  a  science  of 
tendencies  only,  these  tendencies  being  ap- 
proximately true  in  countries  like  England, 
though  not  moi-e  than  approximately  true 
even  there,  while  in  the  older  world  they  are 
absolutely  invisible. 

Bagehot  was  one  of  the  best  conversers  of 
his  day.  He  was  not  only  A"ivid,  witty,  and 
always  apt  to  strike  a  light  in  conversation, 
but  he  helped  in  every  real  eftbrt  to  get  at  the 
truth,  with  a  unique  and  rare  power  of  lucid 
statement.  (3ne  of  his  friends  said  of  him ; 
*  I  never  knew  a  power  of  discussion,  of  co- 
operative investigation  of  truth,'  to  approach 
to  his.  'It  was  all  stimulus,  and  yet  no 
contest.' 

[The  books  mentioned  above,  and  the  memoir 
prefixed  to  the  two  volumes  of  Literary  Studies.] 

E.  H.  H. 

BAGFORD,  JOHN  (1050-1716),  '  shoe- 
maker and  biblioclast,'  Avas  born  in  St.  Anne's 
parish,  Blackfriars,  and  brought  up  as  a  shoe- 
maker. Like  many  of  his  craft,  he  had  a 
turn  for  literature  and  general  information, 
and  in  process  of  time  became  a  collector  of 
books  on  commission  for  booksellers  and 
amatem-s.  In  the  exercise  of  his  vocation  he 
formed  the  two  collections  for  which  he  is 
chiefly  remembered,  the  'Bagford  Ballads,' 
which,  by  rescuing  so  many  curious  broadside 
ditties  from  destruction,  has  entitled  him  to 
the  gratitude  of  all  antiquaries  and  lovers  of 
old  English  verse,  and  the  enormous  collec- 
tion of  title-pages  and  other  fragments  in 
sixty-four  volumes  folio,  which  has  procured 
him  the  no  less  emphatic  maledictions  of  all 
who  object  to  the  mutilation  of  books.  '  He 
was,'  says  Dibdin,  '  the  most  hungry  and  ra- 
pacious of  all  book  and  print  collectors,  and 
in  his  rage  he  spared  neither  the  most  deli- 
cate nor  the  most  costly  specimens.'  His 
ravages  were  perpetrated  under  the  idea  that 
he  was  amassing  materials  for  the  history  of 
printing,  proposals  for  which  Avere  published 


in  1707,  but  which  he  would  have  been  quite 
incompetent  to  AViite.  He  was,  however, 
diligent  and  honest,  and,  according  to  Hearne, 
possessed  a  great  knowledge  of  paper  and 
binding.  He  Avas  one  of  the  revivers  of  the 
Society  of  Antiquai'ies,  and  a  valuable  letter 
from  him  on  the  antiquities  of  London  is 
printed  in  the  first  volume  of  Leland's  Col- 
lectanea. He  himself  exercised  printing  on 
a  small  scale.  In  his  latter  days  he  Avas  ad- 
mitted into  the  Chai'terhouse,  and  died  on 
15  May  1716.  His  collections  Avere  pur- 
chased after  his  death  by  Lord  Oxford,  and 
came  eventually  into  the  British  Museum. 
'  The  Bagford  Ballads,  illustrating  the  last 
years  of  the  Stuarts,'  Avere  edited  for  the 
Ballad  Society  by  the  Rev.  J.  W.  EbsAvorth, 
2  vols.,  Hertford,  1878;  and  other  pieces 
referring  to  the  pei'iods  of  the  CiA'il  War, 
CommouAvealth,  and  Restoration  have  ap- 
peared in  others  of  Mr.  EbsAvorth's  reprints. 
Some  have  been  included  in  Mr.  Chappell's 
editions  of  the  Roxburghe  Ballads. 

[Dibdin's  Bibliomania,  pp.  430-37 ;  Blades's 
Enemies  of  Books.]  E.  G. 

BAGGERLEY,  nUMPHREY(^.  1654), 
royalist  captain,  Avas  in  the  service  of  James, 
the  seventh  earl  of  Derby.  He  Avas  em- 
ployed in  the  embarkation  of  that  nobleman 
in  the  Isle  of  Man  on  12  Aiig.  1651.  On 
13  Oct.  in  that  year  the  earl  applied  that 
Captain  Baggerley,  Avho  Avas  then  a  prisoner 
at  Chester,  might  be  alloAved  to  attend  him 
during  the  few  hours  he  had  to  live.  The 
request  Avas  gi-anted,  and  it  is  to  Baggerley's 
pen  that  Ave  are  indebted  for  a  minute  and 
touching  narrative  of  tlie  earl's  final  hours  and 
execution.  This  narratiA'e  has  been  printed 
by  Draper  in  his  account  of  the  '  House  of 
Stanley,'  1864.  In  1654  Captain  Baggerley 
Avas  imprisoned  in  London  for  taking  part  in 
Avhat  Avas  called  Gerard's  conspiracy.  He 
subsequently  acted  as  steAvard  to  William, 
ninth  earl  of  Derby. 

[Draper's  House  of  Stanley,  99,  217,  218,  231.] 

T.  C. 

BAGGS,  CHARLES  MICHAEL,  D.D. 

(1806-1845),  catholic  bishop,  controversialist, 
scholar  and  antiquary,  was  born  at  Behille, 
in  county  Meath,  Ireland,  on  21  May  1806.  He 
Avas  the  eldest  son  of  a  protestant  barrister  of 
Dublin,  Charles  Baggs,  Esq.,  afterwards  judge 
of  the  court  of  A"ice-admiralty  in  Demerara, 
by  his  wife  Eleanor,  fourth  daughter  of  John 
HoAvard  Kyan,  Esq.,  of  Mount  HoAvard  and 
Ballymurtagh  in  the  county  of  Wicklow. 
Through  his  mother's  family  (see  Burke's 
Landed  Gentry,  4th  edition,  p.  825)  he  Avas 
directl}^  descended  from  the  O'Cahans,  princes 


Baggs 


397 


Baggs 


of  Derry,  a  younger  branch  of  the  illustrious 
house  of  O'Xeil  of  Tyrone. 

His  father  heing  a  member  of  the  esta- 
blished church,  lie  was  sent  first  of  all  to  a 
protestant  academy  Icept  by  a  Mr.  King  at 
Englefield  Green  in  Berkshire.  Early  in 
1820  his  father  died  suddenly  at  Demerara, 
three  days  after  hearing  of  the  death  of  a 
friend  for  whom  he  had  become  security  for 
60,000^.  Upon  the  news  of  this  double 
calamity  Charles  Baggs  was  removed  by  his 
mother  from  Englefield  Green  to  the  then  well- 
known  catholic  seminary  of  Sedgeley  Park. 
There  he  remained  for  exactly  a  year,  namely, 
until  the  .Tune  of  1821,  when,  at  the  instance 
of  Bishop  Poynter,  vicar-apostolic  of  the 
London  district,  he  was  transferred  as  an 
ecclesiastical  student  to  St.  Edmund's  College 
in  Hertfordshire.  For  three  years  he  con- 
tinued his  studies  there  with  intense  applica- 
tion. Having  won  gi-eatly  upon  his  superiors 
by  his  docility  and  intelligence,  he  was  in 
the  summer  of  1824  sent  to  the  English 
College  at  Rome,  in  the  Via  di  Monserrato, 
Avhich  thencefoi'th,  from  the  date  of  his  ar- 
rival there  on  9  June,  became  his  home  for 
sixteen  years.  The  academic  honours  won 
by  him  w^ere  numerous.  In  1825,  besides 
contending  for  the  second  prize  in  logic,  he 
won  the  first  prize  in  mathematics.  In  1826, 
again,  he  secured  not  only  the  first  prize  in 
Hebrew,  but  the  first  also  in  physics  and 
mathematics.  In  1827  he  was  pronounced 
'laudatus'in  theology,  and  was  awarded  the 
first  prize  in  sacred  scripture. 

His  remarkable  ability  was  shown  in  a 
signal  manner  on  25  Sept.  18.30,  when,  in 
the  presence  of  a  distinguished  audience 
presided  over  by  Cardinal  Zurla,  he  held  his 
ground  as  a  Latin  disputant  against  all  comers 
in  the  maintenance  of  his  unusually  ample 
theses  as  a  theologian.  They  embraced  fifty 
in  regard  to  Holy  Writ,  forty-one  in  regard 
to  dogmatic  theology,  and  sixty  in  regard  to 
ecclesiastical  history.  This  display,  which 
won  for  him  his  doctor's  cap  at  the  early  age 
of  twenty-four,  is  still  commemorated  in  the 
volume  entitled '  Theses  ex  TheologiaUniversa 
et  Historia  Ecclesiastica  quas  sub  tutela  et 
auspiciiseminentissimiprincipis  Placidi  Zurla 
S.R.E.  Cardinalis  Tituli  S.  Crucis  in  Jei'u- 
salem  SS.  D.  N.  Pii  Papa?  VHI  in  Urbe 
Vicarii,  etc.  et  Collegii  Anglorum  Patroni 
pro]mgnandas  suscipit  Carol  us  Michael  Baggs 
eiusdem  collegii  alumnus  septimo  Kal.  Sep- 
tembris  facta  cuilibet  mane  iudiscriminatim 
vespere  autem  post  tertiura  singulas  oppug- 
nandi  facultate.  Romoe,  mdcccxxx.  Apud 
Leopoldum  Bourlieum,'  4to,  pp.  48. 

He  was  ordained  in  his  twenty-fifth  year 
(Dec.  1830)  to  the  priesthood,  having  in  the 


Si-evious  month  been  ordained  subdeacon  and 
eacon.  He  took  high  rank  in  the  Engli.sh 
college  as  a  teacher.  For  several  years  he 
occupied  the  chair  of  professor  of  Hebrew. 
His  knowledge  of  French  and  Italian  in  par- 
ticular, as  well  as  of  Spanish  and  German, 
was  remarkable.  As  a  pulpit  orator  he  was 
not  long  in  becoming  known  outside  the 
walls  of  San  Tommaso  degli  Inglesi.  His 
earliest  published  discourse  was  one  on  the 
supremacy  of  the  Roman  pontiffs,  delivered 
on  7  Feb.  1836,  in  the  church  of  Gesii  e 
Maria  in  the  Corso,  and  was  issued  from  the 
press  immediately  afterwards,  with  an  appen- 
dix (in  8vo,  i)p.  79),  dedicated  to  Cardinal 
Weld.  In  the  following  month,  8  March 
1836,  appeared  his  '  Letter  addressed  to  the 
Rev.  R.  Burgess,  Protestant  Chaplain  at 
Rome  '  (8vo,  pp.  58)  ;  a  controversial  argu- 
ment, which  in  the  same  year  was  trans- 
lated into  Italian  by  Dr.  Baggs  himself  and 
by  Augusto  Garofolini,  both  versions  being 
printed  separately  at  the  Tipografia  delle 
Belle  Arti. 

During  the  rectorship  at  the  English  Col- 
lege in  Rome  of  Dr.  (afterwards  Cardinal) 
Wiseman,  Dr.  Baggs  was  appointed,  as  early 
as  in  1834,  to  the  post  of  vice-rector.  By 
his  holiness  Pope  Gregory  XVI,  Avith  whom 
he  was  always  an  especial  favourite,  he  was 
nominated  a  '  cameriere  d'onore,'  and  in  the 
same  pontificate  was  created  a  monsigiiore. 
A  monograph  from  his  hand,  entitled  '  The 
Papal  Chapel  described  and  illustrated  from 
History  and  Antiquities,  by  C.  M.  Baggs,  D.D., 
of  the  English  College  at  Rome,  Cameriere 
d'Onore  to  his  Holiness,'  appeared  at  Rome 
in  1839  (8vo,  pp.  44),  inscribed  to  Mon- 
signore  Charles  Acton.  It  is  still  widely 
popular  as  a  handbook  for  English-speaking 
visitors.  The  same  may  be  said  also  of  an- 
other larger  Avork  by  Dr.  Baggs,  which  was 
published  almost  simultaneously.  This  was 
'  The  Ceremonies  of  Holy  Week  at  the  Va- 
tican and  S.  John  Lateran's.  Described  and 
Illustrated  from  History  and  Antiquities. 
With  an  Account  of  the  Armenian  Mass  at 
Rome  on  Holy  Saturday,  and  the  Ceremonies 
of  Holy  Week  at  Jerusalem.  By  C.  M.  Baggs, 
Cameriere  d'Onore,  &c.,'  8vo,  pp.  132.  The 
dedication  of  the  book  last  named  to  Hugh 
Charles  Lord  Clifford  of  Chudleigh  is  dated 
English  College,  Rome,  16  March  1839. 

During  the  following  year  Baggs  published 
at  Rome  another  ecclesiastico-archaeological 
Avork  of  curious  elaboration,  entitled  'The 
Pontifical  IMass  sung  at  St.  Peter's  Church 
on  Easter  Sunday,  on  the  Festival  of  SS. 
Peter  and  Paul,  and  Christmas  Day,  with 
a  Dissertation  on  Ecclesiastical  Vestments,'" 
8ao,  1840.    This  work  he  formally  dedicated 


Baggs 


398 


Bagnall 


to  Ciinliiial  James  Giustiuiaui,  bishop  of 
Albano  and  protector  of  the  English  College. 
Baggs  preached  the  funeral  oration  of  his 
cousin,  Lady  Gwendoline  Talbot,  Princess 
of  Borghese,  on  23  Dec.  1840,  at  the  church 
of  San  Carlo  in  the  Corso.  In  its  printed 
form  he  inscribed  it  to  the  father  of  the 
young  princess,  John,  the  sixteenth  Earl  of 
Shrewsbury. 

Four  months  prior  to  this  Baggs  was  ad- 
A'anced  to  the  rectorship  of  the  English  Col- 
lege, upon  the  conseci'ation  of  his  predecessor, 
the  future  Cardinal  Wiseman,  on  8  June 
1840,  as  bishop  of  Melipotamus.  During  the 
last  ten  years  of  his  sojourn  in  Home,  Baggs, 
both  orally  and  in  writing,  held  high  rank 
there  as  a  controversialist.  Before  the  Ac- 
cademia  di  Religione  Cattolica,  he  read,  on 
30  June  1842,  his  '  Dissertazioue  sul  Sistema 
Teologico  degli  Auglicani  detti  Puseyisti,' 
afterwards  published  in  Svo,  pp.  35,  in  the 
'  Annali  delle  Scienze  Religiose,  vol.  xv.  No. 
43.  In  a  subsequent  number  of  the  same 
recoi'd,  vol.  xvii.  No.  49,  appeared,  in  8vo, 
pp.  28,  his  '  Dissertazioue  sullo  Stato  Odierno 
della  Chiesa  Anglicana.' 

Throughout  the  pontificate  of  Gregory  XVI, 
Baggs  was  the  '  cameriere  d'onore '  upon 
whom  was  devolved  the  duty  of  presenting 
all  the  English  visitors,  both  catholic  and 
protestant,  who  were  admitted  to  the  pri- 
vilege of  a  private  audience  Avith  his  holi- 
ness. In  this  capacity  he  enjoj'ed  a  high 
degree  of  popularity,  not  merely  among  his 
co-religionists,  but  among  his  compatriots 
generally.  His  career  at  Rome  Avas  fittingly 
closed  by  his  elevation  to  the  episcopate. 
This  occurred  on  28  Jan.  1844,  when,  in  the 
church  of  St.  Gregory  on  the  Ca^lian  Hill, 
he  was  consecrated  Bishop  of  Pella  in  parti- 
bus  infidelium  by  Cardinal  Fransoni,  assisted 
by  Dr.  Brown,  then  Bishop  of  Tloa  and 
afterwai-ds  of  Livei-pool,  and  by  Dr.  Collier, 
the  Bishop  of  Port  Louis  in  the  Mauritius. 
It  Avas  in  consequence  of  the  death  of  Bishop 
,  Baines  that  Gregory  XVI  selected  him  thus 
to  fill  the  suddenly  vacated  office  of  A'icar 
apostolic  of  the  Avestern  district  in  England. 
On  his  departure  from  Rome  the  pope  made 
him  a  present  of  books,  while  the  students 
of  the  English  College  gave  him  a  costly 
pectoral  cross,  and  the  protestants  then  re- 
siding in  the  Eternal  City  purchased  for  him 
by  subscription  a  superb  crucifix.  He  for- 
mallytook  possession  of  his  diocese  on  30  May 
1844,  AA'hen  his  arrival  at  his  future  home  in 
England  Avas  Avelcomed  by  a  large  gathering 
of  the  clergy  and  laity  at  Prior  Park  near 
Bath.  There,  tAvo  days  afterAvards,  he  held 
his  first  ordination.  Visiting  his  extensive 
diocese  during  the  course  of  that  summer, 


he  ncAvly  organised  it  in  the  autumn,  by  por- 
tioning it  out,  on  2  Oct.,  into  four  deaneries. 
Shortly  after  taking  up  his  residence  at  Prior 
Park,  Bishop  Baggs  delivei-ed  a  remarkable 
course  of  lectiu-es  on  the  supremacy  of  the 
pope,  in  the  church,  at  Bath,  of  St.  John  the 
Evangelist.  At  the  beginning  of  the  second 
year  of  his  episcopate.  Bishop  Baggs  died  at 
the  earl}"  age  of  thirty-nine,  on  16  Oct.  1845, 
at  Prior  Park.  There  his  remains  Avere  so- 
lemnly interred  in  the  ])artially  completed 
ncAv  church  of  the  college  on  the  23rd  of  that 
month,  being  a  fcAA'  years  afterAA^ards  remoA^ed 
thence  to  their  present  place  of  sepulture  in 
the  church  of  Midford  Castle. 

[For  the  authentication  of  facts  in  this  me- 
moir careful  research  has  been  made  in  the 
archives  of  the  Engli.sli  college  at  Kome,  the 
portions  of  Avhich  relating  to  Bisliop  Baggs  arc 
mostly  in  the  hnndwriting  of  his  vice-rector  and 
successor  as  rector,  thi^  late  Dr.  Thomas  Grant, 
afterwards  first  bishop  of  Southwark.  Reference 
may  also  be  made  to  the  following  authorities  : 
Memorial  Notice  in  the  Morning  Post,  3  Nov. 
1 845 ;  another  in  the  Weekly  and  Monthlj'  Orthi  >- 
dox  Journal  of  June  1849  ;  Memoir  with  Portrait 
in  the  Catholic  Directory  for  18-51,  12mo,  pp. 
152-155 ;  Oliver's  Collections  illustrating  the 
History  of  the  Catholic  Religion  in  the  counties 
of  Cornwall,  Devon,  Dorset,  Somerset,  Wilts,  and 
Gloucester,  8vo,  pj).  230-3;  Brady's  Episcopal 
Succession  in  England.  Scotland,  and  Ireland, 
A.D.  1400  to  1875,  Svo,  Rome,  1877,  pp.  330-3.] 

C.  K. 

BAGNALL,     GIBBONS    (1719-1800), 
poetical  Avriter,  the  son  of  Gibbons  Bagnall 
of  AVindsor,  was  admitted  to  Balliol  College, 
Oxford,  12  July  1735,  AA-here  he  proceeded 
B.  A.  30  April  1741  (Eaicl.  MS.  in  the  Bodl. 
Libr.).     He  afterAvards  Avent  to  King's  Col- 
lege, Cambridge,  Avhere  he  took  the  degi'ee  of 
M.A.  in  1760.     Taking  orders,  he  became 
vicar  of  Holm  Lacy  in  Herefordshire,  and 
head-master  of  the  free  school  at  Hereford. 
I  He  Avas  collated  on  27  ^lay  1760  to  the  pre- 
j  bend  of  Piona  Parva  in  the  church  of  Here- 
I  ford,  and  on  1  Aug.  1767  to  the  prebend  of 
Barsham  in  the    same  cathedral  establish- 
ment.    He  also  held  for  some  time  the  rec- 
tory of  Upton  Bisho]):  and  in  1783  he  was 
I  presented  to  the   vicarage  of  Sellack.     He 
died  on  31  Dec.  1800,  in  his  82nd  year. 
I      llis  Avorks  are  :  1.  '  A  Sermon  on  Exodus 
XA'.    20,'    1762,   8a-o.      2.    'Education:    an 
Essay,' in  Aerse,  London,  1765,  4to.     3.  'A 
NeAv  Translation  of  Telemachus,  in  English 
verse,'  2  vols.,  Hereford,  1790,  Svo ;  2  vols., 
Dublin,  1792,  12mo. 

[MS.  Addit.  19209  f.  33;  Le  Neve's  Fasti 
Eccl.  Anglicana'.  ed.  Hardy,  i.  496,  523  ;  Gent. 
Mag.  Ixx.  (ii.)  1300  ;  Watt's  Bibl.  Brit.] 

T.  C. 


Bagot 


399 


Bagot 


BAGOT,  LEWIS  (1740-1802),  bishop, 
was  seventh  son  of  Sir  Walter  Bagot,  bart., 
and  brother  of  the  first  Lord  Bagot.  Born 
1  Jan.  1741,  he  was  educated  at  AVestminster, 
although  not  on  the  foundation,  was  with  his 
brother  a  schoolfellow  of  Cowper,  was  sent  to 
the  university  of  Oxford,  and  was  appointed  a 
cauoneer  student  of  Christ  Church.  He  Avrote 
verses  in  1761 — printed  among  the  Oxford 
poems — on  the  death  of  George  II  and  acces- 
sion of  George  III.  There  is  loyalty,  but  no 
inspiration,  in  them.  Being  very  fragile  in 
health,  he  was  removed  to  Lisbon.  On  his 
return,  considerably  invigorated,  he  proceeded 
M.A.  23  May  1764.  Having  been  admitted 
to  holy  orders,  he  was  presented  to  the  rec- 
tory of  Jevington,  and  also  of  Rye,  Sussex. 
Prior  to  this  he  had  been  made  canon  of 
Christ  Church  in  the  place  of  jNIoore,  arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  in  1771.  In  this  year 
he  married  a  Miss  Hay,  niece  of  the  Earl  of 
Iviunoul,  and  sister  of  Dr.  Hay,  of  Christ 
Church.  He  proceeded  B.C.L.  in  1772,  and 
Avas  installed  in  his  deanery  26  Jan.  1777,  on 
which  he  resigned  his  two  livings.  Dr.  Bagot 
was  consecrated  bishop  of  Bristol  23  Feb. 
1782,  and  held  his  deanery  in  commendam 
with  the  see,  until  his  translation  to  Norwich 
in  1783.  In  March  1790  the  good  bishop  Avas 
fiu'ther  translated  to  St.  Asaph.  He  rebuilt 
the  palace.  Amiable,  gentle,  benevolent, 
humble,  and  laborious,  he  lived  on  intimate 
terms  Avith  his  clergy  and  'the  common 
people.' 

His  ' W'arburtonian  Lecture'  of  1780  on 
the  'Prophecies'  is  his  only  book.  In  1781 
he  received  the  thanks  of  the  Society  for 
Promoting  Christian  KnoAvledge  for  a  gift 
of  fifty  copies  of  Dr.  BarroAv's  '  Doctrine  of 
the  Sacraments,'  AAhich  he  had  reprinted. 
The  tract  still  remains  on  the  society's  lists. 
Through  the  same  society  he  published  a 
tractate  on  the  '  Errors  of  the  Anabaptists ' 
(first  printed  at  Reading  1776).  He  died  in 
London  4  June  1802,  but  was  buried  at  St. 
Asaph.  His  portrait,  by  Hoppner,  is  iu 
Christ  Church  hall. 

[Memoirs  of  the  Bagot  Family,  85  ;  Catal.  of 
Oxford  Graduates;  Hist,  and  Antiq.  of  Ox- 
ford, iii.  443,  Appendix,  330;  Nichols's  Lit. 
Hist.  V.  630;  Santley's  Confer,  v.  114  ;  Barret's 
Hist,  of  Bristol,  338-9  ;  Gent.  Mag.  xli.  379, 
Ixxxiii.  96 ;  A.lumni  Westmonasterienses,  34, 
351-2.]  A.  B.  G. 

BAGOT,  RICHARD,  D.D.  (1782-1854), 
bishop  s\iccessiA'ely  of  Oxford  and  of  Bath 
and  Wells,  was  the  sixth  son  of  AV'illiam, 
first  Lord  Bagot,  by  Louisa  St.  John,  daughter 
of  the  second  Viscount  Bolingbroke.  Edu- 
cated at  Rugby,  he  entered  Christ  Church, 


Oxford,  in  1800,  and  proceeded  Ji.A.  in  lHU3, 
and  M.A.  in  180(5.  In  1804  he  Avas  elected 
to  an  All  Souls'  felloAvship,  Avhich  lie  resigned 
two  years  later,  on  his  marriage  Avith  Ladv 
Harriet  Villiers,  daughter  of  tlie  Earl  «)f 
Jersey.  After  taking  \\o\j  orders  in  1806,  he 
Avas  ])resented  by  his  father  to  the  rectory  of 
Leigli,  Staflordshire,  and  in  1807  to  that  of 
Blithfield.  In  the  same  year  he  became  a 
canon  of  Windsor,  and  in  1817  Avas  nomi- 
nated to  a  canonry  of  Worcester.  In  1829 
he  Avas  consecrated  bishop  of  Oxford,  and  re- 
ceived from  his  university  the  degree  of  D.D. 

Bagot  Avas  bishop  of  Oxford  at  the  date  of 
the  Oxford  moA'ement,  and  Avas  reluctantly 
forced  to  play  a  jtart  in  its  history.  In  the 
charge  that  he  tleliA'ered  to  his  clergy  in 
1838  he  spoke  of  the  frequency  Avith  AA'hich 
appeals  had  been  made  to  him  of  late  years 
to  check  breaches  both  of  doctrine  and  disci- 
pline. But  he  declared  that,  so  far  as  the 
authors  of  '  Tracts  for  the  Times '  had  re- 
called forgotten  truths,  and  draAvn  attention 
to  the  union,  disci])line,  and  authority  of  the 
church,  they  luid  done  good  serAdce.  He 
Avarned  them,  lioweA'er,  against  creating 
schisms,  or  reA^erting  to  practices  'which 
heretofore  haA'e  ended  in  superstition.'  This 
mild  Avarning  Avas  at  first  construed  into  a 
general  censure  of  the  '  Tracts '  by  their  o])- 
])onents ;  but  Dr.  Pusey,  in  a  published  letter 
to  the  bishop,  interju'eted  it  otherAvise,  and 
created  the  imjn-ession  that  Bagot  sanctioned 
his  vieAvs.  In  1840  the  bishop  Avas  implored 
by  a  clergynnni  of  his  diocese,  in  a  long  ano- 
nymous pamphlet,  to  condemn  Dr.  Pusey's 
opinions,  and  in  the  folloAving  year,  on  the 
publication  of  Tract  XC,  Bagot  requested  tlie 
author,  NeAA^man,  to  bring  the  series  to  an 
immediate  close.  His  request  AA'as  at  once 
complied  Avith,  aiul  the  bishop  continued  to 
treat  the  Tractarians  Avith  marked  courtesy. 
Late  in  1841  he  defended  NeAvman  in  a  letter 
to  Pusey  from  the  charge  of  having  brokeji 
Avord  Avith  himself  by  republishing  Tract  XC 
(Browne,  Annals  of  the  Tractarian  Move- 
ment, 1861,  p.  83).  In  1842  Bagot  redis- 
cussed  the  movement  at  length  in  another 
charge  to  his  clergy.  He  condemned  the 
violent  attacks  made  on  the  Tractarians,  and 
spoke  with  respect  of  tlieir  leaders,  although 
he  felt  no  symjuithy  Avith  tlieir  disciples; 
but  he  proceeded  to  expose,  in  decisive  lan- 
guage, '  the  lamentable  Avant  of  judgment ' 
exhibited  in  the  AVTitings  of  'the  adA'ocates 
of  catholic  principles.'  William  Palmer  de- 
dicated to  Bagot  in  admiring  terms  his  ac- 
count of  the  '  Tracts  for  the  Times,'  first 
published  in  184o. 

When  the  see  of  Batli  and  Wells  fell 
vacant,  in  184o,  liagot,  at  his  oaau  desire, 


Bagot 


400 


Bagshaw 


was  translated  to  that  diocese.  The  excite- 
ment of  previous  years  had  ruined  his  healtli ; 
soon  after  leaving  Oxford  he  suffered  from 
a  temporary  mental  derangement,  and  liis 
see  was  for  a  time  administered,  in  accord- 
ance with  a  special  act  of  parliament,  by  the 
Bishop  of  Gloucester  and  Bristol.  lie  had, 
however,  recovered  sufficiently  before  1854 
to  engage  in  a  controversy  in  that  year  with 
Archdeacon  Denison,  who,  according  to  Bagot, 
had  taught  the  real  i)resence  in  the  Eucharist 
in  a  sense  not  sanctioned  by  the  church  of 
England.  The  correspondence,  which  began 
in  a  conciliatory  spirit,  concluded,  without 
any  agreement  between  the  writers  having 
been  reached,  with  a  letter  from  the  bishop 
dated  11  May,  four  days  before  his  death. 
He  died  at  Brighton  from  a  complication  of 
disorders  on  16  May  1854.  His  wife,  by 
whom  he  had  eight  sons  and  four  daughters, 
survived  him.  He  published  his  charges  to 
the  clergy  for  1834,  1838,  1842,  and  1847, 
and  two  sermons,  one  in  1835  and  the  other 
in  1840.  The  charge  of  1842  passed  through 
four  editions.  Archdeacon  Denison  published 
his  correspondence  with  the  bishop  in  1854, 
shortly  after  Bagot's  death. 

[Gent.  Mag.  for  1854;  E.  G.  K.  Browne's 
Annals  of  the  Tractarian  Movement,  1861; 
F.  Oakeley's  Tractarian  Movement  (1865),  pp. 
61-2  ;  W.  Palmer's  Tracts  for  the  Times  (1883), 
pp.  80-6  ;  Mozley's  Reminiscences,  i.  442 ; 
Bagot's  Charges;  Brit.  Mus.  Cat.]      S.  L.  L. 

BAGOT,  SiE  AVILLIAM  (/.  1397), 
minister  of  Richard  II,  appears  early  in  his 
reign  Avith  Sir  John  Bussy  and  Sir  Thomas 
Green  as  a  member  of  his  council  {Proceedings 
of  Council,  i.  pp.  xxi,  77-8)  ;  and,  having  been 
appointed  a  proxy  for  the  Earl  of  Nottingham, 
3  Oct.  1396  {FcBctera,  vii.  844),  sat  in  the  obse- 
quious parliament  of  September  1397,  acted 
with  Bussy  and  Green  on  behalf  of  llichard, 
and  headed  with  them  the  demand  for  the  re- 
peal of  the  pardons  to  the  appellants  (  Wals. 
ii.  224).  At  this  crisis  he  was  among  the 
'  prajcipui  de  consilio '  (Trokelowe,  209, 223), 
and  it  was  at  his  house,  near  Coventry,  that 
Richard  took  up  his  abode  for  the  great 
combat  of  Hereford  and  Norfolk  in  Septem- 
ber 1398  {Chronicque,  p.  17).  On  Richard's 
departure  for  Ireland  (29  May  1399),  Bagot, 
Btissy,  Green,  and  Scrope  were  left  in  charge 
of  tlie  kingdom  as  '  souuerains  conseillers ' 
{ib.  p.  24),  and  the  subsidies  given  them  to 
farm  (Fabyan).  On  the  landing  of  Henry 
(4  July)  he  attended,  with  his  fellows,  the 
council  at  St.  Albans,  and  accompanied  the 
Duke  of  York's  forces  to  Bristol,  which  he 
aided  in  seizing  (Wals.  ii.  232).  On  the 
capture  of  the  council  there,  he  alone  escaped, 


and  fled  by  Chester  to  Ireland  {ib.  ii.  233), 
securing  for  himself,  meanwhile,  grants  from 
the  crown— 3  July  and  20  Sept.     Richard 
resigned  29  Sept.  1399,  and  on  16  Oct.  Bagot, 
who  had  been  lodged  in  Newgate  (Ickham), 
was  brought  up,  at  the  request  of  the  com- 
mons, for  trial,  and  at  once  charged  by  the 
Duke  of  Aumale  with  instigating  Richard's 
crimes.      He   was   instantly   challenged   to 
combat   by   Aumale,    Surrey,    and   Exeter 
,  (Teokelowb,  304-5),  and  after  subsequent 
j  examinations  was  finally  committed  to  the 
I  Tower   (ib.    308),   where   he    last   appears, 
5  April  1400  {Clam.  1  H.  IV). 

\      [Chronieqne  de  la  Traison  (Eng.  Hist.  Soc), 
!  1846 ;    Trokelowe  and  Tliomas  of  AValsingham 
(Rolls  Series);    Stubbs's  Const.  History  (1878), 
iii.  19.]  J.  H.  R. 

BAGOT,  WILLIAM,  second  Lord  Bagot 
(1773-1856),  was  descended  from  a  family 
which,  at  the  time  of  the  Conquest,  were 
possessors  of  lands  in  Staffbrdsliire.  He  was 
the  third  son  of  the  first  Lord  Bagot,  by  a 
daughter  of  the  second  Lord  Bolingbroke, 
and  was  born  in  Bruton  Street,  London, 
11  Sept.  1773.  He  was  educated  at  West- 
minster School,  and  at  Magdalen  College, 
Oxford.  As  the  eldest  surviving  son,  he 
succeeded  to  his  father's  title  in  1798.  Lord 
Bagot  took  an  active  interest  in  agricultural 
pursuits,  was  well  versed  in  natural  histoiy, 
and  possessed  an  inclination  towards  anti- 
quarian studies.  He  was  a  fellow  of  the 
Society  of  Antiquaries,  and  of  the  Linnean, 
Horticultural,  and  Zoological  Societies.  In 
1824  he  published  'Memorials  of  the  Bagot 
Family,'  containing  a  sketch  of  his  ances- 
tors from  the  time  of  the  Conquest.  From 
the  university  of  Oxford  he  received,  in  1834, 
the  degree  of  D.C.L.  He  did  not  take  an 
active  part  in  politics,  but,  by  his  votes, 
gave  a  consistent  support  to  the  tories.  He 
died  at  Blithfield,  Staffordshire,  12  Feb.  1856. 
By  his  first  wife,  Emily,  fourth  daughter 
of  the  first  Lord  Southampton,  he  had  no 
issue  ;  but  by  his  second  wife,  Louisa,  eldest 
daughter  of  the  third  earl  of  Dartmouth,  he 
had  three  sons  and  three  daughters. 

[Gent.  Mag.,  new  series,  xlv.  422  ;  Ann.  Reg. 
xcviii.  239.]  T.  F.  H. 

BAGSHAW,CHRISTOPHER(^.1625?), 
priest,  came  of  a  Derbyshire  family.  He  gra- 
duated B.A.  on  12  July  1572,  of  Balliol 
CoUege,  Oxford,  and  in  the  same  year  was 
elected  probationer  fellow  of  his  college. 
Before  going  to  Oxford  he  appears  to  have 
studied  for  a  short  time  at  Cambridge.  Baker 
records  that  he  matriculated  at  St.  John's 
College,  Cambridge,  on  22  Nov.  1566,     Ac- 


Bagshaw 


401 


Bagshaw 


cording  to  Anthony  ii  Wood  lie  owed  his 
fellowship  to  the  infliience  of  Robert  Par- 
sons ;  hut  AVood's  editor,  Jiliss,  prints  in 
the  footnotes  to  the  life  of  Parsons  (Afhen. 
Oxon.  ii.  6o7)  a  letter  of  Archbishop  Abbot 
to  Dr.  Hussye,  from  which  it  appears  that 
Bagshaw  '  coming  to  be  fellow  was  most  hot 
in  prosecution  against  Parson,' whose  expul- 
sion from  the  college  he  was  instrumental  in 
procuring.  On  21  June  1575,  Bagshaw  took 
the  degree  of  M.A.  At  this  time  he  was 
zealous  in  his  devotion  to  protestant  prin- 
ciples, 'yet  proved  troublesome  in  his  public 
disputes  and  in  his  behaviour  towards  per- 
sons.' About  1579  he  became  principal, 
whether  in  his  own  right  or  as  deputy,  of 
Gloucester  Hall,  where  he  made  himself 
very  unpopular.  He  soon  resigned  this 
office,  and  in  1582  went  into  France.  Here 
he  became  a  convert  to  Romanism,  and  was 
made  a  priest.  Then,  with  the  permission 
of  Cardinal  Allen,  he  Avent  to  Rome,  and 
was  admitted  to  the  English  college,  where 
his  quaiTelsome  temper  made  him  so  un- 
popular that  he  was  expelled  by  Cardinal 
Boncompagno.  On  leaving  Rome  he  re- 
turned to  Paris,  where  he  became  a  doctor 
of  divinity  and  one  of  the  Sorbonne.  The 
Jesuit  writers  used  to  style  him  derisively 
'  doctor  erraticus  '  and  '  doctor  per  saltum.' 
Afterwards  he  went  to  England  to  make 
converts,  and  in  1587  we  find  him  im- 
prisoned in  the  Tower  (Foley,  Records  of 
the  Society  of  Jesus,  i.  481).  In  1593  he  was 
confined  Avith  other  priests  and  gentlemen 
in  Wisbeach  Castle.  His  fellow  prisoners 
held  him  at  first  in  great  esteem,  but  he 
was  soon  exposed  by  Father  Edmonds,  alias 
Weston,  as  '  a  man  of  no  worth,  unruly,  dis- 
ordered, and  a  disobedient  person,  not  to  be 
favoured  or  respected  by  any '  {Relation  of 
the  Faction  berpm  at  Wisbich,  1595  (1601), 
4to,  p.  38).  When  examined  at  the  Tower 
for  treasonable  practices,  Squier,  an  emissary 
from  some  English  priests  in  Spain,  affirmed 
that  he  had  come  with  a  letter  (which  he 
threw  into  the  sea  offPlymouth)  from  Father 
Walpole  to  Bagshaw  at  Wisbeach  (Foley, 
Records,  ii.  244).  After  his  liberation,  Bag- 
shaw continued  to  reside  abroad.  In  1612 
he  held  a  disputation  with  Dr.  Daniel  Feat- 
ley  concerning  transubstantiation.  Notes 
of  this  disputation  were  printed  many  years 
afterwards  in  '  Transubstantiation  exploded, 
or  an  Encoimter  with  Richard,  the  titularie 
Bishop  of  Chalcedon.  .  .  .  By  Daniel  Feat- 
ley,  D.D.  Whereunto  is  annexed  a  publique 
and  solemne  disputation  held  at  Paris  with 
Christopher  Bagshawe,  D.  in  Theologie  and 
Rector  of  Avie  Marie  College,'  1638.  W^ood 
says  that  Bagshaw  *  died  and  was  buried  at 

VOL.   II. 


Paris  after  the  year  sixteen  hundred  and 
twenty-five,  as  I  have  been  informed  by 
Franc.  }\  Santa  Clara,  who  remembered  and 
knew  tlie  doctor  well,  but  had  forgotten  the 
exact  date  of  his  death.' 

Bagshaw  published  at  Paris  in  1603  'An 
Answer  to  certain  points  of  a  Libel  called 
An  Apology  of  the  Subordination  in  Eng- 
land,' 8vo.  He  is  also  thought  to  have  been 
concerned  in  (1)  'Relatio  compendiosa  Tur- 
barum  quas  Jesuitae  Angli  una  cum  D. 
Georgio  Blackwello,  Archipresbytero,  Sa- 
eerdotibus  Seminariorum  Populoque  Catho- 
lico  concivere,'  &c.,  Rothomagi,  1601,  4t<) 
(published  under  the  name  of  John  Mush)  ; 
(2)  '  A  true  Relation  of  the  Faction  begun  at 
Wisbich  by  Father  Emonds,  alias  Weston, 
a  Jesuit,  1595,  and  continued  since  by  Father 
Walley,  alias  Garnet,  the  Provincial  of  the 
Jesuits  in  England,  and  by  Father  Parsons 
in  Rome,'  I6OI,  4to. 

[Wood's  Athenae,  ed.  Bliss,  ii.  389-90,  Fasti,  i. 
188.  199  ;  Dofld's  Church  History,  ii.  67  ;  Foley's 
Records  of  the  English  Province  of  the  Society 
of  Jesus,  i.  42,  481,  ii.  239,  244.]      A.  H.  B. 

BAGSHAW,  EDWARD,  the  elder  {d. 
1662),  royalist,  politician,  and  author,  was  of 
a  Derbyshire  family.  In  1604  he  entered  at 
Brasenose  College,  Oxford,  where  his  tutor 
was  Robert  Bolton,  a  puritan  writer  of  some 
note,  whose  life  was  subsequently  written  by 
Bagshaw.  He  proceeded  B.A.  in  1608,  and 
was  entered  of  the  Middle  Temple,  of  which 
society  he  became  in  due  course  one  of  the 
benchers.  At  this  time  his  leanings  were 
entirely  upon  the  side  of  the  puritans,  and 
when,  in  1639,  he  was  in  his  turn  elected 
Lent  reader,  he  took  the  opportunity  of  de- 
livering two  discourses  to  the  eftect  that  '  a 
parliament  may  be  held  without  bishops,'  and 
that '  bishops  may  not  meddle  in  civil  affairs.' 
The  lectures  attracted  the  notice  of  Laud, 
and  Bagshaw  was  prohibited  from  contininng 
them.  Through  the  popularity  which  these 
proceedings  gained  for  him,  he  obtained  in  the 
following  year  his  election  to  the  I^ong  par- 
liament as  a  burgess  for  the  borough  of 
Southwark. 

Bagshaw  did  not  long  continue  to  act  with 
the  party  which  he  had  adopted,  and  when 
the  king  retired  to  Oxford  Bagshaw  joined 
him  there  and  sat  in  the  so-called  parliament 
which  Charles  convoked  in  that  city.  In 
1644  he  was  taken  prisoner  by  the  parlia- 
mentary army,  and  consigned  to  the  King's 
Bench  prison  in  Soutlnvark ;  and  while  in 
this  confinement  he  composed  the  greater 
number  of  his  works.  He  was  set  at  liberty 
in  1646,  died  in  1662,  and  was  buried  at 
Morton  Pinckney,  in  Northamptonshire,  near 

D   D 


Bagshaw 


402 


Bagshaw 


which  place  his  property  lay.  The  following 
is  a  list  of  his  writings  :  1.  '  Life  and  Death 
of  Mr.  Robert  Bolton,'  London,  1633. 
2.  Editions  of  three  of  Bolton's  works, 
1633-35-37.  3.  Several  speeches  in  parlia- 
ment, viz.  (1)  on  9  Nov.  1640,  (2)  on  9  Feb. 
1640(1641);  'Concerning Episcopacy,'  18Feb. 
1640  (1641) ;  12  Jan.  1641  (1642),  'The  Trial 
of  the  Twelve  Bishops.'  4.  Two  argviments 
inparliament,viz.(l)  'Concerning  the  Canons,' 
(2)  '  Concerning  the  Praemunire  on  these 
Canons.'  5.  'Treatise  defending  the  Re- 
venues of  the  Church,'  London,  1646. 
6.  'Treatise  maintaining  the  Doctrine,  Li- 
turgy, and  Discipline  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land,' 1646.  7.  '  Short  Answer  to  the  Book 
of  W.  Prynne  entitled  Universitv  of  Oxford's 
Plea  refuted'  (1848,  printed).  "^8.  'De  Mo- 
narchia  Absoluta,'  1659.  9.  '  Just  Vindi- 
cation of  the  questioned  part  of  the  reading 
in  Middle  Temple  HaU,  20  Feb.  1639,'  Lon- 
don, 1660;  v/ith  'A  Narrative  of  the  Cause 
of  their  Silencing  by  the  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury '  (printed  together  apud  Rush- 
worth).  10.  '  Short  Defence  of  the  Refor- 
mation of  the  Church  by  K.  EdAvard  and 
Q.  Elizabeth  '  (not  printed). 

[Wood's Athense  Oxonienses  (Bliss),  iii.  618.] 

C.  F.  K. 

BAGSHAW,  EDWARD,  the  younger 
(1629-1671),  divine  and  controversialist,  the 
son  of  Edward  Bagshaw  [see  Bag.shaw, 
Edwakd,  d.  1662],  was  born  at  Broughton, 
Northamptonshire.  He  was  sent  to  Oxford 
from  Westminster  School,  having  been  elected 
thence  a  student  of  Christ  Church  1  May  1646. 
The  testimony  is  unvarying  that  from  his 
earliest  residence  in  the  university  he  was  re- 
fractory and  self-conceited.  He  became  B.  A. 
in  1649,  and  M.A.  and  Senior  of  the  Act  in 
1651.  During  this  period  he  made  himself 
conspicuous  for  his  insolent  bearing  towards 
the  vice-chancellor.  He  also  played  a  very 
prominent  part  in  an  ill-conducted  agitation 
for  the  abolition  of  hoods  and  caps.  He  was 
incorporated  in  the  degree  of  M.A.  at  Cam- 
bridge in  1654.  He  was  appointed  second 
master  of  his  own  former  school,  Westminster, 
in  1656,  and  was  confirmed  in  December  1657. 
At  the  time  the  first  master  of  Westminster 
was  the '  terrible '  Dr.  Busby.  There  was  swift 
quarrelling  between  the  two  high-tempered 
masters.  Of  the  curiosities  of  literature  is 
Bagshaw's  now  extremely  rare  viudication  of 
himself,  entitled  '  A  True  and  Perfect  Narra- 
tive of  the  Differences  between  ]Mr.  Busby  and 
Mr.  Bagshaw,  the  First  and  Second  Masters 
of  Westminster  School,'  1659,  4to. 

In  1659  he  was  ordained  by  the  eminent 
Bishop   Brownrigg.      He   became   vicar   of 


Ambrosden,  in  Oxfordshire ;  but  he  elected 
to  be  one  of  the  two  thousand  clergymen 
ejected  in  1662  by  the  Bartholomew  Act  of 
1661.    He  was  appointed  chaplain  to  the  Earl 
of  Anglesey ;  but  again  his  intractable  temper 
marred  his  prospects.     He  crossed  over  to 
Ireland  to  join  his  patron,  and  was  soon,  as 
Wood  acrimoniously  puts  it,  'gaping  after 
great  matters,  but  without  success,  and  there- 
fore enraged.'    On  his  return  to  England  in 
December  1002,  having  fallen  to  abusing  the 
king  and  government,  church  and  state,  he 
was  put  prisoner  into  the  Gatehouse ;  thence, 
in  January  1663,  removed  to  the  Tower,  and 
thence,  in  January  1664,  to  Southsea  Castle, 
Hampshire.    On  his  release,  in  1664-5,  he  is 
found  again  in  London.     Dr.  Walter  Pope, 
in  his  '  Life  of  Bishop  Ward,'  tells  us  of  this 
period  of  his  life :  '  He  was  advised  by  some 
considerable  friends  to  live  peaceable  and 
conformable  for  the  space  of  a  year;   who 
assured  him  that  at  the  end  of  it  they  would 
provide  him  some  considerable  preferment 
in  the  church.     Accordingly  he  went   and 
tried,  but  not  being  able  to  hold,  he  soon 
repaired  to  London,  much  more  embittered 
against  ecclesiastical  and  kingly  government 
than  when  he  went  into  the  country.'     He 
adds :  '  He   sided  tooth  and  nail  with  the 
fanatics,  and  made  a  great  figure  amongst 
them ; '  and  concludes :  '  He  exceeded  most,  if 
not  all  of  them,  in    natural  and  acquii'ed 
parts.'     Palmer   on    this    quaintly  remarks 
\Nonconf.  Mem.  iii.  Ill) :  '  But  this  writer 
was  too  little  acquainted  with  that  sort  of 
people  he  calls  Fanatics  to  be  able  to  pass  a 
judgment.'     He   was   speedily  involved   in 
'  conventicling '  and  the  inevitable '  sedition.' 
He  was  again  flung  into  prison — this  time 
Newgate — '  for  refusing  to  take  the  oath  of 
supremacy  and  allegiance.'     He   completed 
his  singular  career  by  marrying,  in  his  old 
age,  a  blind  gentlewoman,  who  had  fallen 
in  love  with  him  for  his  preaching.      His 
unreasonableness  is  proved  by  the  insolent 
attacks  he  made  upon  the  venerable  Richard 
Baxter.    The  title  (abbreviated)  of  the  great 
nonconformist's  last   answer  to   these   un- 
measured   attacks    will    speak    for    itself: 
'The   Church  told    of    Mr.   Edward   Bag- 
shaw's Scandal,  and  warned   of  the  Dan- 
gerous Snares  of  Satan  he  has  laid  for  them 
in  his  Soul-killing  Principles '  (1671).  Nearly 
all  his   title-pages   are   accusations,  if  not 
libels,  save  when  he  writes  of  personal  religion. 
His  'Practical  Discoui'se  concerning  God's 
Decrees'  (1659),  which  was  dedicated  to  Pre- 
sident Bradshaw,  is  a  very  able  book ;  while 
his  'Saintship  no  Ground  of  Sovereignty' 
(1000)  shows  plainly  he  was  no  fanatic. 
It  was  long  believed  that  Bagshaw  died  in. 


Bagshaw 


403 


Bagshaw 


Newgate  ;  but  it  appears  that  he  was  allowed 
out  on  parole,  and  really  died  in  Tothill 
Street,  Westminster,  on  28  Dec.  1671.  A 
reference  to  his  death  by  Richard  Baxter,  that 
has  become  classic,  must  find  place  here. 
*  About  the  day  it  [*  The  Church  told ']  came 
out,  Mr.  Bagshaw  died,  a  prisoner,  tho'  not 
in  prison ;  which  made  it  grievous  to  me  to 
think  that  I  must  seem  to  write  against  the 
dead.  While  we  AXTangle  here  in  the  dark, 
we  are  dying,  and  passing  to  the  world  that 
will  decide  all  controversies ;  and  the  safest 
passage  thither  is  by  peaceable  holiness.' 
He  was  buried  in  Bunhill  Fields,  and  Dr. 
John  Owen  wrote  the  following  inscription 
for  his  altar-tomb : — 

'  Here  lies  interred,  the  Body  of  Mr.  Edward 
Bagshaw,  minister  of  the  Gospel,  who  re- 
ceived faith  from  God  to  embrace  it,  courage 
to  defend  it,  and  patience  to  suffer  for  it, 
which  is  by  most  despised  and  by  many  per- 
secuted ;  esteeming  the  advantage  of  birth, 
■education,  and  learning  as  things  of  worth 
to  be  accounted  loss  for  the  knowledge  of 
Christ.  From  the  reproaches  of  pretended 
friends,  and  persecutions  of  professed  advei-- 
saries,  he  took  sanctuary,  by  the  will  of  God, 
in  eternal  rest,  the  28th  December  1671.' 

[Wood's  Athense  Oxon.  (Bliss),  iii.  944-50; 
Fasti,  ii.  120,  166;  Kennett'e  Parochial  Anti- 
■<juities,  675  ;  Noble's  Cent,  of  Granger,  i.  98, 
note  ;  Cahuiiy's  Abridgment,  ix.  336  ;  Bridge's 
Northiimptonshire,  ii.  87-8;  Pope's  Life  of  Seth 
Ward;  Seymour's  Survey  of  London,  i.  98  ;  Cole's 
MS.  Atlienaj,  Y.  Incorporations ;  Alumni  West- 
monasterienses,  125-6;  Palmer's  Nonconf.  Me- 
morial, iii.  Ill  ;  'E\aio<popla,  or  the  Peace  with 
Holland,  1654.]  A.  B.  G. 

BAGSHAW,  HENRY,  D.D.  (1632-1709), 
divine,  the  younger  son  of  Edward  BagshaAv, 
treasurer  of  the  Middle  Temple,  was  born 
at  Broughton,  Northamptonshire,  in  1632. 
After  attending  Westminster  School,  he  was, 
in  I60I,  elected  student  of  Christ  Church, 
Oxford,  of  which  he  became  M.A.  in  1657. 
In  1663  he  was  appointed  chaplain  to  Sir 
Richard  Fanshaw,  ambassador  to  Spain  and 
Portugal.  After  the  death  of  Sir  Richard 
Fanshaw  in  1666,  he  returned  to  England, 
and  became  chaplain  to  the  Archbishop  of 
York,  who  made  him  prebendary  of  South- 
well and  rector  of  Castleton  in  Synderick.  In 
AugTist  1667,  he  was  collated  to  the  prebend 
of  Bamaby  in  York  Cathedral,  and  in  1668 
to  that  of  Fridaythorp.  He  became  B.D.  in 
the  same  year,  and  D.D.  in  1671.  In  1672  he 
was  made  chaplain  to  the  Lord  Chancellor 
Danby,  and  rector  of  St.  Botolph's  Church, 
Bishopsgate,  London,  which  he  exchanged 
for  Houghton-le-Spring,  Durham.  In  1681 
he  was  appointed  prebendary  of  Durham.  He 


died  at  Houghton  30  Dec.  1709.  Bagshaw 
enjoyed  a  high  reputation  as  a  pulpit  orator, 
and  h<^  also  published  '  Sermon  preached  in 
Madrid  on  the  occasion  of  the  Death  of  Sir 
R.  Fanshaw,'  1667;  'The  Excellency  of 
Primitive  Government,  in  a  Sermon,' 1 673  ; 
'A  Sermon  preached  before  the  King  at 
Whitehall,'  1676:  and  'Diatribte,  or  Dis- 
courses upon  Select  Texts  against  Papists 
and  Socinians,'  1680. 

[Wood's  Athense  Oxon.  (Bliss),  iv.  631  ;  Hut- 
chinson's History  of  Durham,  ii,  206.]  T.  F.  H. 

BAGSHAW,  WILLIAM  (1628-1702), 
divine,  was  known  as  the  'Apostle  of  the 
Peak.'  One  of  the  most  enduring  religious 
chapbooks,  though  it  is  rarely  to  be  met  with 
now,  was  his  '  Life  and  Funeral  Sermon '  by 
J.  Ashe  (1704, 12mo).  It  is  the  main  source 
of  information  concerning  him,  though  even 
to-day,  in  the  dales  and  mountain-sides  of 
Derbyshire,  his  name  is  known  and  lionoured. 
He  was  born  at  Litton,  in  the  parish  of 
TidesAvell,  17  Jan.  1627-8.  He  received  his 
early  education  at  '  several  country  schools,' 
and  made '  greater  proficiency  in  learning  than 
most  of  his  equals.'  He  received  profound 
religious  impressions  under  the  old  puritan 
ministers,  Rowlandson  of  Bakewell  and  Bourn 
of  Ashover.  He  was  of  the  university  of 
Cambridge,  entering  Corpus  Christi  College. 
He  received  holy  orders,  and  preached  his 
first  sermon  in  the  chapel  of  Warmhill,  in 
his  native  parish.  There  he  remained  about 
three  months.  Though  later  he  lamented 
that  in  his  youth  he  had  entered  '  too  rashly 
on  the  awful  work,'  his  labours  in  and  out 
of  the  pulpit  proved  singularly  acceptable. 
From  Tideswell  he  removed  to  Attercliffe, 
in  Yorkshire.  Here  he  occupied  a  twofold 
post,  viz.  assistant  to  the  Rev.  James  Fisher 
of  Sheffield,  and  chaplain  in  the  family  of 
Colonel  (afterwards  Sir)  John  Bright.  He  was 
ordained  at  Chesterfield,  Derbyshire,  on  1  Jan. 
1650.  Some  time  after  he  was  presented  to 
the  living  of  Glossop.  After  the  Restoration 
the  Act  of  Uniformity  left  him  no  choice 
but  to  Avithdraw  from  his  beloved  church 
and  congregation.  He  was  one  of  the  two 
thousand  ejected  in  1602. 

Upon  the  ejection  he  retired  to  Ford,  in 

an  adjacent  parish.     He  was  well-born  and 

possessed  of  a  '  good  estate,'  and  lived  as  a 

country  gentleman.      He  stood  fast  to  his 

'  nonconformity ;    but   his   '  moderation   was 

;  known  to  all  men.'     He  attended  the  parish 

church.  But  holding  his 'orders' to  l^e' divine 

I  and  indefeasible,'  he  did  not  hesitate  to '  preach 

the  Gospel'  as  opportunity  offered,  in  his  own 

!  private  house  and  those  of  friends,  and  regu- 

'  larly  conducted  service  on  Thursdav evenings. 

'  "^dd2 


Bagster 


404 


Bagster 


He  held  special  *  conferences '  for  devotion 
and  discussion.  On  the  Indulgence  of  1672 
being  promulgated,  he  felt  free  to  preach 
regularly  in  his  former  parish  and  in  the 
neighbourhood.  He  lectured  at  Ashford, 
Malcoffe,  Middleton,  Bradwell,  Chalmarton, 
and  Hucklow.  When  the  '  Declaration''  was 
recalled  by  Charles  II,  he  continued  to  preach 
secretly.  'Popish  plots'  were  in  the  air, 
and  nonconformists  were  always  '  suspect.' 
Two  informers  who  once  disturljed  him  in  a 
private  religious  service  acknowledged  that 
his  '  reverend  countenance  '  struck  tliem  with 
terror.  There  Avere  several  warrants  issued 
against  him,  but  he  either  escaped  elsewhere 
or  the  magistrates  themselves  quashed  them. 
While  James  II's  *  Declaration  for  Liberty  of 
Conscience'  was  in  force,  and  through  the 
beginning  of  William  and  Mary's  reign,  he 
Avas  an  incessant  preacher  and  toiler.  He 
died  on  I  April  1702,  and  was  buried  at 
Chapel-en-le-Frith.  He  left  an  enormous 
mass  of  manuscripts  behind  him  (fifty  volumes, 
folio,  quarto,  and  duodecimo),  which,  it  is  to 
be  feared,  have  nearly  all  perished  His  own 
published  books  are  all  short,  but  now  fetch 
high  prices.  Their  (abbreviated)  titles  are : 
1.  'Waters  for  a  Thirsty  Soul,  in  several 
sermons  on  Rev.  xxi.  6,'  London,  1653.  2.  '  Of 
Christ's  Purchase,'  to  which  is  prefixed  his 
*  Confession  of  Faith.'  3.  '  Pv,ules  for  our 
Behaviour  every  Day  and  for  sanctifying  the 
Sabbath,  with  Hints  for  Commiuiicants.' 
4.  '  The  Ready  Way  to  prevent  Sin,'  on  Prov. 
XXX.  22,  with  '  A  Bridle  for  the  Tongue,'  on 
St.  Matt.  X.  36.  5.  The  '  Miner's  :Monitor.' 
6,  The  '  Sinner  in  Sorrow  and  the  Humble 
Sinner's  Modest  Request.'  7.  '  Brief  Direc- 
tions for  the  Improvement  of  Infant  Bap- 
tism.' 8.  The  '  Riches  of  Grace,'  three  parts. 
9.  'Trading  Spiritualized,  three  parts.  10. 'De 
Spiritualibus  Pecci :  Notes  concerning  the 
Work  of  God,  and  some  that  have  been 
walkers  together  with  God  in  the  High  Peak 
of  Derbyshire,'  a  peculiarly  interesting  bio- 
graphic work  (London,  1702).  II.  'Prin- 
cipiisObsta,'1671.    12.  'Sheet for  Sufferers.' 

13.  '  Matters   for  Mourning ' — posthumous. 

14.  '  Essays  on  Union  to  Christ,'  which  ap- 
peared after  his  death. 

[Palmer's  Nonconf.  Mera.  i.  405-10;  Ashe's 
Life  and  Character ;  local  reseai'ches ;  Dr.  Gro- 
sart's  collection  of  Bagshaw's  works.] 

A.  B.  G. 

BAGSTER,  SAMUEL,  the  younger 
(1800-1835),  printer  and  author,  eldest  son 
of  Samuel  Bagster,  1772-1851  [q.  v.],  Avas 
born  on  19  Oct.  1800,  and,  after  having 
been  educated  at  a  school  at  Oxford,  con- 
ducted by  the  Rev.  James  Ilintou,  was  ar- 
ticled to  his  father  in  1815.     From  an  early 


age  he  shoAA'ed  a  serious  tendency,  and  in 
October  1822  joined  the  baptist  church  in 
Blackfriars.  Having  acquired  the  necessary 
technical  training  in  his  father's  establish- 
ment, young  Bagster  commenced  business  for 
himself  in  1824  as  a  printer  in  Bartliolomew 
Close.  He  married  Miss  Elizabeth  Hunt  in 
June  1825.  During  the  summer  of  1834  he 
brought  out  a  little  work  on  '  The  Manao-e- 
ment  of  Bees,'  printed  by  himself,  published 
jointly  by  his  father  and  Will  iam  Pickering, 
and  which  has  passed  through  three  editions. 
It  is  full  of  viseful  and  practical  information, 
and,  although  noAv-  superseded  by  more  recent 
treatises,  has  been  in  considerable  repute. 
Samuel  Purchas,  the  son  of  the  author  of  the 
'  PilgTimes,'  issued  in  1057  a  quaint  quarto, 
now  extremely  rare,  styled  '  A  Tlieatre  of 
Politicall  Flying  Insects,'  in  two  parts,  the 
first  being  dcA^oted  to  the  history  and  man- 
agement of  bees  and  the  second  to  '  medita- 
tiousand  observations, theological  and  moral,' 
upon  the  subject.  The  greater  part  of  these 
reflections  were  reprinted  by  Bagster  in  a 
volume  produced  in  the  same  style  and  at 
the  same  time  as  his  OAvn  practical  handbook. 
He  contributed  '  The  Treasury  of  Scripture 
KnoAvledge '  to  his  father's  polyglot  series, 
and  projected  a  series  of  questions  on  th& 
gospels  for  Sunday-school  children,  but  the 
manuscript  of  the  latter  remained  unfinished 
and  unpublished.  Although  at  first  the  pro- 
gress of  his  business  gavehim  cause  for  anxiety, 
it  steadily  increased  in  exteiit.  Many  of  the 
polyglot  bibles  and  other  learned  publica- 
tions of  Messrs.  Bagster  &  Sons  came  from 
his  press.  His  amiable  and  devout  dispo- 
sition is  dwelt  upon  by  his  biographer,  the 
Rev.  John  Broad,  a  baptist  minister,  from 
whom  we  learn  that  the  subject  of  this  me- 
moir took  an  actiA-e  part  in  the  anti-slavery 
and  temperance  movements.  For  the  latter 
cause  he  Avrote  several  pamphlets.  Shej)- 
herd's  Bush,  where  he  spent  the  last  part  of 
his  life,  was  then  a  rural  neighbourhood, 
and  Bagster  occupied  some  of  his  leisure  in 
poultry-breeding  and  bee-keeping.  Tliere  he 
died  at  his  residence,  Aldine  Cottage,  on 
1  July  1835,  aged  35  years,  leaving  no  child- 
ren. He  Avas  buried  at  Tottenham  Court 
Chapel,  and  his  remains  were  remoA'ed  in 
1843  to  the  family  vault  in  Abney  Park 
Cemetery.  His  widow  survived  until  1879. 
His  Avorks  consist  of:  1.  'The  Treasury 
of  Scrij)ture  Knowledge ;  consisting  of  a  rich 
and  co])ious  assemblage  of  more  than  500,000 
scripture  references  and  parallel  passages 
from  Canne,  BroAvn,  Blayney,  Scott,  and 
others,  Avith  numerous  illustrative  notes : 
adapted  to  be  the  companion  of  eA'ery  biblical 
reader,'  London,  S.  Bagster  [1834]  J!  foolscap- 


Bagster 


405 


Bagster 


S\o  and  4to,  forming  the  second  part  of  the 
*  Treasury  Bible.'  '2.  '  The  Management  of 
Bees,  with  u  description  of  the  "  Ladies 
Safety-hive,"  with  40  illustrative  wood  en- 
gravings,* Ijondon,  S.  Bagster,  1834,  small 
8vo.  A  second  edition  was  published  in 
1838,  and  a  third  (also  unaltered)  in  1805. 
3.  *  Spiritual  Honey  from  Natural  Hives,  or 
Meditations  and  Observations  on  the  Natural 
History  and  Habits  of  Bees,  first  introduced 
to  public  notice  in  1657  by  S.  Purchas,  M.A.,' 
London,  S.  Bagster,  1834,  small  8vo. 

[luformatioii  from  Mr.  B.  Bagster ;  Broad's 
Memoir  of  the  Life  and  Christian  Experience  of 
S.  Bagster,  jun.,  1837  ;  Literary  Gazette,  1834, 
p.  753.]  H.  E.  T. 

BAGSTER,  SAMUEL,  the  elder  (1772- 
1851),  founder  of  the  publishing  firm  of  Bag- 
ster &  Sons,  born  20  Dec.  1772,  was  the  second 
son  of  George  and  Mary  Bagster,  of  Beaufort 
Buildings  and  St.  Pancras.  He  was  educated 
at  Northampton  under  the  Rev.  John  Kyland, 
and,  after  serving  an  apprenticeship  with 
"William  Otridge,  commenced  business  as  a 
general  bookseller  on  19  April  1794  in  the 
Strand,  where  he  remained  until  1810.  A 
lew  years  before  his  remoA'al,  the  rarity  and 
consequent  costliness  of  all  polyglot  bibles 
gave  him  the  idea  of  supplying  the  want  of 
a  handy  and  inexpensive  edition.  He  first 
brought  out  a  Hebrew  Bible,  which  was 
folloAved  by  the  Septuagint,  both  in  foolscap 
octavo.  The  production  of  English  bibles 
was  a  monopoly  in  the  United  Kingdom, 
confined  in  England  to  the  king's  printer 
and  the  two  great  universities,  in  Scotland 
to  Sir  D.  H.  Blair  and  John  Bruce,  and  in 
Ireland  to  Mr.  Grierson.  It  had  been  de- 
cided, however,  that  the  patent  did  not  apply 
to  bibles  printed  with  notes,  and  Bagster 
brought  out  in  1810 'The  English  version  of 
the  polyglot  bible'  (with  a  preface  by  T.  Che- 
valier), in  foolscap  octavo  size,  containing  a 
selection  of  over  00,000  parallel  references, 
mainly  selected  and  all  verified  by  himself. 
The  book  was  extremely  successful.  Every  de- 
tail in  its  production  was  superintended  by  the 
publisher,  who  introduced  a  new  style  of  bind- 
ing in  the  best  Turkey  morocco,  with  flexible 
tight  backs,  the  sheets  being  sewed  with  thin 
t  bread  or  silk.  He  also  used  prepared  sealskins, 
which, with  their  'pin-head  grain,' were  much 
admired.  In  I8I0  he  removed  to  15  Pater- 
noster How.  The  first  issue  of  the  '  Biblia 
Sacra  Polyglotta  Bagsteriana  '  appeared  be- 
iween  1817  and  1828,  four  volumes  in  fools- 
trap  octavo  and  quarto  form,  containing, 
besides  the  prolegomena  of  Dr.  Samuel  Lee, 
the  Hebrew  Old  Testament  Avith  points,  the 
Samaritan  Pentateuch,  the  Septuagint  Greek 


version  of  the  Old  Testament,  the  Latin  Vul- 
gate, the  authorised  English  version,  the  Greek 
TextusReceptus  of  the  New  Testament,  and 
the  Pesliito  or  ancient  Syriac  version.  An 
edition  was  printed  of  a  quai-to  Frencli, 
Italian,  Sjjanish,  and  German  Bible,  which 
Lowndes  states  was  entirely  destroyed  by 
fire  on  the  premises  in  March  1822,  when  only 
twenty-three  copies  of  the  New  Testament 
portion  were  preserved.  A  folio  edition  of 
the  polyglot  was  published  in  1828,  repeated 
in  1831,  and  subsequently,  presenting  eight 
languages  at  the  opening  of  the  volume,  and 
including  all  the  ancient  and  modern  ver- 
sions above  mentioned.  Copiesof  thedifFerent 
texts  and  translations  were  brought  out  sepa- 
rately, and  in  various  combinations.  The 
well-known  motto  of  the  firm,  TroXXat  fiei^ 
OvTjTois  yXwTTai,  fiia  b^ddavdroKTiu,  is  said  to 
have  been  due  to  the  Rev.  H.  F.  Gary  (^Notes 
and  Queries,  ser.  i.  v.  587).  We  are  informed 
by  a  member  of  the  family  that  the  Latin 
version,  multce  terricolis  lingua,  ccclestibus 
una,  was  by  William  Greenfield.  As  the 
two  versions  appear  on  Greenfield's  tomb,  it 
is  very  probable  that  they  were  both  by  him. 
In  consequence  of  the  arbitrary  regulations 
of  the  excise  authorities,  paper  could  only  be 
had  of  certain  sizes.  It  was  partially  owing  to 
Bagster's  exertions  that  the  rules  were  modi- 
fied. Two  other  forms  of  the  English  bible 
were  issued,  and,  all  of  them  harmonising 
page  for  page,  began  what  is  known  as  the 
'Facsimile  Series.'  The  publication  of  the  first 
volume  of  the  polyglot  was  followed  in  1821 
by  an  octoglot  edition  of  the  liturgy  of  the 
Church  of  J<]ngland  in  a  handsome  quarto. 
The  eight  languages  were  English,  French, 
German,  Italian,  Spanish,  ancient  Greek, 
modern  Greek,  and  Latin.  In  1822  Bag- 
ster made  the  acquaintance  of  the  self- 
taught  Orientalist,  William  Greenfield,  of 
whose  life  he  wrote  an  interesting  account  in 
the  'Imperial  Magazine'  (1834,  pp.  9,  63). 
Greenfield  had  suggested  a  lexicon  to  the 
polyglot  edition  of  the  Hebrew  Bible,  which 
caused  him  to  be  engaged  as  a  proof-reader  to 
the  various  learned  publications  Bagster  was 
then  bringing  out.  In  1824  Bagster  circu- 
lated the  prospectus  of  a  polyglot  grammar 
in  twenty  or  thirty  languages  upon  the  prin- 
ciples of  comparative  philology,  also  the  sug- 
gestion of  (:}reenfield,  who  in  1827  edited  for 
the  publisher  his  'Comprehensive  Bible,'  with 
4,000  illustrative  notes,  500,000  marginal 
references,  a  general  introduction,  and  a 
variety  of  other  useful  information.  Bagster's 
Syriac  New  Testament  (1828-29),  Hebrew 
New  Testament  (1830),  Polymicrian  Greek 
Lexicon  (1829),  Schmidt's  Greek  Concord- 
ance (1829),  and,  in  fact,  all  the  small  and 


Bagwell 


406 


Baikie 


beautifully  printed  Polymicrian  series,  were 
also  edited  by  Greenfield.  Many  books  were 
subsequently  printed  by  Bagster.  A  fine 
quarto  issued  in  1841  is  specially  deserving 
of  mention.  It  is  'The  English  Ilexapla,' 
giving  the  six  most  important  versions  in 
our  tongue  of  the   New  Testament,  being 


too  abstruse  for  popular  use,  but  yet  worthy 
to  be  placed  in  some  university  to  be  con- 
sulted by  the  learned.  The  manuscript  is 
in  the  British  Museum  (MS.  Sloane  652). 
After  being  set  at  liberty  in  1654  Bagwell 
was  put  by  some  friends  in  good  employment, 
and   in   1655   published   '  The   Mystery   of 


those    of  Wiclif    (1380),   Tyndale    (1584),  Astronomy  made  Plain,'  a  simplification  of 

Cranmer  (1539),  the  Genevan  (1557),  the  his  more  elaborate  treatise.    Bliss,  in  a  note 

Anglo-Rhemish  (1582),  and  the  avithorised  to  Wood  (Fasti,  ii.  221),  states  that  he  de- 

(1611),  together  with  the  Greek  text  after  dicated  his  '  Sphinx  Thebanus,  or  Ingenious 

Scholz,  and   a  valuable   historical  account  liiddle,'  1664,  to  the  worshipful  Himiphiy 

of  the  English  translations.     Another  note-  Brook,  doctor  of  physic,  his  approved  good 

Avorthy  publication  was  the  '  Bible  of  every  ,  fi-iend  and  patron.    So  strongly  was  Bagwell 

land,'  4to,  supplying  specimens  of  over  270  impressed  with  the  value  of  the  discipline 

different  languages  and  versions.  he  obtained  from  his  hard  experiences,  that 

Bagster's  long  and  honourable  career  as  a  in  1645  he  published  'The  Distressed  Mer- 

publisher  of  aids  to  the  study  of  the  Scrip-  '  chant,  and  Prisoner  s  Comfort  in  Distress,'  a 

tures  has  earned  for  him  the  esteem  of  all  lugubrious  piece  of  doggerel,  which  is  cari- 

biblical  scholars.     His  own  attainments  in  catured  in 'AVilBagnal's  Ghost,  or  the  Merry 

tliisdirectionwereconsiderable,  and  his  taste  Devill  of  Gadmimton  in  his  Perambulations 

and    enterprise    are  well   displayed   in    the  of  the  Prisons  of  London,'  by  E.  Gayton. 

handsome  ty])ographical  appearance  of  the  Esq.,  1655,  and  in  '  Will  Bagnalls  Ballet," 


numerous  volumes  which  bear  his  im])rint 
He  died  at  his  residence  in  Old  Windsor  on 
28  March  1851,  aged  78.  He  married  on 
19  Dec.  1797  Miss  Eunice  Birch,  who  sur- 
vived him  twenty-six  years,  attaining  the 
venerable  age  of  100.  His  son  Jonathan 
(1813-1872)  followed  him  as  senior  member 
of  the  firm. 

[Information  from  Mr.  B.  Bagster ;  T.  H. 
Home's  Introd.  to  the  Study  of  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures ;  Home's  Manual  of  Bibl.  Bibliography ; 
Lowndes's  Bibliographer's  Manual,  by  H.  G. 
Bohn;  The  Bookseller,  February  1880;  Gent. 
Mag.  May  1851 ;  Kitto's  Journal  of  Sacred  Lit. 
1856,  3rd  series,  iii.  327.]  H.  E.  T. 

BAGWELL,  WILLIAM  (J.  1655),  a 
London  merchant  and  writer  on  astronomy, 
is  stated  by  Burke,  in  his  pedigree  of  the 
Bagwells  of  Ireland,  to  have  been  a  brother 
of  Alderman  Backwell,  but  his  name  is  not 
mentioned  in  the  Backwell  pedigree,  and  the 
different  spelling  of  the  name  would  seem 


in  '  Wit  Restored,'  1658.  Bagwell  also  pub- 
lished another  short  poem,  entitled  '  An 
Aftectionate  Expostulation  for  the  Pious 
Employment  both  of  Wit  and  Wealth.'  In 
1652  there  was  published,  by  order  of  Crom- 
well, '  A  Full  Discovery  of  a  Foul  Conceal- 
ment, or  a  True  Narrative  of  the  Proceedings 
and  Transactions  of  the  Committee  for  the 
Accompts  of  the  Commonwealth  of  England 
with  William  Bagwell  and  John  Brockedon, 
accomptants,  Discoverers  and  Plaintiffs 
against  the  Committee  of  Hartford,  the 
Treasurer  and  Paymaster  there  in  the  year 
1643 ; '  but  possibly  the  William  Bagwell 
of  this  title-page  may  be  another  person. 

[Preface  to  Mystery  of  Astronomy  made  Plain, 
in  the  frontispiece  to  which  is  his  portrait  by 
Graywood ;  varioiis  allusions  in  the  Distressed 
Merchant ;  Granger's  Biog.  Hist,  of  England, 
iii.  121-2  ;  MS.  Sloane  652.]  T.  F.  H. 

BAIKIE,  WILLIAM  BALFOUR,  M.D. 

(1825-1864),  naturalist,  traveller,  and  philo- 


to  militate  against  the  supposition.     As  the  i  logist,eldestsonof  Captain  John  Baikie,  R.N. , 


inscription  on  his  portrait  in  1659  gives  his 
age  as  sixty-six,  he  was  probably  bom  in 
1593  (Granger,  Bioff.  Hist,  of  England,  iii, 
121).  According  to  his  own  account  in  'The 
Mystery  of  Astronomy  made  Plain,'  he  was 
bred  a  merchant  of  good  quality,  and  skilfully 
furnished  with  knowledge.  He  had  '  seen 
the  world  abroad,'  and  for  several  years  had 
carried  on  an  extensive  trade,  when  losses 
beyond  the  seas  led  to  his  being  sent  to  prison 
for  debt.  In  1654  he  had  been  in  and  out  of 
prison  for  twenty  years.  The  tedium  of  con- 
finement he  relieved  by  writing  an  *  Arith- 
metical Description  of  the  Celestial  and  Ter- 
restrial Globes,'  a  treatise  which  he  deemed 


was  born  at  Kirkwall,  Orkney,  on  27  Aug. 
1825,  and  educated  privately  and  at  the  gram- 
mar school  there.  After  taking  his  degree  in 
medicine  at  Edinburgh,  he  entered  the  royal 
navy  in  1848  as  assistant  surgeon.  He 
served  on  her  majesty's  ships  Volage,  Van- 
guard, Ceylon,  Medusa,  and  Hibernia  in  the 
Mediterranean,  and  then  became  assistant 
surgeon  at  the  Haslar  Hospital  from  1851 
to  1854,  when  the  influence  of  Sir  Roderick 
Murchison  procured  him  the  post  of  surgeon 
and  naturalist  to  the  Niger  expedition  of 
1854,  and  on  the  death  of  the  captain  at 
Fernando  Po,  Baikie  succeeded  to  the  com- 
mand of  the  Pleiad,  the  exploring  vessel. 


Bailey 


407 


Bailey 


This  first  successful  voyage,  penetrating  250 
miles  higher   up   the    Nigei*   than    had  be- 
fore been  reached,  is  desci'ibed  by  Baikie  in 
his  *  Narrative  of  an  Exploring  Voyage  up 
the  .  .  .  Niger  and  Isadda,'  London,  1856. 
After  spending  some  montlis   in  arranging 
his  African  collections,  and   again  serving 
at  the  Ilaslar  Hospital,  Baikie  left  England 
in  1857  on  a  second  expedition,  in  which 
the  Pleiad  was  WTecked,  and  the  other  ex- 
plorers returned  to  England,  and  left  him  to 
carry  on  the  exploration  alone.     He  bought 
a   site — Lukqja — at    the   confluence  of  the 
Quorra  and  Benue,  and  soon  collected  a  con- 
siderable native  settlement,  over  which  he 
held  sway  and  where  he  officiated  in  every 
capacity.     He  explored  the  country  around, 
entered  into  relations  with  the  King  of  Nup^, 
the  next  powerftxl  sovereign  to  the  Sultan  of 
Sokoto,  and  induced  him  to  '  open  out  roads 
for  the   passage   of  caravans,  traders,   and 
canoes '  to  Lukoja.     Before  five  years  were 
over  he  had  opened  up  the  navigation  of  the  I 
Niger,   made    roads,   established   a   regular  : 
market  for  native  produce,  collected  vocabu- 
lai'ies   of    numerous   African    dialects,   and 
translated  parts  of  the  Bible  and  Book  of  1 
Common  Prayer  into  Hausa.     He  died  on  ! 
his  way  home,  on    a  well-earned  leave  of  i 
absence,  at  Sierra  Leone  on  12  Dec.  1864,  ] 
aged  39.     A  monument  to  his  memory  was  I 
erected  in  the  cathedral  of  St.  Magnus,  Kirk-  j 
wall.    His  earliest  works  related  to  Orkney :  I 
'  Historia   Naturalis   Orcadensis  :    Zoology, 
Part  I.    Mammalia  and  Birds  observed  in  the 
Orkney  Islands,'  by  W.  B.  Baikie,  M.D.,  and 
E.  Heddle,  Edinburgh,  1848 ;  and  '  List  of 
Books  and  Manuscripts  relating  to  Orkney 
and  Zetland,'  Sec,  by  W.  B.  Baikie,  Kirkwall, 
1847.     His  '  Observations  on  the  Hausa  and 
Fulfulde  Languages  '  Avere  privately  printed 
in  1861 ;  his  translation  of  the  Psalms  into 
Hausa  ('  Letafi  ta  Zabura ')  was  posthumously 
published  by  the   Bible   Society  in    1881 ; 
and  other  translations  were  incoi-porated  in 
Reichardt's  *  Grammar  of  the  Fulde  Lan- 
guage '  (1876).     Dr.  Baikie  was  also  a  con- 
tributor to  the  transactions  of  various  learned 
societies. 

[Information  received  (September  1883)  from 
Miss  Eleanor  Baikie,  of  Kirkwall,  sist'er  of  Dr. 
Baikie ;  Gent.  Mag.,  March  1865.]       S.  L.-P. 

BAILEY.  [See  also  Baillie,  Baily, 
Batley,  and  Bayly.] 

BAILEY,  JAMES  (d.  1864),  classical 
scholar,  was  educated  at  Trinity  College, 
Cambridge.  He  graduated  B.A.  1814,  M.A. 
1823,  and  obtained  the  Browne  medals  for 
Greek  ode  and  epigrams,  and  the  members' 
prizes  in  1815  and  1816.     He  was  for  many 


years  master  of  the  Perse  grammar  school, 
Cambridge,  from  which  he  retired  on  a  pen- 
sion. In  1850  lie  received  a  further  penBion 
of  100/.  per  annum  from  the  queen,  on  the 
recommendation  of  Bishops  Maltby  and 
Kaye.  Besides  his  numerous  contributions 
to  the  '  Classical  Journal,'  Bailey  published 
'  An  Annotated  Edition  of  Dalzel's  Analecta 
Gra3ca  Minora '  (1835)  ;  *  Passages  from  the 
Greek  Comic  Poets,'  which  had  been  trans- 
lated into  English  by  R.  Cumberland, 
Fawkes,  and  Wrangham,  with  notes  (1840)  ; 
proof-sheets  of  this  work,  with  autograph 
letter  to  Archdeacon  Wrangham,  are  in  the 
British  Museum ;  a  work  on  the  '  Origin  and 
NatuT-e  of  Hieroglyphics  and  the  Greek  in- 
scription on  the  Kosetta  Stone  '  (1816).  He 
is  best  known  for  his  edition  of  '  Forcellini's 
Latin  Dictionary,'  2  vols.  (1826),  in  which 
lie  translated  the  Italian  explanations  into 
English,  incorjiorated  the  appendices  of  For- 
cellini  with  the  main  work,  and  added  an 
extensive  Auctai'ium  of  his  own.  Bailey  died 
in  London,  13  Feb.  1864. 

[Gent.  Mag.  3rd  series,  vol.  xvi.  535 ;  Cat. 
Brit.  Mus.]  A.  G-n. 

BAILEY,  or  BAILY,  JOHN  (1643-1697), 

protestant  dissenting  minister,  was,  according 
to  Cotton  Mather,  who  preached  his  funeral 
sermon,  born  '  near  Blackburn  on  24  Feb. 
1643-4.'  He  was  son  of  Thomas  Bailey,  mem- 
ber of  the  congregation  of  the  Rev.  Thomas 
.Tolly  at  Altham,  and  later  at  Wymond 
House.  Probably  the  former  was  the  birth- 
place. Both  are  near  Blackburn  (Lancashire). 
His  father  was  for  long  a  '  notorious  evil 
liver,'  but  his  wife  was  a  woman  of  re- 
markable piety  as  well  as  strength  of  cha- 
racter. So  early  as  his  twelfth  year  John 
conducted  family  worship  ;  and  Mather  tells 
that  when  the  drunken  and  profligate  father 
heard  of  this  he  was  gi-eatly  impressed,  and 
became  a  wholly  changed  man.  Curiously 
enough,  an  entry  which  the  preacher  could  not 
have  known  of  in  the  church-book  of  Mr. 
.Tolly,  not  only  records  that  John  at  the  age 
of  twelve  was  a  *  wonderful  child '  for  religion, 
but  had  been  '  the  occasion  of  good  to  his 
father  and  a  schoolfellow.'  He  attended  at 
first  the  Queen  Elizabeth  grammar  school  of 
Blackburn.  The  master  was  then  Charles 
Sagar.  Later  he  was  placed  under  the  theolo- 
gical tuition  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Thomas  Harrison, 
nonconformist  minister  at  Chester.  He  be- 
gan to  preach  in  his  twenty-second  year,  but 
was  not  ordained  until  1670.  Being  an  in- 
dependent or  congregationalist,  he  was  soon 
exposed  to  the  malicious  reports  that  long 
after  the  ejection  of  1660-2  of  the  'two 
thousand  '  pursued  nonconformists.   He  was 


Bailey 


408 


Bailey- 


arrested  and  imprisoned  in  Lancaster  gaol 
for  nonconformity  alone.    By  some  influence 
he   was   released  '  after   a  while.'     He  re- 
moved to  Ireland,  remaining  in  Dublin  tem- 
porarily, and  proceeding  later  to  Limerick, 
llis  earnest  ministry  and  pastorate  proved 
a  great  success  in  this  great  town,  where 
he  had  as  a  regular  hearer  a  member  of 
the  ducal  family  of  Ormond.     This  coming 
to    the   ears   of    the   protestant   Bishop   of , 
Limerick,  he  lodged  a  complaint  with  the  1 
Duke    of    Ormond,    lord-heutenant.      The 
didie's  friend  did  not  abandon  Bailey,  but 
so  represented  his  case  and  worth  that  Or-  | 
mond  made  offer  first  of  a  deanery,  and  then  1 
of  the  first  bishopric  that  fell  vacant,  if  Mr.  I 
Bailey  would  conform.     But  the  bribe  was  i 
declined  without  a  moment's  hesitation.    He  ', 
was   again   imprisoned  in  the  public   gaol,  j 
Petitions  were  presented  to  the  judges  at  | 
the  court  of  assize  in  his  behalf,  but  in  vain.  I 
When  arraigned,  he  dared  to   address  the  \ 
bench  thus :  *  If  I  had  been  drinking,  gaming 
and  carousing  at  a  tavern,  with  company, 
my  lords,  I  presume  that  I  would  not  have 
procured  my  being  thus  treated  as  an  offender. 
Must  prayers  to  God  and  preaching  Christ 
with  a  company  of  christians  who  are  peace- 
able, inoffensive,  and  serviceable  to  his  ma- 
jesty  and   the   government,   as  any  of  his 
subjects — must  this  be  considered  a  greater 
crime  ?  '     The  recorder  answered,  '  We  will 
have  you  know  that  it  is  a  greater  crime.' 
At  length  intimation  was  secretly  sent  him 
that  he  Avould  be  allowed  out  on  condition 
that  within  a  limited  specified  time  he  left 
the  country.     To  this  he  reluctantly  and  sor- 
rowfully agreed.      He  was  not  allowed  to 
meet  his  flock  or  preach  a  farewell  sermon. 
In  the  place  of  the  sermon  Bailey  printed  a 
letter-address. 

He  emigrated  to  New  England  in  1683 ; 
and  his  name  occurs  in  church  matters  there 
in  1684.  He  arrived  first  of  all  in  Boston, 
and  in  1684  was  appointed  assistant  to  the 
celebrated  llev.  Samuel  Willard,  M.A.,  of 
the  old  South  church.  Early  in  1685  cor- 
respondence was  entered  into  with  the  inde- 
pendent congregation  at  Watertown,  Con- 
necticut, with  the  result  that  on  6  Oct.  1686 
he  succeeded  the  liev.  John  Sherman  at 
Watertown.  It  is  chronicled  in  Judge 
Sewall's  'Diary'  and  elsewhere,  that  Mr. 
Bailey,  holding  to  the  validity  of  his  ori- 
ginal ordination,  refused  to  be  inducted  with 
the  laying  on  of  hands — an  innovation  in 
Independent  church  ways  that  was  some- 
what of  a  scandal  for  the  moment.  Letters 
to  his  former  pastor  and  friend,  Mr.  Jolly, 
communicated  tidings  of  how  things  eccle- 
siastical moved  in  New  England.    When  he 


was  translated  from  Boston  to  Watertown, 
his  health  must  have  been  failing ;  for  within 
a  month  or  so  a  younger  brother,  Thomas, 
was  appointed  his  assistant.  Unfortunately 
the  assistant  died  21  Jan.  1689.  In  the  same 
year  another  '  assistant '  Avas  appointed.  In 
1692,  he  resigned  his  charge  at  Watertown, 
and,  after  a  quaintly  recorded  farewell  to 
persons  and  places,  returned  once  more  to ' 
Boston.  He  must  in  some  measure  have  re- 
covered his  health ;  for  in  1693  he  accepted 
the  post  of  assistant-pastor  to  the  llev.  Mr. 
Allen,  of  the  First  Church,  Boston. 

He  had  married  in  England  a  lady  whose 
christian  name  was  Lydia.  She  died  at 
Watertown,  12  April  1690.  She  bore  him 
no  children.  His  second  wife  was  named 
Susannah,  bj'  whom  he  had  female  issue — 
still  represented  in  New  England.  His 
widow  married  after  his  death  the  Rev, 
Peter  Thatcher.  He  died  on  Sunday,  12  Dec. 
1697,  and  Cotton  Mather  preached  his  funeral 
sermon,  which  was  published.  He  chose  for 
its  text  the  words  '  Into  Thy  hands  I  com- 
mit my  spirit,'  on  which  Mr.  Bailey  had  pre- 
pared a  sermon — never  delivered — under  a 
presentiment  that  it  would  be  his  last. 

Bailey  was  markedly  modest,  and  could 
not  be  persuaded  to  print  any  of  his  sermons. 
One  extremely  rare  little  book  by  him  is 
extant,  however,  which  was  published  by 
his  friends.  The  volume  is  entitled  '  Man's 
Chief  End  to  Glorify  God,  or  Some  Brief 
Sermon-notes  on  1  Corinthians  x.  31,'  to 
which  is  added  his  lettei-address  to  his 
'  dearly  beloved  cliristian  friends  in  and 
about  Limerick,'  1689  (12mo).  A  lifelike 
portrait  of  him  (in  oils),  which  represents 
him  with  '  a  pensive  and  somewhat  feminine 
face  and  long  flowing  hair,'  is  in  the  posses- 
sion of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society, 
in  whose  archives  are  also  some  manuscripts 
of  his  brother  Thomas.  He  had  another 
brother  named  Henry  living  at  Manchester 
in  1688,  where  his  mother  was  also  still 
living. 

[Sprague's  Annals  of  the  Amei-ican  Pulpit,  i. 
201-4  ;  Abram's  History  of  Blackburn,  pp.  358- 
9 ;  Mather's  Magnalia,  iii. ;  Mather's  Funeral 
Serm. ;  Nonconf.  Mem.  i.  ;  Emerson's  History  of 
First  Church,  Eoston ;  I'rancis's  History  of 
Watertown.]  A.  B.  G. 

BAILEY,  JOHN  (1750-1819),  ag-ricul- 
turist  and  engraver,  was  the  son  of  William 
Bailey,  of  Blades  Field,  near  Bowes,  York- 
shire, where  he  was  born  in  1750.  At  an 
early  age  he  manifested  strong  artistic  ten- 
dencies, and  while  employed  as  tutor  to  his 
uncle's  children  devoted  his  leisure  hours  to 
engraving  various  pieces,  wliich  he  afterwards 


Bailey 


409 


Bailey 


published.  Jioth  in  his  artistic  and  mathe- 
matical studies  he  received  valuable  assistance 
from  his  uncle.  After  completing  the  edu- 
cation of  his  uncle's  children  he  became  ma- 
thematical teacher  at  Witton-le-Wear,  and 
began  also  the  business  of  a  land  surveyor. 
Shortly  after  his  raamage  he  was  appointed 
land  agent  to  Lord  Tankerville  at  Chilling- 
ham,  a  situation  he  retained  till  his  death, 
4  .1  une  1819,  in  his  sixty-ninth  year.  Bailey 
engraved  several  of  the  plates  for  the  works 
of  William  Hutchinson,  the  topographer  of 
Cumberland,  Durham,  and  Northumberland. 
He  devoted  also  much  of  his  attention  to  the 
natural  sciences,  especially  mineralogy,  che- 
mistry, hydraulics,  and  pneumatics,  and  his 
scientific  acquirements  were  turned  by  him 
to  excellent  practical  account  in  promoting 
improvements  in  rural  economy.  In  1795  he 
published  an  '  Essay  on  the  Construction  of 
the  Plough,'  in  which  he  employed  mathe- 
matical calculations  to  demonstrate  the  ad- 
vantages of  the  alterations  he  proposed.  He 
was  also  the  joint  author  of  the  reports  on  the 
counties  of  Cumberland,  Durham,  and  North- 
umberland, drawn  up  for  the  Board  of  Agri- 
culture. 

[Richardson's  Local  Historian's  Table-Book 
of  Durham,  Historical  Division,  iii.  197 ;  Mac- 
kenzie and  Koss's  View  of  the  County  of  Durham, 
ii.  212.]  T.  F.  H. 

BAILEY,  NATHAN  or  NATHANIEL 

((Z.  1742),  lexicographer,  published  in  1721  'An 
Universal  Etymological  English  Dictionary,' 
which  was  greatly  esteemed  in  its  day.  The 
library  of  the  British  Museum  contains  copies 
of  no  fewer  than  twenty-five  separate  editions 
of  this  work.  Of  the  compiler  nothing  is 
known  beyond  the  fact  that  he  belonged  to 
the  seventh-day  baptists,  being  admitted  to 
membership  6  Nov.  1691,  and  kept  a  boarding 
school  at  Stepney,  where  he  died  on  27  June 
1742.  A  supplementary  volimie  of  his  dic- 
tionary appeared  in  1727,  and  in  1730  a  folio, 
entitled  'Dictionarium  Britannicum,  collected 
by  several  hands.  The  Mathematical  part 
by  G.  Gordon,  the  Botanical  by  P.  Miller. 
The  whole  revis'd  and  improv'd  with  inany 
thousand  additions  by  N.  Bailey.'  This  con- 
tains many  technical  terms.  Thirty  editions 
of  the  dictionary  appeared,  the  latest  at 
Glasgow  in  1802,  and  it  was  reprinted  by 
various  booksellers.  It  is  the  basis  of  the 
English-German  dictionaries  of  Arnold  (3rd 
edition,  1761),  A.  E.  Klausing  (8th  edition, 
1792),  and  J.  A.  F.  Kriiger  (11th  edition, 
1810).  Lord  Chatham  is  said  to  have  read 
it  through  twice,  and  Chatterton  obtained 
many  sham-antique  words  from  Bailey  and 
Kersey.     Johnson  made  an  interleaved  copy 


the  foundation  of  his  own.  Bailey  also  pub- 
lished a  spelling-book  in  1726 ;  *  All  the 
Familiar  Colkxjuies  of  Erasmus  Translated,' 
1733,  of  which  a  new  edition  appeared  in 
1878;  'The  Antiquities  of  London  and  West- 
minster,' 1726;  'Dictionarium  Domesticum,' 
1736;  Selections  from  Ovid  and  Phjedrus ; 
and '  English  and  Latin  Exercises.'  In  1883 
appeared '  English  Dialect  Woi'ds  of  the  Eigh- 
teenth Century  as  shown  in  the  .  .  .  Dictio- 
nary of  N.  Bailey,  with  an  introduction  by 
W".  E.  A,  Axon  (English  Dialect  Society),' 
giving  biographical  and  bibliographical  de- 
tails. 

[Watt's  Eibl.  Brit. ;  Gent.  Mag.  xii.  387 ; 
Chalmers's  Biogr.  Diet. ;  Notes  and  Queries,  5th 
series,  i.  448,  514,  ii.  156,  258,  614,  iii.  175, 
298,  509,  iv.  276,  vii.  447,  viii.  62.]    A.  H.  B, 

BAILEY,  SAMUEL  (1791-1870),  philo- 
sophical writer,  was  the  second  son  and 
fifth  child  of  Joseph  Bailey,  of  Burngreave,^ 
by  Mary,  daughter  of  Mr.  Eaden,  master  of 
the  free  writing  school  at  Sheffield.  Samuel 
was  educated  by  his  maternal  grandfather 
and  at  the  Moravian  school  of  Fulneck. 
He  was  a  reserved  boy,  and  his  only  recrea- 
tion was  riding  upon  a  schoolfellow's  back. 
On  leaving  school,  Samuel  entered  the  office 
of  his  father,  who  had  risen  from  the  posi- 
tion of  ai-tisan  to  be  a  general  merchant  at 
Sheffield,  and  who  was  master-cutler  in  1801. 
The  son  was  one  of  the  first  Sheffield  mer- 
chants who  visited  America  in  order  to  esta- 
blish business  connections  with  that  countrv. 
Bailey's  attention,  however,  was  gradually 
diverted  from  business  to  literary  and  poli- 
tical pursuits.  He  became  known  as  an  able 
author  by  various  essays  published  in  1821 
and  the  following  years.  In  1828  he  was 
elected  one  of  the  town  trustees.  He  became 
a  candidate  for  the  representation  of  Sheffield 
on  the  election  which  followed  the  Ileforin 
Bill  in  1832.  Having  retired  from  his  busi- 
ness, he  was  prepared  to  devote  himself  to 
political  life.  His  principles  resembled  those 
of  the  'philosophical  radical ; '  he  advocated 
triennial  parliaments,  vote  by  ballot,  and  the 
abolition  of  tithes  and  taxes  on  knowledge. 
The  anti-corn  law  rhymer  called  him  the 
'  Ilallamshire  Bentham.'  Messrs.  Parker  and 
Silk  Buckingham,  however,  were  elected,  and 
at  the  close  of  the  poll  Bailey,  with  812 
votes,  was  the  last  of  four  candidates.  The 
prejudice  of  practical  men  against  '  theore- 
tical '  politicians  told  against  him ;  but  the 
defeat  of  a  distinguished  writer  was  felt  to 
be  discreditable  to  his  native  place,  and 
enthusiastic  supporters  founded  a  '  Bailey 
Club,'  intended  to  secure  his  election  at  tht* 
next  opportunity.     He  was  put  forward  as 


Bailey 


410 


Bailey 


a  candidate,  without  his  own  consent,  in 
1 834,  but  the  two  sitting  members  were  re- 
elected by  1,607  and  1,554  votes,  Bailey  re- 
ceiving 1,434.  After  this  he  declined  to 
allow  any  further  use  of  his  name  in  politics, 
and  his  life  became  one  of  quiet  seclusion. 
He  was  several  times  president  of  the  Shef- 
field Literary  and  Pliilosophical  Society  ; 
and  he  became  chairman  of  the  Sheffield 
Banking  Company,  an  institution  which  he 
had  helped  to  found  in  1831.  He  attended 
the  board  meetings  with  absolute  punctuality 
up  to  tlie  last.  His  life  was  one  of  '  clock- 
work regularity.'  He  had  no  intimates  and 
few  acquaintances.  An  annual  visit  to  a 
sister-in-law  at  Clieltenham  for  change  of  air 
was  his  only  r(>laxation.  He  died  suddenly 
as  he  left  his  bath  on  18  Jan.  1870.  and  left  "a 
sum  of  over  80,000/.  to  the  town  trust.  Tlie 
bequest  was  realised  after  a  lawsuit,  and 
more  than  doubled  the  income  of  the  trust. 
Bailey's  portrait  by  Sir  W.  Gordon  is  in  the 
bank  over  which  he  presided. 

Bailey's  first  publication  was  a  volume  of 
'  Essays  on  the  Formation  and  Publication  of 
Opinions  and  other  subjects,'  1821.  A  second 
edition  appeared  in  1826,  and  a  third  in 
1831.  The  chief  essay  is  a  vigorous  defence 
of  the  thesis,  that  a  man  is  not  responsible 
for  his  opinions,  because  they  are  indepen- 
dent of  his  will ;  and  that  opinions  should 
therefore  not  be  the  objects  of  disapproval 
or  of  punishment.  In  1825  Bailey  published 
a  '  Critical  Dissertation  on  the  Nature,  Mea- 
sure, and  Causes  of  Value.'  It  is  chiefly 
directed  against  Ricardo,  James  Mill,  and 
De  Quincey's  exposition  of  Ricardo  in  the 
'Templar's  Dialogues.'  Bailey's  main  con- 
tention is,  that  these  writers  confound  ex- 
change value  with  real  or  intrinsic  value  ; 
the  former  meaning  of  the  word  being,  as 
he  holds,  the  only  one  relevant  in  political 
economy.  He  was  attacked  with  consider- 
able asperity  in  the  '  Westminster  Review ' 
for  January  1826,  where  it  is  maintained 
that  Ricardo  intentionally  and  judiciously 
used  the  word  '  value '  in  both  senses.  Bailey 
replied  in  November  of  the  same  year  in  a 
'  Letter  to  a  Political  Economist.'  Bailey  had 
the  best  of  the  argument  in  temper  and  style, 
though  he  points  out  rather  ambiguities  of 
language  than  substantial  errors  of  logic. 
In  the  'Westminster'  for  July  1826,  there 
had  already  been  a  complimentary  notice  of 
his  essays  on  the  formation  of  opinion  by 
James  Mill  (see  Baix's  Life  of  Mill,  p.  304), 
who  fully  sympathised  with  his  opinions. 
In  1829  Bailey  published  his  'Essays  on  the 
Pursuit  of  Truth  and  on  the  Progress  of  Know- 
ledge,' and  a  criticism  (by  James  Mill  ?)  in 
the    'Westminster  Review'  for  July  1829 


begins  by  declaring  that  if  a  man  were  al- 
lowed to  claim  the  paternity  of  any  modern 
book,  he  would  not  hazard  much  by  choos- 
ing, after  the  '  Wealth  of  Nations,'  the  essay 
on  the  formation  of  opinions,  of  which  the 
later  volume  is  virtually  a  continuation. 

In  1835  Bailey  published  a  treatise  on  the 
'  Rationale  of  Political  Representation,'  and 
in  1837  a  pamphlet,  intended  tofonnpart  of 
the  larger  book,  upon  'Money,  its  Vicissitudes 
in  Value.'  The  politics  are  those  of  a  mode- 
rate utilitarian  radical,  with  a  strong  objec- 
tion to  state  interference. 

In  1842  Bailey  published  a  'Review  of 
Berkeley's  Theory  of  Vision,'  which  again 
brought  him  into  collision  Avith  the  '  West- 
minster Review.'  It  was  answered  by  J.  S. 
Mill  in  the  number  for  October  1842,  in  an 
article  reprinted  in  Mill's '  Dissertations  '  (ii. 
80).  A  reply  was  also  made  by  Professor 
Fen'ier  in  '  Blackwood's  Magazine,'  which  is 
republished  in  Fen-ier's  '  Philosophical  Re- 
mains.' Bailey's  chief  point  is  that  Berkeley 
begged  the  question  by  assuming  that  space^ 
in  a  direct  line  from  the  eye  was  not  directly 
visible.  Mill  seems  to  prove  that  he  had 
not  really  understood  Berkeley's  argument. 
Bailey  replied  in  a '  Letter  to  a  Philosopher.' 
He  maintains  that  we  have  a  direct  percep- 
tion of  external  objects  which  cannot  be 
analysed  into  a  complex  operation.  This 
theoiy  (which  resembles  Reid's  perception 
theory,  though  he  is  opposed  to  Reid  on  the 
theoiy  of  vision)  appears  in  his  latest  philo- 
sophical Avritings.  After  publishing,  in  1851, 
a  '  Theory  of  Reasoning '  (2nd  edition  1852),. 
which  is  more  logical  than  metaphysical,  and 
hardly  touches  the  ultimate  questions,  he 
published  three  series  of  '  Letters  on  tha 
Philosophy  of  the  Human  Mind'  (1855, 1858, 
and  1863).  These  are  rather  fragmentaiy  and 
discursive,  but  contain  his  most  interesting 
speculations.  He  maintains  his  old  argu- 
ment against  Berkeley,  but  agrees  with  Ber- 
keley s  nominalism  in  a  vigorous  attack  upon 
the  theory  of  '  abstract  ideas.'  He  criticises 
German  metaphysicians,  chiefly  Kant,  with 
much  shrewdness,  though  with  insufficient 
knowledge ;  and  the  third  volume  contains 
an  interesting  defence  of  utilitarianism. 
Bailey  is  also  a  thorough  'detei-minist,'  a 
doctrine  which  he  had  advocated  with 
marked  power  in  an  essay  upon  '  uniformity 
of  causation,'  in  the  volume  containing  the 
essay  on  the  pursuit  of  truth. 

Bailey  had  the  faults  and  merits. of  a  self- 
taught  and  recluse  thinker.  His  knowledge 
of  other  schools  of  thought  is  limited,  and  he 
does  not  seem  fully  to  apj)reciate  the  bear- 
ings of  his  speculations.  But  he  is  shrewd 
and  independent,  terse  in  his  exposition,  and 


Bailey 


411 


Baillie 


frequently  pointed  in  style.  A  short  criti-  ' 
cism  may  be  found  in  Ribot's  '  Psychologie 
Anf?laise  conteniporaine.'  Besides  the  above, 
Bailey  published '  Questions  on  Political  Eco- 
nomy,' &c.,  1823,  a  collection  of  subjects  for 
discussion  in  literary  societies,  with  brief  in- 
dications of  appropriate  arguments  and  re- 
ferences ;  discourses  on  various  subjects  (read 
before  various  societies),  1852  ;  pamphlets  on 
])arliamentary  reform  and  on  the  right  of 
])rimogeniture,  and  a  '  glance  at  some  points 
in  education'  (privately  printed). 

In  1861  and  1802  he  published  two  volumes 
upon  'the  received  text  of  Shakespeare's 
dramatic  writings,'  containing  a  number  of 
hazardous  conjectures  ;  and  he  seems  clearly 
to  have  been  the  author  of  '  Letters  from  an 
Egyptian  Kafir  on  a  visit  to  England  in 
search  of  religion,'  1837,  a  defence  of  liberty 
of  inquiry  ;  and  of  a  poem  called  '  Maro  or 
Poetic  Sensibility '  (1846).  He  left  many 
manuscripts,  which  have  disappeared. 

[Sheffield  Independent,  19  Jan.  1870;  Gatty's 
Sheffield  Past  and  Present ;  Chambers's  Encyelo- 
p;edia  (Supplement),  x.  413  ;  information  kindly 
procured  by  Mr.  P.  A.  Barnett,  of  Firth  College, 
Sheffield.]  L.  S.      ! 

j 

BAILEY,  THOMAS  (1785-1856),  topo-  | 
grapher  and  miscellaneous  writer,  was  born  j 
at  Nottingham  31  July  1785.  Ilis  educa- 
tion  was  received  partly  in  a  day-school  in 
his  native  town,  and  partly  in  a  boarding- 
school  at  GiUingham,  Yorkshire.  After- 
wards he  was  for  some  time  engaged  in 
business  as  a  sillt-hosier  at  Nottingham.  A 
liberal  in  politics,  though  not  a  radical,  he 
came  foi-ward  unsuccessfully,  in  1830,  as  a 
candidate  for  the  representation  of  the  bo- 
rough. In  1836  he  was  elected  to  the  town 
council,  and  he  continued  to  be  a  member  of 
that  body  for  seven  years.  In  1845-6  he 
l)ecame  proprietor  and  editor  of  the  *  Notting- 
ham Mercury,'  but  his  opinions  were  too  tem- 
perate to  suit  the  taste  of  his  readers.  The 
circulation  of  the  paper  declined,  and  at  last, 
in  1851,  the  mass  of  the  subscribers  withdrew 
in  wrath,  on  account  of  the  editor's  views  re- 
specting the  original  eiTor  of  the  Ecclesias- 
tical Titles  Bill,  and  his  prophecies  of  its 
inevitable  failure.  In  the  following  year  the 
journal  became  extinct.  Previously  to  this, 
in  1830,  he  had  purchased  a  mansion  at  Bas- 
ford,  near  Nottingham,  where  he  spent  the 
later  years  of  his  life,  engaged  in  literary 
pursuits  and  in  the  formation  of  a  choice 
collection  of  books  and  engravings.  He  died 
at  Basford  23  Oct.  1856.  His  son,  Mr.  Philip 
James  Bailey,  is  the  well-known  author  of 
'  Festus,'  and  of  other  poems. 

Thomas  Baileys  works  are:  1. 'What  is 


I^ife?  and  other  Poems,'  Lond.,  1820,  12m(), 
2.  '  The  Carnival  of  Death,"  a  poem,  Lond., 
1822,  16mo.  3.  '  A  Sermon  on  the  Death  of 
Byron,'  1824.  4.  'Ireton,'  a  jM>em,  Lond. 
1827,  8vo.  5.  '  Discourse  on  Political  Kevo- 
lutions,'  1830.  6.  'Recreations  in  Retire- 
ment,' a  miscellany  of  poetry  and  prose,  1836. 

7.  '  The  Rights  of  Labour,'  a  pamphlet,  1844. 

8.  '  The  Advent  of  Charity  and  other  Poems,' 
Lond.  1861,  16mo.  9.  'Annals  of  Notting- 
hamshire ;  a  new  and  popular  history  of 
the  county  of  Nottingham,  including  the 
borough,"  4  vols.,  Lond.  1852-55,  8vo,  his 
most  impoi'tant  publication.  10.  'Village 
Reform :  the  great  social  necessity  of  Britain," 
being  a  letter  to  Lord  Palmerston,  Lond. 
1854, 12mo.  11. 'Handbook  to  Nottingham 
Castle,'  Lond.  1854,  8vo.  12.  'Handbook 
to  Newstead  Abbey,'  Lond.  1855,  12mo. 
13.  'Records  of  Longevity;  with  an  intro- 
ductory discourse  on  Vital  Statistics,'  Lond. 
1857,  8vo. 

[Private  information  ;  Memoir  by  Mr.  Philip 
James  Bailey  in  Cornelius  Bro-wn's  Lives  of 
Nottinghamshire  Worthies  (1882),  341;  Gent. 
Mag.  cci.  776;  Men  of  the  Time,  11th  edition, 
61  ;  Cat.  of  Printed  Books  in  Brit.  Mus.] 

T.  C. 
I     . 

I      BAILLIE,    or   BAILLY,    CHARLES 
'  (1542-1625),  a  member  of  the  household  of 
Queen  Mary,  was  by  birth  a  Fleming,  though 
by  descent   a  Scot.     A  letter  in  the  State 
Papers  {Calendar,  Scottish   series,  p.    574) 
mentions  him  as  a  '  great  papist,  who  lived 
with  the  queen  of  Scots  after  her  husband 
was  murdered.'     In  all  probability  he  was 
from  the  beginning  a  papal  agent,  and  having 
the  masteiy  of  several  European  languages 
he  was,  after  the  imprisonment  of  Mary,  em- 
ployed in  fomenting  foreign  plots  on  her  be- 
half.    In  the  spring  of  1571  he  was  about  to 
'  leave  Flanders  with  copies,  which  he  had  got 
printed  at  the  Liege  press,  of  a  book  by  the 
I  bishop  of  Ross  in  defence  of  Queen  Mary, 
I  when  Rudolfi,  the  agent  of  Pius  V,  entrusted 
'  him  with  letters   in   cipher  for  the  queen, 
!  and  also  for  the   Spanish   ambassador,  the 
duke  of  Norfolk,  the  bishop  of  Ross,  and 
!  Lord  Lumley.     They  described  a  plan  for  a 
Spanish  landing  on  behalf  of  Mary  in  the 
eastern  counties  of  England.      As  soon  as 
;  Baillie  set  foot  on  shore  at  Dover,  he  was  ar- 
rested and  taken  to  the  Marshalsea.     The 
letters  were,  however,  conveyed  in  secret  by 
Lord  Cobham  to  the  bishop  of  Ross,  who, 
with  the  help  of  the  Spanish  ambassador, 
'  composed  others  of  a  less  incriminating  cha- 
racter to  be  laid  before  Lord  Burghley.    The 
:  scheme  might  have  been  successful  had  not 
i  Burghley   made   use   of    a    traitor,   named 


Baillie 


41: 


Thomas   lierle,  to   gain   the   confidence  of 
Baillie,  whom  Herle  describes  as  '  fearful, 
full  of  words,  glorious,  and  given  to  the  cup, 
a  man  easily  read.'     Herle  had  also  gained 
the  confidence  of  the  bishop,  and  a  complete 
exposure   of  the  whole  plot  was  imminent 
when  an  indiscretion  on  the  part  of  Herle 
convinced  Baillie  that  he  was  betrayed.    He 
endeavoured  to  warn  the  bishop  by  a  letter, 
but  it  was  intercepted,  and  Baillie  was  con- 
veyed to  the  Tower,  where,  on  his  declining  to 
read  the  cipher  of  the  letters,  he  was  put  on 
the  rack.     The   following   inscription,  still 
visible  on  the  walls,  records  his  reflections 
inspired  by  the  situation  :  '  L.  H.  S.  1571  die 
10  Aprilis.     Wise  men   ought   to   se  what 
they  do,  to  examine  before  they  speake  ;  to 
prove  before  they  take  in  hand ;  to  beware 
whose  company  they  use  ;    and,  above   all 
things, to  whom  they  truste. — Charles Bailly.' 
These  sound  maxims  he  seems  to  have  for-  \ 
gotten  as  soon  as  he  had  written  them.    One 
night  there  appeared  at  his  bedside  the  figure  j 
of  a  man  who  said  that  he  was  Dr.  Story, 
whom  Baillie  knew  to  be  in  the  Tower  await-  ; 
ing  execution.     In  reality  the  figure  was  that  i 
of  a  traitor  of  the   name  of  Parker;    but  ; 
l^aillie  fell  into  the  trap  with  the  same  fa- 
cility as  before.     On  the  advice  of  Parker  he  1 
endeavoured  to  gain  credit  with  Burghley  by 
deciphering  the   substituted  letters   of  the 
bishop  of  Koss.     He  revealed  also  the  story 
of  the  abstracted  packet,  and  sought  to  per- 
suade Burghley  to  grant  him  his  liberty  by 
oftering  to  watch  the  correspondence  of  the 
bishop  of  Ross.     That  he  gained  nothing  by 
following  the  advice  of  his  second  friendly 
counsellor  is  attested  by  an  inscription  in  the 
Beauchamp  tower  as  follows :  '  Principium 
eapientie  timor  Domini,  I.  H.  S.  X.  P.  S.     Be 
friend  to  no  one.     Be  enemye  to  none.     An- 
no D.  1571 ,  10  Septr.     The  most  unhapy  man 
in  the  world  is  he  that  is  not  pacient  in  ad- 
versities; for  men  are  not  killed  with  the 
adversities  they  have,  but  with  ye  impacience 
which  they  suffer.     Tout  vient  apoient,  quy 
peult  attendre.     Gli  sospiri  ne  son  testimoni 
veri   deir   angolcia    mia,  aet.  29.     Charles 
Bailly.'     In  all  probability  Baillie  received 
his  liberty  about  the  same  time  as  the  bishop 
of  lloss,  in  1573.     At  any  rate  it  appears, 
from  a  letter  in  the  State  Papers  (foreign 
series,  1572-74,  entry  1615),  that  in  1574  he 
was  in  Antwerp.     He  died  27  Dec,  1625  in 
his  85th  year,  and  was  interred  in  the  church- 
yard of  Hulpe,  a  village  near  Brussels,  where, 
in  the  inscription  on  his  tombstone,  he  is  de- 
signated as  '  Sir  Charles  Bailly,  secretaire  de 
la   Iloyne   d'Ecosse   decapitfee  pour   la  foy 
catholiq.' 

[Murdin's  Burghley  State  Papers;  State  Pa- 


Baillie 

pws,  Foreign  series  (1572-7-1), entry  1615;  State 
Papers,  Scotch  series,  pp.  574,  897,  898,  899; 
Notes  and  Queries,  2nd  series,  viii.  267,  316; 
3rd  series,  v.  284  ;  Guardian  Newspaper, 
21  Sept.  1859;  Bayley's  History  of  the  lower, 
pp.  145-9,  176;  Britton's  Memoirs  ot  the  Tower, 
pp.  320-22  ;  Hepworth  Dixon's  Her  Majesty's 
Tower ;  Inscriptions  in  the  Beauchamp  Tower, 
1853  (with  facsimile  illustrations);  Froude's  His- 
tory of  England,  Library  ed.  x.  209-20.] 

T.  F.  H. 

BAILLIE,   CHARLES,   Lord  Jervis- 
AVOODE  (1804-1879),  a  lord  justiciary  of  the 
Scotch  court  of  session,  the  second  son  of 
Mr.  George  Baillie,  of  Mellerstain,  Berwick- 
shire, and  of  Jerviswoode,  Lanarkshire,  was 
born  at  Mellerstain  on  3  Nov.  1804.     Pater- 
nally he  was  descended  from  the  memorable 
Baillie   of  Jerviswoode,   who   died   on   the 
scattbld  in  1683  for  real  or  supposed  treason 
in  the  interests  of  the  Duke  of  Monmouth. 
His  mother  was  Mary,  the  youngest  daughter 
of  Sir  James  Pringie,  baronet,  of  Stitchill, 
Roxburghshire.  He  was  admitted  as  an  advo- 
cate at  the  Scottish  bar  in  1830,  and  married, 
27  Dec.  1831,  the  Hon.  Anne  Scott,  third 
daughter  of  the  fourth  Lord  Polwarth.    Tlfe 
influence  of  his  family  connections  combined 
I  with  his  high  character  and  attainments  to 
secure  his  rapid  rise  at  the  bar.    He  filled  tht; 
office  of  advocate-depute  from  1844  to  1846 
under  the  ministiy  of  Sir  Robert  Peel,  and 
again  in  1852  under  that  of  the  late  Earl  of 
Derby.  He  was  appointed  sheriff"  of  Stirling- 
I  shire,  2  March  '1853,  and  acted  in  that  ca- 
pacity till,  on  the  re-accession  of  Lord  Derby 
to  power,  26  Feb.  1858,  he  Avas  made  so- 
I  licitor-general  for  Scotland,  his  appointment 
j  being  gazetted  17  March.    Later  in  the  same 
.  year,  10  July  1858,  he  was   gazetted   her 
]  majesty's    advocate,   or   lord-advocate,    for 
\  Scotland — an  office  for  which  a  seat  in  the 
I  House  of  Commons  is  a  necessary  qualifica- 
i  tion,  and  Baillie  was  returned  without  oppo- 
1  sition  for  the  county  of  Linlithgow,  7  Feb. 
1859.    He  had  represented  this  constituency 
little  more  than  two  months,  however,  when 
he  was  elevated,  15  April,  to  the  Scottish 
bench  as  a  judge  of  the  court  of  session, 
whei'e   he   sat,  under  the   courtesy  title  of 
Lord  Jeniswoode,  during  a  period  of  fifteen 
years,  for  twelve  of  which  he  also  sat  in  the 
supreme   criminal   court,   having    been  ap- 
pointed, 17  June  1862,  a  lord  of  justiciary  in 
succession  to  Lord  Ivory,  resigned.  Previous 
to  this  latter   date.  Lord  Jerviswoode  had 
been  raised,  in  1859,  together  with  his  two 
younger  brothers,  by  royal   warrant  to  the 
rank  and  precedence  of  an  earl's  son.     As 
counsel,  Mr.  Baillie  was   distinguislied  for 
his  deliberation  rather  than  for  his  forensic 


I 


Baillie 


413 


Baillie 


ability:  and  he  discourag-cd   lenotliy  litiga- 
tion.  As  judge,  Lord  .Terviswoode  had  a  high 
character  for  courtesy,  sagacity,  patient  and 
painstaking  investigation,  competent  learn-  | 
ing,  and  uprightness;  he  lacked  originality,  I 
but  was  habitually  laconic  in  his  utterances.  ' 
In    1874,   Lord   jerviswoode   retired   on    a  i 
])ension  from  his  judicial  functions  and  from 
]>ubliclife  to  his  country  residence,  Dryburgh  ! 
House,  near  St.  Bosweli's,  Roxburghshire,  in 
the  quiet  and  seclusion  of  which  he  chiefly 
spent  his  time  until  his  death,  which  took 
place  at  Dryburgh,  23  July  1879. 

Lord  Jen'iswoode  patriotically  officiated 
as  convener  of  the  acting  committee  of  the 
Wallace  monument,  erected  on  the  Abbey 
Craig,  Stirling ;  and  he  formally  handed  over 
the  keeping  of  the  edifice,  which  Avas  com- 
pleted in  1869,  to  the  provost,  magistrates, 
and  town  council  of  the  burgh,  and  the 
l)atrons  of  Cowan's  hospital,  the  owners  of 
the  Craig.  In  1861  he  was  elected  assessor 
of  the  university  of  St.  Andrew's,  and  was  a 
trustee  of  the  board  of  manufactures  of  Scot- 
land. For  a  number  of  years  he  was  the 
president  of  the  Edinburgh  Border  Counties 
Association,  and  in  that  capacity  took  an 
active  part  in  the  movement  for  the  celebra- 
tion of  the  centenary  of  Sir  Walter  Scott, 
Tjord  Jerviswoode  was  a  conservative,  and  a 
warm  supporter  of  the  church  of  Scotland. 

[Scots  Magazine,  November  1804;  London 
Gazette  and  Gent.  Mag.,  passim  ;  Scotsman,  and 
EdinVmrgh  Courant,  24  July ;  Times,  26  July, 
and  Liiw  Times,  2  Aug.  1879;  Foster's  Peerage, 
Baronetage,  and  Knightage  of  the  Bi'itish  Em- 
pire, 1882.]  A.  H.  G. 

BAILLIE,  CUTHBEKT  (d.  1514),  lord 
high  treasurer  of  Scotland,  was,  according 
to  one  authority,  a  natural  son  of  Sir  William 
Baillie  .of  Lamington,  one  of  the  favourites 
of  James  III :  and  there  are  some  other 
i-easons  for  doubting  the  contradictory  state- 
ment that  he  was  a  descendant  of  the  house 
of  Cai-phin.  His  first  incumbency  was  that 
of  Thankerton,  In  the  charter  granted  him 
of  the  five  merk  lands  of  Ijockhart  Hill, 
Tjanarkshire,  his  name  occurs  as  Cuthbert 
llaillie,  clericus.  He  became  commendator 
of  Glenluce,  but  the  hitherto  current  state- 
ment that  he  was  rector  of  Cumnock  is  an 
cn'or  which  seems  to  have  arisen  from  con- 
founding his  name  with  Cuthbert  of  Dunbar, 
who  received  a  grant  of  lands  in  Cumnock. 
In  the  '  Register  of  the  Great  Seal '  Thomas 
Campbell  is  mentioned  as  rector  of  Cumnock 
in  1481,  and  in  the  'Protocola  Dicecesis 
Glasguensis '  his  name  occurs  as  prebendary 
of  Cumnock  under  date  11  June  1 511.  Cuth- 
bert Baillie  under  the  same  date  is  mentioned 


as  prebendary  of  Sanquhar,  and  the  same 
title  is  given  to  him  in  1508  and  151 1  in  the 
'  Register  of  the  Great  Seal.'  He  entered 
upon  the  duties  of  lord  high  treasurer  on 
29  Oct.  1512,  and  died  in  1514. 

[James  W.  Baillie's  Lives  of  the  Baillies  (pri- 
vately printed  1872),  p.  26;  Crawfurd's  Lives  of 
the  Oflfieersof  State  in  Scotland,  i.  369  ;  Regi.ster 
of  the  Great  Seal  of  Scotland.]  T.  F.  l\. 

BAILLIE,  Lady  GRIZEL  (1665-1746), 
poetess,  was  the  eldest  daughter  of  Sir 
Patrick  Hume  (or  Home),  afterwards  first 
earl  of  Marchmont,  and  was  born  at  Red- 
braes  Castle,  Berwickshire,  on  25  Dec.  1665. 
So  early  as  her  twelfth  year  she  gave  proof 
of  a  singularly  mature  character  ;  for  Avhen 
she  had  not  yet  entered  her  teens,  she  was  en- 
trusted by  her  father  with  a  perilous  duty. 
Her  father  was  the  bosom  friend  of  the  illus- 
trious patriot,  Robert  Baillie  of  Jerviswood 
[see  Baillie,  Robert,  d.  1684] ;  and  the  latter 
being  imprisoned,  Sir  Patrick  Hume  was 
specially  anxious  to  commimicate  with  him 
by  letter.  He  dared  not  himself  attempt  to 
gain  admission ;  but  he  employed  the  services 
of  his  daughter,  '  little  Grizel.'  To  her  the 
all-important  letter  was  handed  over  with 
the  charge  to  deliver  it  personally,  and  to 
bring  back  as  much  intelligence  from  the 
state  prisoner  as  possible.  She  contrived 
to  deliver  the  letter  and  carr^'  back  grateful 
and  useful  messages  from  her  father's  friend. 
In  the  performance  of  this  task  she  had  to 
consult  with  the  prisoner's  own  son,  George 
Baillie  of  Jerviswood,  who  fell  in  love  with 
her,  and  married  her  some  vears  later,  on 
17  Sept.  1692. 

The  same  womanly  heroism  and  self-pos- 
session were  shown  by  young  Grizel  on  behalf 
of  her  own  father.  As  the  trial  of  Robert 
Baillie  of  Jerviswood — described  in  the  con- 
temporary broad-sheets  and  elsewhere — at- 
tests. Sir  Patrick  Hume  boldly  went  to  the 
court  and,  wherever  he  could,  interfered  in 
defence  of  his  great  friend,  sometimes  blunt- 
ing with  rare  skill  the  edge  of  manufactured 
'  false  witness,'  to  the  rage  of  the  prosecutors. 
He  was  equally  with  Baillie  a  suspected  man ; 
and,  the  troopers  having  taken  possession  of 
his  house,  Redbraes  Castle,  he  had  to  hide  in 
the  vaults  of  neighbouring  Polwarth  parish 
kirk.  Thither  at  midnight,  his  brave  little- 
daughter  was  wont  to  carry  her  father  food, 
contriving  at  the  dinner-table  to  drop  into 
her  lap  as  much  of  victuals  as  she  well 
could. 

On  the  death,  by  hanging,  of  Baillie  of 
•Terviswood,  the  Hume  family  fled  to  Holland. 
They  settled  at  Utrecht,  Sir  Patrick  passing 
as  a  Dr.  Wallace,   In  the  '  Memoirs '  of  Ijady 


Baillie 


414 


Baillie 


Murray  of  Stanliope,  Lady  Grizel's  daughter, 
delightful  glimpses  are  obtained  of  the  bright 
though  straitened  life  in  Holland.  Grizel 
was  the  manager  of  the  humble  establish- 
ment, and  she  used  to  tell  in  her  old  age 
that  those  years  in  Holland  Avere  about  the 
happiest  of  all  their  lives. 

At  the  Restoration,  Lady  Grizel  was  offered 
the  post  of  maid  of  honour  to  the  Princess 
of  Orange.  She  preferred  returning  to  Scot- 
land, where,  as  already  stated,  she  was 
married  to  her  girlhood's  love.  George 
Baillie  died  at  Oxford  6  Aug.  1738,  after 
forty-six  years  of  an  incomparable  mar- 
ried life.  They  had  issue  one  son,  who 
died  in  childhood,  and  two  daughters :  Gri- 
zel, who  married  Sir  Alexander  Miu-ray 
of  Stanhope ;  and  Rachel,  who  married 
Charles,  Lord  Binning.  From  the  latter 
ure  descended  the  earls  of  Haddington  who 
represent  to-day  the  great  historic  house 
of  Baillie  of  Jerviswood  and  Mellerstain. 
There  are  few  more  charming  '  Memoirs ' 
than  that  named  of  our  Lady  Grizel  by 
her  daughter.  It  was  originally  appended 
to  Rose's  Observations  on  Fox's  historical 
work  on  James  H,  and  afterwards  repub- 
lished in  a  thin  quarto  by  Thomas  Thomson 
(1822).  From  earliest  youth  Grizel  was  wont 
to  Avrite  in  verse  and  prose.  Her  daughter 
had  in  her  possession  a  manuscript  volume 
with  varied  compositions,  '  many  of  them  in- 
terrupted, half  writ,  some  broken  off  in  the 
middle  of  a  sentence.'  Some  of  her  Scottish 
songs  appeared  in  Allan  Ramsay's  '  Tea- 
Table  Miscellany '  and  other  collections  of 
Scottish  songs.  One  has  passed  into  the  song- 
literature  of  Scotland  impei'ishably — 'And 
wereua  my  heart  light  I  wad  dee.'  '  Its  sud- 
den inspiration,'  says  Tytler,  '  has  fused  and 
cast  into  one  perfect  line,  the  protest  of  thou- 
sands of  stricken  hearts  in  every  generation ' 
(Tytler  and  Watson's  Songstresses  of  Scot- 
land). She  died  6  Dec.  1746,  in  her  eighty- 
first  year,  and  was  buried  beside  her  husband 
at  Mellerstain.  Judge  Burnet  (Monboddo) 
Avrote  an  inscription  for  her  monument. 

[Authorities  cited  in  the  article.]    A.  B.  G. 

BAILLIE,  JOANNA  (1762-1851),  dra- 
matist and  poet,  was  descended  from  an  an- 
cient Scotch  family.  She  was  born  at  the 
manse  of  Bothwell,  Lanarkshire,  11  Sept. 
1762.  Although  her  birth  was  premature, 
and  in  infancy  she  was  very  delicate,  she 
lived  to  the  great  age  of  88  years.  Her 
sister,  to  Avhom  Joanna  addressed  a  memo- 
rable birthday  ode,  was  still  more  remarkable 
for  her  longevity,  dying  in  1861  at  the  age 
of  100  years.  The  Baillie  family  claimed 
amongst  their  progenitors  on  the  male  side 


the  great  patriot.  Sir  William  AVallace.  The 
motlier  of  Joanna  Baillie  was  the  sister  of 
William  and  John  Hunter.  The  youth  of 
Joanna  was  spent  at  Bothwell  amidst  scenes 
Avhich  deeply  impressed  the  imagination  of 
the  future  dramatist.  But  while,  as  daughter 
of  the  minister  of  Bothwell,  she  had  manv 
opportunities  for  studying  character,  unfor- 
tunately, in  the  manse  itself,  '  repression 
of  all  emotions  seems  to  have  been  the  con- 
stant lesson.'  In  1769  Dr.  Baillie  Avas  ap- 
pointed to  the  collegiate  churcli  of  Hamilton. 
Before  she  A\'as  ten  years  of  age  Joanna 
Baillie  afforded  striking  proofs  of  courage  ; 
but  she  Avas  someAvhat  backward  in  her 
studies,  although  her  intellect  was  unusually 
keen.  At  the  age  of  ten  she  was  sent  to  a 
school  in  Glasgow,  and  here  her  faculties 
Avere  rapidly  developed.  She  excelled  in 
vocal  and  instrumental  music,  and  CAinced  a 
decided  talent  for  "draAA'ing.  She  had  also  a 
great  loA-e  for  mathematics  ;  her  argumenta- 
tive powers,  too,  Avere  unusually  strong.  Slie 
Avas  early  distinguished  for  her  skill  in  acting 
and  composition,  being  especially  facile  in  the 
improA'isation  of  dialogue  in  character. 

In  1776  her  father  Avas  appointed  professor 
of  diA'inity  in  the  uniA'ersity  of  Glasgow,  and 
remoAed  to  the  house  provided  for  him  at  the 
uniA'ersity.  But  two  years  later  Dr.  Baillie 
died,  and  his  Avidow  and  daughters  retired  to 
Long  Calderwood,  in  Lanarkshire  ;  MattheAv 
Baillie,  the  only  son,  proceeded  to  Balliol 
College,  Oxford.  In  1783  Dr.  AVilliam 
Hunter  died  in  London,  leaAing  to  MattheAV 
Baillie  the  use  of  his  house  and  his  fine  mu- 
seum and  collections.  The  foUoAving  year 
Mrs.  Baillie  and  her  daughtei-s  joined  Mat- 
thcAv  Baillie  in  London,  remaining  Avith  him 
vmtil  he  married,  in  1791,  Miss  Denman, 
sister  of  lord  chief  justice  Denman. 

It  was  in  London  that  Joanna  Baillie's 
genius  first  displayed  itself.  She  published 
anonymously,  in  1790,  a  small  A'olume  of  mis- 
cellaneous poems,  entitled  '  Fugitive  Verses,' 
which  received  considerable  encouragement. 
But  her  genius  had  not  yet  discovered  its 
true  channel.  '  It  was  Avhilst  imprisoned  by 
the  heat  of  a  summer  afternoon,  and  seated 
by  her  mother's  side  engaged  in  needle- 
Avork,  that  the  thought  of  essaying  dramatic 
composition  burst  upon  her.'  The  first  piny 
she  composed,  '  Arnold,'  does  not  survive ; 
but  in  1798  she  issued  the  first  volume  of  lier 
'Plays  on  the  Passions,' entitled  'A Series  of 
Plays  ;  in  Avhich  it  is  attempted  to  delineate 
the  stronger  passions  of  the  mind,  each  pas- 
sion being  the  subject  of  a  tragedy  and  a 
comedy.'  The  volume  contained  '  Basil,'  a 
tragedy  on  love;  tlie  'Trial,'  a  comedy  on 
the  same  subject  5  and  'De  Monfort,'  a  trajgedy 


Baillie 


415 


Baillie 


on  hatred.  The  work  was  published  ano- 
nymously, but,  its  author  was  immediately 
sought  after.  Samuel  Rogers  reviewed  it 
as  the  work  of  a  man,  and  Sir  Walter  Scott 
was  at  first  suspected  of  being  the  author. 
By  one  or  two  critics  the  volume  was  severely 
attacked ;  but  it  brought  the  author  an  ac- 
quaintance with  Scott  himself,  whicli  ripened 
into  a  warm  friendship,  lasting  '  uninter- 
ruptedly for  more  than  half  a  century.' 

In  an  elaborate  preface  to  the  '  Plays  on 
the  Passions,'  Miss  Baillie  defended  herself 
for  this  somewhat  novel  venture  in  dramatic 
writing.  Having  first  shown  that  the  study 
of  human  nature  and  its  passions  has  always 
had,  and  ever  must  have,  an  irresistible  at- 
traction for  the  individual  man,  the  writer 
proceeds  to  maintain  that  the  sympathetic 
instinct  is  our  best  and  most  powerful  in- 
structor. It  teaches  us  to  respect  ourselves 
and  our  kind,  and  to  dwell  upon  the  noble, 
rather  than  the  mean,  view  of  human  nature. 
Amidst  all  decoration  and  ornament  in  poetrj-, 
*  let  one  simple  trait  of  the  human  heart,  one 
expression  of  passion,  genuine  and  true  to 
nature,  be  introduced,  and  it  will  stand  forth 
alone  in  the  boldness  of  reality,  whilst  the 
false  and  unnatural  around  it  fade  away  upon 
every  side  like  the  rising  exhalations  of  the 
morning.'  But  the  plays  gave  rise  to  much 
controversy.  Tlie  tone  and  substance  of 
the  objections  of  hostile  critics  were  thus 
summed  up  by  Campbell  {Life  of  Mrs.  Sid- 
dons)  :  '  If  Joanna  Baillie  had  known  the 
stage  pi'actically,  she  would  never  have  at- 
tached the  importance  she  does  to  the  de- 
velopment of  single  passions  in  single  trage- 
dies ;  and  she  would  have  invented  more 
stirring  incidents  to  justify  the  passion  of 
her  characters,  and  to  give  them  that  air  of 
fatality  which,  though  pecvdiarly  predomi- 
nant in  the  Greek  drama,  will  also  be  found 
to  a  certain  extent  in  all  successful  tragedies. 
Instead  of  this  she  tries  to  make  all  the  pas- 
sions of  her  main  characters  proceed  from 
the  wilful  natures  of  the  beings  themselves. 
Their  feelings  are  not  precipitated  by  circum- 
.stances,  like  a  stream  down  a  declivity  that 
leaps  from  rock  to  rock,  but,  for  want  of  in- 
cident, they  seem  often  like  water  on  a  level, 
without  a  propelling  impulse.'  In  acting 
contrary  to  established  usage  the  author  no 
doubt  handicapped  herself  from  the  point  of 
view  of  the  successful  dramatist.  By  setting 
herself  to  delineate  one  master  passion  she 
deliberately  put  from  her  the  means  which 
generally  insure  dramatic  success. 

Yet  the  '  Plays  on  tlie  Passions '  attracted 
the  notice  of  John  Kemble,  who  determined 
to  produce  '  De  Monfort '  at  Drury  Lane 
Theatre,  with  himself  and  ISlvs.  Siddons  in 


t  he  chief  characters.  Every  care  was  given 
to  the  representation  of  the  tragedy,  for 
which  the  Hon.  F.  North  wrote  a  prologue, 
and  the  Duchess  of  Devonsliire  an  epilogue. 
It  was  produced  with  much  splendour  in 
April  1800,  but  it  failed  to  obtain  a  firm 
grasp  upon  the  public.  It  ran,  however,  for 
eleven  nights.  It  has  been  said  that  the 
passage  in  the  play  descriptive  of  Jane  de 
Monfort  formed  the  best  portrait  ever  drawn 
of  Mrs.  Siddons  herself ;  and  '  it  is  probable 
that  John  Kemble  and  his  sister  had  been 
present  to  the  mind  of  Joanna  when  she 
composed  the  tragedy  of  "Be  Monfort."' 
The  opinion  of  Mrs.  Siddons  upon  the  play 
may  be  gathered  from  an  expression  uttered 
by  her  in  conversation  Avith  the  author : 
'  Make  me  some  more  Jane  de  Monforts.' 

Undeterred  by  adverse  criticism.  Miss  Bail- 
lie,  in  1802,  issued  a  second  volume  of  *  Plays 
on  the  Passions.'  It  included  a  comedy  on 
'  Hatred,'  a  tragedy  (in  two  parts)  on  '  Am- 
bition,' and  a  comedy  on  the  same  passion. 
The  comedy  on  '  Hatred,'  with  music,  was 
produced  at  the  English  Opera  House  ;  but 
the  tragedy  on  *  Hatred,'  notwithstanding  its 
admittedly  fine  passages,  was  too  unwieldy 
for  stage  production. 

Shortly  after  the  appearance  of  this  volume 
Mrs.  Baillie  and  her  daughters  went  to  live 
at  Ilanipstead ;  but  in  1806  Mrs.  Baillie  died. 
The  sisters  then  rented  a  new  house  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Ilampstead  heath,  and  this 
house  they  continued  to  occupy  until  tliey 
died.  They  were  visited  by  many  friends 
eminent  in  letters,  in  science,  in  art,  and  in 
society,  and  they  were  on  very  intimate 
terms  with  their  neighbour,  Mrs.  Barbauld. 
Scott  looked  forward  to  a  visit  to  his  friends 
at  Ilampstead  as  one  of  the  greatest  of  liis 
pleasures,  and  Lord  Jeffrey  wrote,  under  date 
28  April  1840  :  'I  forgot 'to  tell  you  that  we 
have  been  twice  out  to  Ilampstead,  to  hunt 
out  Joanna  Baillie,  and  found  her  the  other 
day  as  fresh,  natural,  and  amiable  as  evei*, 
and  as  little  like  a  tragic  muse.'  Two  years 
later  the  whig  editor  again  saw  her  (she  being 
then  eighty  years  of  age),  when  he  describecl 
her  as  '  mai'vellous  in  health  and  spirits,  and 
youthful  freshness  and  simplicity  of  feeling, 
and  not  a  bit  deaf,  blind,  or  torpid.'  Geni- 
ality and  hospitality  were  the  characteristics 
of  the  two  sisters  during  their  residence  at 
Hampstead,  and  even  when  one  became  an 
octogenarian  and  the  other  a  nonagenarian 
they  could  enter  keenly  into  the  various  lite- 
rary and  scientific  controversies  of  the  day. 

In  1804  Joanna  published  a  volume  of 
*  Miscellaneous  Plays,'  containing  two  trage- 
dies, '  Rayner,'  and  *  Constantine  Paleologus,' 
These  plays  were  constructed  more  upon  the 


Baillie 


416 


Baillie 


usual  lines,  and  the  dramatist  stated,  in  her 
apology  for  their  appearance,  that  she  wished 
to  leave  behind  her  a  few  plays,  some  of 
which  might  continue  to  be  acted  '  even  in 
our  canvas  theatres  and  barns  ; '  while  she 
also  desired  to  keep  her  name  in  the  remem- 
brance of  lovers  of  the  drama  generally.  The 
motive  of  the  tragedy  '  Rayner '  was  to  ex- 
hibit a  young  man  of  an  amiable  temper, 
tempted  to  join  in  the  proposed  commission 
of  a  detestable  deed,  and  afterwards  bearing 
himself  with  diffidence  and  modesty.  The 
play  had  been  written  many  years  before. 
The  scene  of  the  tragedy  Avas  laid  in  Ger- 
many, and  its  turning-point  was  the  crime  of 
miirder.  Between  the  two  tragedies  Avas 
placed  a  comedy,  the  '  Country  Inn.'  The 
second  tragedy,  '  Constantine  Paleologus,' 
was  Avritten  in  the  hope  of  being  produced  at 
Drury  Lane,  with  Kemble  and  Mrs.  Siddons 
in  the  principal  characters  ;  but  those  great 
actors  declined  to  produce  it.  The  subject 
of  the  play  Avas  taken  from  Gibbon's  account 
of  the  siege  of  Constantinople  by  the  Turks. 
But  more  than  five  of  her  plays  Avere  pro- 
duced on  the  stage.  Amongst  these  Avas 
*  Constantine  Paleologus,'  which,  A\-hile  de- 
clined at  Drury  Lane,  was  produced  at  the 
Surrey  Tlieatre  as  a  melodrama  imder  the 
title  of  *  Constantine  and  Valeria ; '  Valeria 
being  an  imaginary  conception,  intended  for 
Mrs.  Siddons.  The  play  Avas  also  produced 
at  Liverpool,  Dublin,  and  Edinburgh,  in  every 
case  to  large  houses  and  with  much  success. 
Of  the  production  in  Edinburgh,  in  1820,  the 
Avriter  herself,  then  on  her  last  visit  to  her 
native  land,  Avas  a  gratified  spectator. 

In  1810  Miss  Baillie  produced  her  play  of 
the  *  Family  Legend.'  It  Avas  founded  upon 
a  Highland  tradition  relating  to  the  feud  be- 
tween the  lord  of  Argyle  and  the  chieftain 
of  Maclean.  The  tragedy,  Avith  a  prologue 
by  Sir  Walter  Scott,  was  brought  out  under 
Scott's  auspices  at  the  Edinburgh  theatre. 
Henry  Mackenzie,  author  of  the  '  Man  of 
Feeling,'  wrote  an  epilogue.  The  play  had  a 
genuine  success.  '  You  haA^e  only  to  imagine,' 
AA'rote  Scott  to  Miss  Baillie,  *  all  that  you 
could  wish,  to  give  success  to  a  play,  and  your 
conceptions  will  still  fall  sliort  of  the  com- 
plete and  decided  triumph  of  the  "  Family 
Legend."  EA'erything  that  pretended  to  dis- 
tinction, whether  from  rank  or  literature,  was 
in  the  boxes ;  and  in  the  pit  such  an  aggre- 
gate mass  of  hiimanity  as  I  have  seldom,  if 
ever,  witnessed  in  the  same  place.'  The 
tragedy  was  played  for  fourteen  nights  on 
the  first  representation,  and  it  Avas  produced 
on  seA-eral  subsequent  occasions.  Its  suc- 
cess induced  the  managers  of  the  Edinburgh 
theatre  to  revive  the  author's  tragedy  of '  De 


Monfort,'  and  in  describing  the  reception  of 
this  drama  one  who  Avas  present  wrote  that 
'  the  effect  produced  Avas  very  great ;  there 
Avas  a  burst  of  applause  AA'hen  the  curtain  fell, 
and  the  play  AA'as  announced  for  repetition 
amid  the  loudest  applause.'  In  1815  the 
'  Family  Legend '  was  produced  for  the  bene- 
fit of  Mrs.  JBartley  at  Drury  Lane  Theatre, 
and  in  1821  Mr.  Kean  brought  forward  '  De 
Monfort '  again  on  the  same  stage. 

In  1812  appeared  a  third  series  of  '  Plays 
on  the  Passions,'  consisting  of  two  tragedies 
and  a  comedy  on  the  subject  of 'Fear,'  and 
a  musical  drama  on  '  Hope.'  By  the  publi- 
cation of  this  volume  Miss  Baillie  showed 
that  she  had  abandoned  her  old  ideas.  The 
first  of  these  neAv  ])lays  had  for  its  prin- 
cipal character  a  AA^oman  under  the  dominion 
of  superstitious  fear.  In  the  second  drama 
the  fear  of  death  AA^as  made  the  actuating 
principle  of  a  hero  of  tragedy.  The  hero 
of  the  third  play,  a  comedy  on  'Fear,'  is 
represented  as  timid,  and  endeaA'ouring  to 
conceal  his  fear  by  a  boastful  affectation  of 
gallantry.  '  Metrical  Legends,'  the  next  work 
by  Joanna  Baillie,  appeared  in  1821.  The 
poems  were  suggested  by  her  A'isit  to  Scot- 
land in  the  previous  year.  The  patriot  Wal- 
lace is  the  principal  personage  in  one  poem, 
and  Lady  Griselda  Baillie  in  another.  There 
were  also  included  some  dramatic  ballads 
cast  in  the  ancient  mould.  'Poetic  Miscel- 
lanies,' published  in  1823,  contained  poems 
by  Sir  Walter  Scott,  Miss  Catherine  Fan- 
shawe,  Mrs.  Hemans,  and  others.  This  col- 
lection of  poems,  which  was  made  with  a 
charitable  object,  had  a  A^ery  satisfactory  pe- 
cuniary result.  A  deep  affliction  overtook 
the  sisters  Baillie  in  1823  by  the  death  of 
their  brother,  Dr.  MattheAv  Baillie,  who  was 
tended  by  Joanna  during  liis  last  illness  with 
the  utmost  solicitude.  The  drama  of  the 
'  Martyr,'  by  Joanna  Baillie,  Avas  published  in 
1826,  though  it  had  been  written  some  time 
before.  The  play  relates  to  the  martyrdom 
of  Cordenius  Maro,  an  officer  of  the  imperial 
guard  of  Nero,  who  had  been  converted  to 
the  christian  faith.  Miss  Baillie  accepted 
the  unitarian  view  of  Christ ;  and  in  her 
seventieth  year  put  forAA'ard  a  publication  on 
this  question,  entitled  '  A  "\''ieAA'  of  the  genei'al 
Tenor  of  the  Xew  Testament  regarding  the 
Nature  and  Dignity  of  .Tesus  Christ.'  In  this 
Avork  she  clearly  expressed  her  assent  to  the 
views  held  by  Milton  and  others. 

In  1836  Miss  Baillie  published  three 
volumes  of '  Miscellaneous  Plays,'  which,  at 
the  time  of  their  composition,  she  had  in- 
tended for  posthumous  publication.  Three 
of  these  dramas  Avere  in  continuation  of  the 
'  Plays  on  the  Passions,'  and  completed  the 


Baillie 


417 


Baillie 


L-ries.  They  consisted  of  a  tragedy  and  a 
comedy  illustrating  the  passion  of  jealousy, 
and  a  ti-agedy  on  the  subject  of  remorse. 
An  interesting  circumstance  is  connected 
\\  ith  two  of  the  dramas.  It  appears  that  Sir 
Alexander  Johnston,  chief  justice  of  Ceylon, 
l)eing  desirous  of  raising  the  minds  of  the  in- 
habitants of  that  island,  and  of  eradicating 
their  vices  by  writings  directed  to  that  end, 
turned  to  the  di'ama  as  being  specially  adapted 
to  the  pui-pose.  Miss  Baillie's  *  Martyr '  he 
had  already  seen  and  welcomed  as  an  auxi- 
liary, and,  in  response  to  his  desire  for  a 
second  drama  of  the  same  nature,  the  author 
wrote  the  '  Bride.'  Both  dramas  were  trans- 
lated into  the  Cingalese  language.  In  the 
second  play  tlie  writer  endeavoured  to  set 
forth  the  christian  principle  of  the  forgiveness 
of  injuries.  Of  the  miscellaneous  dramas,  two 
were  brought  out  simultaneously  at  Covent 
Garden  and  Drury  Lane  respectively;  the 
younger  Kemble  appearing  in  the  '  Separa- 
tion '  at  the  former  house,  and  VandenhofF 
in  the  tragedy  of  *  Henriquez  '  at  tlie  latter. 
They  had  but  a  partial  success,  and  it  woidd 
have  been  strange  had  the  result  been  other- 
wise, considering  the  writer's  adhesion  to  her 
former  principles  of  construction  and  her  lack 
of  knowledge  of  stage  requirements. 

Miss  Baillie  continued  to  write  after  she 
had  reached  a  very  advanced  age,  some  of  the 
poems  in  her  new  collection  of  'Fugitive 
Verses '  having  been  produced  when  she  was 
\erging  upon  fourscore  years.  As  the  end  of 
life  approached  she  was  prepared  to  meet  it. 
'  On  Saturday,  the  day  preceding  that  of  her 
death,  which  occurred  23  Feb.  1851,  Joanna 
expressed  a  strong  desire  to  be  released  from 
life.  She  retired  to  bed  as  usual,  complained 
of  some  uneasiness,  and  sank  till  the  follow- 
ing afternoon,  wlien,  without  suffering,  in 
the  full  possession  of  her  faculties,  with  sor- 
rowing relations  around  her,  in  the- act  of 
devotion,  she  expired  '  {Prefatory  Memoir  to 
Collected  Works).  'Joanna  Baillie  was  under 
the  middle  size,  but  not  diminutive,  and  her 
form  was  slender.  Her  countenance  indi- 
cated high  talent,  worth,  and  decision.  Her 
life  was  characterised  by  the  purest  morality.' 
The  prominent  features  of  her  character, 
which  impressed  all  with  whom  she  came  in 
contact,  were  her  consummate  integi'ity,  her 
moral  courage,  her  freedom  from  affectation, 
and  a  never-failing  charity  in  all  things. 

The  faculty  of  invention  displayed  in 
Joanna  Baillie's  wi'itings  is  very  great.  Her 
blank  verse  also  possesses  a  notable  dignity 
and  sonorousness  which  rank  her  works 
among  English  classical  dramas,  although 
they  will  never  be  popular  on  the  stage.  Her 
minor  works  have  much  beauty  and  delicacy. 

VOL.  II. 


Some  of  her  songs,  as,  for  example,  *  Up, 
quit  thy  bower,"  Woo'd,  an'  married,  an' 
a','  'It  fell  on  a  mornin'  when  we  were 
thrang,'  and  '  Saw  ye  Johnnie  comin'  P '  will 
doubtless  always  live.  It  has  been  often 
remarked  of  the  tragedies  of  Joanna  Baillie, 
that  '  with  all  their  deficiencies '  they  are 
probably  '^the  best  ever  written  by  a  wo- 
man.' Miss  Mitford  {liecollections)  observes 
of  Miss  Baillie's  tragedies  that  they  '  have 
a  boldness  and  grasp  of  mind,  a  firmness 
of  hand,  and  resonance  of  cadence,  that 
scarcely  seem  within  the  reach  of  a  female 
writer ;  whilst  the  tenderness  and  sweet- 
ness of  her  heroines,  the  grace  of  the  love- 
scenes,  and  the  trembling  outgushings  of 
sensibility,  as  in  On-a,  for  instance,  in  the 
fine  tragedy  on  "  Fear  " — would  seem  exclu- 
sively feminine  if  we  did  not  know  that  a 
true  dramatist — as  Shakspeare  or  Fletcher — 
has  the  wonderful  power  of  throwing  him- 
self into  the  character  that  he  portrays.'  Sir 
Walter  Scott,  when  questioned  resj)ecting  his 
own  dramatic  efforts,  replied  :  '  The  "  Plays 
on  the  Passions  "  have  put  me  entirely  out  of 
conceit  with  my  germanized  brat  (the  "  House 
of  Aspen");  and  should  I  ever  again  attempt 
dramatic  composition,  I  would  endeavour 
after  the  genuine  old  English  model.'  Speak- 
ing on  another  occasion  of  Miss  Baillie's 
tragedy  of  '  Fear,'  he  said  that  the  language 
was  distinguished  by  a  rich  variety  of  fancy 
which  he  knew  no  instance  of  excepting  in 
Shakespeare,  and  he  paid  a  very  high  tri- 
bute to  its  author, '  the  immortal  Joanna,'  in 
his  introduction  to  the  third  canto  of  '  Mar- 
mion.' 

The  various  works  of  Joanna  Baillie  have 
been  already  referred  to  in  their  order  of 
publication,  with  the  exception  of  a  poem 
entitled  'Athalya  Baee,'  printed  originally 
for  private  circulation  and  published  pos- 
thumously. It  deals  with  a  legend  con- 
cerning the  '  wise  and  good '  Indian  sove- 
reign who  furnishes  the  title  of  the  poem. 

[Dramatic  and  Poetical  Works  of  Joanna 
Baillie;  Annual  Register,  1851  ;  Inchbald's  Bri- 
tish Theatre  ;  Mitford's  Recollections  of  a  Lite- 
rary Life  ;  Chambers's  Biographical  Dictionary 
of  Eminent  Scotsmen  ;  Rogers's  Modern  Scottish 
Minstrel;  Quarterly  Review,  March  1841.] 

G.  B.  S. 

BAILLIE,  JOHN  (1741-1806),  divine, 
was  born  in  1741,  and  became  in  1767  minister 
of  the  Carliol-Street  meeting-house  (United 
Secession)  at  Newcastle-upon-Tyne.  His 
convivial  habits  having  led  him  into  irregu- 
larities peculiarly  inconsistent  with  his  pro- 
fession, his  connection  with  this  congrega- 
tion ceased  about  1783.  He  then  assisted 
William  Tinwell,  the  author  of  a  treatise  ou 


Baillie 


418 


Baillie 


aritlimetic,  in  conducting  a  school.  After- 
Avards  he  lectured  in  a  schoolroom  in  St. 
Nicholas's  churchyard  at  Newcastle,  and  in 
1797  his  friends  fitted  up  the  old  Postern 
Chapel  for  his  use.  He  was  in  pecuniary 
difficulties  for  several  years  previous  to  his 
death,  which  occurred  at  Gateshead  on 
12  Dec.  1806.  He  published  several  detached 
sermons,  including '  A  Funeral  Discourse  on 
the  Death  of  the  Papacy,  delivered  before  a 
crowded  audience,'  Newcastle,  1798, 8vo,  and 
*A  Funeral  Sermon  occasioned  by  the  death 
of  Frances  Baillie,'  his  daughter,  who  kept  a 
school  at  Newcastle,  and  who  died  in  1801 
at  the  age  of  twenty-three.  His  other  works 
are  :  1 .  '  A  Course  of  Lectures  upon  various 
antient  and  interesting  Prophecies ;  tending 
to  strengthen  the  faith  and  enliven  the  hopes 
of  believers  in  the  Divine  Saviour,  to  whom 
all  the  Prophets  bare  witness.  Lecture  i. 
Haggai    ii.    6-10,'   Newcastle,    1784,    8vo. 

2.  'An  Impartial  History  of  the  Town  and 
County  of  Newcastle-upon-Tyne  and  its 
Vicinity'   (anon.),    Newcastle,    1801,    8vo. 

3.  '  History  of  the  French  War,  from  1791 
to  1802,'  8vo.  He  also  assisted  in  writing  a 
*  History  of  Egypt.' 

[G-ent.  Mag.  Ixxvi.  (ii.)  1182;  Mackenzie's 
Newcastle,  i.  394  ;  Sykes's  Local  Records,  227  ; 
Kichardson's  Local  Historian's  Table  Book  (His- 
torical Division),  iii.  60.]  T.  C. 

BAILLIE,  JOHN  (1772-1833),  colonel, 
orientalist,  political  agent,  and  director  of 
the  East  India  Company,  entered  the  com- 
pany's service  in  1790,  arriving  in  India  in 
1791.  He  took  ensign's  rank  in  1793  and 
lieutenant's  in  1794,  devoting  his  leisure 
to  the  study  of  oriental  languages,  which 
he  prosecuted  "with  such  success  that  on  the 
foundation  of  the  new  college  of  Fort  Wil- 
liam in  1801  he  was  appointed  professor  of 
the  Arabic  and  Persian  languages  and  of 
Mohammedan  law.  In  1803,  on  the  out- 
break of  the  Mahratta  Avar,  he  joined  in  the 
siege  of  Agra  with  the  rank  of  captain,  and 
soon  after  was  appointed  to  the  difficult  post 
of  political  agent  at  Bundelkhand.  Disaffec- 
tion Avas  rife  here,  and  the  chiefs  were  form- 
ing dangerous  combinations.  Captain  Baillie, 
hoAveAer,  succeeded  in  disuniting  the  league 
of  the  chiefs  and  re-establishing  order  and 
security,  for  which  services  he  Avas  publicly 
thanked  by  the  governor-general  in  a  letter 
to  the  directors,  in  Avhicli  it  was  said  that 
'  the  British  authority  in  Bundelkhand  was 
only  preserved  by  his  fortitude,  ability,  and 
influence.'  He  had,  in  fact,  transferred  to 
the  company  a  ten-itory  with  a  rcA'enue  of 
225,000^.  a  year.  Baillie  resigned  his  pro- 
fessorship in  1807  for  the  position  of  resident 


at  LucknoAA'-,  Avhich  he  held  till  1815.  Three 
years  later  he  retired  from  the  serA'ice,  and 
on  his  return  to  England  Avent  into  parlia- 
ment as  one  of  the  members  for  the  borough 
of  Hedon  (now  disfranchised),  for  Avliich  he 
sat  from  1820  to  1830,  and  afterwards  from 
1830  to  1832  represented  the  burghs  of  In- 
verness. He  was  elected  a  director  of  the 
East  India  Company  in  1823,  and  died 
20  April  1833.  AVhile  professor.  Colonel 
Baillie  published  his  useful  *  Sixty  Tables 
elucidatory  of  a  Course  of  Lectures  on  Ara- 
bic Grammar  delivered  in  the  College  of  Fort 
William  during  the  first  year  of  its  institu- 
tion '  (1801),  and  the  text  of '  The  Five  Books 
upon  Arabic  Grammar,' i.e.  the '  Meeut  Amel,' 
'  Shurhu  Meeut  Amel,'  '  Mesbah,'  '  Hedayut 
oon-NuliA'e,'  and  the  '  Kafeea,'  of  Avhich  the 
first  four  were  issued  in  two  thin  A'olumes 
in  1802-3,  and  the  last  was  not  published. 
He  also  translated  from  the  Arabic  part  (re- 
lating to  commercial  transactions)  of  a  digest 
of  Mohammedan  laAV  in  1797,  at  the  request 
of  Sir  John  Shore  (Lord  Teignmouth),  the 
then  gOA-ernoi"-general,  but  the  work  was 
never  completed. 

[Journal  of  the  Bengal  Asiatic  Society,  iii. 
100,  101  (1834);  Annual  Register,  1833,  Ixxv. 
219.]  S.  L.-P. 

BAILLIE,  MARIANNE  (1795  P-1830), 
traveller  and  verse-Avriter,  whose  maiden 
name  Avas  Wat  hen  {Guy  of  Warwick,  &c., 
1817,  pp.  42,  43,  and  64),  married  Mr.  Alex- 
ander Baillie  '  some  years  preA'ious  '  to  1817 
(Guy  of  Warwick,  pp.  47,  66,  and  72).  Mrs. 
Baillie's  first  contribution  to  literature  was 
a  small  volume,  entitled  '  Guy  of  Warwick, 
a  Legende,  and   other   Poems,'   Kingsbury, 

1817.  A  very  limited  edition  Avas  printed 
by  Mr.  Baillie  at  his  private  printing-press, 
and,  in  1818,  a  second  edition  Avas  In  de- 
mand. Some  of  the  poems  in  this  Avork 
Avere  afterwards  reproduced  in  a  volume  pri- 
vately printed  in  London  in  1825,  and  '  not 
published,'  entitled  *  Trifles  in  Verse.'  The 
preface  is  Avritten  by  Mr.  Baillie,  avIio  says 
that  after  the  year  1817  Miard  times  came.' 
Early  in  1818  the  Baillies  found  a  '  shelter " 
and  a  '  calm  retreat '  at  TAvickenham,  where 
they  received  kindness  from  Lady  Howe, 
whose  second  husband.  Sir  Wathen  Waller, 
Avould  seem  to  haA'e  been  a  relatiA'e  of  Mrs. 
Baillie.  It  Avas  from  Twickenham  that  the 
Baillies  set  out  for  a  continental  tour,  cross- 
ing the  Channel  from  Dover  to  Calais  9  Aug. 

1818,  and  returning  8  Oct.  following.  The 
literary  result  of  this  journey  appeared  in  a 
volume  inscribed  by  the  author  to  the  Iliglit 
Hon.  John  Ti-CAor,  Avho  had  been  British 
minister  at  Turin  from   1 783  to  1798 ;    of 


Baillie 


419 


Baillie 


•whom  Mrs.  Baillie  spoke  after  his  death  as 
a  'paternal  friend  '  (Ti-i^s  in  Verse,  pp.  40 
and  41).  The  title  of  the  volume  was  '  First 
Impressions  on  a  Tour  upon  the  Continent 
in  the  Summer  of  1818,  through  Parts  of 
I^Vance,  Italy,  Switzerland,  the  Borders  of 
•Germany,  and  a  Part  of  French  Flanders,' 
8vo,  London,  1819.  In  the  same  year  31rs. 
Baillie  wrote  a  poetical  '  Farewell  to  Twick- 
enham.' After  spending  some  time  in  De- 
Tonshire,  she  entered  in  June  1820  upon  a 
residence  of  about  two  years  and  a  half  in 
Portugal.  There  she  wrote  a  series  of  letters 
to  her  mother,  afterwards  published,  with 
an  inscription  to  the  Earl  of  Chichester,  '  to 
whose  kindness  they  owe  their  existence,' 
in  two  volumes,  entitled '  Lisbon  in  the  Years 
1821,  1822,  and  1823,'  8vo,  London,  1824 ; 
second  edition  1825.  Several  of  her  poems, 
published  first  in  her  letters,  and  afterwai'ds 
in  '  Trifles  in  Verse,'  describe  the  beauties  of 
Cintra.  The  Baillies  returned  to  England  in 
October  1823,  and  settled  in  London.  Mrs. 
Baillie  died  in  1831. 

[Martin's  Bibliographical  Catalogue  of  Pri- 
vately Printed  Books,  2nd  ed.  1854.]     A.  H.  G. 

BAILLIE,  MATTHEW  (1761-1823), 
morbid  anatomist,  was  born  at  Stots,  Lanark- 
shire, on  27  Oct.  1761.  His  father  (James) 
was  the  minister  of  the  parish,  and  was 
afterwards  professor  of  divinity  at  Glasgow. 
His  mother  (Dorothea)  was  a  sister  of  the 
great  anatomists,  William  and  John  Hunter. 
Joanna,  the  poetess,  was  Matthew's  sister. 
Baillie  went  to  the  gi'ammar  scbool  of 
Hamilton,  and  thence  to  the  university  of 
•Glasgow.  On  the  advice  of  Dr.  AVilliam 
Hunter  lie  chose  medicine  as  his  profession. 
He  came  to  London  at  the  age  of  eighteen, 
and  lived  in  William  Hunter's  house.  Baillie 
•entered  at  Balliol  College,  Oxford,  and  worked 
hard  there  at  the  studies  of  the  place ;  but  j 
his  moi'e  valuable  education  was  carried  on  | 
in  Windmill  Street  in  the  vacations.  A  j 
lecture-theatre  and  museum  adjoined  Dr.  ■ 
William  Hunter's  house,  and  in  them  Baillie  i 
attended  public  lectures,  which  his  uncle 
supplemented  by  instruction  whenever  he 
and  his  nephew  were  together.  He  taught 
Matthew  how  to  observe,  communicated  to 
him  his  own  love  of  science,  and  set  him  an 
example  of  lucid  exposition.  In  two  years 
Dr.  William  Hunter  died,  and  left  theatre 
and  house  to  his  nephew.  The  museum  was 
ultimately  to  go  to  Glasgow,  where  it  now 
is,  but  its  present  use  was  left  to  Matthew, 
and  so  was  a  family  estate  in  Scotland. 
This  Baillie  honourably  handed  over  to  liis 
uncle,  John  Hunter,  as  the  natural  heir. 
Ho  man  could  have  had  a  more  fortunate  in- 


troduction to  medicine,  and  Baillie  showed 
that  he  understood  his  advantages.  He  be- 
gan to  lecture,  and  turned  his  attention  in 
particular  to  every  kind  of  diseased  structure. 
In  1787,  being  M.B.,  he  was  elected  physi- 
cian to  St.  George's  Hospital,  and  in  1789 
took  his  M.D.  degree,  and  became  a  fellow  of 
the  College  of  Physicians.  Somewhat  later 
he  was  elected  F.ll.S.  His  first  publication 
appeared  in  1794,  and  was  an  edition  of  a 
treatise  on  the  '  Anatomy  of  the  Gravid 
Uterus,'  which  Dr.  William  Hunter  had  left 
in  manuscript.  In  1795  Baillie  published 
'  The  Morbid  Anatomy  of  some  of  the  most 
important  Parts  of  the  Human  Body,'  the 
work  on  which  his  fame  rests.  It  was  the 
first  book  on  the  subject  in  English,  and  ex- 
celled any  of  the  previous  Latin  treatises  in 
lucidity.  Morgagni's  '  De  Sedibus  et  Causis 
Morborum,'  the  work  which  may  be  regarded 
as  the  foundation  of  the  study  of  diseased 
structm*es  and  organs,  is  long,  intricate,  and 
difficult  of  reference.  Morgagni's  method, 
Avhich  is  also  that  of  the  other  predecessors 
of  Baillie,  is  to  state  in  full  the  history  and 
symptoms  of  cases,  with  a  minute  account 
of  all  the  appearances  found  on  opening  the 
body  after  death.  Baillie's  was  the  first 
book  in  which  morbid  anatomy  was  treated 
as  a  subject  by  itself.  He  followed  the  plan 
of  treatises  on  normal  anatomy,  going  through 
the  morbid  appearances  of  each  organ.  Tliis 
system,  without  any  loss  of  exactitude,  en- 
abled him  to  set  forth  a  great  collection  of 
observations  in  a  few  words.  What  was 
common  was  confirmed  by  the  statement  of 
many  observations,  without  wasting  space  on 
the  details  of  each ;  and  what  was  rare  was 
placed  near  the  more  frequent  conditions  to 
which  it  was  related.  The  great  majority  of 
the  observations  are  Baillie's  own,  some  made 
in  his  examinations  of  bodies,  others  in  the 
specimens  preserved  by  his  uncles,  William 
and  John  Ilimter.  He  sometimes  mentions 
the  descriptions  of  Morgagni,  of  Lieutaud,  and 
of  a  few  of  his  own  contemporaries  ;  but  he 
does  so  to  fill  up  gaps  in  his  own  series,  and 
does  not  profess  to  reduce  into  order  the 
mass  of  details  contained  in  their  pages. 
His  work  is  limited  to  the  thoracic  and  ab- 
dominal organs  and  the  brain.  He  leaves 
untouched  the  morbid  changes  observable  in 
the  skeleton,  muscles,  nerves,  and  spinal  cord. 
A  short  paper  ('  Observations  on  Paraplegia,' 
1822),  published  elsewhere,  shows  that  he 
had  begun  to  pay  attention  to  diseases  of  the 
spinal  cord,  of  which  veiy  little  was  then 
known,  but  that  he  had  not  advanced  far  into 
the  subject.  The  pathology,  or  explanation 
of  morbid  appearances,  necessarily  changes 
Avith  the  advance  of  knowledge,  but  accurate 

ee2 


Baillie 


420 


Baillie 


descriptions  of  them  never  become  obsolete 
or  useless.  Baillie  shows  remarkable  acute- 
ness  in  perceiving  the  uncertainty  of  the 
pathology  of  his  time.  He  restricts  himself 
to  precise  descriptions  of  what  he  had  seen, 
and  little  is  to  be  found  in  his  pages  which 
is  not  of  permanent  value.  He  was  the  first 
to  define  exactly  the  condition  of  the  liver 
now  known  as  cirrhosis,  and  to  distinguish 
the  common  I'enal  cysts  from  the  rare  cysts 
of  parasitic  hydatids  of  the  kidney.  He  de- 
molished the  prevalent  opinion,  that  death 
was  often  due  to  a  growth  in  the  heart,  and 
showed  that  the  polypus,  as  it  was  called,  was 
in  reality  a  mass  of  coagulated  fibrin  formed 
after  death.  He  described  simple  ulcer  of 
the  stomach  and  the  ulcers  of  typhoid  fever, 
though  the  full  meaning  of  these  appearances 
was  not  made  out  till  some  years  after  his 
death.  The  book  was  dedicated  to  his  friend. 
Dr.  David  Pitcairn,  whose  fatal  illness  and 
autopsy  a  few  years  later  gave  Baillie  the 
opportunity  of  desci'ibing  a  morbid  condition 
before  unknown.  Two  additions  were  after- 
wards made  to  the  book.  In  1797  a  few 
notes  were  added  on  the  anatomy  found  in 
relation  to  particular  symptoms,  and  in  1799 
a  fine  series  of  engravings  by  Mr.  Clift. 
Baillie's  practice  soon  began  to  increase,  and 
in  1799  was  so  great  that  he  resigned  his  post 
of  physician  at  St.  George's  Hospital  and  gave 
up  lecturing.  He  went  to  live  in  Grosvenor 
Street,  and  became  physican  extraordinary  to 
George  III.  From  this  time  forth  his  labours 
were  only  useful  to  his  own  generation.  He 
Avas  not  of  a  robust  constitution,  and  his 
liealth  was  ruined  by  a  practice  beyond  his 
strength.  For  several  years  he  saw  patients 
or  wrote  letters  for  sixteen  hours  a  day,  and 
after  a  few  years  he  ceased  to  enjoy  an  annual 
holiday.  In  consultation  he  was  famed,  for 
the  clearness  with  which  he  expressed  his 
opinion  in  simple  terms.  He  despised  every 
way  of  obtaining  pi-ofessional  eminence  ex- 
cept that  of  superior  knowledge,  and  while  he 
treated  the  opinions  of  others  with  considera- 
tion was  firm  in  his  own.  There  are  many 
proofs  of  his  kindness  to  patients,  but  he 
sometimes  gave  sharp  replies  to  foolish  ques- 
tions when  suffering  from  the  irritation  of 
overwork. 

He  maiTied  Sophia,  daughter  of  Dr.  Den- 
man  and  sister  of  the  law  lord,  and  he  left 
two  children.  During  the  period  of  his 
great  pi'actice  Baillie  made  a  few  contribu- 
tions to  clinical  medicine.  These,  and  some 
others  which  he  left  unpublished,  are  to  be 
found  in  the  collected  edition  of  his  works 
(' The  Works  of  Matthew  Baillie,  M.D.,'  to 
which  is  prefixed  an  Account  of  his  Life  by 
James  Wai'drop,   2   vols.,   London,    1825). 


They  are  not  of  the  same  value  as  his  morbid 
anatomy,  for  he  had  no  time  to  think  out  the 
general  results  of  his  bedside  observations. 
In  a  short  essay  on  '  Pulsation  of  the  Aorta 
in  the  Epigastrium,'  he  was  the  first  to  show 
that  this  symptom  is  often  present  without 
any  internal  structural  change. 

BaiHie  died  of  phthisis  on  23  Sept.  1823. 
He  bequeathed  his  collection  of  specimens  of 
morbid  anatomy,  of  books  and  of  drawings, 
to  the  College  of  Physicians  with  a  sum  of 
money.  The  gold-headed  cane  which  Baillie 
had  received  from  Dr.  David  Pitcairn,  to 
whom  it  had  descended  through  William 
Pitcairn,  Askew,  and  Mead  from  Badclifie 
(^The  Gold-headed  Cane,  London,  1827,  and 
new  edition  by  Dr.  Munk,  1884),  Avas  pre- 
sented by  Baillie's  widow  to  the  College  of 
Physicians,  and  is  there  preserved,  with  the 
arms  of  its  successive  possessors  engraved 
upon  it.  Baillie  died  at  his  country  house^ 
and  was  buried  in  the  parish  church  of  Dun- 
tisbourne,  Gloucestershire,  and  he  is  comme- 
morated in  Westminster  Abbey  by  a  bust  and 
inscription. 

[Collected  Works  ;  Lectxires  and  Observations 
on  Medicine  by  the  late  Matthew  Baillie,  M.D., 
privately  printed,  1825.]  N.  M. 

BAILLIE,  ROBERT,  D.D.  (1599-1662), 
one  of  the  most  learned  of  the  earlier  Scottish 
presbyterian  divines,  Avas  born  at  GlasgoAV  in 
1599  {Letters  and  Journals,  ed.  Laing,  1841-2, 
3  vols.)  His  father  is  described  as  son  of 
Baillie  of  JerA'iston  (JerAuswood  ?'),  and  de- 
scended of  the  Baillies  of  Hoprig  and  Laming- 
ton — Lamington  coming  to  them  through  a 
marriage  with  the  daughter  of  Sir  William 
W^allace.  But  although  of  high  descent, 
Robert  Baillie's  father  was  a  citizen  of  Glas- 
gow and  engaged  there  in  trade. 

Robert  Baillie  entered  the  university  of 
his  natiA'e  city  as  a  mere  lad.  He  took  its 
highest  degree  of  M.A.  Having  further 
studied  theology,  he,  '  about  the  year '  1622, 
receiA'ed  orders,  not  from  the  church  of  Scot- 
land— i.e.  presbyterians — but  from  Arch- 
bishop Law  of  Glasgow.  He  was  chosen 
also  a  regent  of  philosophy  in  his  university. 
Whilst  in  this  ofiice  he  Avas  tutor  to  a  son 
of  the  Earl  of  Eglinton.  In  spite  of  his 
episcopal  ordination,  that  earl  presented  him 
to  the  parish  of  KilAvinning,  Ayrshire — i.e. 
of  the  church  of  Scotland.  Notwithstanding 
that  he  was  now  a  clergyman  of  the  national 
church  of  Scotland,  he  kept  up  an  affectionate 
correspondence  with  the  archbishop.  In  1629 
he  delivered  an  oration  '  In  laudem  Linguae 
Hebrsefe.'  In  1633  he  declined  a  translation 
to  Edinburgh.  In  1637  his  patron  the  arch- 
bishop requested  him  to  preach  a  sermon  in 


Baillie 


421 


Baillie 


the  Scottish  metropolis  in  recommendation 
of  the  Canon  and  Service  Book  then  pub- 
lished. He  did  not  see  his  way  to  do  so, 
and  his  letter  giving  his  reasons  for  refusaal 
is  still  of  interest.  Events  were  thickening 
to  disaster.  In  1638  he  was  chosen  by  his 
own  presbytery  of  Irvine  a  member  of  the 
historic  general  assembly  at  Glasgow,  which 
heralded  the  civil  war.  He  spoke  out  cou- 
rageously and  unmistakably  against  the  ob- 
trusion and  Arminanism  of  Laud.  In  1640 
he  was  sent  by  the  covenanting  lords  to 
London,  to  draw  up  an  accusation  against  the 
archbishop.  His  'Letters  and  Journals'  of  the 
period  reflect  the  lights  and  shadows  of  events. 
In  1641  lie  published  his  '  Antidote  against 
Arminianism ; '  '  The  Unhiwfulness  and  Dan- 
ger of  a  Limited  Prelacie  and  Episcopacie ; ' 
*  A  Parallel  or  Briefe  Comparison  of  the 
Liturgie  with  the  Masse-Book,  the  Brevi<arie, 
theCeremoniall,  and  other  Romish  Ritualls  ; ' 
'LaudensiumAuroKaraKpio-t?; '  and '  The  Can- 
terburian's  Self-Conviction ;  or  an  Evident 
Demonstration  of  the  avowed  Arminianisme, 
Poperic,  and  Tyranuie  of  that  Faction,  by 
their  owne  Confessions ;  Avith  a  Postscript  to 
the  Personat  Jesuite  Lysimachus  Nicanor.' 
These  extraordinary  books  had  been  preceded 
by  daring  action.  For  in  1639  he  accepted 
the  chaplaincy  of  Lord  Egliuton's  regiment, 
and  was  with  the  army  of  the  covenanters  at 
Dunse  Law  under  Leslie  {Letters  and  Jour- 
nals, ed.  Laing,  i.  174).  The  treaty  of  Berwick 
led  to  a  temporary  cessation  of  the  unhappy 
strife.  But  again  in  1640  he  appeared  in 
arms  with  the  covenanters.  It  was  from  the 
heat  of  these  bold  acts  that  he  proceeded 
to  London.  In  1642  he  was  again  in  Scot- 
land, and  appointed  professor  of  divinity 
along  with  David  Dickson,  in  Glasgow  Uni- 
versity. His  reputation  was  gi'eat,  so  much 
so  that  the  other  three  Scottish  universities 
contended  for  his  services.  He  was  fre- 
quently-absent in  London,  having  formed  one 
of  the  renowned  Westminster  Assembly.  He 
returned  to  settle  finally  in  Scotland  in  1646. 
Other  theological  and  ecclesiastical  books 
had  in  the  interval,  and  in  this  year,  appeared 
— e.g.  *  Satan  the  Leader  in  Chief  to  all  who 
resist  the  Reparation  of  Sins ;  as  it  was  cleared 
in  a  Sermon  to  the  Honourable  House  of 
Commons  at  their  late  Solemn  Fast,  Feb.  28, 
1643:'  'Errours  and  Induration  are  the  great 
Sins  and  the  great  Judgments  of  the  Time ; 
])reached  in  a  Sermon  before  the  Right 
Honourable  the  House  of  Peers  in  the  Abbey 
Church  of  "Westminster,  July  30,  1645;' 
'  An  Historical!  Vindication  of  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  from  the 
manifold  base  Calumnies  which  the  most  ma- 
lignant of  the  Prelates  did  invent  of  old,  and 


now  lately  have  been  published  with  great 
industry  in  two  pamphlets  at  London :  the 
one  intituled  "  Issachars  Burden,"  &c.,  writ- 
ten and  published  at  Oxford  bv  John  Max- 
well, a  Scottish  Prelate,  Ac,"  1646;'  'A 
Dissuasive  from  the  EiTours  of  the  Time; 
wherein  the  Tenets  of  the  Priucipall  Sects, 
especially  of  the  Independents,  are  drawn  to- 
gether in  a  Map,  1645-6 ; '  '  Anabaptism,  the 
True  Fountaine  of  Independency,  Brownisme, 
Antinomy,  Familisme,  &c.,  or  a  Second  Part 
of  the  Dissuasive  from  the  Errours  of  the 
Time,  1647.'  His  larger  books,  published 
later,  are  :  *  A  Review  of  Dr.  Bramhall,  late 
Bishop  of  Londonderry,  his  Faire  Warning 
against  the  Scotes  Disciplin,'  1649 ;  '  A 
Scotch  Antidote  against  the  English  Infec- 
tion of  Arminianism,'  1652 ;  '  Tlie  Dissuasive 
from  the  Errours  of  the  Time,  vindicated 
from  the  Exceptions  of  Mr.  Cotton  and  Mr. 
Tombes,'  1655 ;  '  Opus  Historicum  et  Chrono- 
logicum,'  published  at  Amsterdam,  1663. 

When,  after  the  beheading  of  Charles  I, 
Charles  11  was  proclaimed  in  Scotland, 
Baillie  was  one  of  the  divines  appointed  by 
the  general  assembly  to  wait  upon  his  ma- 
jesty at  the  Hague.  On  27  [March  1649  he 
addressed  Charles  in  a  remarkable  speech. 
He  was  emphatic  against  the  execution  of 
Charles  I ;  but  his  acceptance  of  Charles  II 
was  limited  by  all  the  niceties  of  casuistry. 
At  the  Restoration  he  Avas  full  of  ardent 
hope.  By  the  influence  of  Lauderdale  he  was 
appointed  principal  of  the  university  of  Glas- 
gow on  his  refusal  of  a  bishopric.  He  was  not 
destined  to  hold  his  ultimate  dignity  very  long. 
In  the  spring  of  1662  he  was '  sick  and  weak.' 
In  his  last  illness  he  was  visited  by  the  new- 
made  archbishop  of  Glasgow,  and  whilst  he 
could  not  address  him  as  '  my  lord,'  they  got 
on  excellently.  He  died  in  July  1662,  aged  63. 
His  '  Letters  and  Journals,' dating  from  1637 
to  1662,  remained  for  many  years  in  manu- 
script in  the  hands  of  Baillie's  heirs.  Many 
transcripts  were  made  from  them  in  the  early 
part  of  the  eighteenth  centurj^,  of  which  one 
is  now  in  the  British  Museum,  and  another 
in  the  Advocates'  Library,  Edinburgh.  They 
were  printed  for  the  first  time  at  Edinburgh 
in  two  octavo  volumes  in  1775,  at  the  sug- 
gestion (it  has  been  doubtfully  asserted)  of 
Robertson  and  Hume.  This  work  was  very 
poorly  edited  by  '  Mr.  Robert  Aiken,  school- 
master of  Anderton,'  and  is  disfigured  by 
careless  omissions  and  errors.  Tlie  Banna- 
tyne  Club  issued  the  best  edition  in  1841-2, 
in  three  volumes,  edited  by  David  Laing. 

Baillie  was  twice  married,  firstly  to  Lilias 
Fleming,  of  the  family  of  Cardarroch — by 
whom  he  had  a  large  number  of  children,  but 
only  five   survived  him;  she  died  in  June 


Baillie 


422 


Baillie 


1653.  His  second  wife  was  Mrs.  Wilkie, 
widow,  daughter  of  a  former  principal  of  the 
imiversity  (Dr.  Strang) ;  by  her  he  had  a 
daughter,  IMargaret,  who  became  wife  of 
AValkinshaw  of  Barrowfield,  and  grandmother 
of  Henry  Home,  Lord  Kames.  Another  de- 
scendant was  JNIiss  Walkinshaw,  mistress  of 
James  Charles  Stuart. 

As  a  scholar,  Baillie  was  remarkable.  He 
understood  thoroughly  no  fewer  than  thir- 
teen languages,  including  Hebrew,  Chaldee, 
Syriac,  Arabic,  and  Ethiopic.  He  had  a 
keen,  penetrative  intellect,  \\-hich  never  al- 
lowed his  learning  to  overload  it.  He  is  an 
alert  controversialist,  with  a  swift  eye  to 
his  opponents'  weaknesses  and  admissions. 
He  bows  to  what  he  believes  to  be  the  true 
interpretation  of  Holy  Scripture.  He  fiercely 
denounces  *  the  sectaries,'  and  though  per- 
sonally modest,  he  shows  towards  adversaries 
little  charity.  His  *  Letters  and  Journals ' 
are  for  Scotland  much  what  Pepya  and 
Evelyn  are  for  England.  They  are  especially 
valuable  in  relation  to  the  assembly  of  1638 
and  the  assembly  of  Westminster. 

[Kippis's  Biogr.  Brit.  i.  510-15;  Chalmers's 
Biogr.  Diet. ;  Anderson's  Scottish  Nation ;  Neal's 
Puritans  (passwi) ;  aremarkable  paper  by  Carlyle 
on  'Baillie  the  Covenanter'  in  Westminster  Re- 
view, xxxvii.  43,  and  reprinted  in  his  Miscel- 
lanies.] A.  B.  G. 

BAILLIE,  ROBERT  (d.  1684),  patriot, 
the '  Scottish  Algernon  Sydney,'  as  he  has  been 
named,  was  son  of  George  Baillie  of  St.  John's 
Kirk,  Lanarkshire,  of  the  Lamington  Baillies, 
though  he  himself  is  known  as  Baillie  of  Jervis- 
wood.  He  first  appears  in  full  manhood,  as 
the  object  of  suspicion  and  hatred  to  the  powers 
then  dominant  in  Scotland.  An  apparently 
trivial  incident  broxxght  things  to  a  crisis. 
In  June  1676  the  Rev.  Mr.  Kirkton,  a  non- 
episcopalian  minister,  who  had  married 
Baillie's  sister,  was  illegally  arrested  in  the 
High  Street  of  Edinburgh  by  an  informer 
named  Carstairs,  on  the  bidding  of  Arch- 
bishop Sharp,  himself  a  renegade  presby- 
terian.  Carstairs,  not  having  a  warrant, 
endeavoured  to  extort  money  from  his  prisoner 
before  releasing  him.  Baillie  having  been 
sent  for  arrived  on  the  scene.  It  was  a 
mean  house  near  the  common  prison  ('Heart 
of  Midlothian').  Carstairs  had  locked  the 
door  and  refused  to  open  it.  Kirkton  desired 
of  him  that  he  would  either  produce  his  war- 
rant or  set  him  free.  Instead  of  compliance, 
Baillie  drew  a  pocket-pistol,  and  a  struggle 
ensued  for  its  possession.  Those  without, 
liearing  the  noise  and  cries,  burst  open  the 
door,  and  discovered  Kirkton  on  the  floor  and 
Carstairs  seated  upon  him,   Baillie  demanded 


sight  of  the  Avarrant,  but  none  Avas  produced. 
Thereupon  Kirkton  and  his  friends  left  the 
house.  Upon  the  complaint  of  the  informer, 
he  procured  an  ante-dated  warrant,  bearing 
the  signatures  of  some  members  of  the  privy 
council.  Baillie — the  higher  victim — was 
called  before  the  council,  and  by  Sharp's  in- 
fluence was  fined  '  in  six  thousand  marks '' 
(  =  318^.,  or,  according  to  Wodrow,  500/.), 

*  to  be  imprisoned  till  paid.'  After  being  four 
months  in  prison,  he  was  liberated  on  pay- 
ment of  half  the  fine  to  Carstairs.  Needless 
to  say  he  was  a  suspected  man  henceforward. 
Is  one  the  less  was  he  bold  and  outspoken  for 
civil  and  religious  liberty.  In  the  year  1683^ 
sick  at  heart  and  seeing  no  prospect  of  relief 
from  the  prevailing  tyranny  in  his  native  land, 
he  joined  some  fellow-countrymen  in  nego- 
tiations for  emigration  to  Sovxth  Carolina.  The 
scheme  was  frxistrated.  Contemporaneously, 
Baillie  and  compatriots  repaired  to  London, 
and  entered  into  association  with  Monmoxxth, 
Sydixey,  Russell,  aixd  their  friends,  if  possible- 
to  obtain  mitigation,  or  pei'chance  change, 
of  government  measxxres.  The  Rye  House- 
plot  came  to  the  front,  and  though  Baillie  had 
nothing  whatever  to  do  with  it,  he  was  ar- 
rested and  sent  north  to  Scotland.  Hopes  of  a 
pardon  for  himself  having  been  treacherously 
held  out  to  him,  on  condition  of  his  giving  the 
govei'ument  infox-mation,  he  replied :  *  They 
who  can  make  such  a  proposal  to  me  neither 
knoAV  me  nor  my  countxy.'  The  late  Eax-l 
Rxxssell  observes :  *  It  is  to  the  honoxxr  of  Scot- 
land that  no  witixesses  came  forwax'd  volun- 
tarily to  accxxse  their  associates,  as  had  been 
doxie  in  Englaixd.'  Baillie  had  married,  when 
young,  a  sister  of  Sir  Archibald  Jolxnstott 
of  Warriston  (who  was  execxxted  in  Jxine 
1633) ;  and  during  his  imprisonment  she  of- 
fered to  go  into  ix'ons  as  an  assurance  against 
aixy  attempt  at  escape,  if  only  she  might  keep 
her  husband  company.  Bxxt  permission  was 
deixied.  He  was  accused  of  complicity  in  the 
Rye  Hoxxse  plot  and  conspiracy  to  raise  a  re- 
bellioix,  but  his  prosecutors  were  xxnable  to 
addxxce  one  iota  of  evidence.  Therefore  he 
was  ordered  to  *  free  himself '  by  oath.  This 
he  refused  to  do,  and  was  fined  6,000/.  He 
was  still  held  in  prison  and  refused  the 
slightest  alleviation.  Bishop  Burnet,  in  his 
'  History  of  his  own  Times,'  ixxforms  us  that 

*  the  ministers  of  state  were  most  earnestly 
set  on  Baillie's  destruction,  thoxxgh  he  was 
now  in  so  languishing  a  condition,  that  if  his 
death  would  have  satisfied  the  malice  of  the 
coxxrt,  it  seemed  to  be  very  near.'  He  adds, 
that  *  all  the  while  he  was  in  prison  he  seemed 
so  composed  and  cheerfid,  that  his  behaviour 
looked  like  the  reviving  spirit  of  the  noblest 
of  the  old  Greeks  or  Romans,  or  rather  of  th* 


Baillie 


423 


Baillie 


primitive  ehristiuns  and  first  martyrs  in 
those  best  days  of  the  church.'  Ou  23  Dec. 
1684  the  dying  prisoner  was  (afresh)  ar- 
raigned before  the  High  Court  of  Justiciary 
on  the  capital  charge  of  treason.  He  was 
carried  to  the  bar  in  nis  night-dress,  attended 
by  his  sister  (Mrs.  Ker  of  Graden).  He 
solemnly  denied  having  been  accessory  to 
any  conspiracy  against  the  king's  or  his 
brother's  life,  or  of  being  an  enemy  to 
monarchy.  He  was  '  brought  in  '  guilty  on 
24  Dec,  early  in  the  morning,  and  sentenced 
to  be  hanged  the  same  afternoon  at  the 
market  cross  of  Edinburgh,  with  all  the 
usual  barbarities  of  beheading  and  quar- 
tering. Upon  hearing  his  sentence  he  said 
simply :  '  My  lords,  the  time  is  short,  the 
sentence  is  sharp,  but  I  thank  my  God,  who 
hath  made  me  as  fit  to  die  as  you  are  to  live.' 
He  Avas  attended  to  the  scaffold  by  his  de- 
voted sister.  He  was  so  feeble  that  he  re- 
quired assistance  to  mount  the  ladder.  When 
he  was  up  he  said :  '  My  faint  zeal  for  the  pro- 
testant  religion  has  brought  me  to  this ; '  but 
the  beating  of  the  drums  interrupted  him. 
An  intended  speech  had  to  go  undelivered. 
Thus,  says  Bishop  Burnet,  '  A  learned  and 
worthy  gentleman,  after  twenty  months'  hard 
usage,  was  brought  to  such  a  death,  in  a  way 
so  foul,  in  all  the  steps  of  it  of  the  spirit  and 
practice  of  the  courts  of  the  Inquisition,  that 
one  is  tempted  to  think  that  the  methods 
taken  in  it  were  suggested  by  one  well  studied 
if  not  fostered  in  them.'  The  illustrious 
nonconformist  diA'ine  Dr.  John  Owen,  writing 
to  a  friend  in  Scotland  before  his  death,  said 
of  him  :  *  You  have  truly  men  of  great  spirit 
among  you ;  there  is,  for  a  gentleman,  Mr. 
Baillie  of  Jerviswood,  a  person  of  the  great- 
est abilities  I  ever  almost  met  with.' 

The  Jerviswood  family  was  ruined  by  the 
execution  and  consequent  forfeiture  of  their 
head.  His  son  George  fled  to  Holland.  He 
returned  in  1688  with  William  of  Orange, 
when  he  was  restored  to  his  estates.  The 
Baillies  of  Jerviswood  have  prospered  since. 
An  exquisite  miniature  of  our  patriot,  painted 
in  1660,  is  at  Jerviswood.  It  shows  a  firm 
yet  naturally  gentle  face,  with  touches  of 
Cromwell  in  it. 

[Contemporary  broad-sheet  of  Trial ;  Ander- 
son's Scottish  Nation,  i.  177-9;  Burnet's  Own 
Time ;  Kussell's  Life  of  Lord  William  Eussell ; 
Wodrow's  Analecta  ;  Chambers's  Scotsmen.] 

A.  B.  G. 

BAILLIE,  THOMAS  {d.  1802),  captain 
in  the  royal  navy,  entered  the  navy  about 
1740,  and  was  made  lieutenant  on  29  March 
1745.  In  1756  he  was  serving  on  board  the 
Deptford,  and  was  present  at  the  action  near 


Minorca  on  20  May.  He  was  shortly  after- 
wards promoted  to  the  command  of  the  Al- 
derney  sloop,  and  early  in  the  following  year, 
whilst  acting  captain  of  the  Tartar  frigate, 
captured  a  French  privateer  of  24  guns  and 
240  men,  which  was  purchased  into  the  ser- 
vice as  the  Tartar's  prize,  and  the  command  of 
her,  with  post-rank,  given  to  Captain  Baillie, 
30  March  1757.     In  this  ship  he  continued, 


Hospital,  through  the  interest,  it  is  said,  of 
the  Earl  of  Bute ;  he  certainly  had  no  claim 
to  the  benefits  of  the  hospital  by  either  age, 
or  service,  or  wounds.  In  1774  he  was  ad- 
vanced to  be  lieutenant-governor  of  the  hos- 
pital, and  in  March  1778  published  a  work 
of  116  pages  in  quarto,  the  best  account  of 
which  is  its  title.  It  runs :  '  The  Case  of 
the  lioyal  Hospital  for  Seamen  at  Greenwich, 
containing  a  comprehensive  view  of  the  in- 
ternal government,  in  which  are  stated  the 
several  abuses  that  have  been  introduced 
into  that  great  national  establishment, 
wherein  landsmen  have  been  appointed  to 
offices  contraiy  to  charter;  the  ample  re- 
venues wasted  in  useless  works,  and  money 
obtained  by  petition  to  parliament  to  make 
good  deficiencies  ;  the  wards  torn  down  and 
converted  into  elegant  apartments  for  clerks 
and  their  deputies ;  the  pensioners  fed  with 
buU-beef  and  sour  small-beer  mixed  with 
water,  and  the  contractors,  after  having  been 
convicted  of  the  most  enormous  frauds,  suf- 
fered to  compound  their  penalties  and  renew 
their  contract.'  The  sin  of  making  charges 
such  as  these  was  aggravated  by  the  evi- 
dence, amounting  to  absolute  proof,  which 
accompanied  them.  Baillie  had  not  put  his 
name  on  the  title-page,  but  he  made  no 
attempt  to  conceal  it ;  and  Lord  Sandwich, 
whose  conduct  was  both  directly  and  indi- 
rectly called  in  question,  at  once  deprived 
him  of  his  office,  and  prompted  the  inferior 
officials  of  the  hospital  to  bring  an  action  for 
libel  against  him.  The  trial  which  followed, 
in  November  1778,  is  principally  noticeable 
for  the  magnificent  speech  with  which  Mr. 
Erskine,  afterwards  lord  chancellor,  but  then 
just  called  to  the  bar,  wound  up  the  defence, 
and  cleared  Baillie  of  the  charge  (Campbell, 
Lives  of  the  Chancellors,  vi.  391-8).  From 
the  purely  naval  point  of  view,  however, 
Baillie  was  ruined  ;  he  was  acquitted  of  all 
legal  blame ;  but  Lord  Sandwich  had  deprived 
him  of  his  post,  and  refused  to  reinstate 
him,  or  to  appoint  him  to  a  ship  for  active 
service.  The  question  was  raised  in  the 
House  of  Lords  {Pari.  Hist.  xx.  475);  but 
the  interest  of  the  ministry  was  sufficient  to 


Baillie 


424 


Baillie 


decide  it  against  Captain  Baillie,  who  during 
the  next  three  years  made  several  fruitless 
applications  both  to  the  secretary  of  the  ad- 
miralty and  to  Lord  Sandwich  himself.  His 
lordship  had  publicly  declared  that  he  knew 
nothing  against  Captain  Baillie's  character 
as  a  sea-officer,  and  also  that  he  did  not  feel 
disposed  to  act  vindictively  against  him:  but 
l?aillie's  claims  were,  nevertheless,  persist- 
ently ignored,  and  he  was  left  unemployed  till, 
on  the  change  of  ministry  in  1782,  the  Duke 
of  llichmond,  Avho  became  master-general  of 
the  ordnance,  appointed  him  to  the  lucrative 
office  of  clerk  of  the  deliveries.  A  legacy  of 
oOOl.  which  fell  to  him  two  years  later  served 
rather  to  mark  the  current  of  public  feeling  in 
the  city.  Mr.  John  Barnard,  son  of  a  former 
lord  mayor,  had  left  him  this  '  as  a  small 
token  of  my  approbation  of  his  worthy  and 
disinterested,  though  ineffiictual,  endeavours 
to  rescue  that  noble  national  charity  [sc. 
Greenwich  Hospital]  from  the  rapacious 
hands  of  the  basest  and  most  wicked  of 
mankind.'  Captain  Baillie's  old  age  passed 
away  in  the  quiet  enjoyment  of  his  office 
under  the  Ordnance,  which  he  held  till  his 
death,  15  Dec.  1802. 

[Charnock's  Biog.  Nav.  vi.  214 ;  OflBcial  Letters 
in  the  Public  Record  Office.]  J,  K.  L. 

BAILLIE,  WILLIAM,  Lord  Provand 
(d.  1593),  Scottish  judge,  of  the  family  of 
liaillie  of  Lamington,  first  appears  as  a  judge 
of  the  court  of  session,  15  Nov.  1550.  lie 
was  appointed  president  of  the  court  on  the 
death  of  John  Sinclair,  bishop  of  Brechin, 
in  1566.  On  6  Dec.  1567,  he  was  deprived 
of  this  office,  in  favour  of  Sir  James  Balfour, 
by  the  regent  Murray,  on  the  pretext  that 
the  act  of  institution  required  it  to  be  held 
by  a  person  of  the  spiritual  estate.  Balfour 
w^as  in  turn  removed  in  1568,  when  he  was 
accused  of  participation  in  Darnley's  murder, 
and  Baillie,  being  reinstated,  held  the  office 
till  his  death,  26  May  1593. 

[Brunton  and  Haig's  College  of  Justice.] 

^.  M. 

BAILLIE,  WILLIAM  (Jl.  1648),  Scot- 
tish general,  was  the  son  of  Sir  William 
Baillie  of  Lamington,  an  adherent  of  Queen 
Mary  of  Scotland.  His  mother  was  a  daugh- 
ter of  Sir  Alexander  Hume,  lord  provost  of 
ICdinburgh,  and  he  was  born  during  the  life- 
time of  his  father's  first  wife,  Margaret  Max- 
well, countess  of  Angus.  Sir  William  Baillie, 
on  the  death  of  the  countess,  married  his 
mistress,  but  the  son  was  not  thereby  legi- 
timatised,  and  the  estates  were  inherited  by 
^lai'garet  Baillie,  the  eldest  daughter  by  the 
first  marriage.  In  early  life  Baillie  went,  there- 


fore, to  Sweden,  and  served  under  Gustavus 
Adolphus.  lu  a '  list  of  Scottish  officers  that 
served  his  majesty  of  Sweden '  at  the  time  of 
the  monarch's  death  in  1632,  he  is  styled 
*  William  Baily,  colonelL  to  a  regiment  of 
foote  of  Dutch.'  After  his  return  to  Scot- 
land in  1638  he  was  employed  on  many  im- 
portant services  by  the  covenanters.  In  his 
commission  in  the  army,  ratified  by  parlia- 
ment 11  June  164:0,  he  is  designated '  William 
Baillie  of  Letliem  (Letham),  Stirlingshire,' 
an  estate  which  came  into  his  possession 
through  his  marriage  to  Janet,  daughter  of 
Sir  William  Bruce  of  Glenhouse,  and  gTand- 
daughter  of  John  Baillie  of  Letham.  In 
1641  he  made  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to 
have  the  settlement  of  the  Lamington  estates 
reversed  in  his  favour.  Under  Leslie,  earl 
of  Leven,  he  was  present  with  the  army  whicli 
in  1639  encamped  on  Dunse  Law,  and  he  also 
took  part  in  the  incursion  into  England  in  the 
following  year.  As  lieutenant-general  of  foot 
he  also  distinguished  himself  under  Leslie 
in  1644,  at  Marston  Moor,  the  siege  of  York, 
and  the  capture  of  Newcastle.  In  order  to 
check  the  brilliant  raids  of  Montrose  and  his 
Highlanders  in  the  northern  districts  of  Scot- 
land, he  was,  in  1646,  appointed  to  the  com- 
mand of  a  strong  force,  with  Sir  .Tohn  Urry, 
or  Hurry,  as  assistant  general.  For  some 
time  he  manoeuvred  against  Montrose  with 
great  strategic  skill,  but,  the  forces  under  his 
command  having  divided,  Urry  was  routed 
at  Auldearn,  and  he  himself,  after  a  stubborn 
contest,  Avas  worsted  at  Alford  and  compelled 
to  retreat  southwards.  Attributing  his  de- 
feat to  the  fact  that  his  forces  had  been  vm- 
necessarily  weakened  by  the  drawing  off  of 
recruits,  he  resigned  his  commission;  but 
after  receiving  from  the  authorities  formal 
approbation  of  his  conduct,  he  agreed  to 
continue  in  command  till  an  efficient  sub- 
stitute could  be  found.  The  result  fully 
justified  his  scruples.  On  15  Aug.  the  op- 
posing forces  again  came  in  sight  of  each 
other  at  Kilsyth.  The  committee  of  estates 
resolved  to  give  battle,  a  determination  so 
strongly  disapproved  of  by  Baillie  that  he 
declined  to  undertake  the  disposition  of  the 
troops,  and  consented  to  be  present  mei-ely 
that  he  might  lessen  the  disastrous  results 
of  a  defeat  which  he  felt  to  be  inevitable.  So 
overwhelming  was  the  victory  of  Montrose 
that  Scotland  for  a  time  was  at  his  feet. 
It  seemed  indeed  to  be  fated  that  the  un- 
doubted bravery  and  skill  of  Baillie  should 
always  be  thwarted  by  the  incompetence  and 
blunders  of  those  whom  he  served.  When 
the  Scots,  after  the '  engagement '  with  Charles 
in  the  Isle  of  Wight,  resolved  on  an  expedi- 
tion into  England  to  deliver  the  *  king  from 


Baillie 


425 


Baillie 


the  power  of  sectaries,'  Baillie  was  appointed 
lieutenant-general  of  foot  in  the  army  raised 
by  the  Duke  of  Hamilton.  The  loose  order 
kept  by  the  duke  rendered  the  disaster  at 
I'reston  on  11  Aug.  1648  a  foregone  con- 
clusion. Baillie  rallied  his  forces  near  Win- 
wick,  three  miles  from  Warrington,  *  main- 
taining the  pass,'  according  to  Cromwell, 
*  with  great  resolution  for  many  hours;'  but, 
receiving  'an  order  to  make  as  good  con- 
ditions as  he  could,'  he  with  great  reluctance 
sent  in  a  capitulation  to  Cromwell,  which 
was  accepted.  He  took  no  further  prominent 
])art  in  the  events  of  his  time,  and  there  is 
no  record  of  the  day  or  year  of  his  death. 

[Letters  and  Journals  of  Robert  Baillie,  edited 
by  David  Laing,  especially  ii.  417-25,  containing 
.Sir  William  Baillie's  vindication  of  his  conduct 
at  Kilsyth  and  Preston,  and  iii.  455-7  (Appen- 
<lix) ;  Hunter's  Biggarand  the  House  of  Fleming, 
2nd  ed.  (1867),  596-7  ;  Napier's  Life  of  Mont- 
rose ;  Carlyle's  Cromwell.]  T.  F.  H. 

BAILLIE,  WILLIAM,  Lord  Polkem- 
MET  (d.  1816),  Scottish  judge,  was  the  eldest 
son  of  Thomas  Baillie,  writer  to  the  signet. 
He  was  admitted  advocate  1758,  judge  1793, 
resigned  1811,  and  died  14  March  1816. 

[Brunton  and  Haig's  College  of  Justice.] 

iE.  M. 

BAILLIE,  WILLIAM  (1723-1810), 
amateur  engi-aver  and  etcher,  was  born  at 
Kilbride,  in  the  county  of  Carlow,  5  June 
1723.  He  was  educated  in  Dublin  under 
Dr.  Sheridan,  and  at  the  age  of  eighteen  came 
to  London  and  entered  the  Middle  Temple 
for  the  purpose  of  studying  the  law,  but  he 
soon  accepted  a  commission  in  the  army,  and 
fought  in  the  13th  foot  at  Culloden,  and  in 
the  olst  foot  at  Minden.  He  afterwards  ex- 
changed into  the  cavalry,  but  retired  from  the 
service  in  1761  with  the  rank  of  captain  in  the 
1 8th  light  dragoons,  and  in  1773  was  appointed 
a  commissioner  of  stamps,  which  office  he  held 
until  1795.  Both  before  and  after  leaving  the 
army  Baillie  devoted  his  leisure  entirely  to  art, 
antl  he  was  considered  one  of  the  most  accom- 
])lished  connoisseurs  of  his  time.  He  prac- 
tised engraving  in  nearly  all  its  branches, 
blending  mezzotint  and  etching  with  great 
siiccess,  but  he  shone  most  in  his  imitations 
of  Rembrandt,  whose  '  Hundred  Guilder ' 
])rint  he  exhibited  at  the  Society  of  Artists 
in  Spring  Gardens  in  1776,  in  two  different 
states,  before  and  after  his  reworking  of  the 
original  plate  which  he  had  acquired  in  Hol- 
land. A  few  of  his  smaller  pieces  are  etched 
after  his  own  designs,  but  by  far  the  larger 
number  of  his  plates  are  executed  in  a  mixed 
manner  after  the  paintings  or  drawings  of 


eminent  masters  of  the  Dutch  and  I'lcmisli 
schools.  He  produced  upwards  of  a  hundred 
plates,  of  which  he  was  himself  the  pub- 
lisher, but  nearly  all  were  collected  and  issued 
in  two  folio  volumes  by  Alderman  Boydell 
in  1792,  and  reissued  in  1803.  Baillie  died 
at  Paddington,  22  Dec.  1810.  His  best  known 
works  are  his  restoration  of  Rembrandt's 
plate  of  *  Christ  healing  the  Sick,'  commonly 
called  the  *  Hundred  Guilder '  print ;  his  com- 
pletion in  mezzotint  of  Rembrandt's  own 
etching  of  Mesus  disputing  with  the  Doctors;' 
and  his  copies  of  the  same  master's  *  Three 
Trees '  and '  The  Gold  AVei^her.'  Besides  these 
may  be  mentioned  his  etchings  of  Rembrandt's 
*  Christ  and  the  Two  Disciples  at  Emmaus ' 
and  'Burial  of  Jacob'  (often  miscalled  the 
'  Entombment  of  Christ '),  Rubens's  '  Chri-st 
washing  the  Feet  of  the  Apostles,'  Van  den 
Eeckhout's  '  Susannah  and  the  Elders  before 
Daniel,'  Terborch's  equestrian  portrait  of 
William,  prince  of  Orange,  and  '  The  Sacri- 
fice of  Abraham  '  and  a  very  spirited  whole- 
length  figure  of  '  An  Officer '  from  his  own 
designs.  His  principal  works  in  mezzotint 
are  a  whole-length  portrait  of  James,  duke 
of  Monmouth,  after  Netscher  and  Wyck,  a 
half-length  of  Frans  Hals,  the  Dutch  painter, 
after  himself,  and  '  The  Piping  Boy,'  after 
Nathaniel  Hone.  He  also  etched  a  small 
head  of  himself,  and  engraved  in  stipple 
another  portrait  of  himself  after  Nathaniel 
Hone. 

[Somerset  House  Gazette,  1824,  i.  300;  Ottley's 
Notices  of  Engravers  and  their  Works,  1831 ; 
Meyer's  Kiinstler-Lexikon,  ii.  549-56;  Bryan's 
Dictionary  of  Painters  and  Engravers,  ed.  Graves, 
1884 ;  Redgrave's  Dictionary  of  Artists  of  the 
English  School,  1878;  Notes  and  Queries,  1st 
series,  xii.  186,  5th  series,  iii.  309;  Smith's 
British  Mezzotinto  Portraits,  1878,  i.  5-7.] 

E.  E.  G. 

BAILLIE,  WILLIAM  (d.  1782),  lieu- 
tenant-colonel in  the  East  India  Company's 
service,  was  one  of  Hyder  Ali'a  captives. 
The  biography  of  this  brave  but  unfortunate 
officer  presents  some  obscurity.  His  name, 
in  common  with  the  names  of  some  other 
officers  of  the  same  standing,  is  omitted  from 
Dodswell  and  Miles's  '  Lists  of  the  Indian 
Army  from  1760 ; '  but  records  in  the  India 
Office  show  that  he  entered  the  army  of  the 
East  India  Company  on  18  Oct.  1759  as  a 
lieutenant  in  the  infantry  at  Madras,  and 
that  the  dates  of  his  subsequent  commissions 
were  as  folloAVS :  brevet-captain  5  Sept.  1763, 
substantive  captain  2  April  1764,  major 
12  April  1772,  lieutenant-colonel  29  Dec. 
1775.  The  historian  AVilks  identifies  him 
with  the  Captain  Baillie  who  did  good  service 
as  commandant  of  one  of  the  three  '  English ' 


Baillie 


426 


Baily 


battalions  in  the  pay  of  the  company,  em- 
ployed under  Colonel  Joseph  Smith,  in  the 
operations  against  Hyder  Ali  in  1767-8 
( WiLKS,  Hist.  Sketches,  vol.  i.  and  index  to 
Avork).  He  was  in  command  at  Pondicherry 
during'  the  destruction  of  the  French  works 
there  in  1779  (Vibakt,  vol.  i.),  and  in  1780 
was  at  the  head  of  a  detached  force,  consisting 
of  two  companies  of  European  infantry,  two 
batteries  of  artillery,  and  live  battalions  of 
native  infantry,  in  the  Guntoor  Circars. 
When  Hyder  Ali,  with  an  army  of  100,000 
fighting  men,  swooped  down  on  the  Carnatic 
by  way  of  the  Changama  Pass  in  July  of  that 
year,  Baillie  was  ordered  to  unite  his  force 
with  the  army  collecting  near  Madras  under 
command  of  Lord  Macleod,  who  was  imme- 
diately afterwards  succeeded  by  Sir  Hector 
]Munro.  Moving  down  with  the  gigantic 
camp-following  then  customary,  and,  as  some 
writers  assert,  with  many  needless  delays, 
Baillie  drew  near  to  Madras,  defeating  a  di- 
"N'ision  of  the  enemy  under  Hyder's  son  Tip- 
poo,  which  attacked  him  on  the  march  near 
the  village  of  Perambaukum.  Thence  he  sent 
on  word  to  Munro,  who  was  encamped  at  Con- 
ieveram,  fourteen  miles  distant,  that  his  losses 
prevented  his  further  movement.  Munro 
appears  to  have  feared  having  his  stores  ex- 
posed at  Conjeveram,  and,  instead  of  bringing 
the  help  which  Baillie  expected,  merely  sent 
a  small  reinforcement  of  Highlanders  and 
sepoys  under  Colonel  Fletcher.  Indeed,  a 
want  of  judgment  and  energy  seems  to  have 
pervaded  the  measures  of  both  commanders, 
the  result  being  that  Baillie,  moving  forward 
from  Polilore  in  the  direction  of  Conjeveram, 
on  the  morning  of  10  Sept.  1780,  found  him- 
self assailed  by  Hyder  All's  entire  host.  In 
the  engagement  Avhich  ensued,  the  blowing- 
up  of  two  tumbrils  within  the  oblong  into 
which  Baillie  had  formed  his  troops,  followed 
by  a  general  stampede  of  camp-followers 
through  his  ranks,  produced  irretrievable  con- 
fusion. Despite  the  heroic  efforts  of  their 
officers,  the  sepoys,  panic-stricken,  could  not 
be  rallied  ;  but  the  Europeans,  to  the  number 
of  five  hundred,  got  together  in  square  under 
Colonel  Baillie,  who  Avas  on  foot,  and,  taking 
post  on  a  rising  bank  of  sand,  fought  with  a 
stubborn  determination  never  surpassed. 
Again  and  again  they  withstood  the  fierce 
charges  of  fresh  bodies  of  Hyder's  horse,  sup- 
ported by  masses  of  infantry  in  the  intervals, 
until  all  the  officers  lay  killed  or  wounded, 
and  but  sixteen  soldiers  out  of  the  five  hun- 
dred of  all  ranks  in  the  square  remained  un- 
hurt. The  surviA'ors,  including  such  of  the 
wounded  as  were  thought  worth  removal, 
were  SAvept  from  the  field  as  prisoners,  and 
carried  off  to    Seringapatam.     Among  the 


number  grievously  Avounded  Avas  Colonel 
Baillie,  Avhose  personal  courage  in  the  fight 
and  in  the  subsequent  captivity  Avas  admitted 
alike  by  friends  and  foes.  In  dungeons  at 
Seringapatam,  and  most  of  the  time  in  chains, 
the  prisoners  remained  until  1784,  when  the 
survivors  were  returned  to  Madras.  A  few 
among  them,  like  Captain  Baird,  73rd  (71st) 
Highlanders,  afterwards  General  Sir  D. 
Baird,  witnessed  the  day  of  retribution,  long 
deferred,  Avhen  the  fortress  fell  to  British 
arms  on  4  May  1799 ;  but  Colonel  Baillie 
was  not  of  the  number,  death  having  ended 
his  sufferings  in  captivity  on  13  Nov.  1782 
(Hook's  Life  of  Baird,  vol.  i.). 

[Information  supplied  by  India  Office  from 
(1)  MS.  Fort  St.  George  (Madras)  Ai-my  Lists, 
1759-82  ;  (2)  MS.  Army  List,  Avithout  date,  re- 
ceived from  Madras  in  October  1781.  In  the 
latter  Army  List  Colonel  William  Baillie  is 
shown  as  a  '  prisoner,'  and  in  the  Fort  St.  George 
List  for  November  1782  his  name  is  cancelled 
Avith  the  note  '  dead,'  Wilks's  Historical  Sketches 
S.  India,  vols.  i.  andii.  (Madras,  1869) ;  Vibart's 
History  of  Madras  Sappers  and  Miners,  vol.  i. 
(London,  1882).  For  details  of  the  disaster  of 
10  Sept.  1782  the  foUoAving  works  may  be  con- 
sulted :  Wilks's  Historical  Sketches,  Mill's  Hist, 
of  India,  vol.  iv.,and  Notes  and  Queries.  2ndser. 
vol.  xi. ;  and  for  particulars  of  the  captivity  and 
for  the  date  of  Colonel  Baillie's  death,  Avhich  is- 
not  specified  in  India  Office  Lists,  see  Hook's  Life 
of  Sir  D.  Baird,  vol.  i.  (London,  1832).] 

H.  M.  C. 

BAILY,  CHARLES  (1815-1878),  archi- 
tect and  archaeologist,  thii'd  son  of  William 
Baily,  of  71  Gracechurch  Street,  London, 
and  East  Duhvich  and  Standon,  Dorking,^ 
Surrey,  Avas  born  10  April  1815.  His  in- 
dependent architectural  Avork  included  the 
building  of  St.  John's  Church,  East  Dulwich, 
and  the  restoration  of  Barnard's  Inn  Hall,^ 
and  of  Leigh  Church  (with  neAV  toAver),  near 
Tunbridge,  Kent.  He  Avas  for  some  years 
principal  assistant  to  the  City  architect,  Lon- 
don, in  AA^hich  capacity  he  took  a  leading 
part  in  constructing  the  new  roofing  of  the 
Guildhall  and  in  the  building  of  the  Corpo- 
ration Library.  In  January  1844  Baily  was 
elected  a  fellow  of  the  Society  of  Antiquaries, 
and  was  also  a  prominent  member  of  various 
archaeological  societies.  To  the  fourth  vf)- 
lume  of  the  serial  published  by  the  Surrey 
Archaeological  Society  he  contributed  '  lie- 
marks  on  Timber  Houses,'  with  many  ad- 
mirable illustrations  by  himself.  Baily  was 
long  associated  Avith  Mr.  G.  R.  French  in 
the  production  of  the  noble  'Catalogue  of 
the  Antiquities  and  Works  of  Art  exhibited 
at  Ironmongers'  Hall,  London,  in  the  month 
of  May  18(31,'  2  vols,  4to,  1869,  and  was 


Baily 


427 


Baily 


master    of   the    Iroumouffers'    Companv    in 
1874-5.     lie  died  at  Keigato  2  Oct.  1878. 

[Infonnation  from  Mr.  W.  Baily  ;  City  Press, 
9  Oct.  1878  ;  Builder,  12  Oct.  1878.]      G.  Q. 

BAILY,  EDWAKD  IIOBGES  (1788- 
1867),  sculptor,  was  born  at  Bristol,  where 
his  father  was  known  as  a  skilful  carver 
of  figure-heads  for  ships.  He  was  sent  to 
a  grammar  school,  but  showed  the  common 
artistic  repugnance  to  the  regular  studies. 
Voung  Baily  would  carve  strauge  portraits 
of  his  schoolfellows,  and  showed  no  capacity 
for  ordinary  school  work.  At  fourteen  he 
entered  a  merchant's  office,  and  remained 
there  for  two  years.  During  this  time  he 
obtained  some  instruction  from  a  modeller 
in  wax,  and  greatly  improved  his  opportu- 
nity. Soon  he  forsook  commerce,  and  began 
taking  porti'aits  in  wax.  By  virtue  of  some 
studies  which  he  made  from  the  antique,  he 
obtained  a  fortunate  introduction  to  Flax- 
man,  in  whose  studio,  in  1807,  he  became  a 
jHipil,  and  there  he  remained  for  seven  years. 
In  1809  he  entered  the  Academy  schools, 
gaining  silver  and  gold  medals  in  quick  suc- 
cession. He  was  made  an  associate  in  1817. 
In  1818  he  executed  for  the  British  Literary 
Institution  the  beautiful  statue  which  esta- 
blished his  reputation,  'EA^e  at  the  Foun- 
tain.' In  1821  he  was  elected  a  full  member 
of  the  Royal  Academy.  From  this  time 
until  1858  he  was  a  busy  man,  and  a  con- 
stant exhibitor;  the  execution  of  porti'ait 
statues  and  busts  occupying  the  greatest 
share  of  his  attention.  In  the  region  of  ideal 
art  his  taste  led  him  rather  towards  domestic 
than  classical  subjects.  Xagler  gives  high 
])raise  to  a  representation,  m  high  relief, 
of  'Motherly  Love.'  Kindred  subjects,  the 
'  Mother  and  Child,' '  Group  of  Children,'  and 
the  like,  were  favourites  of  his,  and  were  often 
repeated.  Of  his  portrait  statues,  perhaps  the 
Ijest  known  are  his  Charles  James  Fox  and 
Lord  Mansfield  in  St.  Stephen's  Hall,  West- 
minster. He  had  among  his  sitters  many  dis- 
tinguished  men,  including  Stothard,  Fuseli, 
Ilaxman,  Byron,  Haydon,  and  the  Duke  of 
Wellington.  Of  his  connection  with  the  duke 
an  amusing  account  is  preserved  by  Haydon. 
It  shows  the  sculptor  to  have  been  at  once  a 
cool-headed  and  high-spirited  man.  Amongst 
l)urely  fanciful  subjects,  besides  those  already 
referred  to,  '  The  Graces,'  '  Eve  listening  to 
the  Voice,'  and  '  A  girl  preparing  for  the 
Bath '  may  be  mentioned.  In  1863  Baily, 
who  for  some  years  then  past  had  done  little, 
was  made  an  'honorary  retired  academician,' 
and  exhibited  no  more.  He  died  at  Ilolloway 
on  22  May  1867.  He  stands  high  in  his 
profession  as  an  artist,  but  was  not  careful 


enough  of  the  money  his  talent  procured, 
and  the  last  years  of  his  long  life  were  much 
embarrassed.  A  writer  in  the  '  Art  Journal ' 
(July  1867)  says :  '  The  years  of  his  prolonged 
life  were  actively  passed  in  upholding  the 
dignity  and  purity  of  his  art,  and  in  its  an- 
nals his  name  must  always  be  referred  to  as 
one  of  the  most  successful  and  accomplished 
British  sculptors  of  the  nineteenth  centurj-.* 

[Art  Journal,  1867  ;  Athenseum.  1  June  1867  ; 
Haydon's  Life  and  Letters,   3   vols.,  edited   by 
Tom    Taylor  ;    Nagler's   Kiinstler-Lexicon,   ed. 
j  1833  ;  Eedgrave's  Diet,  of  Eng.  School.] 

;  E.  E. 

BAILY,  FRANCIS  (1774-1844),  an  emi- 
nent astronomer,  was  the  third  son  of  Mr. 
[  Richard  Baily,  banker,  of  Newbury,  Berk- 
\  shire,  where  he  was   bom   28   April  1774. 
I  Placed  in  a  London  mercantile  house  at  the 
I  age  of  fourteen,  the  acquaintance  of  Priestley 
developed  his  native  taste  for  experimental 
1  inquiries.     But  though  known  amongst  his 
■  young  companions   as  the  'Philosopher  of 
Newbury,'  love   of   adventure  was   as  yet 
J  stronger  in  him  than  love  of  science,  and  his 
i  seven  years'  apprenticeship  had  no  sooner  ex- 
pired than  he  sailed   for  America  21  Oct. 
'  1795.     The  narrative  of  his  experiences  as  a 
traveller  is  contained  in  an  extremely  curious 
'  Journal  of  a  Tour  in  L'nsettled  Parts  of 
North  America  in  1796  and  1797,'  edited  by 
Professor  De  Morgan  in  1856,  twelve  years 
after  the  death  of  the  author.     They  include 
two  narrow  escapes  from  shipwreck,  a  voyage 
in  an  open  boat  down  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi 
from  Pittsburg  to  New  Orleans,  and  a  return 
journey  to  New  York  across  nearly  2,000 
miles  of  '  wilderness '  uninhabited  except  by 
Indians.     A   matrimonial   project,   vaguely 
indicated  in  connection  with  some  steps  to- 
Avards   naturalisation   and   permanent   resi- 
dence in  the  United  States,  proving  abortive, 
he  landed  at  Bristol  I  March  1798,  and  went 
home   to  Newbury.     The   roving  tendency, 
none  the  less,  was  still  strong  upon  him.     In 
May  1799  he  volunteered  to  travel  in  the 
service  of  the  African  Association,  having 
formed  a  plan  of  exploration  on  the  Niger, 
which,  he  informed  Sir  John  Stepney,  'he 
would  have  gone  through  any  trials'  to  carry 
out.     Funds,  however,  were  deficient ;  and 
after  some  futile  thoughts  of  a  commission 
in  the  engineers  or  militia,  he  accommodated 
himself  to   the  prosaic  destiny  of  a  stock- 
broker, entering  into  partnership,  about  the 
end   of  1799,  with  Mr.  Whitmore,  of  the 
London  Stock  Exchange. 

With  characteristic  thoroughness,  Baily 
now  engaged  in  commercial  pursuits.  He 
became  a  consummate  man  of  business,  earn- 


Baily 


428 


Eaily 


ing,  besides  a  considerable  fortune,  an  un- 
surpassed reputation  for  integrity  and  intelli- 
gence. His  complete  identification  with  bis 
profession  was  shown  in  a  pamphlet  defend- 
ing its  rights  against  the  encroachments  of 
the  city  of  London  in  1806,  as  well  as  by  the 
active  part  taken  by  him  in  the  exposure  of 
the  Berenger  fraud  in  1814.  To  his  sagacity 
in  preparing  the  evidence  the  success  of  the 
prosecution  was  considered  to  be  in  great 
measure,  if  not  wholly,  due ;  and  the  three 
reports  (printed  1814-15)  of  the  committee 
appointed  by  the  Stock  Exchange  to  investi- 
gate the  subject  were  drawn  up  by  him.  A 
series  of  remarkable  publications  meanwhile 
attested  his  varied  powers.  The  first  of  these 
was  entitled  '  Tables  for  the  Purchasing  and 
Renewing  of  Leases'  (1802,  2nd  ed.  1807, 
3rd  1812).  Its  success  encouraged  him  to 
pursue  the  subject  in  two  works  of  standard 
authority,  the  '  Doctrine  of  Interest  and  An- 
nuities analytically  investigated  and  ex- 
plained '  (1808),  and  the  '  Doctrine  of  Life- 
Annuities  and  Assurances  analytically  in- 
vestigated and  practically  explained  '  (1810), 
The  fourteenth  chapter  of  the  latter,  separately 
reprinted  with  the  title  '  An  Account  of  the 
several  Life- Assurance  Companies  established 
in  London,  containing  a  View  of  their  re- 
spective Merits  and  Advantages,'  was  greedily 
bought  up  in  two  editions  (1810  and  1811), 
and  the  treatise  itself  was  translated  into 
French  under  the  auspices  of  the  '  Oompagnie 
d'Assurances  G§n6rales  sur  la  Vie'  (1836). 
In  this  country  the  demand  was  such  that 
copies  sold  for  Al.  and  5/.,  and  the  price  of 
an  appendix  to  the  second  issue  (1813),  con- 
taining an  exposition  of  BaiTett's  mode  of 
computing  life-tables,  alone  rose  to  a  guinea. 
ITiis  scarcity  induced  a  fraudulent  reprint, 
succeeded  by  an  avowed  republication  in  1864 
(with  omission  of  the  fourteenth  chapter  and 
appendix),  under  the  care  of  Mr.  Filipowski. 
Baily's  merits  as  a  writer  on  life-contingen- 
cies were  undoubtedly  very  great.  The  sub- 
ject was  by  him  first  presented  in  a  symme- 
trical form  ;  a  uniform  system  of  notation  was 
introduced ;  and  to  a  perspicuous  and  com- 
prehensive view  of  the  labours  of  his  prede- 
cessors the  results  of  much  original  research 
were  added. 

His  divergence  into  a  new  field  was  marked 
by  the  publication,  in  1812,  of  '  A  New 
Chart  of  History,'  accompanied  by  a  '  De- 
scription ' — of  which  five  editions  were  sold 
in  three  years — exhibiting  the  chief  revolu- 
tions of  empire  during  the  historical  period. 
The  preparation  of  chronological  tables  for  an 
'Epitome  of  Universal  History'  (published 
1813  in  2  vols.  8vo)  led  to  his  first  essay  in 
astronomy.    A  paper  '  On  the  Solar  Eclipse 


which  is  said  to  have  been  predicted  by 
Thales,'  read  before  the  lloyal  Societv 
14  March  1811  (Phil.  Trans,  ci.  220),  proved 
him  a  skilled  computist ;  but  the  date  as- 
signed, 30  Sept.  610  B.C.,  was  shown  by  his 
own  appended  investigation  of  the  eclijjse  of 
Agathocles  (15  Aug.  310  B.C.)  to  be  insecure, 
and  was  corrected  by  Sir  George  Airy,  with 
the  aid  of  improved  lunar  tables,  to  28  May 
585  {Phil.  Trails,  cxliii.  193 ;  Mem.  R.  A.  S. 
xxvi.  139). 

His  interest  in  astronomical  subjects  hence- 
forth grew  and  developed.  lie  wrote  a 
pamphlet  in  1818  summoning  attention  to 
the  annular  eclipse  of  7  Sept.  1820,  which 
he  himself  observed  at  Kentish  Town  (Mem. 
R.  A.  S.  i.  135),  translated  in  1819  Cagnoli's 
'  Method  of  ascertaining  the  Figure  of  the 
Earth  by  means  of  Occultations  of  the  Fixed 
Stars,'  and  powerfully  helped  to  quicken 
astronomical  progress  in  England  by  his  fre- 
quent notices,  in  the  '  Philosophical  Maga- 
zine,' of  foreign  improvements  and  publica- 
tions. But  tbe  establishment  of  the  Astro- 
nomical Society  formed,  in  Sir  John  Herschel's 
words,  *  a  chief  and  deciding  epoch  in  his 
life.'  He  was  one  of  the  fourteen  who  met 
at  the  Freemasons'  Tavern  12  Jan.  1820,  and 
constituted  themselves  a  corporate  body  with 
that  title.  And  on  Baily,  as  its  acting 
secretary  during  the  first  three  years  of  its 
existence,  devolved  the  chief  labour  of  its 
organisation.  By  him  its  rules  were  framed, 
the  routine  of  its  business  fixed,  its  finances 
set  in  order.  He  was  a  member  of  every 
committee,  regulated  every  undertaking, 
guided  every  negotiation,  drew  up  nearly  every 
report.  By  his  judicious  action  the  society 
was,  in  1834,  put  in  possession  of  spacious 
apartments  in  Somerset  House,  and  on  the 
death  of  George  IV  raised  to  an  equal  foot- 
ing with  the  Royal  Society  on  the  visiting 
board  of  the  Royal  Observatory.  He  was 
four  times  elected  its  president  (for  terms  of 
two  years),  eleven  times  vice-president,  and 
invai'iably  sat  on  the  council. 

In  1825  Baily  retired  from  business,  pur- 
chased a  house  and  sycamore-shaded  garden 
at  37  Tavistock  Place,  and  devoted  himself 
wholly  to  astronomy.  He  was  then  fifty-one ; 
but  in  the  nineteen  years  remaining  to  him 
he  executed  labours  the  extent  and  value  of 
which  it  is  difficult,  in  a  brief  summary, 
adequately  to  describe.  Although  not  him- 
self an  habitual  observer,  the  scope  of  his 
efforts  was  directed  to  imparting  a  higher 
value  ^o  the  observations  of  others,  both  by 
connecting  them  with  the  past  and  by  assur- 
ing them  for  the  future.  His  revision  of 
star-catalogues  alone  entitled  him,  in  Sir 
John  Herschel's  opinion,  to  rank  amongst 


Baily 


429 


Baily 


t  lie  oreatest  benefactors  to  astronomy.  Those 
of  Ptolemy,  Ulugh  Beigh,  Tycho  Brahe, 
Ilallev,  and  Ilevelins,  corrected  with  vast 
expenditure  of  time  and  care,  and  famished 
each  Avith  a  valuable  preface,  were  printed  in 
1843  at  his  cost  as  vol.  xiii.  of  the  'Memoirs 
of  the  Royal  Astronomical  Society.'  That 
of  Tobias  Slayer  he  revised  from  the  oi'iginal 
observations,  the  publication  of  which  by  the 
Board  of  Longitude  he  had  procured  in  1826, 
tlie  result  forming  part  of  vol.  iv.  of  the  so- 
ciety's 'Memoirs,'  and  appearing  also  sepa- 
rately (1830).  A  comparison  of  most  of  its 
968  stars  with  their  places  as  given  by 
liradley  was  added,  besides  forty-five  supple- 
mentary stars. 

The  perusal,  in  1832,  of  Flamsteed's  auto- 
graph letters  to  his  ex-assistant,  Abraham 
Sharp,  lent  to  Baily  by  his  neighbour,  Mr. 
E.  Giles,  induced  him  to  examine  the  entire 
mass  of  his  manuscripts,  which  had  lain 
mouldering  for  sixty  years  in  the  library  at 
Greenwich.  He  soon  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  Flamsteed's  character,  both  personal  and 
scientific,  had  been  grievously  misrepresented, 
and  wrote  to  the  Duke  of  Sussex,  president 
of  the  board  of  visitors  of  the  Royal  Obser- 
vatory, suggesting  the  propriety  of  a  repub- 
lication of  the '  British  Catalogue,'  with  such 
selections  from  authentic  documents  as  might 
serve  to  rectify  pi'evalent  errors  in  regard  to 
the  conduct  and  motives  of  its  author.  The 
recommendation  was  adopted,  and  a  massive 
quarto  volume,  entitled  '  An  Account  of  the 
Ifev.  John  Flamsteed,  the  first  Astronomer 
Royal,'  was  issued  under  Baily's  care,  at  the 
public  expense,  in  1835.  This  remarkable 
production  threw  a  flood  of  light  on  Flam- 
steed's relations  with  his  contemporaries.  It 
included  several  autobiographical  fragments, 
foi'ming  a  tolerably  complete  whole,  a  vast 
mass  of  previously  unpublished  correspond- 
ence, besides  the  revised  and  annotated  cata- 
logue, reinforced  with  Miss  Herschel's  list  of 
56iinedited  stars  from  Flamsteed's  autograph 
entries  (previouslj"  arranged  by  Baily  in  order 
of  right  ascension,  Memoirs  Roy.  Astron.  Sac. 
iv.  129).  Baily's  historical  introduction,  pre- 
face to  the  catalogue,  and  appendix  (issued 
January  1837)  exhibited,  in  a  succinct  form, 
the  results  of  much  patient  and  profound 
research. 

The  reduction  of  the  catalogues  of  La- 
lande  and  Lacaille,  by  which  these  great 
stores  of  celestial  infonnation  were  first 
rendered  practically  available,  was  undei'- 
taken,  at  the  instance  of  Baily,  by  the  Bri- 
tish Association  in  1837-8.  In  1842  he  had 
accomplished  the  arduous  task  of  deducing 
the  mean  from  the  apparent  places  of  47,39(3 
stars  in  the  '  Ilistoire  Celeste.'     In  that  of 


seeing  both  works  through  the  press  (the  re- 
duction of  Lacaille's  9,766  southern  stars 
having  been  executed  by  Henderson)  he  was 
OA'ertaken  by  death.  Tlieir  publication  was, 
after  many  delays,  completed  in  1847,  the  cost 
of  reduction  being  deti-ayed  by  the  associa- 
tion, that  of  printing  by  the  government. 

Early  in  his  astronomical  career  Baily  be- 
came impressed  with  the  urgent  need  of  a 
remedy  for  the  prevalent  confusion  regarding 
the  corrections  for  aberration,  nutation,  »S:c., 
and  had  already  in  1822,  with  the  aid  of 
Gompertz,  devised  a  means  of  simplifying 
their  application,  when  No.  4  of  the  '  Astro- 
nomische  Nachrichten,'  containing  Bessel's 
similar  but  more  comprehensive  improve- 
ment, was  put  into  his  hands  (PMl.  Mag. 
ix.  281).  Discarding  without  a  murmur  his 
private  claims  as  an  inventor,  he  immediately 
proceeded  to  publish  and  recommend  the 
method  by  which  they  had  been  superseded. 
This  he  most  effectually  accomplished  in  the 
'  Astronomical  Society's  Catalogue '  of  2,881 
stars  (epoch  1  Jan.  1830),  accompanied  by 
tables  for  reduction  constructed  on  the  new 
system,  forming  a  boon  of  inestimable  value 
to  practical  astronomers.  It  was  printed  as 
an  appendix  to  the  second  volume  of  the 
society's  *  Memoirs  '  in  1827.  The  merit  of 
the  compilation  can  best  be  estimated  by  a 
reference  to  Sir  John  Herschel's  address  in 
pi'esenting  Baily  with  the  Astronomical  So- 
ciety's gold  medal,  11  April  1827  {Mem. 
JR.  A.  S.  iii.  123). 

The  same  principles  were  still  further  ex- 
tended in  the  '  Catalogue  of  the  British  As- 
sociation.' Not  only  the  number  of  stars 
was  increased  to  8,377  (reduced  to  1  Jan. 
1850),  but  proper  motions,  when  determi- 
nable, were  inserted,  with,  in  all  cases,  the 
secular  variation  of  the  annual  precessions 
(see  Baily's  preface).  Resolved  upon  at  the 
Liverpool  meeting  of  the  British  Association 
in  1837,  the  work  was  wholly  superintended 
by  Baily,  and  was  left  by  him  at  his  death 
almost  complete.  It  was  published  in  1845 
at  the  public  cost,  and  is  still  in  high  repute. 
Owing  to  the  deficiency  of  reliable  materials, 
however,  the  places  of  many  of  the  southern 
stars  included  in  it  were  found  defective,  and 
were  immediately  revised  by  Maclear  at  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope  (see,  for  his  list  of  cor- 
rections, Mem.  JR.  A.  S.  xx.  46).  The  value 
of  this  catalogue,  as  well  as  of  the  two 
others  compiled  under  the  same  authority 
(those  of  Lalande  and  Lacaille),  was  much 
enhanced  by  the  uniform  system  of  nomen- 
clature adopted  throughout.  This  material 
improvement  was  the  result  of  Baily's  severe 
labours  in  revising  the  boundaries  of  the 
constellations,  and  marshalling  into  recog- 


Baily 


430 


Baily 


nisable  order  the  stars  composing  them.  A 
paper  on  the  subject,  read  by  him  before  the 
Royal  Astronomical  Society  12  May  1843, 
Avas  appended  to  the  report  of  a  committee 
(consisting  of  Ilerschel,  "NVliewell,  and  Baily) 
appointed  by  the  British  Association  in  1840 
to  consider  the  subject  {^Report,  1844,  p.  34), 
and  was  also  I'eprinted  in  his  introduction  to 
the  '  Catalogue.' 

The  refoi'm  of  the  'Nautical  Almanac 'was 
another  of  the  benefits  derived  by  science  from 
his  zeal.  It  was  rendered  inevitable  by  his 
strictures  on  its  deficiencies  in  1819,  1822, 
and  1829,  and  the  admiralty  having,  on  the 
death  of  the  superintendent,  Dr.  Thomas 
Young,  10  May  1829,  submitted  the  matter 
to  the  Astronomical  Society,  Baily  formed 
one  of  the  deliberating  committee,  and  drew 
lip  the  report  upon  which  the  present  Natio- 
nal Ephemeris  was  modelled  {Mem.  R.  A.  S. 
iv.  449). 

In  view  of  Captain  Foster's  proposed  ex- 
pedition, Baily  devised,  in  1828,  a  simplified 
kind  of  convertible  pendulum  (described  in 
Phil.  Mag.  iv.  137),  of  which  two  specimens, 
of  iron  and  copper  respectively,  formed  part 
of  the  scientific  equipment  of  the  Chanti- 
cleer. The  accidental  death  of  her  com- 
mander (5  Feb.  1831)  threw  upon  him  the 
onerous  duty  of  digesting  and  completing 
(by  swinging  the  pendulums  in  London)  the 
numerous  observations  made  in  both  hemi- 
spheres ;  and  his  elaborate  and  admirable  re- 
port, presented  to  the  admiralty  and  ordered 
to  be  printed  at  the  government  expense,  filled 
the  entire  seventh  volume  of  the  '  Royal  As- 
tronomical Society's  Memoirs.'  The  general 
result  of  20,000  experiments  gave  1/289*48 
for  the  ellipticity  of  the  earth,  showing  a 
most  satisfactory  agreement  with  Sabine's 
of  1/288-40. 

Meanwhile  Baily  had  prosecuted  inde- 
pendently a  research  entitling  him  to  a  dis- 
tinguished share  of  merit  in  the  determina- 
tion of  the  length  of  the  seconds'  pendulum. 
Bessel  pointed  out  in  1828  i^Abhandlungen 
Xm.  Ak.  der  Wiss.  Berlin,  1826,  p.  32)  that, 
in  the  received  '  correction  for  buoyancy,'  no 
allowance  was  made  for  the  expenditure  of 
force  in  setting  the  particles  of  surrounding 
air  in  motion.  In  order  to  estimate  Avith 
precision  this  neglected  element  of  reduction, 
Baily  had  a  vacuum-apparatus  erected  in  his 
house,  and  there  carried  out,  in  1831-2,  a 
series  of  most  delicate  experiments  on  eighty- 
six  pendulums  of  every  variety  of  form  and 
material,  of  which  the  details  were  commu- 
nicated to  the  Royal  Society  31  May  1832 
{Phil.  Trans,  cxxii.  399).  It  appeared  thence 
that  the  value  of  the  new  correction,  Avhile 
varying  very  sensibly  with  the  shape  and 


size  of  the  pendulum,  Avas  in  many  cases 
more  than  double  the  old.  The  subject  of 
the  length  of  the  seconds  pendulum  led 
naturally  to  that  of  the  national  vmit  of 
length,  defined  by  act  5  George  IV  in  terms 
of  that  (as  it  had  now  proved)  uncertain 
quantity.  Baily  accordingly  obtained  in  1833 
from  tlie  Royal  Astronomical  Society  autho- 
rity to  construct  for  them  a  tubular  scale  of 
five  feet  (see  his  admirable  report,  Mem.  P. 
A.  S.  ix.  35),  the  accuracy  of  Avhich  had  been 
ascertained  by  repeated  comparisons  with 
the  standard  yard,  when  the  latter  was  iri-e- 
parably  injured  in  the  conflagration  of  the 
houses  of  parliament  16  Oct.  1834.  A  com- 
mission of  seven,  appointed  11  May  1838  to 
consider  the  best  means  of  replacing  it,  in- 
cluded him  amongst  its  members ;  and  to 
him  was  entrusted  in  1843,  by  the  unanimous 
desire  of  his  colleagues,  the  actual  recon- 
struction of  the  standards  of  length,  in  the 
preparatory  experiments  for  which  laborious 
task  he  was  arrested  by  fatal  illness. 

The  most  arduous  and  conspicuous  labour 
of  his  life  has  still  to  be  adverted  to.  This 
was  the  repetition  of  the  *  Cavendish  experi- 
ment '  for  measuring  the  density  of  the  earth. 
The  principle  of  this  research  depends  upon 
the  comparison  between  the  observed  attrac- 
tive effects  of  masses  of  ascertained  weight 
and  density  with  the  known  force  of  gravity 
at  the  earth's  surface ;  but  its  adequate  exe- 
cution is  attended  by  difficulties  of  the  most 
baftling  description.  A  remark  made  by  Pro- 
fessor De  ^Morgan  at  the  council-table  of  the 
Royal  Astronomical  Society  occasioned  tlie 
appointment,  in  1835,  of  a  committee  to  con- 
sider the  matter ;  but  no  progress  was  made; 
until  Baily  offered  his  services  in  1837,  and 
the  treasury-  granted  500/.  toAvards  expenses. 
The  operation,  conducted  in  an  upper  room 
of  his  house,  tAvelve  feet  square,  lasted  from 
October  1838  to  May  1842,  and  resulted  in 
esttablishing,  Avithin  narroAV  limits  of  error, 
that  our  globe  is  composed  of  materials,  on 
an  aA'erage,  5"66  times  as  heavy  as  water 
{Mem.  P.  A.  S.  xiA'.  table  vii.)  Neverthe- 
less, in  spite  of  precautions  incredibly  mi- 
nute, the  experiments  were  A'itiated  during 
eighteen  months  by  an  unknown  cause  of 
error.  Ultimate  success  seemed  scarcely  to 
be  hoped  for,  yet  Baily  resolved  to  persevere ; 
and  to  this  determination,  Lord  Wrottesley 
remarked  (Me7n.  P.  A.  S.  xv.  280),  it  is  due 
that  his  memoir  (occupying  the  entire  four- 
teenth volume  of  Mem.  P.  A.  S.)  '  is  hardly 
less  valuable  as  a  lesson  upon  the  nature  and 
use  of  the  torsion  pendulum  in  measuring 
small  forces  than  as  a  determination  of  the 
mean  density  of  the  earth.'  It  Avas  at  length 
suggested  by  Professor  Forbes  that  the  anoma- 


Baily 


431 


Baily 


lies  in  question  might  be  due  to  the  radiation 
of  heat  from  the  leaden  masses  employed  to 
deflect  the  pendulum,  and  proposed  gilding 
both  them  and  the  torsion-box.  The  remedy 
was  completely  successful ;  and  the  process 
begun  de  novo  in  January  1841  was  conducted 
to  a  successful  issue.  The  printed  observations 
niunbered  2,153  (besides  upwards  of  a  thou- 
sand rejected  as  untrustworthy),  varying  in 
duration  from  ten  to  thirty  minutes.  This  me- 
morable labour  was  rewarded  with  the  Royal 
Astronomical  Society's  gold  medal  (of  which 
Bailv  thus  for  the  second  time  became  the 
recipient)  10  Feb.  1843. 

The  few  noteworthy  observations  of  the 
heavens  made  by  Baily  referred,  singularly 
enough,  to  the  subject  of  his  first  astronomi- 
cal investigation.  On  15  3Iay  1836,  while 
watching  an  annular  eclipse  of  the  sun  at 
Inch  Bonney,  near  Jedburgh,  he  witnessed 
a  phenomenon  to  which  he  first  directed  ex- 
plicit attention,  and  which,  from  his  vivid 
description,  received  the  name  of  '  Baily's 
Beads.'  It  consists  in  the  breaking  up  of 
the  fine  solar  crescent  visible  at  the  beginning 
and  end  of  central  eclipses  into  a  row  of 
lucid  points,  the  intervals  separating  which 
at  times  appear  to  be  drawn  out,  as  the  moon 
advances,  into  dark  lines  or  belts ;  the  whole 
being  a  combined  effect  of  irradiation  and 
the  inequalities  of  the  moon's  edge.  Baily's 
naiTative  (Mem.  R.  A.  S.  x.  1)  excited  strong 
interest,  and  effectively  roused  astronomers 
to  the  importance  of  eclipses  under  their 
physical  aspect,  that  of  8  July  1842  being  at 
his  suggestion  prepared  for  with  this  view. 
Baily  observed  it  from  an  empty  room  in  the 
xmiversity  of  Pavia,  with  the  same  instru- 
ment (a  3|-foot  Dollond's  achromatic)  used 
at  Inch  Bonney.  The  '  beads '  were  less 
conspicuous  than  before  ;  but  he  was  (in  his 
own  words)  '  electrified  '  by  the  unexpected 
and  *  appalling '  splendour  of  the  corona, 
through  which  rose  three  vast  prominences 
resembling  the '  snowy  tops  of  Alpine  moun- 
tains when  coloured  by  the  rising  or  the  set- 
ting sun '  {Mem.  It.  A.  S.  xv.  6).  But  towards 
the  solution  of  the  magnificent  problem  thus 
presented  to  science  he  did  not  live  to  see 
any  advance  made. 

In  June  1841  he  was  knocked  down  by  a 
furious  rider  while  crossing  Wellington 
Street,  and  lay  for  a  week  senseless.  Never- 
theless, he  completely  recovered,  and  Avas 
able  to  resume  his  experiments  in  weighing 
the  earth  by  the  end  of  September.  It  was 
not  luitil  the  spring  of  1844  that  his  health, 
until  then  remarkably  stable,  finally  gave 
way,  although  he  rallied  sufficiently  to  attend 
commemoration  at  Oxford,  when  an  honorary 
■degi-ee   of  D.C.L.  (previously,  in    1835,  re- 


ceived from  the  university  of  Dublin)  was 
conferred  upon  him,  in  company  with  Airj' 
and  Struve.  Soon  after  his  return  to  I^on- 
don,  however,  an  internal  complaint  becamt! 
manifest,  and  he  sank  gradually  and  without 
pain,  expiring  30  Aug.  1844,  aged  70.  He 
was  at  the  time  president  ot  the  Royal 
Astronomical  Society. 

The  abilities  of  Francis  Baily  were  not  of 
the  highest  order.  As  a  mathematician  his 
range  was  a  limited  one.  He  never  mastered 
the  refinements  of  modern  analysis,  and  was 
frequently  indebted  to  the  aid  of  Professors 
Airy  and  De  Morgan  in  Avorking  out  his  in- 
vestigations. Nor  was  his  mind  visited  by 
any  of  the  luminous  inspirations  of  genius. 
Yet  his  life  presents  an  almost  luiique  ex- 
ample of  laborious  usefulness  to  science. 
More  than  to  any  single  individual,  the  rapid 
general  advance  of  practical  astronomy  in  the 
British  islands  was  due  to  him.  To  clear  dis- 
cernment of  the  precise  wants  of  his  time  he 
joined  untiring  activity  in  supplying  them. 
His  organising  energy  was  guided  by  a  tact 
which  rendered  it  irresistible.  Add  a  rare 
faculty  of  order  and  concentration,  with  a 
perfect  knowledge  of  and  complete  mastery 
over  his  powers,  and  the  sources  of  his  almost 
unparalleled  effectiveness  as  a  worker  become 
in  some  degree  apparent.  Besides  the  special 
tasks  executed  by  him  with  astonishing  tho- 
roughness, precision,  and  rapidity,  he  took  a 
leading  part  in  the  general  conduct  of  scien- 
tific aft'au's.  He  was  unfailing  at  the  annual 
visitation  of  the  Royal  Observatory  during 
twenty-seven  years.  He  succeeded  Babbage 
in  1839  as  permanent  trustee  of  the  British 
Association,  and  had  belonged  to  its  council 
for  two  years  previously.  He  aided  in  the 
foundation  (in  1830)  and  became  vice-pre- 
sident of  the  Geographical  Society,  acted, 
during  considerable  periods,  as  vice-president 
and  treasurer  of  the  Royal  Society,  generally 
held  a  seat  on  the  coimcil,  and  rarely  missed 
one  of  its  meetings  from  the  date  of  his  election 
as  fellow,22  Feb.  1821.  Scientific  distinctions 
were  showered  upon  him.  He  was  a  fellow 
of  the  Linnean  and  Geological  societies,  a 
corresponding  member  of  the  Institute  of 
France,  of  the  Academies  of  Berlin,  Naples, 
and  Palermo,  and  was  enrolled  on  the  lists  of 
the  American  and  Royal  Irish  Academies. 
Few  men  have  left  behind  them  so  enviable 
a  reputation.  He  was  gentle  as  well  as  just ; 
he  loved  and  sought  truth  ;  he  inspired  in  an 
equal  degree  respect  and  affection.  He  was 
never  married ;  and  his  sister,  Miss  Elizabeth 
Baily  (who  survived  him  fifteen  years),  su- 
perintended his  hospitable  establishment. 

[Sir  J.  Herschel,  in  Memoirs  II.  Astr.  Soc.  xv. 
311,  published  separately  under  the  title  Memoir 


Baily 


432 


Bain 


of  F.  Baily,  Esq.  (1845),  also  prefixed  to  tlie 
Joiu'iiiil  of  a  Tour,  with  a  list  of  Baily "s  writ- 
ings, ninety-one  in  number;  Month.  Not.  E. 
Astr.  Soe.  xiv.  112;  Abstracts  Phil.  Trans,  v. 
ii'Ii  ;  Peacock's  Address  Brit.  Ass.  1844,  xxxix. ; 
Dublin  Review,  xviii.  75  (De  Morgan  on  Repeti- 
tion of  Cavendish  Experiments).]     A.  M.  C. 

BAILY,  JOHN  WALKER  (1809-1873), 
archaeologist,  brother  of  Charles  Baily  [q.v.], 
was  born  9  Jan.  1809,  and  died  4  March 
1873.  He  was  head  of  the  firm  of  William 
Baily  &  Sons,  and  master  of  the  Iron- 
mongers'Company  in  1802-3.  He  is  chiefly 
known  to  archaeologists  as  having  formed 
an  important  collection  of  Romano-British 
and  mediaeval  remains  unearthed  by  excava- 
tions in  the  City  of  London  during  the  years 
1862-72.  This  collection  was  purchased  in 
1881  by  the  Corporation  of  London  for  their 
museum  of  City  antiquities.  In  the  same 
year  his  collection  of  arms  and  armour, 
formed  1835-45,  became  the  property  of  the 
Baron  de  Cosson,  of  Chertsey. 

[Information  from  Mr.  W.  Baily ;  Journal  of 
British  Archaeological  Association,  xxx.  349-51 ; 
Nicholl's  Hist,  of  the  Ironmongers'  Company, 
pp.  417  n.,  507.]  G.  G. 

BAILY,  THOMAS,  D.D.  (d.  1591), 
catholic  divine,  was  a  native  of  Yorkshire, 
and  studied  at  Clare  Hall,  Cambridge,  where 
he  proceeded  B.A.  in  1546.  Soon  afterwards 
he  became  a  fellow  of  that  house,  and  in 
1549  he  commenced  M.  A.  In  1554  he  served 
the  office  of  proctor,  and  in  the  following 
year  subscribed  the  Roman  catholic  articles. 
lie  was  appointed  master  of  Clare  Hall  pro- 
bably about  November  1557.  When  Queen 
Elizabeth  succeeded  to  the  throne,  he  refused 
to  comply  with  the  change  in  religion ;  and 
on  being  deprived  of  his  mastership  he  went 
to  Louvain,  where  he  was  admitted  D.D. 
He  remained  there  till  January  1576,  when 
he  removed  to  Douay  on  the  invitation  of 
Dr.  (afterwards  Cardinal)  Allen,  wlio  em- 
])loyed  him  in  the  government  of  the  English 
College,  both  at  Douay  and  Rheims.  In 
Allen's  absence  he  was  usually  appointed  re- 
gent of  the  college.  He  had  the  chief  hand 
in  managing  the  temporalities  of  the  college, 
while  Dr.  Bristow  regulated  the  schools,  and 
Dr.  Allen  himself  inspected  discipline.  Dodd 
remarks  that  '  the  college  was  veiy  pro- 
sperous under  this  triumvirate ;  but  as  a  na- 
tion quickly  finds  the  loss  of  a  zealous  and 
able  ministry,  so  it  happened  to  the  English 
College,  which,  upon  their  decease,  was  op- 
]»ressed  with  debts  and  divided  by  parties.' 
Dr.  Baily,  who  was  succeeded  in  the  Aice- 
presidency  of  the  college  by  Dr.  Worthington, 
became  a  prebendary  of  Cambray  when  Allen  , 


was  advanced  to  the  dignity  of  cardinal  in 
1587.     He  died  at  Douay  7  Oct.  1591. 

[Dodd's  Church  Hist.  ii.  46,  58,  382  ;  Diaries 
of  the  English  College,  Douay  (index,  under 
'  Bayley  ') ;  Letters  and  Memorials  of  Cardinal 
Allen  (index,  under  '  Bayly ') ;  Cooper's  Athense- 
Cantab,  ii.  108,  545;  Limb's  Collection  of  Letters, 
Statutes,  and  other  Documents,  175;  MS.  Addit. 
5863,  f.  135  6.]  T.  C. 

BAIN.     [See  also  Baine  and  Bayne.] 

BAIN,  ALEXANDER  (1810-1877),  the 
author  of  several  important  telegraphic  in- 
ventions, tlie  chief  of  which  was  the  auto- 
matic chemical  telegraph,  was  born  in  the 
parish  of  AVatten,  Caithness-shire.      After 
having  served  as  apprentice  to  a  clockmaktr 
at  Wick,  he  came  up  to  London  in  1837  as  a 
journeyman.    He  was  led,  by  lectures  which 
he  attended  at  the  Adelaide  Gallery,  to  apply 
electricity  to  tlie  working  of  clocks,  and  was 
one  of  the  first  to  devise  a  method  by  whicli  a 
number  of  clocks  could  be  worlced  electrically 
from  a  standard  time-keeper,  though  the  credit 
of  this  invention  is  claimed  by  Wheatstone 
as  well  as  by  Bain.     It  is  doubtful,  again, 
whether  he  was  the  inventor  of  the  first 
printing  telegraph,  as  this  too  is  disputed. 
In  both  cases  he  was  unquestionably  very 
early  in  the  field.     He  discovered  indepen- 
dently the  use  of  the  earth  circuit,  but  here 
he   was  certainly  anticipated  by  Steinheil. 
Electric  fire-alarms  and  sounding  apparatus 
were  also  among  his  inventions.     His  most 
important  invention  was  the  chemical  tele- 
graph of  1843  previously  mentioned.     This 
apparatus  could  be  worked  at  a  speed  hitherto 
impossible,  and  its  invention  certainly  en- 
titles Bain  to  the  credit  of  being  the  pioneer 
of  modern  high-speed  telegraphy.  It  is  stated 
that  the  rate  at  which  the  apparatus  was 
capable  of  working  Avas  discovei-ed  accident- 
ally, in  consequence  of  the   breaking  of  a 
spring  during  an  experiment.     The  machine 
ran  down,  but  the  message  was  nevertheless 
properly  received.     Perhaps  the  most  valu- 
able part  of  the  invention  consisted  in  the 
use  of  strips   of  perforated   paper   for   the 
transmission  of  the  message.     This  contri- 
vance was  long  after  adopted  by  WTieatstone, 
and  is  in  use  in  all  the  existing  high-speed 
systems  of  telegTaphy.   He  received  as  mucli 
as  7,000Z.  for  his  telegraphic  patents,  but  the 
money  was  wasted  in  litigation,  and  he  died 
a  poor   man.      Intemperance   was   another 
cause  of  his  non-success  in  life.     In  1873  he 
received  a  grant  from  the  Royal  Society  of 
150/.,  and  at  the  time  of  his  death  he  was 
supported  by  a  government  pension  of  80/. 
a  year. 

[In  1843  John  Finlaison  published  an  account 


Bainbridge 


433 


Bainbridge 


(if  Jiain's  I'liiims  to  tho  iiiveiitiou  of  electric  clocks 
ami  of  the  printing  telegraph,  A  description  of 
liis  chemical  telegraph  wa>f  given  in  a  paper  read 
bv  IJain  before  the  Society  of  Arts  in  186G  (Soc. 
of  Arts  Journ.  xiv.  138).]  II.  T.  W, 

BAINBRIDGE,  CIiIirST(  )P1IER  (1464:-^ 
-l.'')14),  arclibishop  of  York  and  cardinal, 
was  born  of  a  good  family  at  Hilton,  near 
V])pleby,  in  AVestmoreland.  He  is  said  to 
lia\  e  been  fifty  years  old  at  his  death  (Browx's 
J'enetian  Calendar,  ii.  450),  and  must  there- 
fore have  been  bom  about  1 464.  He  studied  at 
Queen's  College,  O.vford,  of  which  he  became 
provost  before  1495,  and  a  liberal  benefactor 
afterwards.  He  received  from  the  university 
the  degree  of  LL.D.  His  first  recorded  pro- 
notion  was  to  the  prebend  of  South  Grantham 
in  Salisbury,  which  he  resigned  in  February 
1485-6  for  that  of  Chardstock  in  the  same 
cathedral;  and  in  April  following  he  was 
made  prebendary  of  Ilorton,  also  in  Salisbiuy. 
( )n  26  Feb.  1495-6  he  received  the  prebend 
of  North  Kelsey  in  Lincoln  Cathedral,  which 
he  resigned  in  1500.  In  1497  he  was  made 
treasurer  of  St.  Paul's.  In  1501  he  was 
named  archdeacon  of  Surrey.  In  September 
1503  he  was  admitted  to  the  prebend  of 
Strensall  in  York  Cathedral,  and  on  21  Dec. 
in  the  same  year  he  was  installed  dean  of 
York.  In  1505  he  was  also  made  dean  of 
Windsor,  and  resigned  the  rectory  of  Aller 
in  the  diocese  of  Bath  and  Wells.  Mean- 
while he  had  been  appointed  master  of  the 
rolls  on  13  Xov.  1504,  and  held  the  office 
till  his  elevation  to  the  bishopric  of  Durham 
three  years  later.  He  was  nominated  to  that 
see  by  the  king,  and  had  the  temporalities 
restored  to  him  on  17  Nov.  1507,  but  he 
only  received  his  bulls  in  January  following 
(Gaikdxeb's  i¥(??Mor?«/.v  of  Henri/  VII,  106). 
So  rapidly,  however,  did  he  advance  in  the 
king's  favour  that  in  July,  only  six  months 
later,  he  was  talked  of  for  the  archbishopric 
of  York,  which  had  been  vacant  even  before 
his  promotion  to  Durham  {ibid.  125).  And 
the  rumour  proved  to  be  correct,  the  bull 
for  his  translation  being  dated  12  Sept.  1508. 
In  1509  he  was  seiit  by  Henry  VHI  as 
his  ambassador  to  the  pope,  and  arrived  at 
Home  on  24  Xov.  Just  at  this  time  Julius  II 
had  taken  alarm  at  the  invasion  of  Italy  by 
Louis  XII,  and  the  friendshi])  of  England 
was  of  special  importance  to  him.  He  de- 
parted from  Home  to  relieve  Bologna,  and 
was  nearly  taken  prisoner  in  the  war.  A 
faction  among  the  cardinals  in  the  interest 
of  France  ventured  to  summon  a  council  in 
opposition  to  him  at  Pisa.  Julius  opposed 
coimcil  to  council,  and  made  a  new  batch  of 
cardinals  at  Ravenna  to  counterbalance  the 
schismatics.    They  were  created  on  10  ^larch 

TOL.  II, 


1511,  and  Bainbridge  was  one  of  them.  The 
title  given  him  was  Cardinal  St.  Praxedis. 
But  the  first  duties  he  was  expected  to  per- 
form for  the  warlike  pontifi'  were  those  of  a 
general,  for  he  was  despatched  with  troops 
to  besiege  Ferrara.  The  pope  appointed  him 
legate,  but  gave  him  command  of  the  army 
as  well.  In  ( )ctober  of  the  sam(!  year  the 
pope  concluded  the  Holy  League  against 
France,  and  Henry  VIII  intimated  his  adhe- 
sion to  it  through  Bainbridge,  who  continued 
a  steadfast  enemy  to  France  to  his  dying  day. 
At  his  request  even  Leo  X,  who  succeeded 
Julius  in  the  papacy,  seems  to  have  been 
willing  to  invest  Ilenry  YIII  with  the  title 
of  Most  Christian  king,  which  Louis  had 
forfeited  by  raising  war  against  the  pope. 
But  the  peace  made  between  France  and 
England  in  1514  must  have  prevented  Henry's 
formal  acceptance  of  the  title.  Bainbridge 
died  on  14  July  in  that  year,  just  beftn-e  these 
negotiations  had  come  to  maturity.  He  had 
been  poisoned  by  a  chaplain  in  his  own  ser- 
vice named  Rinaldo  de  Modena.  The  man 
was  taken  and  thrown  into  the  castle  of  St. 
Angelo,  where  he  not  only  confessed  his 
crime,  but  stated  that  he  had  done  it  at  the 
instigation  of  Silvester  de  Giglis,  bishop  of 
Worcester,  the  resident  Enghsh  ambassador 
at  the  court  of  Rome,  who  regarded  Bain- 
bridge as  his  rival.  De  Giglis,  however,  who 
was  very  influential  at  Rome,  found  means 
to  get  him  to  retract  his  confession ;  after 
which  he  stabbed  himself  and  died  in  prison, 
Richard  Pace  and  John  Clerk,  the  cardinal's 
executors,  were  eager  to  prosecute  De  Giglis, 
but  he  maintained  that  the  priest  was  a 
madman  whom  he  had  dismissed  from  his 
own  service  some  years  before  in  England, 
and  his  defence  was  accepted  as  sufficient. 

Bainbridge  was  buried  at  the  English  hos- 
pital at  Rome,  since  called  the  English  Col- 
lege. He  is  said  to  have  been  a  man  of 
violent  temper.  His  own  secretary,  Pace, 
acknowledged  that  there  were  faults  in  his 
character — indeed,  that  he  had  some  positive 
vices  ;  but  declared  that  he  was  strong  in 
his  fidelity  to  the  king,  and  most  outspoken 
in  defence  of  Henry's  interests  at  Rome  when 
no  one  else  durst  utter  a  word.  His  epitaph 
is  quoted  in  Ciaconius  and  in  the  *  Bio- 
graphia  Britannica.'  He  has  been  confounded 
by  some  biographers  with  Christopher  Urs- 
wick,  almoner  to  Henry  VII,  who,  bearing 
the  same  christian  name,  was  his  prede- 
cessor in  several  of  his  numerous  church 
preferments  before  he  became  a  bishop. 

[Wood's  Athenae  Oxonienses,  ii.  702 ;  Bio- 
graphia  Britannica,  eel.  Kippis  (where  the  name 
appeal's  luider  the  rather  doubtful  form  of  Bam- 
bvidge) ;   Surtees'  Durham,  i,  Ixiv ;    Le  Neve's 

F   F 


Bainbridge 


434 


Bainbrigg 


Fasti ;       Baronius ;     Ciaconius ;     Calendar     of 
Henry  VIII,  vol.  i. ;  Venetian  Calendar,  vol.  ii.] 

J.  G. 

BAINBRIDGE,  JOHN,  M.D.  (1582- 
1643),  physician  and  astronomer,  son  of 
Robert  and  Anne  Bainbridge,  was  born  at 
Asliby-de-la-Zouch,  Leicestershire.  He  re- 
ceived liis  education  at  the  grammar  school 
of  this  little  town,  and  at  Emmanuel  College, 
Cambridge,  Avhere  his  kinsman,  Dr.  Joseph 
Hall,  afterwards  bishop  of  Norwich,  was  his 
tutor,  and  where  he  took  the  degrees  B.A. 
(1603),  M.A.  (1607),  and  M.D.  (1614).  For 
some  years  after  leaving  the  university  he 
kept  a  school  and  practised  medicine  at 
Ashby-de-la-Zouch,  occupying  what  little 
leisure  he  had  in  following  up  an  early  taste 
for  mathematics,  especially  astronomy.  He 
next  removed  to  London,  living  '  near  All- 
hallows  in  the  Wall,'  and  was  admitted  a 
licentiate  of  the  College  of  Physicians  (6  Nov. 
1618).  In  1619  Sir  Henry  Savile,  whose 
notice  he  had  attracted  by  publishing  an 
astronomical  description  of  the  comet  of  the 
previous  year,  appointed  him  to  the  Savilian 
professorship  which  he  had  just  founded  at 
Oxford,  and  Bainbridge  entered  INIerton  Col- 
lege as  a  master  commoner.  In  the  following 
year  he  was  incorporated  doctor  of  medicine 
at  Oxford,  and  in  1631  and  1635  was  respec- 
tively appointed  junior  and  senior  reader  of 
Linacre's  lecture.  With  the  view  to  pub- 
lishing correct  editions  of  the  Arabian  as- 
tronomers, in  accordance  with  the  statutes 
of  his  professorship,  at  the  age  of  forty  he 
began  the  study  of  Arabic.  Among  his 
friends  at  Oxford  was  Archbishop  Usher,  at 
whose  instance  he  wrote  the  treatise  '  Cani- 
cularia,'  and  to  whom  he  bequeathed  his  un- 
published works. 

Speaking  of  his  first  astronomical  publica- 
tions, the  writer  of  his  life  in  the  '  Biographia 
Britannica '  says  with  reason  that  Bainbridge 
seems  to  have  given  in  a  little  too  much  to 
the  vulgar  notion  of  comets  being  presages 
of  some  impending  calamity ;  but  it  is  only 
fair  to  add  that  he  must  have  quite  outgrown 
such  superstition,  for  the  year  before  his 
death  he  wrote  '  Antiprognosticon,'  in  which 
he  points  out  '  the  vanity  of  astrological 
predictions  grounded  upon  the  grand  con- 
junctions of  Saturn  and  Jupiter,'  which,  he 
says,  '  will  recur  in  almost  every  twenty 
years  agreeably  to  the  stated  laws  of  nature.' 
Bainbridge  died  at  his  house  opposite  to 
Merton  College  3  Nov.  1643,  and  his  body 
was  taken  to  the  public  schools  and  an  oration 
pronounced  over  it  by  the  university  orator. 
He  was  buried  near  the  altar  in  Merton 
College  Church,  where  there  is  a  monument 
and  a  long  Latin  epitaph  to  his  memory. 


Bainbridge's  published  works  are:  1,  '  An 
Astronomical  Description  of  the  Comet  of 
1618,'  London,  1619.  2.  '  Procli  Sphsera  et 
Ptolomsei  de  Hypothesibus  Planetarum,'  to 
which  was  added  Ptolemy's  '  Canon  Regno- 
rum,'  1620.  3.  '  Canicularia/  published  after 
his  death  by  Mr.  Greaves,  Oxford,  1648.  He 
left  a  number  of  manuscripts,  some  of  which 
have  been  preserved  with  those  of  Archbishop 
Usher  in  the  library  of  Trinity  College, 
Dublin.  These  include  astronomical,  ma- 
thematical, and  chronological  collections,  and 
calculations,  a  catalogue  of  his  mathematical 
instruments,  and  his  correspondence  with 
Savile,  Usher,  and  others. 

[Munk's  College  of  Physicians,  i.  175;  Smith's 
Vitae  quorand.  Erudit.  et  lUustr.  Virorum,  Lon- 
don, 1703  ;  Wood's  Athenae  (Bliss),  iii.  67  ; 
Biographia  Britannica;  Nichols's  Hist,  of  Lei- 
cestershire, vol.  iii.  pt.  ii.  p.  631 ;  Hist.  MSS. 
Com.  Eep.  iv.  594.]  P.  B.-A. 

BAINBRIGG,  or  BAYNBRIDGE,  RE- 
GINALD (1545-1606),  schoolmaster  and 
antiquary,  was  born,  probably  in  Westmore- 
land, about  1556.  He  matriculated  as  a 
sizar  of  Peterhouse,  Cambridge,  12  .Tune 
1573,  and  took  his  B.A.  degree  in  1576-7. 
In  1580  he  was  appointed  headmaster  of 
the  grammar  school  at  Appleby,  endowed 
by  Queen  Elizabeth  in  1574  (Carlisle's  Un- 
doived  Schools,  ii.  694),  and  combined  his 
school  work  with  antiquarian  and  archajolo- 
gical  research.  He  zealously  collected  all 
stones  bearing  ancient  inscriptions  in  the  three 
counties  of  Northumberland,  Cumberland, 
and  Westmoreland,  and  in  1602  he  built  a 
small  house  in  his  garden  for  their  preserva- 
tion. An  inscription  cut  in  one  of  its  walls 
stated  that  its  owner  had  been  teaching  at 
Appleby  for  twenty-two  years,  and  was  fifty- 
seven  years  old.  The  house,  with  its  contents, 
was  standing  till  the  close  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  but  the  collection  appears,  soon  after- 
wards, to  have  been  broken  up,  and  no  trace 
of  it  has  since  been  found.  Bainbrigg  sent 
copies  of  the  inscriptions  he  had  brought  to- 
gether to  William  Camden,  who  ])rinted 
them  in  his  '  Britannia,'  and  acknowledged 
his  indebtedness  to  'the  very  learned  Re- 
ginald Bainbrigg.'  Bainbrigg  died  in  1606. 
By  his  will  dated  11  May  in  that  year,  he 
bequeathed  his  household  furniture  and  a 
garden  to  succeeding  headmasters  of  the 
grammar  school,  and  the  annual  rental  of  a 
small  burgage,  amoimting  to  2s.  id.,  to  the 
head  boy  for  the  time  being,  provided  he 
wrote  a  copy  of  Latin  verses  in  praise  of 
himself  and  two  other  benefactors  of  the 
school.  Other  lands,  building  material,  and 
books  he  left  for  a  new  schoolhouse,  about 


Bainbrigg 


435 


Bainbrigg 


to  be  erected  when  he  died.  Among  the  | 
Cottonian  MSS.  at  the  Britisli  Museum  (Jul. 
F.  vi.)  are  the  following  papers  ascribed  to 
IJainbrigg:  1,  '  Account  of  Antiquities  in 
Northurabei'land,  Cumberland,  Westmore- 
land, and  Durham,  with  several  Roman 
inscriptions,  drawings  of  altars,  figures,  and 
descriptions  of  the  countrj''  (No.  162)  ;  2. '  Ge- 
nealogica  Gospatriciorum  et  Curwenorum' 
iNo.  163)  ;  3.  '  De  Baronibus  de  Kendala  et 
iamilia  de  Bruis '  (Xo.  164).  An  *  Inscription 
on  the  Picts"  wall  sent  by  Reginald  Bain- 
brigg to  ilr.  William  Camden  '  is  among  the 
Lansdowne  MSS.  (121 ,  art.  20).  Some  Latin 
elegiacs  on  the  death  of  Sir  Pliilip  Sidney, 
signed  *  R.  Banningus,'  in  the  '  Lacrim.ne 
Cantabrigienses' (1587),  have  been  attributed 
to  Bainbrigg. 

Another  REGi:!fALD  Bainbrigg, probably  an 
uncle  of  the  schoolma-ster  and  antiquary,  was 
born  at  Middleton,  Westmoreland,  about 
1489.  He  took  the  degree  of  B.A.  at  Cam- 
bridge in  1506,  of  M.A.  in  1509,  and  of 
B.D.  in  1526.  He  was  proctor  of  the  uni- 
versity in  1517,  instituted  to  the  rectory  of 
Downham  in  Essex  27  June  1525,  and  to  that 
of  Stamboume,  in  the  same  county,  1  Dec. 
1526,  and  became  shortly  afterwards  master 
of  Catherine  Hall,  Cambridge.  He  was  made 
vicar  of  Bricklesea,  Essex,  19  May  1530;  of 
•Steeple  Barmstead,  13  May  1532;  of  Great 
Oakley,  1 1  Jan.  1 537-8.  In  1537  he  was  ap- 
pointed to  a  prebend  stall  at  Wells.  He 
probably  died  in  1554-5  (Cooper's  Athena 
Cantab,  i.  124;  Newcovrt's  Diocese  of  Lon- 
don). 

[Cooper's  Athense  Cantab,  ii.  439  ;  Camden's 
Britannia,  ed.  Gough,  iii.  148,  157;  Charity 
•Commissioners'  Report  (1823),  ir.  638-9.] 

S.  L.  L. 

BAINBRIGG,  THOMAS  (f  1646), 
master  of  Christ's  College,  Cambridge,  was 
*  descended  out  of  the  North,'  and  was  not 
improbably  a  native  of  Kirkby-Lonsdale  in 
Westmoreland.  He  became  master  of  Christ's 
College  in  1620,  and  was  vice-chancellor  of 
the  university  in  1627.  Thomas  Baker,  the 
antiquarj-,  calls  Bainbrigg  '  a  severe  governor,' 
and  supposes  that  during  his  mastership  and 
by  his  authority  the  poet  Milton  was  either 
expelled  from  the  college  or  rusticated, 
whereby  he  missed  a  fellowship  to  which 
another  candidate  was  admitted  by  royal 
mandate,  '  a  circumstance,  as  is  supposed,  to- 
gether with  his  expulsion,  that  disgusted  him 
first  against  the  king,  clergy,  and  univer- 
sities.' Bainbrigg  Avas  a  benefactor  to  his 
college,  which  flourished  greatly  under  his 
government.  He  was  accounted  a  witty  man 
and  a  good  preacher,  and  a  funeral  sermon  by 


him,  on  16  Oct.  1620,  had  the  eliect  of  seri- 
ously awakening  the  famous  independent 
divine,  Dr.  Thomas  Goodwin,  who  was  origi- 
nally of  Christ's  College,  but  subsequently  be- 
came a  fellow  of  Catherine  Hull. 

Dr.  Burn  {Hist,  of  Westmoreland,  i.  258) 
states  that  Hawkin  Hall,  the  most  remarkable 
building  in  the  parish  of  Kirkby-Lonsdale, 
'was  built  by  Dr.  Christopher  Bainbridge, 
master  ofChrist's College  in  Cambridge,  in  tiie 
reign  of  King  Charles  I,  adding  t  hat  •'  Dr.  Bain- 
bridge was  born  at  this  place,  and  married  at 
sixty  years  of  age,  and  by  his  wife  had  nine- 
teen children.'  However  improbable  the 
latter  part  of  the  tale  is,  it  seems  of  a  piece 
with  the  whole  ;  for  the  name  of  the  master 
of  Christ's  College  was  not  Christopher,  but 
Thomas.  There  was  indeed  a  fellow  of  the 
college  named  Christopher  Bainbridge  at  that 
period,  and  it  is  just  possible  that  he  may  be 
the  person  meant.  The  stoiy  of  the  nineteen 
children  is  repeated  in  the  '  Critical  Review ' 
for  1778. 

The  master  of  Christ's  College  died  at  Cam- 
bridge in  September  1646,  and  was  buried  in 
the  parish  of  St.  Andrew  the  Great  on  the 
9th  of  that  month.  Duport  has  honoured 
him  with  a  Latin  epitaph, 

[MS.  Addit.  5821,  f.  67,  o863,  f.  78  ;  Prynne's 
Trjal  of  Abp.  Laud,  193 ;  Peck's  New  Memoirs  of 
Milton,  34,  35;  Masson's  Life  of  Milton  (1881), 
123  n.,  239  ;  Cambridge  Antiquarian  Communi- 
cations, ii.  154;  Critical  Eeview,  1778,  p.  258.] 

T.  C. 

BAINBRIGG,  BAMBRIDGE,  or  BEM- 
BRIDGE,  THOMAS,  D.D.  (1636-1703), 
protestant  controversialist,  son  of  Richard 
and  Rose  Bainbrigg,  was  born  at  Cambridge. 
He  was  educated  at  the  university  there, 
proceeded  B.A.  in  1654,  M.A.  in  1661,  was 
incorporated  M.A.  of  Oxford  in  1669,  became 
proctor  at  Cambridge  in  1678,  there  graduated 
D.D.  by  royal  mandate  in  1684,  and  held  for 
many  years  the  posts  of  fellow  and  vice-master 
of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge.  He  was  some- 
time vicar  of  Chesterton  and  subsequently 
rector  of  Orwell.  He  died  suddenly  at  Cam- 
bridge, and  was  buried  in  Trinity  College 
Chapel,  where  there  is  a  monument  to  his 
memory.  In  1687  he  published  'An  Answer  to 
a  Book'entitled  Reason  and  Authority,  or  the 
Motives  of  a  late  Protestant's  Reconciliation 
to  the  Catholick  Church,  together  with  a  brief 
account  of  Augustine  the  Monk,  and  conver- 
sion of  the  English.  In  a  letter  to  a  Friend.' 
The '  Letter '  does  not  bear  Bainbrigg's  name, 
but  is  generally  ascribed  to  him.  It  is  a 
courageous  and  pungent  onslaught  upon  tlie 
accredited  author  of '  Reason  and  Authority.' 
The  i)amphlet  assailed — an  attack  upon  Til- 

FF  2 


Bainbrigge 


436 


Bainbrigge 


lotson's  discourse  against  t  rails  ubst  an tiation 
— was  attributed  to  Joshua  Basset  [see  Bas- 
set, Joshua],  for  a  time  master  of  Sidney 
College.  Bainbrigg  thinks  that  '  it  is  a  gi-ief 
to  have  an  adversary  so  weak  and  yet  so 
confident.'  'He  names  Pope  Gregory  and 
Bede,'  he  adds, '  but  gives  not  any  ground  to 
think  that  ever  lie  has  read  over  Bede's  His- 
tory or  consulted  Pope  Gregory's  Epistles.' 

[Chethain  Society,  Popery  Tracts,  pt.  i. ; 
Cooper's  Annals  of  Cambridge ;  Gee's  Catalogue 
of  Discourses  against  Popery  ;  Bloomfield's  Col- 
lect. Cantabr. ;  Wood's  Fasti  Oxon. ;  Grrad. 
Cantabrig. ;  Dodd's  Church  History.] 

P.  B.  A. 

BAINBRIGGE,  Sir  PHILIP  (1786- 
1862),  lieutenant-general,  was  descended 
from  an  ancient  family  long  resident  in  the 
counties  of  Leicester  and  Derby.  He  was 
the  eldest  son  of  Lieutenant-colonel  Philip 
Bainbrigge,  of  Ashbourne,  Derbyshire,  and 
Rachel,  daughter  of  Peter  Dobree,  Esq.,  of 
Beauregard,  Guernsey,  and  was  born  in  Lon- 
don in  1786.  He  entered  the  navy  as  a  mid- 
shipman in  the  Caesar,  under  Admiral  Sir 
James  Saumarez,  in  1799,  but  left  it  from 
ill-health.  His  father,  who  served  under 
the  Duke  of  York  in  the  expedition  to  Hol- 
land, was  killed  in  the  attack  on  Egmont- 
op-Zoom  on  2  Oct.  1799,  and  the  next  year 
the  duke  appointed  young  Bainbrigge  to 
an  ensigncy  in  the  20th  regiment.  On 
13  Nov.  1800  he  became  a  lieutenant,  but 
being  then  only  fourteen  years  of  age,  he 
obtained  a  year's  leave,  which  he  spent  at 
Green's  military  academy  at  Deptford,  and 
joined  his  regiment  at  Malta  in  1801.  At 
the  peace  of  Amiens  his  regiment  was  re- 
duced and  he  was  placed  on  half-pay,  but 
was  brought  on  full  pay  into  the  7th  fusiliers. 
Returning  to  England  in  1803,  he  was  em- 
ployed in  obtaining  volunteers  from  the 
militia  to  form  the  2nd  battalion  of  the  7th, 
which  when  completed  Avas  removed  to  Col- 
chester. Here  the  troops  were  reviewed  by 
the  Duke  of  York,  and  LieutenantBainbrigge, 
who  by  his  zeal  and  diligence  had  given  much 
satisfaction,  was  gazetted,  on  17  Oct.  1805, 
to  a  company  in  the  18th  Royal  Irish,  and 
joined  the  1st  battalion  of  the  regiment  in 
the  West  Indies.  After  the  taking  of  Cura^oa 
from  the  Dutch  in  1807,  he  was  appointed 
inspector  of  fortifications  in  that  island, 
where  he  made  plans  of  the  forts  and  de- 
fences which  subsequently  recommended  him 
to  the  authorities  at  the  Horse  Guards.  He 
exchanged  into  the  93rd,  and,  returning  to 
England,  laid  his  plans  and  surveys  before 
the  Duke  of  York.  avIio  advised  him  to 
qualify  himself  for  the  staff'  by  studying  at 
the  senior  department  of  the  Royal  Military 


College  at  High  Wycombe.  He  entered  tlu' 
college  in  1809,  and  studied  so  diligently 
that  in  a  year  and  a  half  he  passed  his  ex- 
amination with  distinction.  AVhile  at  the 
college  he  invented  a  protracting  pocket 
sextant,  which  was  favourably  noticed  by 
the  board  of  examiners,  and  enabled  him  to 
make  surveys  with  remarkable  accuracy  and 
rapidity.  On  leaving  the  college  Captain 
Bainbrigge  was  appointed  deputy  assistant 
quartei-master-general  in  the  British  army  in 
Portugal.  On  arriving  at  Lord  Wellington's 
head-quarters  he  was  posted  to  the  fourth 
division,  commanded  by  Major-general  Cole, 
and  stationed  near  Torres  "\^edras,  and  was 
at  once  sent  to  examine  the  island  of  Lyceria, 
a  tract  of  flat  alluvial  land  in  the  Tagus,  to 
ascertain  whether  troops  could  cross  it.  He 
was  then  brought  to  headquarters,  where  for 
some  time  he  was  employed  in  sketching 
ground  and  reporting  on  positions  in  various 
directions,  which  exposed  him  to  the  risk  of 
capture  by  the  enemy  who  occupied  the 
country.  His  ability  was  acknowledged,  for 
in  a  letter  to  Marshal  Beresford,  dated  Car- 
taxo,  4  Jan.  1811,  Ijord  Wellington  said  he 
was  appointed  to  the  staff"  of  the  army  on 
account  of  the  ability  he  showed  at  High 
Wycombe. 

He  was  present  at  the  sieges  and  storming 
of  Ciudad  Rodrigo  and  Badajos.  As  soon 
as  Badajos  was  taken  he  was  ordered  to  join 
the  sixth  division,  under  Sir  II.  Clinton,  at 
Albuera,  and  take  charge  of  the  quarter- 
master-general's department.  On  the  advance 
of  the  army  into  Spain  in  1812,  Captain  Bain- 
brigge, who  had  examined  the  country  which 
was  to  become  the  scene  of  operations,  was 
brought  to  headquarters.  He  was  present 
at  the  siege  of  the  forts  of  Salamanca,  at  the 
affairs  of  Costillegos  and  Costrejon,  and  at 
the  crossing  of  the  Guarena,  his  duties  being 
to  carry  orders  and  make  sketches  of  the 
country  and  positions.  On  one  occasion, 
being  with  Lord  Wellington  on  high  ground 
on  the  right  bank  of  the  Tormes  watching 
the  enemy  crossing  the  river  at  Huerta,  his 
lordship  suddenly  told  him  to  ride  in  the 
direction  which  he  pointed  out  on  the  other 
side  of  the  Tormes,  to  examine  the  ground 
and  make  a  sketch  of  it.  He  accordingly 
rode  down  to  the  ford  of  Santa  Marta,  and 
crossing  over  to  the  ground  between  the  ford 
and  the  two  Arapile  hills,  a  distance  of  about 
three  miles,  made  his  sketch  Avhile  the  enemy's 
skirmishers  Avere  in  immediate  proximity,  and 
brought  back  a  plan  in  about  two  hours  and 
a  half.  It  was  on  part  of  this  ground  that  the 
battle  of  Salamanca  was  afterwards  fought. 
On  another  occasion  he  Avas  ordered  to  con- 
duct a  column  of  the  army  then  at  Pareda, 


Bainbrigge 


437 


Baine 


three  leagues  ort',  through  a  ditiicult  coiuitry 
and  ill  face  of  the  enemy  to  A'allesa.  lie 
did  so  successfully,  and  brought  the  column 
in  the  midst  of  the  night  safely  to  its  desti- 
nation. On  tlie  day  of  the  battle  of  Salamanca 
he  was  constantly  with  Lord  Wellington,  and 
at  a  critical  moment  he  carried  the  order  for 
the  advance  of  General  Leith's  division. 

After  this  decisive  victory  he  accompanied 
the  army  in  the  advance  to  Madrid,  and  from 
thence  to  Valladolid  and  Burgos.  lie  was 
present  at  part  of  the  siege  of  Burgos,  and 
soon  after  was  appointed  permanent  assistant 

?uartermaster-general  with  the  rank  of  major. 
n  the  retreat  from  Burgos  he  rendered  very 
important  services  through  his  knowledge  of 
the  country,  which  was  considered  of  so  much 
A'alue  that  Sir  II.  Clinton  asked  for  his  return 
to  the  sixth  division,  but  it  was  decided  that 
he  should  remain  at  headquarters.  ^lajor 
Bainbrigge  continued  to  hold  the  same  posi- 
tion till  the  end  of  the  war  in  1814,  and 
surveyed  and  sketched  the  country  through 
which  the  army  passed  till  it  entered  France. 
He  was  present  at  the  battles  of  Vittoria 
and  Pyrenees,  at  the  last  siege  of  San  Sebas- 
tian, and  at  the  battles  of  Nive  and  Toulouse. 
Kewards  and  distinctions  were  not  lavishly 
bestowed  in  those  days,  and,  as  ^lajor  Bain- 
brigge had  not  been  in  action  as  the  head  of 
his  department  with  a  division,  but  imder 
his  seniors  at  headquarters,  he  did  not  receive 
the  gold  medal,  and  could  not  become  a  com- 
panion of  the  Bath.  Through  some  strange 
omission  he  was  not  I'ecommended  for  brevet 
rank,  but  on  21  Jan.  1817  this  was  rectified, 
when  he  was  promoted  to  the  brevet  rank  of 
lieutenant-colonel. 

In  1815  he  applied  for  employment  abroad, 
and  joined  the  British  army  in  its  advance 
to  Paris.  When  he  returned  home  after  the 
peace,  lie  continued  to  hold  the  appointment 
of  pennanent  assistant  quartermaster-general 
until  1841,  when  he  was  made  deputy  quarter- 
master-general in  Dublin.  Having  attained 
the  rank  of  major-general,  9  Nov.  1846,  he 
was  appointed  by  the  Duke  of  Wellington 
to  the  command  of  the  Belfast  district.  In 
1852  the  duke  selected  him  to  command  the 
forces  in  the  island  of  Ceylon.  During  his 
stay  in  Ceylon  his  unremitting  exertions  for 
the  welfare  of  the  troops  under  his  command 
made  him  beloved  and  respected  by  all  classes, 
and  his  departure,  when  promoted  to  the  rank 
of  lieutenant-general  on  20  June  1854,  was 
much  regretted. 

In  1838  he  was  made  a  companion  of  the 
Bath,  and  subsequently  received  the  '  grant 
for  distinguished  service.'  On  31  March  1854 
he  was  appointed  colonel  of  the  26th  (Came- 
ronian)  regiment.     For  his  services  in  the 


;  Peninsula  he  received  tlje  war  medal  with 
j  seven  clasps,  and  on  31  March  1854  he  was 

created  a  knight  commander  of  the  Bath. 
I  In  his  military  career  he  showed  the  ad- 
I  vantage  of  scientific  knowledge,  and  much 
of  his  success  in  life  was  owing  to  his  diligent 
application  of  this  knowledge  in  the  field. 
His  talents  and  high  sense  of  duty  caused 
him  to  be  greatly  valued  as  an  officer,  and 
esteemed  by  all  who  knew  him.  He  died  at 
St.  Margaret's,  near  Titchfield,  Hants,  on 
20  Dec.  1862,  at  the  age  of  76. 

[Gent.  Miig.  1863,  xiv.  230;  United  Service 
Mag.  1863,  part  i.  p.  271  ;  Times,  29  Dec.  1862; 
Army  Lists  for  1801-4-6.]  A.  S,  B. 

BAINE,  .JAMES  (1710-1790),  one  of  the 
most  distinguished  ministers  of  the  second 
great  secession  from  the  church  of  Scotland 
which  took  the  name  of  '  the  Eelief  Church,' 
was  son  of  the  parish  minister  of  Bonhill, 
Dumbartonshire,  and  born  in  the  manse  there 
in  1710.     His  elementary  education  was  re- 
ceived at  the  parish  school.     He  afterwards 
proceeded  to  the  university  of  Glasgow.     He 
had  abrilliant  career  there  and  graduated  M.  A. 
Having  been  licensed  as  a  preacher  of  the 
gospel,  he  was  presented  by  the  Duke  of  Mon- 
trose to  the  church  of  Killearn,  the  parish 
adjoining  his  father's.    In  1756  he  was  trans- 
lated to  the  high  church  of  Paisley,  and  in 
1757  had  the  celebrated  Dr.  John  Wither- 
spoon  for  a  colleague.      From  the  outset  he 
was  ardent  in  support  of  evangelical  doctrine 
as  opposed  to  the  morality  which  came  to 
be  known  as  '  moderatism.'    So  early  as  1745, 
he  is  found  promoting  a  revival  of  religion 
in  the  west  of  Scotland.     In  the  general  as- 
sembly and  presbytery,  and  from  his  pulpit, 
he  stood  forth  as  a  zealous  defender  of  the 
church's  spiritual  freedom   and  against  all 
ecclesiastical   tyranny.     W^hen  the  general 
assembly  of  the  church  of  Scotland  in  1752 
deposed  Thomas  Gillespie  of  Carnock,  Baine 
pleaded  for  him.     Ultimately  circumstances 
detei'mined  him  to  join  Gillespie,  the  founder 
of  the  Relief  church.    He  therefore  resigned 
his  great  living   of  Paisley,  in  a  letter  to 
the  presbytery  of  date  10  Feb.  1766.    Called 
thereupon  '  to   the  bar  of  the  general  as- 
sembly,' he  made  a  masterly  statement  and 
vindication  of  himself  and  Gillespie.      He 
foresaw  the  issue,  viz,  that  he  was  declared 
to  be  no  longer  a  member  of  the  church  of 
Scotland.     He  published,  on  his  deposition, 
'  Memoirs  of  Modern  Church  Reformation, 
or  the  History   of  the   General  Assembly, 
1766,  with  a  Brief  Accoimt  and  Vindication 
of  the  Presbytery  of  Relief.'    This  rare  book 
takes  the  form  of  letters   to  a  ministerial 
friend.    His  sketches  of  the  '  moderates  '  are 


Baines 


438 


Baines 


in  the  vein  made  famous  later  by  ^^'itllerspoon. 
On  13  Feb.  1766,  he  was  inducted  into  the 
ministry  of  the  first  Relief  congreg'ation 
erected  in  Edinburgh — in  College  Street. 
He  was  soon  surrounded  by  a  vast  and 
devoted  body  of  adherents.  College  Street 
church  remains  one  of  the  largest  and  most 
important  of  the  now  United  Presbyterian 
churches.  Prior  to  his  deposition  and  in- 
duction— the  latter  of  which  was  conducted 
by  Thomas  Gillespie,  of  Camock  and  Dun- 
fermline— a  tradition  runs  that  he  and  his 
people  worshipped  in  Old  Greyfriars  under 
the  venerable  Dr.  John  Erskine,  and  sat 
down  together  at  the  sacrament  of  the 
Lord's  Supper  there. 

Baine  had  remarkable  popular  gifts,  and 
even  at  Killearn  his  musically  modulated 
voice  had  earned  for  him  the  name  of  the 

*  Swan  of  the  West.'  His  sermons  were  elo- 
quent and  convincing.  He  was  plain-spoken 
in  denunciation  of  the  vices  of  the  day.  He 
came  into  collision  Avith  Foote  in  1770  by 
preaching  and  publishing  a  sermon  entitled 

*  The  Theatre  Licentious  and  Perverted.' 
Foote's  memorable  ridicule  of  the  great  evan- 
gelist, George  "Whitfield,  stung  him.  John 
Kay,  the  caricaturist  portrait-taker,  intro- 
duced him  into  his  gallery.  In  1777  he  pub- 
lished a  volimie  of  sermons  of  fairly  repre- 
sentative character,  though,  as  is  frequently 
the  case,  it  is  very  evident  that  they  needed 
his  eye  and  voice  to  interpret  them.  He 
married  the  only  daughter  of  Dr.  Michael 
Potter,  professor  of  divinity  in  Glasgow  Uni- 
versity, and  son  of  Michael  Potter,  one  of 
the  martyrs  of  the  Bass  Rock.  By  her  he 
had  a  large  family,  and  representatives  re- 
main till  now  of  Aaried  distinction.  He  died 
on  17  Jan.  1790,  aged  eighty. 

[Struthers's  History  of  the  Eelief  Church ;  An- 
derson's Scottish  Nation.]  A.  B.  G. 

BAINES,  EDWARD  (1774-1848), 
journalist,  was  bom  at  Walton-le-Dale, 
Lancashire,  on  5  Feb.  1774,  his  father  being 
a  tradesman  of  Preston  in  that  county.  He 
was  sent  to  the  Preston  free  grammar  school 
at  eight  years  of  age,  and  apprenticed  at  six- 
teen to  a  printer  of  the  tOAvn.  He  gave 
some  promise  at  this  early  age  of  a  useful 
career  in  life.  Before  his  term  of  apprentice- 
ship was  expii'ed  an  arrangement  was  made 
for  completing  the  period  at  Leeds  in  the 
house  of  Messrs.  Binns  «fe  Brown,  printers 
and  booksellers,  and  proprietors  of  the  *  Leeds 
IMercury.'  Young  Baines  soon  won  the  con- 
fidence of  his  employers  and  of  his  new 
fellow-townsmen  by  painstaking  and  indus- 
trious habits,  and  by  his  uniformly  amiable 
disposition.     At  the  close  of  his  apprentice- 


ship he  started  in  business,  at  first  for  a  few 
months  with  a  someAvhat  unsatisfactory  part- 
ner, and  ultimately  on  his  OAvn  account.  In 
March  1801  he  became  the  proprietor  of  the 
'  Leeds  Mercury,'  Avhich  had  been  languish- 
ing for  several  years  past  in  the  hands  of  his 
fonner  employers.  Improved  management 
of  the  neAvspaper  resulted  in  a  steady  in- 
crease in  its  circulation,  and  it  soon  became 
recognised  as  the  leading  whiggish  paper  in 
Yorkshire.  At  Baines's  death,  in  1848,  the 
'  Leeds  Mercury '  had  for  many  years  ranked 
among  the  first  provincial  neAVspapers  of  the 
kingdom. 

Baines  was  now  becoming  a  prominent 
and  valued  citizen  of  his  adopted  toAvn.  He 
took  an  active  part  in  parochial  affairs,  pro- 
moted local  reforms,  and  largely  aided  in  the 
establishment  of  the  Leeds  Mechanics'  In- 
stitution and  similar  works  of  usefulness. 
At  the  period  of  the  elections  Avhich  ensued 
on  the  accession  of  George  IV  he  took  part 
in  county  politics,  and  the  columns  of  his 
newspaper  were  henceforth  steadily  dcA'Oted 
to  the  questions  of  catholic  emancipation, 
parliamentary  refomi,  and  the  other  AA'hig 
agitations  of  the  day.  During  the  period  of 
the  reform  bill  agitation  Baines  was  in  fre- 
quent consultation  and  correspondence  with 
leading  members  of  parliament  as  a  person 
of  wide  information  and  sound  judgment. 
With  all  his  activity  and  industry,  Baines 
found  the  time  also  to  indulge  a  fancy  for 
topographical  research.  He  produced,  in 
1823,  the  '  History,  Directory,  and  Gazetteer 
of  the  County  of  York,'  and  in  1825  a  simi- 
lar work  for  Lancashire.  Some  years  after- 
wards this  latter  Avork  was  expanded  into  a 
*  Histoiy  of  the  County  Palatine  and  Duchy 
of  Lancaster,'  published  in  4  vols.  4to, 
Another  praiseworthy  effort  of  Baines's  was 
the  reclamation  of  a  portion  of  Chat  Moss,. 
in  Lancasliire  ;  of  Avhich  he  liA'ed  to  see  a 
large  area  converted  into  a  fine  estate,. 
coA'ered  with  farms  and  plantations, 

Leeds  obtained  tAvo  members  upon  the 
passing  of  the  Reform  Act,  Macaulay  the 
historian  being  one  of  them.  Upon  Mac- 
aulay's  resignation  in  order  to  accept  his 
Indian  appointment,  Baines  was  almost 
unanimously  chosen  to  be  the  liberal  candi- 
date, and  in  the  result  Avas  elected  in  Fe- 
bruary 1834  by  a  small  majority  over  his 
conservative  opponent.  He  continued  ta 
represent  Leeds  in  parliament  until  failing 
health  compelled  him  to  retire  in  1841, 

Baines  was  immediately  welcomed  in  Lon- 
don society,  both  on  account  of  his  social 
qualities  and  his  untiring  efforts  to  fulfil  his 
ciA'ic  duties.  He  Avas  principally  involved  in 
questions  of  factory  legislation  and  the  abo- 


Baines 


439 


Baines 


lition  of  church  rates  and  of  civil  disabilities, 
and  gave  an  independent  hut  hearty  support 
to  the  Corn  Law  League.  He  was  a  good 
speaker,  and  enjoyed  much  personal  influence 
and  even  popularity.  His  retirement  from 
parliament  was  signalised  by  the  presentation 
of  a  testimonial  in  recognition  of  his  services. 
He  died  3  Aug.  1848,  a  public  funeral  being 
accorded  to  him. 

Baines  is  recollected  as  a  benevolent,  just, 
and  liberal-minded  man.  He  made  an  ex- 
cellent local  magistrate.  He  was  married  in 
1798  to  Charlotte,  daughter  of  Matthew 
Talbot,  currier,  of  Leeds,  by  whom  he  had 
eleven  children.  Of  these  more  than  one 
attained  distinction. 

Besides  the  works  already  mentioned, 
Baines  wrote  a  *  History  of  the  Wars  of  the 
French  Revolution  from  1792  to  1815 :  com- 
prehending the  civil  history  of  Great  Britain 
and  France  during  that  period,'  2  vols.  (1818), 
which  was  afterwards  extended,  and  became 
a  '  History  of  the  Reign  of  George  HI,'  in 
4  vols.  4to  (1823). 

[Life,  by  his  Son  ;  Leeds  Mercury,  5  and  12  Aug. 
1848;  Manchester  Guardian,  August  1848; 
Timperley's  Encyclopaedia  of  Printing,  p.  949.] 

E.  S. 

BAINES,  JOHN  (1787-1838),  mathema- 
tician, was  born  atWestfield  farmhouse  in  the 
parish  of  Horbuiy,  Yorkshire,  in  1787.  From 
his  boyhood  he  gave  proofs  of  a  strong 
mathematical  bias,  and  in  his  latter  years 
was  a  well-known  correspondent  of  the 
*  Ladies'  Diary,'  the  '  Gentleman's  Diary,'  the 
'  York  Miscellany,'  and  other  similar  perio- 
dicals, which  in  those  days  were  noted  for 
their  geometrical  and  algebraic  problems.  He 
died  at  Thornhill,  near  Wakefield,  Y'orkshu-e, 
on  1  May  1838,  where  for  nine  years  he  had 
been  master  of  the  grammar  school. 

Besides  many  mathematical  contributions 
to  the  above-named  periodicals,  nearly  all  of 
which  evince  considerable  talent,  we  find  on 
p.  24  of  the  '  Ladies'  Diary '  for  1833  an 
article  of  Baines  on  Cuvier's  '  Theory  of  the 
Earth,'  written  to  prove  that  it  is  a  confir- 
mation of  the  Mosaic  account.  From  the 
Latin  inscription  on  his  tombstone  in  Hor- 
bury  churchyard  he  appears  to  have  been 
also  skilled  in  Latin,  Greek,  and  natural 
science,  especially  botany,  '  in  herbis  decer- 
nendis  peritus.' 

[Private  iuforination  ;  Gentleman's  Diary  for 

1835,  pp.  33-46,  1836,  p.  48,  1837,  &c.,  and  pre- 
vious volumes ;  Ladies'  Diary  for  1833,  p.   24, 

1836,  p.  35, 1837,  pp.  15-47.]  E.  E.  A. 

BAINES,  MATTHE^A^  TALBOT  (1799- 
1 860),  politician,  was  the  eldest  son  of  Edward 


of 
He 


Baines,  of  Leeds,  author  of  the  '  History 
Lancashire,' and  was  born  17  Feb.  1799.  ] 
obtained  a  scholarship  at  Trinity  College, 
Cambridge,  and  graduated  in  1820  as  a  senior 
optime.  lie  was  called  to  the  bar  in  1825,  and, 
alter  practising  with  success  on  the  northern 
circuit,  was,  in  1837,  appointed  recorder  of 
Hull,  and  in  1841  became  a  queen's  counseL 
In  1847  he  entered  parliament  as  member 
for  Hull,  Avliich  he  continued  to  represent 
until  1852,  when  he  was  chosen  for  Leeds. 
Under  Lord  Russell's  administration  he  be- 
came, in  1849,  president  of  the  poor-law  board, 
and  he  held  the  same  appointment  in  Lord 
Aberdeen's  ministry.  After  Lord  Palmerston 
acceded  to  power  in  1855,  he  was  appointed 
chancellor  of  the  duchy  of  Lancaster,  with 
a  seat  in  the  cabinet.  Though  not  a  brilliant 
debater,  his  solid  talents  won  for  him  high, 
consideration,  and  his  firmness,  impartiality, 
and  special  knowledge  of  the  forms  of  th© 
house  pointed  him  out  as  a  probable  occu-« 
pant  of  the  speaker's  chair,  had  not  ill  health 
caused  his  retirement  from  public  life  in 
April  1859.     He  died  22  Jan.  1860. 

[Gent.  Mag.,   3rd  series,   viii.  302;  Annual 
Register,  cii.  386.]  T.  F.  H. 

BAINES,  PAUL.     [See  Baynes.] 

BAINES,  PETER  AUGUSTINE,  D.D. 

(1786-1843),  catholic  bishop,  was  born  on 
25  June  1786,  at  Pear  Tree  Farm,  within  the 
township  of  Kirkby,  near  Liverpool,  in  Lan- 
cashire. In  1798  Peter  Baines,  in  company 
with  three  brothers  named  John,  Edward, 
and  Vincent  Glover,  left  this  country  to 
study  for  the  church  at  the  English  Bene- 
dictine abbey  of  Lambspring,  in  the  king- 
dom of  Hanover.  He  remained  at  Lamb- 
spring  for  four  years  and  fi^e  months  as  an 
ecclesiastical  student  in  that  then  flourishing 
monastery  of  SS.  Adrian  and  Dionysius.  On 
6  April  1803  the  abbey  of  Lambspring  was 
seized,  and  its  territory,  some  twenty-six  miles 
in  circumference,  formally  occupied  by  the 
Prussian  government.  Students  and  monks 
had  to  scatter  back,  as  they  best  could,  to 
England.  Hospitality  was  opportunely  of- 
fered to  them  by  the  Rev.  John  Bolton, 
chaplain  of  Lady  Ann  Fairfax,  of  Gilling 
Castle,  in  the  West  Riding  of  Y'orkshire. 
Bolton  was  then  living  in  a  commodious 
presbytery  connected  with  a  mission  founded 
by  Lady  Ann  in  1780,  for  the  Benedictines, 
near  Y'ork,  at  Ampleforth,  in  the  parish  of 
Oswaldkirk.  There  the  newly  arrived  com- 
munity from  Lambspring  Avere  cordially  wel- 
comed, and  there  almost  immediately  after- 
wards they  inaugurated  the  now  well-known 
Benedictine  coUege  of  St.  Lawrence  at  Am- 
pleforth. 


Baines 


440 


Baines 


On  4  May  1808  Peter  Baines  reached  Am- 
pleforth,  and  before  that  month  was  out  had 
assumed  the  habit  of  a  Benedictine.  On 
8  June  1804  he  made  his  religious  profession, 
consecrating  himself  to  God  in  the  order  of 
St.  Benedict.  lie  was  ordained  subdeacon 
at  Durham  on  16  Sept.  1807  by  Bishop  Wil- 
liam Gibson,  the  Aicar  apostolic  of  the  north- 
ern district.  By  the  same  prelate,  two  years 
afterwards,  in  1809,  he  Avas  ordained  deacon 
at  Ushaw  College ;  and  in  the  following  year, 
in  the  old  chapel  at  Ampleforth,  was  anointed 
to  the  priesthood  by  Bishop  Thomas  Smith. 
Baines  was  employed  at  an  unusually  early 
age  as  a  teacher  at  Ampleforth.  After  more 
than  fourteen  years  in  this  post  he  was  se- 
lected as  the  one  best  qualified  to  undertake 
the  charge  of  the  mission  at  Bath,  where  he 
arrived  July  1817.  His  exceptional  gifts  then 
began  first  to  be  fully  recognised.  Conspicu- 
ous among  these  were  his  eloquence  as  a 
preacher,  his  vigour  as  a  controversialist,  and 
above  all,  the  charm  and  dignity  of  his  per- 
sonal bearing.  Six  years  afterwards  he  was 
raised  to  the  episcopal  dignity  as  the  coadju- 
tor to  Bishop  Collingi'idge.  He  Avas  ap- 
pointed coadjutor  bishop  by  propaganda  de- 
cree 13  Jan.,  and  approved  by  the  pope 
19  Jan.,  his  brief  being  dated  4  Feb.  1823. 
On  1  May  1823,  in  Townshend  Street  chapel, 
Dublin,  he  was  consecrated  bishop  of  Siga,  in 
Mauritania,  by  Archbishop  Murray,  assisted 
by  Bishop  James  Doyle,  and  by  Dr.  Edmund 
French,  the  Avarden  of  Gahvay. 

Three  years  having  elapsed  since  the  time 
of  his  episcopal  consecration.  Bishop  Baines 
fell  into  such  serious  ill-health  that  he  made 
a  tour  on  the  continent.  During  a  long  stay 
in  Rome  he  became  a  great  faA'ourite  of  the 
then  pontiff',  Leo  XH.  His  arrival  in  Rome 
Avas  in  the  winter  of  1826,  his  illness  at  the 
time  being  of  a  most  critical  character. 
Loitering  as  a  A'isitor  during  the  summer  of 
1827  betAveen  Assisi  and  Porto  Fermo,  his 
enfeebled  constitution  AA^as  at  length  re-esta- 
blished by  the  climate  and  by  repose.  The 
reputation  acquired  by  him  in  England  gi-CAV 
rapidly  at  Rome.  Leo  XII,  not  long  before, 
had  opened  the  pulpit  of  the  Gesu,  in  the 
Corso,  to  a  succession  of  English  preachers. 
The  church,  AA'hich  had  been  comparatiAelj^ 
empty,  was  croAA'ded  to  excess  AvheneAer 
Bishop  Baines  Avas  announced.  Cardinal 
Wiseman,  AA-here  he  describes  the  effect  of 
these  discourses  in  his  *  Recollections  of  the 
Ijast  Four  Popes  '  (p.  206),  speaks  of  the  easy 
and  copious  Aoaa'  of  his  words,  the  elegance 
of  his  imagery,  and  the  solidity  of  his  argu- 
ments, and  adds  that  Bishop  Baines's  great 
poAver  AA^as  in  his  deliAery,  in  Aoice,  in  tone, 
in  look,  and  gesture.     '  His  Avhole  manner,' 


he  remarks,  '  Avas  full  of  pathos  ;  there  Avas 
a  peculiar  tremulousness  of  voice  which  gave 
his  words  more  than  double  effect,  notAvith- 
standing  the  draAvback  of  a  provincial  accent 
and  occasional  dramatic  pronunciations.'  And 
Cardinal  Wiseman  states,  on  the  authority  of 
Monsignore  Nicolai,  Avho  had  receiAed  the 
assurance  from  the  lips  of  the  pontift",  that 
Baines  '  was  the  person  destined  in  the  mind 
of  Leo  to  be  the  first  English  cardinal.'  Quite 
unexpectedly,  hoAVCAer,  the  Avhole  project  fell 
through  at  the  last  moment,  OAving  to  the 
illness  and  death  of  Leo  XII  on  10  Feb. 
1829. 

Bishop  Collingridge,  to  whom  Baines  had 
hitherto  acted  as  coadjutor,  but  of  Avhom  he 
was  now  of  right  the  successor,  died  on 
3  March  1829.  So  soon  as  he  could  arrange 
his  affairs.  Bishop  Baines  hastened  back  from 
Rome  to  England  to  assume  his  responsi- 
bility as  the  A'icar  apostolic  of  the  Avestern 
district.  During  the  previous  year  (1828) 
he  had  been  appointed  by  Leo  XII  domestic 
prelate  of  his  holiness  and  assistant  at  the 
pontifical  throne.  He  now,  in  the  spring  of 
1829,  obtained  permission  from  Pius  VIII  to 
become  secularised,  having  by  that  time  been 
no  less  than  fiAe-and-twenty  years  a  Bene- 
dictine. Before  the  year  Avas  out,  in  the  De- 
cember of  1829,  he  had  secured  to  himself 
the  realisation  of  the  noblest  day-dream  of 
his  life  by  completing  the  purchase  of  Prior 
Park.  The  property  Avhich  then  passed  into 
his  hands  consisted  of  a  stately  mansion, 
erected  at  about  the  middle  of  the  last  cen- 
tury by  Ralph  Allen  [see  Allex,  Ralph], 
surrounded  by  nearly  200  acres  of  land. 
On  its  coming  into  the  possession  of  Bishop 
Baines,  the  tAA^o  AA'ings,  attached  to  the  central 
structure  by  open  corridors,  Avere  replaced  by 
tAVO  noble  colleges,  one  of  which,  St.  Peter's, 
was  set  apart  for  lay,  and  the  other,  St.  Paul's, 
for  ecclesiastical  students.  Although  in  the 
carrying  out  of  this  great  enterprise  the  date 
of  the  foundation  Avas  nominally  1  May  1830, 
it  was  not  vmtil  the  July  of  that  year  that  it 
was  formally  opened.  Its  success  after  a  little 
time  AA'as  commensurate  eA^en  AA'ith  the  san- 
guine anticipations  of  its  originator.  A  dis- 
astrous fire  destroyed  the  centre  building, 
Avith  the  exception  of  its  four  AA-alls  and  its 
superb  Corinthian  portico,  on  30  May  1836. 
From  that  time  until  the  close  of  his  life 
Bishop  Baines  had  to  contend,  as  he  heroi- 
cally did  to  the  very  last,  with  an  ever  in- 
creasing load  of  anxieties.  Death  came  to 
him  in  the  end  Avith  startling  suddenness. 
On  5  July  1843  he  assisted  pontifically  at 
the  opening,  on  the  quay  at  Bristol,  of  St. 
Clary's  Church,  then  recently  ])urchased  from 
the  Irvingites.      Having  returned  to  Prior 


Baines 


441 


Baines 


Purk  towards  evening  in  apparenth'  his  usual 
health,  he  was  found  dead  in  his  bed  early 
on  the  following  morning  by  his  man-ser- 
vant. An  apoplectic  stroke  was  the  imme- 
diate cause  of  death,  but  more  than  a  year 
previously,  early  in  the  March  of  1842,  he 
had  liad  a  paralytic  seizure.  His  funeral  ob- 
sequies took  place  on  13  July  1843.  At  the 
lying-in-state,  upwards  of  13,000  persons 
passed  round  the  catafalque.  His  remains, 
temporarily  deposited  at  Prior  Park,  were  a 
few  years  afterwards  removed  to  St.  Gregory's 
College,  Downside. 

Bishop  Baines  was  the  author  of  numerous 
controversial  wTitings,  sermons,  lectures,  and 
pastorals. 

[  Four  boxes  of  inaniiscripts  (in  the  handwriting 
of  Bishop  Baines  and  of  Mousignor  Thomas 
Brindle,  the  first  President  of  the  Colleges  of  SS. 
Peter  and  Paul)  preserved  among  the  archives 
of  Prior  Park,  have  been  Ciirefully  examined  for 
the  authentication  of  facts  in  this  memoir.  Be- 
yond this,  reference  may  be  made  to  the  following 
authorities:  Corrispondenza  fra  S.E.K.  Wilmot 
Horton,  Membro  del  Parlamento  e  Consigliere 
Private  di  sua  Maesta  Britannica,  c  Monsig.  Pietro 
A.  Baines,  Vescovo  di  Siga,  Coadj.  Vic.  Apost. 
nel  iJistretto  occidentale  d'lnghilterra,  Prelato 
Domestico  a  sua  Santita,  ed  Assistente  al  soglio 
Pontificio,  Eoma,  1829,  con  licenza  dc'  Superiori ; 
Memorial  Notice  in  the  Weekly  and  Monthly  Or- 
thodox Journal  of  June  1849  ;  l)r.  George  Oliver's 
Collect  ions  illustrating  the  History  of  the  Catholic 
Religion  in  the  counties  of  Cornwall,  &c.,  8vo, 
1857i  pp.  233-6  ;  Cardinal  AViseman's  Recollec- 
tions of  tlie  Last  Four  Popes  and  of  Rome  in 
their  Time,  8vo,  1858,  part  ii.  chap.  vii. ;  W. 
Maziere  Brady's  Episcopal  Succession  in  England, 
Scotland,  and  Ireland,  A.D.  1400  to  1875,  8vo, 
Rome,  1877,  pp.  312-18  and  327-9.]       C,  K. 

BAINES,  ROGER.    [See  Baynes.] 

BAINES,  Sir  THOMAS,  M.D.  (1622- 
1680),  the  lifelong  companion  of  Sir  John 
Finch,  M.D.,  was  born  about  1622.  He 
was  educated  at  Christ  College,  Cambridge, 
under  the  tuition  of  Henry  More,  and  took 
the  degi-ee  of  B.A.  in  1642,  and  M.A.  in 
1649.  An  accident  brought  him  under  the 
notice  of  John  Finch,  then  at  the  same  college, 
and  from  this  time  they  became  inseparable 
friends.  Having  accompanied  Finch  to  Italy, 
Baines  was  created  doctor  of  physic  at  Pa- 
dua, and  he  received  the  same  degree  from 
Cambridge  on  his  return  to  England  in 
1 660.  ()n  8  ^larch  of  the  same  year  he  was 
chosen  Gresham  pi'ofessor  of  music,  and  in 
May  he  was  elected,  along  with  Sir  John 
Finch,  a  fellow  extraordinary  of  the  College 
of  Physicians,  London.  From  1664  to  1670 
he  was  at  Florence,  where  Finch  was  am- 
bassador.    On  his  appointment,  in  1672,  to 


accompany  Sir  Jolni  Finch  to  Tuscany,  in  the 
character  of  physician,  lie  received  the  honour 
of  knighthood.  Some  years  afterwards  he 
was  transferred,  along  with  Finch,  to  Con- 
stantinople. He  made  arrangements  for  dis- 
charging his  professoi-ial  duties  by  deputy, 
but,  on  account  of  his  prolonged  absence,  he 
was  deprived  of  the  chair  before  the  news  of 
his  death,  at  Constantinople,  5  Sept.  1680, 
reached  England.  His  remains  were  em- 
balmed by  Sir  John  Finch,  wlio  brought 
them  to  England  on  his  return  tliither,  and 
deposited  them  in  the  chapel  of  Christ's  Col- 
lege, Cambridge.  Finch  died  sliortly  after- 
wards, and  was  buried  in  the  same  grave, 
above  which  there  is  an  epitaph  in  Latin 
to  their  joint  memories  by  Henry  More. 

[Hutchinson's  Biographia  Medica,  i.  62-3 ; 
AVard's  Gresham  Professors,  227-232 ;  Munk's 
Roll  of  the  College  of  Physicians,  i.  301-2,] 

T.  F.  H. 

BAINES,  THOMAS  (1822-1875),  artist 
and  African  explorer,  was  born  in  1822  at  '^' 
King's  Lynn,  where  his  father  was  the 
master  of  a  small  vessel.  After  learning  he- 
raldic painting  with  a  coach-builder,  his  love 
of  travel  led  him  to  Cape  Colony,  where  he 
an-ived  in  1842.  From  1848  to  1851  he  ac- 
companied the  British  army  in  the  Kafir  war 
as  artist,  and  in  1855  joined  an  expedition 
which  was  appointed  under  Mr.  A.  Gregory 
to  explore  North-west  Australia.  His  energy 
and  skill  during  this  appointment  secured  for 
him  the  special  thanks  of  the  colonial  govern- 
ment, and  in  1858,  at  the  recommendation 
of  the  Royal  Geographical  Society,  he  was 
a])])ointed  artist  to  the  Zambesi  expedition 
under  Livingstone,  whom  he  accompanied 
as  far  as  Tete  in  the  Portuguese  territory. 
In  1861  he  joined  Chapman  in  his  expedition 
from  the  south-west  coast  to  the  Victoria 
Falls,  when,  besides  making  a  complete 
route  survey,  and  collecting  much  infonna- 
tion  for  the  naturalist  and  man  of  science, 
he  made  a  large  number  of  sketches  and 
paintings.  His  drawings  of  the  Victoria 
Falls,  reproduced  in  coloured  lithograplis, 
form  a  handsome  folio  published  in  1865. 
Remaining  in  England  till  1868,  he  then 
started  in  chai-ge  of  an  expedition  to  explore 
the  gold-fields  of  the  Tati.  He  mapped  and 
wrote  a  valuable  description  of  the  route 
thither  from  the  capital  of  the  Transvaal 
republic.  His  last  journey  was  amongst  the 
Kafirs,  everywhere  carefully  laying  down 
his  routes  and  making  sketches  of  the 
scenery  and  people.  On  8  May  1876  he 
died  of  dys(>ntery  at  Durban,  Natal,  when 
preparing  to  explore  the  country  north  of 
the  Tati. 


Baines 


442 


Baird 


[Journal  of  K.  Geog.  80c.  xlvi.  cxli,  &e.,  also 
xli.  100  ;  T.  Baines's  Gold  Eegions  of  S.E,  Africa, 
and  his  Explorations  in  S,AV.  Africa.  To  the 
latter  a  biographical  sketch  is  prefixed  by  Mr. 
H.  Hall,  F.II.(t.S.  ;  and  a  French  translation  of 
the  work  by  M.  Belin  de  Launay  was  published 
in  Paris  in  1868.]  E.  E.  A. 

BAINES,  THOMAS  (1806-1881),  jour- 
nalist and  local  historian,  the  third  son  of 
the  late  Edward  Baines,  M.P.,  was  bom 
at  Leeds  in  1806.  In  1829  he  settled  in 
Liverpool  as  editor  of  the  '  Liverpool  Times  ' 
newspaper,  and  for  thirty  years  was  an 
active  promoter  of  liberal  interests  in  Lan- 
cashire. In  1852  he  published  a  valuable 
history  of  the  commerce  and  town  of  Liver- 
pool, and  in  1 867  '  Lancashire  and  Cheshire 
Past  and  Present,'  having  in  1859  settled  in 
London  at  the  Liverpool  Office  as  a  parlia- 
mentary agent.  His  last  work,  '  Yorkshire 
Past  and  Present,'  was  published  in  1875;  and 
on  31  Oct.  1881,  he  died  at  his  residence,  Sea- 
forth  Hall,  near  Livei-pool.  Two  minor  books 
of  his  were  '  Agricultural  Resources  of  Great 
Britain  and  tlie  Colonies,'  and  '  Observations 
on  the  River  Plate.'  His  county  histories  are 
characterised  by  fulness  of  details,  clearness 
of  statement,  and  orderly  arrangement. 

[Leeds  Mercury,  2  Nov.  1881.]         E.  E,  A. 

BAINHAM,  JAMES  (d.  1532),  martyr, 
was,  according  to  Foxe,  a  son  of  Sir  Alex- 
ander Bainham,  who  was  sheriff  of  Glouces- 
tershire in  1497,  1501,  and  1516,  though  his 
name  does  not  occur  in  any  of  the  pedigrees 
of  the  family.  He  was  a  member  of  the 
Middle  Temple,  and  practised  as  a  lawyer. 
He  married  the  widow  of  Simon  Fish,  author 
of  the  *  Supplication  of  Beggars.'  In  1531 
he  was  accused  of  heresy  to  Sir  Thomas 
More,  then  chancellor,  who  imprisoned  and 
flogged  him  in  his  house  at  Chelsea,  and  then 
sent  him  to  the  Tower  to  be  racked,  in  the 
hope  of  discovering  other  heretics  by  his 
confession.  On  15  Dec.  he  was  examined 
before  Stokesley,  Bishop  of  London,  concern- 
ing his  belief  in  purgatory,  confession,  ex- 
treme unction,  and  other  points.  His  answers 
were  as  far  as  possible  couched  in  the  words 
of  Scripture,  but  were  not  satisfactory  to  the 
court,  and  his  approval  of  the  works  of  Tyn- 
dale  and  Frith  was  evident.  The  following- 
day,  being  thi-eatened  with  sentence,  he  par- 
tially submitted,  pleading  ignorance,  and  was 
again  committed  to  prison.  In  the  following 
February  he  was  brought  before  the  bishop's 
chancellor  to  be  examined  as  to  his  fitness 
for  readmission  to  the  church,  and  after  con- 
siderable hesitation  abjured  all  his  errors, 
and,  having  paid  a  fine  of  20/.  and  performed 
penance  by  standing  witli  a  faggot  on  his 


shoulder  during  the  sermon  at  Paul's  Cross, 
was  released.  Within  a  month  after  he  re- 
pented of  his  weakness,  and  openly  withdrew 
his  recantation  during  service  at  St.  Austin's 
church.  He  was  accordingly  apprehended 
and  brought  before  the  bishop  s  vicar-general 
on  19  and  20  April.  One  of  the  articles 
alleged  against  him  was  that  he  asserted 
Thomas  Becket  to  be  a  thief  and  murderer, 
an  opinion  which  the  king  adopted  within  a 
very  few  years.  He  was  sentenced  as  a  re- 
lapsed heretic  and  burned  in  Smithfield  on 
30  April  1532.  In  the  '  Calendar  of  State 
Papers  of  Henry  VIII '  (v.  app.  30)  there  is 
a  notice  of  a  contemporary  account  of  an  in- 
terview between  him  and  Latimer,  the  day 
before  his  death. 

[Foxe's  Acts  and  Monuments,  iv.  697 ;  Harl, 
MS.  422,  f.  90.]  C.  T.  M. 

BAIOCIS,  JOHN  BE.     [See  Bayeux.] 

BAIRD,  Sir  DAVID  (1757-1829),  gene- 
ral, w-as  the  fifth  son  of  William  Baird  of 
Newbyth,  who  was  grandson  of  Sir  Robert 
Baird,  Bart.,  of  Saughton,  and  cousin  and 
heir  of  Sir  John  Baird,  Bart.,  of  Newbyth, 
and  was  bom  at  Newbyth  in  December  1757. 
His  father  died  in  1765,  but  his  mother 
managed  to  obtain  an  ensigncy  for  him  in 
the  2nd  regiment  in  1772.  He  joined  his 
regiment  at  Gibraltar  in  1773,  and  returned 
with  it  to  England  in  1776.  In  1778  he 
was  promoted  lieutenant,  and  in  the  Sep- 
tember of  the  same  year,  being  then  nearly 
twenty-one  and  of  gTeat  height  and  fine  mili- 
tary bearing,  he  was  selected  by  Lord  Mac- 
leod,  a  Scotch  neighbour  of  his  mother's,  ta 
be  captain  of  the  grenadier  company  in  the 
Scotch  regiment  just  raised  by  him,  and  at 
first  called  the  73rd,  but  afterwards  famous 
as  the  71st  Highland  light  infantry.  In 
1779  the  regiment  embarked  for  India,  cap- 
tured Goree  on  the  way,  and  after  spending 
three  months  at  the  Cape  reached  India  iu 
January  1780.  When  Lord  Macleod  ar- 
rived, Hyder  Ali  was  besieging  Arcot,  and 
his  regiment  was  at  once  attached  to  a  force 
under  Sir  Hector  Monro,  which  was  destined 
to  relieve  that  city,  and  also  to  succour  a 
force  under  Colonel  Baillie,  Avhich  was  iu 
danger  of  being  cut  ofi"  by  Hyder  Ali.  To 
assist  Baillie  a  small  detachment,  including 
the  gi-enadier  company  of  Macleod's  regiment 
under  Captain  Baird,  was  sent  off  by  Monro 
in  advance.  After  a  night  march  it  effected 
a  junction  with  Baillie,  but  on  the  next  day 
the  whole  force  was  cut  to  pieces  by  Hyder 
Ali  and  his  son,  Tippoo  Sahib.  Baird  had  been 
severely  wounded,  and  was  left  for  dead,  but 
nevertheless  managed,  with  two  companions, 
to  find  his  way  to  the  French  camp.     The 


Baird 


443 


Baird 


French  treated  the  prisoners  kindly,  but  were 
soon  obliged  to  surrender  them  to  their  ally. 
Hyder  i\Ji  treated  the  captives  with  oriental 
barbarity,  and  had  not  Captain  Lucas  volun- 
teered to  bear  two  sets  of  irons,  Captain 
Baird,  though  wounded  and  nearly  dead, 
would  have  been  heavily  ironed.  The  cap- 
tive officers  lived  for  three  years  and  eight 
months  in  most  terrible  agony,  seeing  their 
fellows  going  mad,  and  dying  of  fever,  and 
knowing  that  many  of  them  were  taken  from 
pi'ison  only  to  be  poisoned  or  tortured  todeath. 
Nevertheless  they  managed  to  keep  up  their 
spirits,  and  Baird  mentions  that  in  three  suc- 
cessive years  they  gaily  drank  the  king's  health 
on  the  4th  of  June.  At  last,  in  March  1784, 
the  remaining  officers  were  released,  and 
Captain  Baird  joined  his  regiment,  and  had 
the  bullet,  which  had  lodged  in  his  thigh 
three  years  before,  extracted.  In  1787  he 
became  major  in  his  regiment,  and  came  home 
to  England  in  1789.  lie  purchased  the  lieu- 
tenant-colonelcy of  his  regiment  in  1790,  but, 
owing  to  the  slowness  of  his  agent,  was  not 
gazetted  till  after  Moore,  Cavan,  and  Ludlow, 
a  mistake  which,  on  two  occasions,  lost  him 
the  command-in-chief  of  an  army. 

In  1791  Lieutenant-colonel  Baird  returned 
to  India,  and  was  at  once  appointed  by  Lord 
Cornwallis  to  the  command  of  a  brigade  of 
sepoys  in  the  war  against  Tippoo.  With  it 
he  did  good  service  in  reducing  the  southern 
hill  forts  of  Mysore,  and  was  present  in  1792 
at  the  operations  of  Ijord  Cornwallis  and 
General  Medows  before  Seringapatam.  In 
1793  he  took  Pondicherry,  almost  without  re- 
sistance, from  the  French,  and  in  1795  was  pro- 
moted colonel,  and  appointed  to  command  at 
Tanjore.  Here  he  got  into  considerable  trouble 
by  opposing  the  resident,  who,  under  the  di- 
rection of  Lord  Hobart,  the  governor  of  Ma- 
dras, was  doing  his  best  to  procure  the  an- 
nexation of  Tanjore.  The  consequences  might 
have  been  serious  had  not  the  71st  regiment 
been  at  this  time  ordered  home  after  an 
absence  of  eighteen  years,  when  Lieutenant- 
colonel  Baird  and  one  sergeant  were  the  only 
survivors  of  the  original  establishment.  The 
regiment  was  in  splendid  condition,  so  much 
so  that  whenever  a  European  regiment  arrived 
in  India  it  was  always  sent  to  the  quarters 
of  the  71st  to  learn  hoAv  a  regiment  should 
be  conducted  in  India;  but  the  men  were 
now  drafted  into  various  other  regiments, 
and  only  the  officers  and  headquarters  re- 
turned home.  On  his  Avay  to  England 
Colonel  Baird  touched  at  the  Cape,  and  was 
implored  by  Lord  Macartney,  the  governor,  to 
remain  there  as  brigadier-general,  for  the  op- 
position of  both  officers  and  men  to  Sir  David 
Dundas,  who  commanded  in  the  colony,  was 


so  gi-eat  that  a  mutiny  was  expected.  Baird, 
therefore,  remained  at  the  Cape  till  1798, 
when  he  was  promoted  major-general,  and 
ordered  to  proceed  to  India  with  the  Scotch 
brigade  and  86th  regiment.  Majoi'-general 
Baird  was  disappointed  to  find  that,  owing 
to  the  number  of  general  officers  in  India,  he 
could  only  receive  the  command  of  the  first 
European  brigade  instead  of  a  division  in  the 
second  war  with  Tippoo,  and  was  especially 
chagrined  that  the  important  command  of  the 
Nizam's  contingent  shouldbe  given  to  Colonel 
Arthur  Wellesley  instead  of  himself.  Never- 
theless, from  his  thorough  knowledge  of  In- 
dian warfare  and  his  former  experience  in 
Mysore,  he  did  good  service,  and  when  the 
storming  of  Seringapatam  was  determined  on, 
he  volimteered  to  lead  the  storming  column. 
The  confidence  of  the  troops  in  him  was  un- 
bounded, and  the  former  prisoner  of  Hyder 
Ali  successfully  stormed  Seringapatam  on 
4  May  1799,  and  Tippoo  Sultan  fell  in  the 
assault.  Wearied  with  his  exertions  he  re- 
quested to  be  relieved,  and  Colonel  Wellesley 
was  ordered  to  relieve  him,  and  immediately 
afterwards  appointed  governor  of  Seringapa- 
tam. Baird  felt  that  he  had  won  this  lucra- 
tive appointment,  and  indignantly  complained 
to  General  Han-is.  Of  course  General  Harris 
had  a  perfect  right  to  bestow  the  governor- 
ship on  whomsoever  he  pleased,  and  Lord 
Wellesley  afterwards  declared  that  he  would 
have  himself  appointed  his  brother  ;  yet  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  it  was  Baird  who  had 
taken  Seringapatam,  and  not  Wellesley  or 
Harris.  Baird's  temper  was  not  improved 
when  Lord  Wellesley  took  him  to  Calcutta 
and  gave  him  the  subsidiary  command  at 
Dinapore,  and  he  openly  remonstrated  when 
he  found  the  governor-general's  brother  ap- 
pointed to  command  an  important  expedition 
to  the  Spanish  islands,  and  that  too  without 
surrendering  his  lucrative  post  at  Seringapa- 
tam. This  time  Lord  Wellesley  felt  obliged 
to  yield,  and  the  command  of  the  expedition, 
the  destination  of  which  was  noAv  altered,  was 
transferred  to  Baird. 

When  Lord  Wellesley  heard  that  the 
English  army  in  the  MediteiTanean  under  Sir 
Ralph  Abercromby  was  ordered  to  ca])ture  the 
French  army  which  had  been  left  in  Egypt  by 
Bonaparte,  he  determined  that  a  force  should 
co-operate  from  India,  and  Baird  obtained 
the  command.  Arthur  Wellesley  was  ap- 
pointed second  in  command,  but  illness  de- 
tained him  at  Bombay,  and  Baird  reaped  the 
whole  credit  of  the  operations.  He  reached 
Cosseir,  on  the  Red  Sea,  in  June  1801,  and 
determined  to  march  across  the  desei't  to  the 
Nile.  The  march  was  a  most  difficult  one ; 
it  was  the  middle  of  summer,  the  country 


Baird 


444 


Baird 


was  unknown,  and  the  commissariat  had 
broken  down.  But  the  intrepidity  of  Baird 
and  the  ingenuity  of  Auchmuty,  his  adjutant- 
general,  overcame  all  obstacles,  and  the  army 
reached  the  Nile  in  safety.  Baird  then  dropped 
down  the  river  in  boats,  and  joined  General 
Hutchinson,  who  had  succeeded  Sir  Kalph 
Abercromby,  three  days  after  the  surrender 
of  Cairo.  The  Indian  troops  were,  however, 
in  time  to  co-operate  in  the  taking  of  Alex- 
andria. After  General  Hutchinson's  depar- 
ture a  dispute  arose  between  Lord  Cavan,  who 
succeeded  him,  and  General  Baird,  his  junior 
by  a  few  days,  as  to  whether  the  Indian  force 
should  be  combined  with  the  English  army, 
or  be  maintained  as  a  separate  force.  The 
dispute  was  eventually  settled  by  Baird's 
official  appointment  as  second  in  command 
in  Egypt.  Baird's  expedition  had  particu- 
larly caught  the  fancy  of  the  English  people  : 
his  march  across  the  desert  had  something 
romantic  in  it ;  catchpenny  lives  of  him  with 
bad  pictures,  and  harrowing  accounts  of  his 
former  imprisonment,  were  largely  circulated, 
and  lie  l)ecame  a  popular  hero.  But  his  ac- 
tual rewards  were  not  great ;  his  dispute  with 
Ijord  Cavan  had  excited  the  displeasure  of 
the  military  authorities,  and  he  was  only 
made  a  knight  of  the  Crescent  by  the  sultan, 
and  colonel  of  the  54th  regiment  by  the  king. 
He  returned  to  India  in  1802,  was  Avarmly 
received  there,  and  given  the  command  of  the 
northern  division  of  the  Madras  army.  On 
the  approach  of  the  Mahratta  war  he  pre- 
pared his  division  for  active  service ;  but 
when  Major-general  Arthur  Wellesley  re- 
ceived the  most  important  command  he  per- 
ceived at  last  that  he  had  no  chance  against 
the  governor-general's  brothers,  and  threw  up 
his  command  in  disgust.  He  then  started 
for  England,  but  on  the  way  home  was  taken 
prisoner  by  a  French  privateer,  and  retaken 
befoi'e  he  reached  France.  He  had,  however, 
given  his  parole,  and  was  formally  exchanged 
with  the  French  general  Morgan. 

On  reaching  England,  after  twenty-four 
years'  nearly  continuous  absence  in  the  East, 
he  was  received  with  enthusiasm  by  the 
people,  and  knighted  by  the  king.  He  did  not 
stop  long  at  home,  but  in  1805  was  promoted 
lieutenant-general,  and  ordered  to  command 
the  army  which  was  to  recapture  the  Cape 
of  Good  Hope.  He  was  particularly  fitted  for 
this  task,  as  he  knew  the  gi'ound  thoroughly 
from  his  former  sojoui'u  there  as  brigadier- 
general.  The  expedition  left  England  in  Au- 
gust 1805,  and  reached  the  Cape  on  5  Jan. 
1806.  The  operations  there  were  extremely 
short.  On  Jan.  8  he  defeated  General  Jans- 
sens,  the  Dutch  general;  on  10  Jan.  Cape- 
town surrendered ;  and  on  18  Jan.  the  Dutch 


general  surrendei'ed.  But  unfortunately  Sir 
Home  Popliam,  the  commodore  on  the  sta- 
tion, a  restless  ambitious  man,  persuaded 
Sir  David  to  lend  him  a  brigade  under  Gene- 
ral Beresford,  to  assist  in  a  filibustering  ex- 
pedition against  Spanish  South  America. 
General  Beresford  himself  was  taken  prisoner, 
and  though  General  Auchmuty,  who  came  out 
with  reinforcements,  had  a  temporary  success 
in  taking  Monte  Video,  the  utter  failure  of 
General  Whitelocke  made  the  ministry  eager 
to  find  scapegoats.  Baird  was  one  scape- 
goat, and  in  July  1806  he  received  a  curt 
letter  informing  him  that  his  successor,  as 
governor  of  the  Cape,  was  on  his  way.  In 
January  1807  he  left  the  Cape  in  great  in- 
dignation, but  on  reaching  England  he  found 
that  the  ministry  had  been  changed,  and  Baird 
was  appeased  by  being  at  once  appointed  to 
the  command  of  the  first  division  in  the  great 
expedition  then  preparing  to  invade  Denmark, 
and  seize  the  Danish  fleet,  under  Lord  Cath- 
cart.  The  expedition  was  a  simple  one  ;  but 
the  bombardment  of  Copenhagen  was  under 
the  immediate  supervision  of  the  first  division, 
and  during  it  Sir  David  was  wounded  in  two 
places.  On  his  return  he  was  removed  from 
the  colonelcy  of  the  54th  to  that  of  the  24th 
regiment,  Avhich  had  two  battalions,  and  told 
he  might  expect  a  more  important  command. 
In  September  1808  he  sailed  from  Cork  with 
10,000  men,  to  reinforce  Moore's  army  in 
Spain,  and  to  take  up  the  appointment  of 
second  in  command.  He  reached  Corunna 
on  8  Oct.,  and  at  once  detached  General  Mac- 
kenzie to  reinforce  Cradock  at  Lisbon.  The 
Spanish  authorities  at  Corunna  would  not 
allow  him  to  land,  and  sent  him  to  Vigo, 
whence  he  was  sent  back  to  Corunna.  At 
last,  on  19  Oct.,  he  was  allowed  to  land  one 
brigade,  but  did  not  get  his  whole  army  ashore 
till  22  Oct.  He  then  advanced  towards  Moore 
as  he  had  been  ordered,  and  reached  Astorga 
on  19  Nov.  There  he  waited,  while  Moore 
remained  at  Salamanca,  until  at  last  Baird 
was  directed  by  Moore  to  move  on  Villa 
Franca.  Fortunately  he  did  not  march  till 
4  Dec,  for  on  7  Dec.  he  was  ordered  to 
retreat  on  Corunna.  On  20  Dec.  the  two  ar- 
mies met  at  Mayorga,  and  the  terrible  retreat 
was  continued.  Baird's  troops  were  not  in 
good  condition,  and  whether  it  was  that  Baird 
had  lost  his  vigour  or  was  not  a  good  general 
of  retreats,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  his 
men  straggled  very  much,  and  that  their  dis- 
cipline was  very  poor  compared  with  that  of 
the  reserve,  who  had  to  fight  a  battle  nearly 
every  day.  At  last  Corimna  was  reached,  and 
as  the  ships  were  not  there  a  pitched  battle 
was  inevitable.  Baird  Avas  to  command  the 
right  Aving,  but  he  was  not  long  in  the  field, 


Baird 


445 


Baird 


as  early  in  the  action  his  left  arm  was  broken 
by  a  cannon-ball.  He  was  at  once  carried  to  a 
transport,  where  his  arm  was  amputated,  and 
where  he  heard  the  news  of  Moore's  death  and 
of  the  safe  embarkation  of  the  troops,  and 
i-eceived  Hope's  famous  report,  which  he  at 
once  sent  home  by  his  aide-de-camp.  Captain 
Gordon.  On  reaching  England  lie  was  made  a 
K.B.,  and  in  the  following  year  a  baronet. 

Corunna  was  the  last  of  Sir  David  Baird's 
battles,  and  he  never  again  commanded  an 
army  in  the  field.  Whether  it  was  want  of 
political  influence  or  the  presence  of  some 
prejudice  against  him  cannot  be  certainly 
said ;  but  it  is  certain  that  even  his  earnest 
ax)plication  for  the  government  of  the  Cape 
in  1813  was  refused,  and  he  could  not  serve 
in  the  Peninsula  under  Lord  Wellington,  his 
junior.  In  spite  of  much  unmerited  neglect 
nis  latter  years  were  very  happy ;  he  married 
a  great  heiress.  Miss  Campbell-Preston,  and 
in  1814  became  full  general.  At  last  the 
veteran  could  no  longer  be  passed  over,  and 
in  1819  he  Avas  made  governor  of  Kinsale. 
In  1820  he  became  commander  of  the  forces 
in  Ireland  in  succession  to  Sir  G.  Beckwith, 
and  a  i)rivy  councillor ;  but  had  to  resign  in 
1822,  when  the  office  was  reduced  to  a  lieu- 
tenant-general's command.  In  1829  he  was 
made  governor  of  Fort  George ;  on  29  A\ig. 
in  that  year  he  died  at  the  age  of  72.  His 
widoAv  erected  an  obelisk  to  him  at  Crieff", 
and  employed  Theodore  Hook  to  wa-ite  his 
life,  which  was  published  in  1832. 

If  Baird  Avas  not  a  very  gi-eat  general,  he 
was  certainly  a  gallant  soldier,  and  the  pri- 
soner of  Hyder  Ali,  the  stormer  of  Seringa- 
patam,  and  the  general  of  the  march  across 
the  desert,  will  deservedly  remain  a  popular 
hero.  There  was  a  chivalrous  gallantry  in  his 
nature  which  made  the  old  pun,  'Not  Baird, 
but  Bayard,'  particularly  applicable  to  him. 

[Tho  princip.il  authority  for  Baird's  life  is  his 
Life  by  Theodore  Hook,  2  vols.  1832  ;  and  for  his 
differences  with  Harris  slioiikl  he  consulted  Lush- 
ington's  Life  of  Loi-d  Harris,  1840.  For  the 
Egyptian  campaign  should  be  consulted  Sir  Ko- 
bert  Wilson's  Campaign  in  Egypt,  and  Memoires 
relatifs  a  I'expMition  anglaise  partie  du  Bengale 
en  1800  pour  aller  eombattre I'armee  del'Orient, 
par  M.  le  comte  de  Noe,  Paris,  1826.  For  his 
campaign  in  thePeninsula  see  Napier's  Peninsular 
War,  lx>okiii. ;  Notes  on  the  Campaign  of  1808-9 
in  the  North  of  Spain,  in  reference  to  some  psis- 
sages  in  Lieut.-Colonel  Napier's  History  of  the 
War  in  the  Peninsula,  and  in  Sir  W.  Scott's  Life 
of  Napoleon  Bonaparte,  by  Lieut.-Colonel  T.  S. 
Sorell,  military  secretiiry  and  aide-de-camp  to 
Sir  David  Baird  durinji;  tlie  campaign,  1829,  with 
Napier's  reply,  published  in  his  Answer  to  va- 
rious Criticisms,  1832.  and  republished  at  the  end 
of  the  last  volume  of  his  histoiy.]       H.  M.  S. 


BAIRD,   GEORGE    HUSBAND,  D.D. 

(1761-1840),  principal  of  the  university  of 
Edinburgh,  was  a  native  of  the  parish  of 
Borrowstounness  (or  Bo'ness)  on  the  Forth, 
Linlithgowshire;  his  father,  a  landed  gen- 
tleman of  Stirlingshire,  rented  a  farm  from 
the  Duke  of  Hamilton.  Bom  in  1761,  Baird 
received  his  primary  education  in  the  parish 
school  of  Bo'ness,  and,  on  the  family's  re- 
moval to  a  newly  purchased  property,  named 
Manuel,  in  West  Lothian,  at  th«(  parish 
school  of  Linlithgow.  He  was  a  plodding, 
persevering,  and  well-mannered,  rather  than 
a  brilliant  schoolboy.  In  1773,  in  his  thir- 
teenth year,  he  was  entered  as  a  student  in 
humanity  (Latin)  and  Greek  at  Edinburgh. 
He  speedily  came  under  the  favourable  notice 
of  Principal  Robertson,  the  historian,  and 
Professor  Dalzel,  and  others,  because  of  his 
devotion  to  his  class-Avork  and  marked  pro- 
gress. Not  content  with  the  tasks  of  the 
university  classes,  he  carried  on  simul- 
taneously philological  and  philosophical  re- 
searches. He  was  associated  therein  with 
Finlayson — afterwards  a  professor  at  Edin- 
burgh— and  Josiah  W^alker.  The  ripened 
fruit  of  these  extra-collegiate  studies  was 
shown  in  his  exceptionally  varied  and  accu- 
rate knowledge  of  nearly  all  the  living  lan- 
guages of  Europe. 

In  1784  he  was  recommended  by  Profes- 
sor Dalzel  as  tutor  in  the  family  of  Colonel 
Blair,  of  Blair.  In  1786  he  received  license 
as  a  preacher  of  the  gospel  from  the  pres- 
bytery of  Linlithgow  of  the  kirk  of  Scotland. 
In  1787  he  was  presented  to  the  parish  of 
Dunkeld  by  the  Duke  of  Athole,  through  in- 
fluence brought  to  bear  by  his  friend  Finlay- 
son. Before  leaving  for  his  parish  he  had  met 
with  Robert  Bums,  then  the  observed  of  all 
observers.  In  his  old  age  he  delighted  to  tell  of 
his  having  repeatedly  met  with  the  'Ayrshire 
ploughman.'  He  religiously  preserved  his  copy 
of  the  poet's  first  volume,  published  at  Kilmar- 
nock in  1786— his  name  being  among  the  sul>- 
scribers.  Baird  Avas  evangelical  rather  than 
of  the  '  moderates,'  but  family  ties  threAv 
him  a  good  deal  into  the  cultivated  circle  of 
the  Robertsons  and  Blairs  and  their  school. 
W'hilst  parish  clergyman  at  Dunkeld  he  Avas 
resident  in  the  duke's  family,  and  superin- 
tended the  education  of  his  grace's  three  sons. 
The  late  Lord  Gleulyon  was  wont  to  speak 
gratefully  of  his  tutor's  earnestness  and  ac- 
curacy in  instruction.  In  1789-90  he  Avas 
presented  to  the  large  and  important  parish 
church  of  Edinburgh,  known  as  '  Lady  Yes- 
ter's,'  but  the  ducal  house  of  Athole  persuaded 
him  to  decline  the  call.  In  1792  he  accepted 
another  Edinburgh  presentation,  viz.  to  New 
Greyfriars  church.     Contempoi'aneously  he 


Baird 


446 


Baird 


was  elected  and  ordained  to  the  professor- 
ship of  oriental  languages  at  Edinburgh.  He 
had  won  for  himself  so  high  a  reputation 
that  in  1793,  on  the  death  of  Principal  Ro- 
bertson, he  was  appointed  his  successor  in 
the  principalship.  He  was  then  in  his  thirty- 
third  year.  As  principal  he  was  called  upon 
to  punish  a  breach  of  the  discipline  of  the 
university  committed  by  three  students  who 
subsequently  attained  to  pre-eminent  dis- 
tinction. A  challenge  had  been  addressed 
to  one  of  the  professors,  and  the  parties  im- 
plicated in  the  misdemeanour  were  Lord 
Henry  Petty  (afterwards  Marquis  of  Lans- 
downe),  Henry  Brougham  (afterwards  Lord 
Bi'ougham  and  Vaux),  and  Francis  Horner 
(afterwards  M.P.)  These  students  were 
summoned  before  the  Senatus  Academicus. 
Only  Brougham  appeared,  and  the  rebuke 
of  the  principal  was  so  delivered  and  accepted 
that  a  warm  friendship  ensued,  and  lasted 
long  after  Brougham  had  entered  public  life. 

In  1799  Principal  Baird  was  translated  to 
the  new  North  parish  church.  Li  1801,  on 
the  death  of  Dr.  Blair,  he  was  appointed  his 
successor  in  the  high  parish  church,  where 
he  remained  until  his  death. 

He  married  the  eldest  daughter  of  Thomas 
Elder,  Esq.,  lord  provost  of  Edinburgh.  To- 
wards the  close  of  his  life  he  threw  his  whole 
soul  into  a  scheme  for  the  education  of  the 
poor  in  the  highlands  and  islands  of  Scot- 
land. He  submitted  his  proposals  to  the 
supreme  court  of  the  kirk — the  general  as- 
sembly— in  May  1824,  advocating  with  states- 
manlike breadth  of  view  enlarged  education 
in  the  great  centres,  and  especially  the  ex- 
tension of  the  system  to  the  neglected  Celtic 
race.  The  general  assembly  of  1825  gave  its 
sanction  to  the  scheme,  and  it  was  launched 
most  auspiciously.  His  intellectual  and  so- 
cial influence  provided  all  over  Scotland  for 
the  education  of  the  poor.  In  his  sixty- 
seventh  year,  when  enfeebled  in  health,  he 
traversed  the  entire  highlands  of  Argyll,  the 
west  of  Inverness  and  Ross,  and  the  western 
islands,  from  Lewis  to  Kintyre.  In  his 
sixty-eighth  year  he  similarly  visited  the 
north  highlands,  and  the  Orkneys  and  Shet- 
land, Through  his  influence  i)r.  Andrew 
Bell,  of  Madras,  bequeathed  5,000/.  for  edu- 
cation in  the  highlands  of  Scotland.  In 
1832  the  thanks  of  the  general  assembly  were 
conveyed  to  him  by  the  moderator  for  the 
year,  the  illustrious  Dr.  Thomas  Chalmers, 
then  in  the  zenith  of  his  oratorical  powers. 
Baird  died  on  14  Jan.  1840,  at  Manuel,  near 
Linlithgow,  in  his  seventy-ninth  year. 

[Proceedings  of  the  Greneral  Assembly  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland ;  Kay's  Edinburgh  Portraits; 
LiA-es  of  Drs.  Chalmers  and  Candb'sh;  3Iackelvie's 


Life  and  Poems  of  Michael  Bruce  ;  private  cc 
respondenee ;  Anderson's  Scottish  Nation.] 

A.  B.  a. 

BAIRD,  JAMES  (1802-1876),  a  wealtl 
ironmaster  and  benefactor  to  the  church 
Scotland,  was  born  at  Kirkwood,  5  Dec.  180 
He  was  the  fourth  son  of  Alexander  Bair 
by  Jean,  daughter  of  Mr,  James  Moffat, 
Whitburn.  Alexander  Baird  was  almost  e: 
clusively  a  farmer  and  miller  until  he  ma( 
his  first  purely  commercial  venture  by  leasin 
in  1809,  the  "SVoodside  coalworks,  near  Da 
serf,  which  he  managed  in  addition  to  h 
land,  and  to  which  he  added  in  1816  tl 
coalfield  of  RochsoUoch,  near  Airdrie,  an 
in  1822,  the  coalfield  of  Meriyston.  Jam 
received  his  early  education  at  the  parit 
school  of  Old  3Ionkland,  and,  the  circur 
stances  of  the  family  having  improved,  pass( 
a  short  time  at  the  university  of  Glasgo 
{Scotsman,  21  June  1876).  In  May  18: 
Alexander  Baird,  then  of  Lockwood,  and  h 
sons  William,  Alexander,  and  .Tames,  o 
tained  a  lease  from  Mr.  Hamilton  Colt, 
Gartsherrie,  of  the  coalfields  of  Sunnysid 
Hollandhirst,  and  Xew  Gartsherrie.  In  18: 
the  Bairds  became  ironmasters  as  well  i 
coalowners  by  acquiring  a  forty  years'  lea; 
of  the  ironstone  in  the  lands  of  Cairnhill,  ac 
joining  Gartsherrie.  They  afterwards  erecte 
blast  furnaces,  the  first  of  which  was  pi 
in  blast  4  ^lay  1830,  and  Avhen  in  the  san 
year  the  founder  of  the  firm  Avent  out  of  tl 
l3usiness,  his  sons  formed  a  partnership,  und( 
the  style  and  title  of  William  Baird  &  C 
Alexander  Baird  died  at  Newmains  in  183 
James  Baird  assumed  in  1830  the  actii 
management  of  the  business,  and  especial] 
gave  his  attention  to  the  improvement  of  tl 
machinery.  Tlie  result  of  his  improvemen 
was  to  raise  the  production  of  a  furnace  froi 
60  to  250  tons  a  week.  By  1842  tlie  Gar 
shen-ie  works  boasted  their  full  number  ( 
sixteen  furnaces.  The  Bairds  proceeded  1 
acquire  coal  and  iron  Avorks  in  other  pan 
of  Lanai'kshire,  as  well  as  in  the  counties  ( 
Ayr,  Stirling,  iDiimbarton,  and  Ciimberlan< 
Under  the  title  of  the  Eglinton  Iron  Con 
pany,  they  added  works  at  Eglinton  184( 
Blair  1852,  Muirkirk  and  Lugar  1856,  an 
Portland  1864,  and  thus  possessed  betwee 
forty  and  fifty  furnaces,  Avith  a  power  ( 
turning  out  300,000  tons  of  iron  per  annun 
and  of  giving  employment  to  nearly  10,00 
men  and  boj^s.  The  brothers  iuA'ested  tliei 
re\'enues  in  the  purcliase  of  land,  and  th 
estates  acquired  by  the  family  in  the  cours 
of  their  career  represented  in  round  numbei 
the  sum  of  2,000,000/.  James  Baird  reprt 
sented  tlie  Falkirk  group  of  burghs  in  th 
House  of  Commons  from  1851-2  and  1852-/ 


Baird 


447 


Baird 


being  the  same  constituency  wliicli  was  re- 
presented, in  1841-6,  by  bis  "brother,  William 
J3aird,  the  first  conservative  returned  by  a 
burgh  constituency  in  Scotland  after  the 
Reform  Act,  Retiring  from  parliament  in 
1857,  James  Baird  devoted  much  of  his  time 
to  religious  and  educational  questions,  and 
built  and  endowed  a  large  number  of  schools. 
He  was  a  firm  believer  in  the  teaching  of 
the  Bible  in  schools,  and  a  staunch  supporter 
of  the  so-called  '  use-and-wont '  platform. 
In  1871  he  founded  the  'Baird  Lectures' 
for  the  defence  of  orthodox  teaching,  and 
his  liberality  culminated  in  a  gift  of  500,000/., 
made  in  1873,  to  the  established  church  of 
Scotland,  which  he  passed  over  to  a  body 
described  as  the  '  Baird  Trust,'  *  to  assist  in 
providing  the  means  of  meeting,  or  at  least 
as  far  as  possible  promoting  the  mitigation 
of,  spiritual  destitution  among  the  population 
of  Scotland.'  The  benefaction  was  well  in- 
tended, but  it  did  not  escape  exception  as 
being  '  hampered  by  conditions  distasteful  to 
not  a  few  of  the  more  liberal  members  of  the 
establishment '  (Scotsman,  21  June  1876).  A 
month  before  his  death,  Baird  was  credited 
Avith  the  design  of  devoting  a  second  500,000/. 
for  the  advancement  of  the  higher  education 
of  the  ministers  of  all  presbyterian  denomi- 
nations, but  no  mention  of  this  was  made  in 
his  will.  All  the  brothers  of  James  Baird 
predeceased  him,  and  by  the  death  of  Robert 
Baird  in  1856  he  succeeded  to  the  estate 
of  Auchmedden  in  Aberdeenshire.  Besides 
being  owner  of  smaller  properties  in  Ayr- 
shire, James  Baird  acquired  the  considerable 
estates  of  Cambusdoon  in  Ayrshire  in  1853 ; 
of  Knoydart  in  Invemesshire  in  1857 ;  and 
of  Muirkirk  in  Ayrshire  in  1863.  He  was  a 
magistrate  for  Lanarkshire,  and  a  deputy- 
lieutenant  for  the  counties  of  Ayr  and  Li- 
verness.  He  was  twice  married :  the  first 
time,  in  1852,  to  Charlotte,  daughter  of  Mr. 
Robert  Lockhart,  of  Castle  Hill,  Lanarkshire, 
who  died  in  1857,  and  secondly,  in  1859, 
to  Isabella  Agnew,  daughter  of  Admiral 
James  Hay,  of  Belton,  Haddingtonshire, 
who  sunived  him.  He  had  no  children  by 
either  marriage  ;  and  the  firm,  of  which  he 
continued  a  member  to  the  last;  and  the  an- 
nual profits  of  which  in  prosperous  years  were 
believed  to  exceed  1,000,000/.,  consisted,  at 
the  time  of  his  death,  of  himself  and  three 
nephews.  He  *  left  property  valued  at 
3,000,000/.  sterling '  (Irving,  Annals  of  our 
Time).  Baird  died  after  a  few  weeks'  illness 
on  20  June  1876,  at  Cambusdoon,  near  Ayi-, 
and  Avas  buried  on  the  Friday  following, 
23  June,  by  the  side  of  his  first  wife  at 
Alloway,  whose  church  he  had  endowed. 
[Sir  Bernard  Bui'ke's  Vicissitudes  of  Families, 


1869;  Jeans's  Western  Worthies  ((iliLsgow), 
1873;  Irving's  Annals  of  our  Time;  Kings  of 
British  Commerce,  1876,  jMvrt  i.  pp.  23-31  ; 
Times,  Dundee  Advertiser,  and  Edinburgh  Con- 
rant,  21  June  1876 ;  Falkirk  Herald,  22  June  1876 ; 
Glasgow  News,  21  and  24  June  1876;  and  Scots- 
man, 21  June  and  Aiigast  1876.]        A.  H.  G, 

BAIRD,  Sir  JOHN  (1620-1698),  of 
Xewbyth  in  Aberdeenshire,  judge,  son  of 
James  Baird  of  Byth  in  the  same  county, 
advocate,  and  for  some  time  commissary  of 
Edinburgh,  and  IBathia,  daughter  of  Sir  John 
Dempster  of  Pitliver,  was  admitted  advo- 
cate on  3  June  1647.  It  must  have  been 
about  the  same  year  that  he  married  Mar- 
garet, daughter  of  Sir  William  Hay  of  Lin- 
plum,  by  whom  he  had  four  children,  three 
sons  and  one  daughter,  viz.  John,  bom  on 
4  Oct.  1648:  Margaret,  born  on  23  Dec. 
1649;  John,  born  on  23  Sept.  1652;  and 
William,  born  on  12  Nov.  1654.  He  appears 
to  have  been  knighted  by  Charles  H  on  his 
accession  to  the  throne  of  Scotland  in  1651. 
In  the  correspondence  of  the  Earls  of  An- 
cram  and  Lothian  (1616-67)  we  find  hira 
referred  to  as  Sir  John,  under  date  1653. 
Thenceforward  his  name  occurs  with  some 
frequency  in  that  correspondence,  and  usually 
in  such  a  connection  as  to  suggest  that  he 
Avas  regarded  as  a  person  of  some  weight  and 
sagacity.  Like  his  father  he  belonged  to  the 
covenanting  party,  and  was  considered  of 
sufficient  consequence  to  be  excluded  from 
the  operation  of  the  Act  of  Indemnity  passed 
by  the  parliament  of  Scotland  in  1662,  being 
then  mulcted  in  the  sum  of  2,400/.  His 
eminence  at  the  bar,  however,  could  not  be 
ignored,  and  in  1664  he  was  created  an  ordi- 
nary lord  of  session,  assuming  the  title  of 
Lord  Xewbyth.  In  the  Scottish  pai'liaments 
of  1665  and  1667  he  represented  Aberdeen- 
shire, and  sat  on  the  committee  of  taxation 
in  the  former,  and  on  that  of  supply  in  the 
latter,  parliament.  He  Avas  not  returned  to  the 
parliament  of  1669.  In  that  year  a  grant  of 
the  barony  of  Gilmertoun  within  the  sherift- 
dom  of  Edinburgh,  made  in  his  favour  by 
the  crown  in  1667,  Avas  ratified  by  the  par- 
liament. In  1670  he  was  nominated  one  of 
the  commissioners  to  negotiate  the  then  pro- 
jected treaty  of  union  between  England  and 
Scotland.  In  1680  his  youngest  and  only 
surviving  son,  William,  was  created  knight 
baronet.  By  reason  of  his  opposition  to  the 
arbitrary  measures  of  the  government  he  was 
superseded  in  the  office  of  lord  of  session  in 
1681,  Sir  Patrick  Ogilvie  of  Boyne  being  a\i- 
pointed  in  his  place.  He  acted  as  commis- 
sioner of  the  cess  for  the  shire  of  Edinburgh 
in  1685,  and  also  as  commissioner  of  supply 
for  the  same  countv.     On  the  accession  of 


Baird 


448 


Baird 


the  Prince  of  Orange  he  was  re-appointed 
ordinary  lord  of  session  (1689),  and  retained 
his  seat  upon  the  bench  until  his  death  in 
1698.  In  the  Advocates'  Library  at  Edin- 
burgh are  preserved  certain  papers  in  the 
handwriting  of  Lord  Newbyth,  being  a  col- 
lection of  decisions  ranging  from  1664  to 
1667,  and  a  collection  of  practiques  belonging 
to  the  period  between  1664  and  1681. 

[Memorials  of  the  Tnibles  in  Scotland  and 
England  (Spalding  Club),  ii.  415  ;  Corresp.  of 
the  Earls  of  Ancram  and  Lothian  (1616-1667), 
375,  384,  391-6,  508  ;  NichoU's  Diary  (1650- 
1667).  428  ;  Fountainhall's  Hist.  Notices  (1661- 
1688), ii.  333-4 ;  Brunton  and  Haig's  Hist.  Aec.  of 
the  Senators  of  the  Coll.  of  Justice,  391 ;  Levcn 
and  Melville  Papers  (1684-1691),  307  ;  Acts  of 
the  Paris,  of  Scotland,  vii.  4256,  5276,  530a, 
539«,  584,  viii.  4636,  ix.  69«,  137a;  Beatson's 
Political  Index,  iii.  75,  111  ;  Douglas's  Peerage 
of  Scotland,  ii.  607-]  J.  M.  R. 

BAIRD,  JOHN,  D.D.  {d.  1804),  Irish  di- 
vine, came  to  Dublin  from  the  Isle  of  Man, 
and  was  ordained  minister  of  the  presbyterian 
congregation  of  Capel  Street  11  Jan.  1767. 
Here  he  ministered  for  ten  years,  not  very 
happily,  and  in  1777  he  was  compelled  to  re- 
sign. Shortly  after  doing  so  he  brouglit  out 
the  fii'st  and  only  volume  of  a  projected  se- 
ries on  the  Old  Testament ;  a  work  of  some 
learning,  originally  delivered  as  lectures  at 
Capel  Street,  and  dedicated  (12  Nov.  1777) 
to  James  Trail,  bishop  of  Down.  Baird  soon 
afterwards  conformed,  and  on  7  Sept.  1782 
Avas  appointed  by  the  ci'OAvn  to  the  rectory  of 
Cloghran,  near  Dublin,  where  he  died  unmai*- 
ried  early  in  1804.  He  published  '  Disserta- 
tions, Chronological,  Historical,  and  Critical, 
of  all  the  Books  of  the  Old  Testament ; 
through  which  are  interspersed  Reflections, 
Theological  and  Moral,'  &c.,  Dublin,  1778, 
vol.  i.  (extending  to  Exod.  xx.)^ 

[Armstrong's  Appendix  to  Ord.  Serv.  of  James 
Martineau,  1829,  p.  100  ;  Witherow's  Hist,  and 
Lit.  Memorials  of  Presbyterianism  in  Ireland, 
2nd  ser.  1 880  ;  Adams's  Hist,  of  Santry  and 
Cloghran  Parishes,  1883.]  A.  Cr. 

BAIRD,  JOHN  (1799-1861),  Scotcli  di- 
vine, the  eldest  son  of  the  Rev.  James  Baird, 
who  was  successively  minister  of  Legert- 
wood,  Eccles,  and  Swinton,  all  in  Berwick- 
shire, was  bom  at  Eccles  17  Feb.  1799,  and 


educated  in  the  grammar  schools  of  Whit- 
some  and  Kelso.  Later  he  proceeded  to 
the  university  of  Edinburgh,  where,  in  1823, 
he  founded  the  Plinian  Society  for  the 
study  of  natural  liistory,  and  was  its  first 
president.  Going  to  Ireland  in  1825,  he  was 
for  some  time  engaged  by  the  Irish  Evan- 
gelical Society  as  one  of  tlieir  preachers.  In 
1829  he  was  ordained  minister  of  Yetholm, 
Roxburghshire,  Avhere  he  died  29  Nov.  1861. 
A  colony  of  gipsies,  who  were  little  better 
than  heathens,  had  long  been  settled  at  Kirk 
Yetholm,  and  Baird  set  himself  resolutely 
to  reclaim  these  people,  and  to  make  tliem 
christians  and  useful  members  of  society. 
The  work  was  done  in  connection  with  a 
society  formed  in  Edinburgh  for  the  '  Refor- 
mation of  the  Gipsies  in  Scotland,'  and  it 
met  with  a  considerable  amoimt  of  success. 
Baird  wrote  the  'Scottish  Gipsies'  Advo- 
cate,' Edinburgh,  1839,  and  contributed  an 
'  Account  of  tlie  Parish  of  Yetholm  '  to  the 
'  New  Statistical  Account  of  Scotland.'  A 
memoir  of  liim,  by  W.  Baird  (London,  1862), 
contains  a  list  of  words  used  by  the  gipsies 
of  Yetholm,  compared  with  Grellman's  list 
of  the  continental  gipsy  language,  and  the 
corresponding  words  in  Hindustani. 

[Memoir  by  Dr.  W.  Baird  ;  Geo.  Smith's  I've 
been  a  Gipsying,  322,  330,  331.]  T.  C. 

BAIRD,  WILLIAM,  M.D.  (1803-1872), 
physician,  was  born  at  Eccles,  and  educated 
at  the  High  School,  Edinburgh.  He  studied 
medicine  at  Edinburgh,  Dublin,  and  Paris, 
and  entered  the  service  of  the  East  India 
Company  as  surgeon.  He  Avas  a  zoologist 
of  considerable  ability,  and  communicated 
several  papers  to  the  Zoological  and  Linnean 
Societies.  In  1829  he  helped  to  establish 
the  Berwickshire  Naturalists'  Club,  Avhich 
served  to  extend  the  pursuit  of  natui'al 
science.  In  1850  his  important  woi'k  on 
the  *  Natural  History  of  British  Entomo- 
straca'  was  published  by  the  Ray  Society, 
and  in  1858  he  published  a  *  Cyclopnedia  of 
the  Natural  Sciences.'  For  some  time  lie 
practised  in  London,  but  eventually  accepted 
an  appointment  in  the  zoological  department 
of  tlie  British  Museum,  which  he  held  from 
1841  to  the  time  of  his  death  on  27  Jan.  1872. 

[Obituary  Notice  in  the  Proceedings  of  the 
Royal  Society,  vol.  xx.]  R.  E.  T. 


END  OF  THE  SECOND  VOLUME. 


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1885 

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